This is my impression so far after seeing the game and what it has to offer.
What Oster and his team did:- Port to iPAD. Irrelevant for the PC gamer.
- Port
BG1 to the
BG2 engine, already done by
BGT in a more customizable way.
- Enable higher resolutions, already done by the widescreen mod.
- Upscale graphics to fit the resolution. This failed pretty bad, as
BG:
EE looks very noticably blurry compared to the original.
- Changed the UI. The added functions do not work, and the functionality of the new GUI is debatable.
- Implemented the mod community's fixes, like
BG2 Fixpack.
- Added an Arena-area, which, although it looks like the best of the changes, is at best, mediocre.
- Three new NPCs. The game has 15 underdeveloped ones, and mods add so many even I, who play Baldur's Gate something like once each year, hasn't played all of them. The NPCs are a bit over mod quality, but that's sort of it.
- Changed cinematics. The intro is the best example, where a menacing and terrible Sarevok has become a bad flash cartoon.
- Now, there is the subject of the supposed engine-changes that should make modders able to do stuff that was hard-coded before. I just don't see it. It doesn't look like the engine has had any sort of radical change. TobEx seems advanced compared to this. However, it's the only point where I can't draw strong conclusions, so this might actually be
BG:
EE's only redeeming feature.
Now, you might disagree with me that the new intro movies are bad, but I gotta ask: Was any of the above necessary? Can any of the above be said to
enhance the original to a point where it's worth 20$? They didn't have the time, talent or money to actually change the game in meaningful ways, so they ended up changing some cinematics and the UI. Stuff that was always fine, stuff this very forum has praised as some of the best in the industry. This project is,
at best, superfluous.
Now, on to what they didn't do:- Fix the pathfinding
- Balance the kits inherited from
BG2. It's incredibly unprofessional how this has that rough "mod"-feeling. Kensei and Monk are still useless on lower levels, while other kits are too good and obviously not intented for
BG1.
- Fleshed out NPCs already there. They could have at least done something with
BG1NPC, I mean, they haven't felt above just using the work of modders before.
- Add content to some of the more empty wilderness areas.
- Improve the sprites.
- Change or update anything of real significance, apart from the possible engine or .exe changes.
All in all I simply cannot fathom how the dedicated fans of this site can praise Oster for this work. The only argument I have some amount of sympathy with is that
BG:
EE might cause a resurgence of interest in this type of game (as if Project Eternity hadn't already), or that modders might start working on some new projects that will revitalize the scene. These arguments are problematic for two reasons: Firstly, Project Eternity has already and will probably give this type of game more of a kick than an iPAD version of
BG ever could. Secondly, the pay-off of a modder revitalization - if such a thing will indeed occur - won't pay off until many years down the line, and it damned sure isn't a reason to actually purchase
BG:
EE currently.
All in all, this community should be critical of
BG:
EE. It was a fantastic chance to do something with the IP that passed us by.
Edited by Grunker, 01 December 2012 - 05:46 AM.
"I've heard people complain that the game [the new Prince of Persia] is too easy, which seems odd to me, since I died more times than The Nameless One in a smoothie-maker."
- Yahtzee
I cant fathom replaying BG1 without some critical core mods like "BG1 NPC project" that make the story so much better.
