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I have BG2 SOA and TOB and in SOA

spoilers about BG2 (as well as more of my question)








Tiax is in an asylum for crazy people, he thinks that he's an emporer and says "Tiax rules all you are but grease for the wheels of his reign".

I've heard on other help sites that Tiax was in Baldur's Gate 1 (that I never bothered to get and don't really want to since I heard that you can resist good spells) so just what did Tiax do? what was he like? was he crazy like he was in BG2? did he think that was the ruler of the world or was he a ruler or something?.

He was just about the same, with a hilarious soundset.

Originally posted by MasterDarkNinja

that I never bothered to get and don't really want to since I heard that you can resist good spells

Hmmm... not sure what you mean by that. BG1 is an older game but I had a real good time with it. And there's something really satisfying about creating a char at lvl 1 and taking it through BG1, ToTSC, BG2 and ToB.
The game isn't that expensive anymore, even with the expansion.

BG1 is just as much fun as BG2, and personally I find the story better.
Playing BG2 also explains alot of things about BG1.
To hear Tiax early in the game, see the credits of BG1!

I agree that starting new characters and working them up to a relatively low level victory is much more satisfying. It avoids what I call the "nuclear effect," in which a really buffed party with extras takes on a really buffed enemy party with extras--and then strategy gets thrown overboard, and it's just My Bombs Are Bigger Than Your Bombs.

That said, I didn't find BG1 anywhere near the compelling game that BG2 is. The dialog and characters in BG1 were simplistic (and Bioware later acknowledged this, saying they learned a lot about their audience's savvy from the popularity of BIS' PS:T). Quest variety was low, and the endless traveling over wilderness maps got old very quickly. Just my POV.

Fable, you're right about what you said, but then again, BG1 had a freshness to it that BG2 couldn't match.
And about exploring the wilderness: it did get tedious sometimes... got tedious a lot actually, but there was also the sense of 'anything can happen, what am I gonna find in this new area?' Of course, you only got this feeling when playing the game for the first time.

Yes, the freshness wears off but that happens in BG2 as well. At least in BG1 you got the feeling that you were travelling, as opposed to essentially teleporting to the place that the story line requires you to be.

Incidentally, did anyone find it odd in both games that when you travel to a place that takes longer than 24 hours, you arrive automatically fatigued? Did it not occur to the designers to assume that any sensible party would naturally rest along the way? I found this especially annoying in BG2 since there are some places that you can't get to in less than a day's travel.

Well, they could just assume you are a tyrannical leader like me that never rests their party and keeps them awake until their luck is so low they must be rested to survive.

LOL
But JOC is right, in BG1 you could divide your journey in short 'leaps'

I feel that bg1 and bg2 are very different games, and that neither is superior to the other:

BG1- HUGE world. There is so much to explore, it really feels like an epic. That is the main attraction in this game IMO. It is incredibly vast. It is awesome starting as a 1st level weakling; really gives a sense of accomplishment as you develop. Of course, I've only started playing it a few days ago, but I can see I will be playing it for a long time to come, just as with bg2.

BG2- amazing character interaction and tons of spoken dialogue, which took up alot of cd space and thus the world had to be made smaller (though it is still quite large). Awesome side quests which are mini-stories in themselves. Really cool scenarios like the underdark and the elven city. Tons of awesome spells and kits.

Originally posted by MasterDarkNinja
I've heard on other help sites that Tiax was in Baldur's Gate 1 (that I never bothered to get and don't really want to since I heard that you can resist good spells) so just what did Tiax do? what was he like? was he crazy like he was in BG2? did he think that was the ruler of the world or was he a ruler or something?.

In BG1 Tiax was a joinable npc who actually had plans about conquering / ruling the world.
Everybody has great hopes about the future when they're young, and the characters were really young back then...

Looks like Tiax plans didn't exactly end up as he was... planning

But his ambitions had no real part or effect in BG1 storyline, anyway.

Whenever I played BG1, it felt as if I was an actual adventurer. That I could explore any area I wanted, and defeat anything in my way, where as in BG2 it felt more like "you must kill this guy, by going here, here, then here, while saving someone, etc...".

BG2 almost felt like anywhere you went, or anything you did, was made out to be some heroic event, yet BG1 felt as if you are someone trying to make a name for yourself, you must FIND the quests to make you a hero. You could walk around with no one knowing your name, fighting a few people here and there, saving some guy's cow, etc... Instead of just getting thrown from quest to quest like BG2.