I can't get into Baldur's Gate...

[Baralak]

So, I have Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 off GOG, and even rigged up Baldur's Gate Trilogy, so I can play through them all in high res, in one giant story, etc, etc. There's just one problem: This combat is garbage and completely turns me off from whatever roleplaying fun I have, and I haven't even left Candlekeep yet!

I'm in the practice basement where you get the trial party, and this combat is just godawful. The pauses interrupt spell animations, and there's just overall a bad interface for stuff. I mean, I know the basics of 2e AD&D, so that's not it...

Is Baldur's Gate REALLY worth suffering through this combat?

 

[I Stomp on Kittens]

If the combat is that much of an annoyance I wouldn't play it, if you would have to suffer through it that doesn't sound like too much fun to me!
Some games just don't age well.

 

[Launcelot111]

I gave up on both 1 and 2. 2 was much better than one in terms of presentation and story, but combat was arduous in both, and even in 2, the story didn't exactly grab me.

Planescape is much better. The story and world are so much more interesting, and the combat are simpler and easier and thus not as much of an impediment to enjoying the world.

 

[TrevHead]

The pauses interrupt spell animations, and there's just overall a bad interface for stuff. I mean, I know the basics of 2e AD&D, so that's not it...

Is Baldur's Gate REALLY worth suffering through this combat?

It's been a very long time since i've played BG but IIRC in the options menu you can set what things autopauses the game. Pausing the game to counter a big spell flying towards you might be game breaking for an old D&D player but I liked it at the time.

Me I love the pause mechanic, its one of the reasons i'm loving the crap out of FTL

 

[Vegosiux]

If you're "suffering", then no. If you're just "getting frustrated now and then and being overly dramatic about it", then yes, it might.

 

[Swyftstar]

I actually didn't mind it too much, I thought it was kind of fun. It got pretty unforgiving as far as hit points and death goes pretty early on though. I got to this one town and every possible fight I could get into just got me murderd so I am ashamed to say I just gave up.

 

[ElectroJosh]

As a big Baldur's Gate fan (played through both games on multiple occasions) I would suggest that you give it a bit more time to see if the frustration with the combat (which is dated) dissipates after you are familiar with the mechanics - so get out of candle-keep at least. If this doesn't happen then you probably should stop because the combat gets very complicated as the game goes on (especially BG:2).

What I sometimes tell people is that you should think of the combat in terms of a pausable RTS (with a lot of extra options). That was, interestingly, how the game was sold to me back in the day (being a big RTS fan at the time).

 

[rbstewart7263]

I think Ill go back and try those I had the same issues. All in all Im honor bound to finish arcanum which is probably right up there.

 

[Wayneguard]

Hahaha you think BG is bad? Play Arcanum. That shit will give you an aneurysm.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

The combat gets a lot more fun when you're more powerful and have more attacks at your disposal, especially as a spell caster. It is a difficult game to get into, though. I'd recommend trying it when you've got nothing else to play; it'll make it easier to slog through the tedious beginning and get to the meat of the game.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

Hahaha you think BG is bad? Play Arcanum. That shit will give you an aneurysm.

Lol, i'm the opposite...i loved Arcanum but couldn't get into Baldurs gate at all.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

I think I must have been going a wrong way or picked up a high level quest rather than the one I should have been doing, cause I found myself go from cruising fairly easily to getting utterly destroyed.


Doesn't help that I was kinda obsessive about keeping my party alive, especially since they had that random chance to explode on death and thus not be revivable XD

 

[Terrible Opinions]

Second edition, man.

It didn't translate well.

EDIT: But if you want to get through a lot of fights easily?

Bows. Give everyone bows. Bows everywhere up in this ************.

Doesn't work so well for BG2, though.

 

[Vegosiux]

Doesn't help that I was kinda obsessive about keeping my party alive, especially since they had that random chance to explode on death and thus not be revivable XD

Umm, no, not random chance. It's a "massive damage" hit that kills them that way. Not sure how much damage exactly it needed to be in one hit to instagib them like that, but it doesn't happen randomly.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

Doesn't help that I was kinda obsessive about keeping my party alive, especially since they had that random chance to explode on death and thus not be revivable XD

Umm, no, not random chance. It's a "massive damage" hit that kills them that way. Not sure how much damage exactly it needed to be in one hit to instagib them like that, but it doesn't happen randomly.

It's random in the context that whatever bad guy I happen to randomly be fighting may or may not be one of the ones capable of making my companion's limbs decide to go their separate ways in an adventure of their own.

but yes, I did assume it was tied to the damage system.