So the proper spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate 2 is finally out:

https://eternity.obsidian.net/

Anyone else playing it?

I am and I'm greatly enjoying it. Even if I did end up running the tutorial five times to try out different classes and got one-shotted by a bear. Fun times.

While if no-one else is going to say anything I'm just going to do a random chain of thoughts on my impressions thus far.

Character Creation is hilariously in-depth - probably far more than it needs to be but hey if your a fan of these games your probably going to like it. You've got race, sub-race, class, order, abilities, attributes, culture, background and appearance. It's kinda a little overwhelming to begin with - which is why I ran the tutorial section like five times.

Voice-acting is a little all-over the place as far as what percentage of the dialogue is actually spoken but most of the VA's do a decent enough job so I'm not complaining. I just wish there was a little more inter-party banter a-la BG2. As with all these games you're probably the least interesting person on the team.

The game has a ton of superfluous options that allow you to tweak just about every aspect of it. Of particular note are the meta-game dialogue options that allow you to see what reputation saying a particular thing will yield and the 'show all dialogue choices even if you lack the skills to use them'. Most of it snaps immersion over it's knee but it's nice to see how many options they put in for puzzles and good for a couple of classes - namely Paladin and Priest who get passive bonuses depending on whether or not they are upholding their reputation of choice.

I like that any classes can become skilled in any ability. Having a paladin who can break locks and disarm traps may be an affront to role-playing but I'll be damned if not having to bring along a rogue along on every dungeon crawl is a nice feeling. Speaking of skills I also like that their are a number of in-game items (Grappling Hooks, Prybars etc) that allow you to succeed at ability checks you otherwise wouldn't have the ability to perform.

Combat is starting to become a little grindy though. Enemies basically break into three groups; little annoying guys who poses no threat to us even in large numbers (kobolds, oozes), giant buggers who can't really deal enough damage to pose a threat on their own but take forever to kill (trolls, ogres), and boss-fights who are probably the one time I can say the combat is close or exciting. Game needs more boss encounters is what I'm saying.

I have no idea why magic is so short-ranged in this game. I get they probably didn't want a repeat of BG's infamous 'throwing fireballs into the fog of war' scenarios but something just feels so disconcerting about having my wizards close enough to slap fight the enemy to use half of their spell list. That said spells are still pretty nice to look t even if they don't always feel like they are doing anything.

Your companions, while interesting, really need a better reason for sticking around. I've currently picked up like six of them and I'd only really say maybe one or two has a reason to be tagging along with me. It's not bad or anything just makes me scratch my head a little.

The story feels... well it feels kinda old to me. If you've played Baldur's Gate your going to be getting more than a little déjà vu as you play. I'm not going to spoil anything but you'll know it if you've played both games. I really hope they go somewhere different with this because I'm pretty sure I can see the obligatory big reveal coming off a mile away from now.

You inherit a stronghold in this game (no spoiler it's right there in the UI). It's a nice little feature and a good a place as any to sink your money but I wish it served more or a purpose (kinda like the Keep in Neverwinter Nights 2 only not an absolute chore). Still time to change that though - here's hoping they do cause I've only just arrived in Baldur's Gate Defiance Bay and I've already built everything it has to offer.

I haven't had a chance to play yet, but I'm looking forward to it considering the BG games are some of my favorite. Although I might be more interested in this: https://swordcoast.com/

My first character ended up being a dwarven goth poetess. Her angst-ridden rhymes sap people's will to live, at which point she summons their ghosts and asks for their opinions.

This game is awesome.

Apparently, a lot of vocal people hate strongholds, so the devs made it optional and fairly minimalistic.

So apparently all the party banter was being saved for while your walking around Defiance Bay. Which is great because their are some really funny little conversations to be had.



That sounds like fun. Honestly at this point Chanter is probably my favorite class. That or Cipher anyway.

Yeah, this game is pretty sweet. I keep dancing back and forth between my full party half-way through Act 3 and my solo "attempts". I can figure out what class I want to solo as.

My main character is a Monk (like in every other DnD type game). They're pretty nuts in the damage department. I've had the same party since the first Inn and his damage is 43k, the closest competitor is at 10k.

I think my favourite class is Chanter though...especially now that I can summon Ogres! I think this will probably end up being the class I try to solo with.

Just started playing around with the Druid...haven't played the Paladin (a little bit as one of the in-story characters) or the Rogue (except in the tutorial) yet.

Soloing this is hard...anyone having any luck soloing?