izigame.me

This game I had started back in 2001, before I even tried Baldur's Gate 1, so you can imagine how lost I was in all of it. But even so, one thing piqued my interest. The great antagonist they seemed to prepare for me. Irenicus is easily one of the most recognizable antagonists, mostly due to the fantastic voice actor behind the character. But even so, I never managed to get past the third chapter, mostly due to being overwhelmed by it all. It was also probably my second infinity engine/d&d game, after Icewind Dale, which still has a very special place in my heart.
Well, 20+ years later I've finally managed to finish the main campaign, with some caveats that I'll detail towards the end.
Overall it's been a pretty great ride, that started with some fantastic chapters, but then it slowly started to stumble, while managing to pick itself back up for a high point towards the third to last chapter; but then ultimately being kind of disappointing in how it wraps up and reveals the history and motivations of the main antagonist.
I wished more from such a promising antagonist, more than such primal and basic motivations and reasons as to why he was doing what he was doing. I wished we could've resolved our differences with some philosophical discussions and debates. But unfortunately it was not to be.
The game is a grand adventure, with so much sizeable side-content that it can be overwhelming. While I did go through all companion quest chains and other side quests, at a certain point I felt I needed to say enough and progress the main one. But I did enjoy a lot of them. The only negative was the apparently superficial time pressure that the companions put on you, keeping you on edge as to whether they will leave your party or not, if you don't get to their respective quests. That really rushed my whole experience, but even so I managed to have a good time. And this was after I had abandoned my Siege of Dragonspear playthrough right near the end, as it just couldn't keep my interest.
In terms of structure and world, I think I might have enjoyed Baldur's Gate 1's approach of a more open world, than this one. But what this did manage to achieve was a much more tighter narrative. And denser areas, where quests seemed to almost be setup one on top of each other.
One part that I didn't enjoy was either an imbalance in how certain encounters are supposed to run and how difficult they are, or maybe an over-reliance on the intricasies of the D&D ruleset, which I have to admit I'm very much a beginner in. I know most of the basic rules, but I feel what I'm missing is great patience to learn of all abilities and spells, and how they all function together and counter each other. It's a whole heap of particulars and details which I never had the patience to dive too deeply.
So because of this, I've encountered three types of combat scenarios. Most, at around maybe 80% of the whole, are absolutely easily doable with just my standard party, and no explicit buffs and enhancements. (Btw, I played the whole campaign in core rules, so slightly more difficult than normal.). On top of those 80% I then had around 15% of encounters I could easily overcome by just buffing my party to hell and back. That leaves the final 5% of encounters, mostly with liches, dragons and Irenicus, which I absolutely could not overcome. Even after dozens of attempts. My main suspicion is that I was lacking certain spells that lock down certain enemy spells. And I also didn't have the patience to start scouring the internet for the counters to whatever particular spell some enemy was using. So I've managed to tackled almost all of these impossible encounters via non-combat options. Which I didn't have for the final encounter wit Irenicus. Which is why it pains me to say I cheated in order to defeat that last encounter. And sadly, the actual ending was no improvement over the general lowpoint of the final chapter.
Another part I should to mention, that was very annoying across some of the game, were the verbal fights companions would sometimes get into. Two NPCs in particular really took it unbelievable extremes, that I was honestly shocked they put this kind of bickering in the game. I won't name them, but anyone facing that combination of characters will likely recognize them.
But even while saying all of this, I still need to grade the experience while taking everything into account. So I'd give the first 3 chapters an easy 9.5/10. The middle point a 7.5, and the final chapter a 6/10. Totalling, I guess, an 8/10. Which might seem high for how much I've complained. But even with these issues it's been a very solid game that's been a whole lot of fun. It's just disappointing that with this great premise and start, they didn't manage to knock it out of the park.
I will need to update this review after I'm done with the Throne of Bhaal expansion.