Wut, no. Chaos Shield just lowers the probability of getting a wild surge instead of (or in addition to) the intended spell effect when casting with Reckless Dweomer, it doesn't negate it. And its effectiveness depends on the caster's level - at lower levels, you will miscast a lot even with chaos shield active.

 

It works because chaos shield stacks with itself

I think alot of folks are wearing a pair of these when thinking back to BG2...

 

 

I just wrote I was just playing it. o.o

 

Play the game yourself and realize that the amount of QUALITY artwork put into that game is immense. The character generation screen itself has more custom made high quality art than most modern RPGs has.

 

 

So I started to play through BG2 again. And honestly, there is just no way any modern RPG or game will be able to match BG2 in art, immersive depth of gameplay or dialogue. 

 

And comments like this is the reason why I think BG2 has to be one of the most overrated RPGs of all time.

 

 

Some people on this forum really think ad hominem is the best way to chat.

 

 

So I started to play through BG2 again. And honestly, there is just no way any modern RPG or game will be able to match BG2 in art, immersive depth of gameplay or dialogue. BG2 just has such incredible amount of quality and quantity in gameplay and artwork. Comparing any game, including PoE, to BG2 will just end with huge disappointment. Maybe we should just accept reality and move on? Instead we could focus what PoE could be able to do; engine-wise and story-wise. Currently PoE has a pretty good engine - with a few setbacks: AI and pathfinding. PoE could try to work on the sense of "travel" and immersion by making the engine and combat feel fluid, so that it instead of trying to look like BG2 it will have a few "pros".

"...match...immersive depth of gameplay or dialogue"?

 

Pretty much agree with you accept the excerpt above. BG2 was significantly lacking especially to many of the modern games in depth of gameplay and dialogue. Quest design was fairly linear and Choice and Consequence was very low. Dialogue didn't give the player much opportunity to role play and primarily serves to advance the plot -whose end result is ultimately a FedEx quest or hunt the bad guy. When speaking with said bad guy, dialogue is essentially content that'll lead to combat with rare exceptions of a diplomatic solution.

 

 

I don't think BG2 was lacking in those aspects, but the other aspects of the game were indeed at a bit higher level. By dialogue I mean that I really love the way they write the dialogue and how the characters are, through the dialogue, given life. In games like Divinity, IWD and Skyrim most characters feel bland, but in BG2 most characters feel like they could be real, given the universe they live in.

 

Also, I think that the combat is far superior to many other games. Yes, it has bugs and exploits, but if you put them aside I don't think the party based pseudo real time strategy RPG combat in the IE games has been matched to this date. Can you give an example of any party based pseudo real time strategy RPGs with better combat systems than the IE games? 

 

 

 

So I started to play through BG2 again. And honestly, there is just no way any modern RPG or game will be able to match BG2 in art, immersive depth of gameplay or dialogue. 

 

And comments like this is the reason why I think BG2 has to be one of the most overrated RPGs of all time.

 

I agree - which is weird as I love BG2. But I guess it's only a small portion of its fans that think it was nearly perfect in all aspects. It was great because it was great as a whole, not because every individual component was stellar.

 

 

I've never heard any fan saying it was perfect in all aspects. In my opinion it is the best game ever made but in the sense that, as you say, the game was great as a whole, not because every individual component was stellar.

Edited August 25, 201411 yr by AdaMusic

 

 

Wut, no. Chaos Shield just lowers the probability of getting a wild surge instead of (or in addition to) the intended spell effect when casting with Reckless Dweomer, it doesn't negate it. And its effectiveness depends on the caster's level - at lower levels, you will miscast a lot even with chaos shield active.

 

It works because chaos shield stacks with itself

Which is, of course, a bug..

If you're willing to abuse such obvious stuff, don't hold it against the game. There are several unofficial patches that resolve these issues. 

 

 

And comments like this is the reason why I think BG2 has to be one of the most overrated RPGs of all time.

 

I agree - which is weird as I love BG2. But I guess it's only a small portion of its fans that think it was nearly perfect in all aspects. It was great because it was great as a whole, not because every individual component was stellar.

 

 

I've never heard any fan saying it was perfect in all aspects. In my opinion it is the best game ever made but in the sense that, as you say, the game was great as a whole, not because every individual component was stellar.

A lot of us think that Baldur's Gate 2 is the best game ever made, and that is why we are here.