Sudden urge to pick up Baulder's Gate I/II

[Soulstones]

A random baulders gate mp3 popped up on itunes a few mins ago and inspired me to play the game.
However, before I pick up Im wondering if there are any other type of "slow paced" strategy adventure games similar to BG that are out there. Im pretty sick of the mindless grinding and high stress pvp in the current MMORPGs that ive been playing lately and im looking for a change of pace.
I dont want a game thats like huge MMORPG where u need to farm for hours trying to get gold for item X - just something simple where a few players need to work together to progress through a decent story.
I just want the capability to get a few friends together and maybe play on priv server or something (gonna try to convince some peeps from guild wars / cabal to play with me - also any1 here is welcome to join)

So unless some1 has some good ideas ill probably pick up BGII and try to find some fellow adventures.

[immel]

The IceWind Dale series from the same company are pretty neat, more combat and less story, but still enjoyable.

I have to say that Baldur's Gate II is the absolute king of the hill, though. And no, there isn't really any other company that does what the Black Isle games did as good, so you'll have to stick to BG/IWD/Fallout/Planescape Torment. Check out Planescape Torment, if you didn't yet.

Arcanum was mostly made by ex-black isle employees, I didn't try it but I heard it's good, should be a similar kind of game, possibly more Diablo-like.

[Sokar Rostau]

Neverwinter Nights (not NWN2). The Original Campaign (OC) will take you to around level 17, depending on your class. The two expansions, Shadows of Undrentide (SoU) and Hordes of the Underdark (HotU) are totally separate campaigns, though they do make references to events in the OC. You start SoU at level 1 and finish around level 12, while HotU continues directly from SoU starting at 12 and finishes somewhere in the high 20s. There is no grinding at all and lots of puzzles etc.

After you've done those campaigns you can choose from hundreds, if not thousands, of community mods ranging from mediocre D2 slash-fests to long and difficult RP mods with hours upon hours of reading boring hackneyed prose, to the gems that are perfect balances between everything.

The absolute supreme NWN campaign is Darkness Over Daggerford. You won't get to a very high level at all (I think 15 is the most), but it is very, very, much like the BG series, even down to the world map system, with lots of side quests, plenty of dialogue and, again, no need to grind. This isn't just any old module made by players (many of which are very good), but a canceled "Premium Mod" and it really shows.

Like the offline mods you can find just about any game-style online. There's Hack & Slash, PvP, "Social" (which is a euphemism for porn RP) and RP lists and a few subgroups of those. Unfortunately, the NWN community has a number of RP snobs that require you to write several essays and answer 20 questions before they let you play... and by play I mean stand around and talk in town because if you're caught killing rats outside the town gates you'll be banned unless you have adequate DM witnessed RP for doing so. It is a sad fact that the NWN servers with the least grinding are either those that award massive xp per kill or the RP servers with thousands of maps but no playerbase to RP with.

If you really want to keep your options open, the most recent version of Neverwinter Nights is called Forgotten Realms. It's a multiple DVD boxed set of Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale II and Neverwinter Nights including all the expansions for all the games as well as three or four NWN Premium Modules.

[immel]

A quick note though...

If you really enjoyed the depth and non-repetitiveness of the BGII campaign, NWN is going to bore you to death. It's the same thing over and over, nothing is exciting, and I really mean nothing. The graphics are horrendous as compared to the crisp and wonderfully custom created environment of BG/IWD/PST/Fallout.

Me and my friends were all anticipating NWN like crazy, it sounded like the ultimate game before its release, none of us bothered with even finishing the single player campaign.

That said, there's probably some good modules out there but, really, NWN isn't even worth if you'd be given a free copy right in your hand.

[AeroJonesy]

I played through the NWN campaign a few months back. It's a little slow and it can be tedious at times, but overall it was pretty fun. A very welcome change from MMOs full of stress and grinding.

[WildBerry]

A quick note though...

If you really enjoyed the depth and non-repetitiveness of the BGII campaign, NWN is going to bore you to death. It's the same thing over and over, nothing is exciting, and I really mean nothing. The graphics are horrendous as compared to the crisp and wonderfully custom created environment of BG/IWD/PST/Fallout.

Me and my friends were all anticipating NWN like crazy, it sounded like the ultimate game before its release, none of us bothered with even finishing the single player campaign.

That said, there's probably some good modules out there but, really, NWN isn't even worth if you'd be given a free copy right in your hand.

I, personally, thought HotU was very fitting to the general power level of the character. And the single player campaign was good, IMO. Then again, I even enjoyed the NWN2, so what do I know.

[Mcwhopper]

NWN2 is the newest iteration that might be fun. A lot better than NWN1.

Planescape is brilliant story wise.

NWN is not that good.

Icewind dale is an epic fail. Really an epic fail. The story sucks donkey balls and the lack of party npc's makes it even worse.


But isn't fallout 3 coming around this fall? try that !

[WildBerry]

Icewind dale is an epic fail. Really an epic fail. The story sucks donkey balls and the lack of party npc's makes it even worse.

It is somewhat a waste of good background and feels a bit sterile, but the setting and the backdrop are pretty intense for an old Forgotten Realms man. It's an old Gold Box game trying to dress up as BG - no internal party dynamics, no real options on the way. But if you can stomach it being a run in the tube, I don't think that was bad, either. Pure hack'n'slash has it's place as turn based too, though I wouldn't pay that much for it, since it will stay a one-hit wonder.

As far as NWN goes, I would like to concur with the sentiments that say NWN1 > NWN2, but like you, I think NWN2 was worthy of time and money as well.

[Xdeathfire]

Regarding NWN's relatively repetetiveness, IMO, the main campaign, while decent, was truly pretty awful compared to what the expansions offered (especially HOTU) and the player created campaigns.

As for NWN2, the campaign is interesting enough, but it is wayyyyyyyy too long. It seriously takes forever to go through. I'm a pretty big fan of these "hardcore" DnD games, but I had severe reservations going through the main campaign even a 3rd time even though I was going to play a vastly different character.

The expansion, Mask of the Betrayer, is much better. It is short, but gives you enough for what you paid for, and is actually kinda challenging at some parts (the spirit army fight will absolutely kill you if you didn't care about char optimization at all)

[WildBerry]

The expansion, Mask of the Betrayer, is much better. It is short, but gives you enough for what you paid for, and is actually kinda challenging at some parts (the spirit army fight will absolutely kill you if you didn't care about char optimization at all)

Then again, that's not what we all are looking for - I personally completed the NWN main (and the other campaigns) with a really half-arsed bard character. I wouldn't have liked a complete cockblock of an encounter, which is why, I assume, both HotU and original campaign had pretty imba NPCs to cater for the weaker characters. NWN is different in the respect that there are "multiple non-player characters", whole party to fill in for the roles you can't fulfill on your own, in stead of having just one trusty companion lugged around, but still.