Mr.Guybrush

I agree with everything Ellester said. Baldurs Gate1: In terms of gameplay, storyline and characters i feel this was the most complete of all 4 listed. The gameplay was good fun, pointing you into the direction of towns but never pushing you. The quests were never forcing you to do something straight away which i found annoying in bg2. The storyline for me was perfect, alot of twists, and great fun to act out. The locations felt real to me, and the whole game gave off a feel of innocence, just like your main character and Imeon. The characters and dialog for me was probably the best out of all 4 as well, though IWD is very close to it. I loved the conversations you could have, and the npcs interactions were great, i also felt that each character had lives of their own, Minsc for example. Played 5 times, last time was summer of last year. Ice Wind Dale: This is the game i've actually played the most. Although you were pushed from location to location. I really loved those locations, and the atmosphere of each was completely different. Like someone said the bleakness of the inpending doom came across extremely well. I prefer playing characters from scratch, and although having 6 right from the off was a little demanding to begin with. You soon adapted. I also prefered the limited use of magical equipment. It took a very long time before you began to get magic items, espically magic arrows. I think that was a good move, and would push NWN2 to follow that path. Magic items are far too common in Nwn and BG2 to feel special. Baldurs Gate2: To be honest, i felt the game dragged on for too long. I did however like the differential in narrative half way through. Choosing which path to take was a good move, i'd like more of that in NWN2. However, i didn't really feel any Empathy for any of the characters, and by the end of the game i was hoping Imeon would die! The only part i liked was the Shadow Thief guild, which i thought was really good. I also liked the bit underneath the sewers. The whole game just felt a bit uninspired in all departments, their were some good momments, but some of the quests that forced you to take it up right away got frustrating. You'd be half way through a quest, and you'd have to set off on another one. I also dislike vampires with a passion, that whole storyline got annoying. Ice Wind Dale2: I never played the game, nor did i play the demo. Am i missing out on a good expierence? If i am i'll go buy it, will be pretty cheap now i expect. As for NWN, it was a shadow of the game the rest were. Not enough time was spent on the graphics side, the lighting was bad (I spent many hours fiddling around with lights trying to get a better effect). I didn't like the flat feel of the game, and the single player campaign just got incredibally dull. The henchman imo were useless. However, it was easily the best game for the community, and many projects made nwn alot better. HOTU was closer to that of Baldurs Gate and Ice Wind Dale, but still lacked something. Did like Aribeth coming back though.

Now thats exactly my view. Even though nwn maybe a 3d engine, i personally think the flat, warcraft look of the game made it worse than those before it. You may have liked nwns graphics, but they were flat, uninteresting and uninspired. Just because they were graphic sprites doesn't mean they were less realistic than those in nwn. The enviroment was easily better than anything created in nwn. The Towns, Cities underground areas were easily better. I still go back and play the baldurs gate and icewind dale games, but i've only ever completed nwn and the expansions once, and i won't be going back to them. To say i play baldurs gate, a gate which is now 7 years old is testament to the game. I like many others love them to bits.

not a chance baldurs gate2 the beggining was better than the whole of nwn which lacked in all departments. The lighting was really bad in nwn, and i prefered the 3d graphics in games such as icewind dale2 or baldurs2 purely because they looked realistic. Nwn felt like you were playing in a cartoon, some of the textures were terrible.

I voted Baldurs 1, though it was a toss up between Baldurs1 and Icewind Dale1 (mainly because the locations were so imaginative) Baldurs Gate i felt let you do what you wanted. You could go anywhere, and do anything. No restrictions on locations. I also loved the storyline, and there was none of that 'I am a god' which got stupid in baldurs 2. I also prefered the monsters, the npcs, and scripting. Storyline was better as well, and i grew to love the characters in the game, which i didn't really in the rest. However, i loved all the locations in IceWind, but i thought the end was really bad, and the npcs and characters were all really underused. But the ghost Elf Tower alone made IceWind brilliant.