20th August 2004, 10:41 PM
Yes, the game plays faster, and sometimes it's okay... but IMO d20/D&D is at its most fun in the combat and it really lends itsself to great deep combat systems like BG. This one is much faster and much more streamlined and probably the least frusterating way to play is to pretend that you just have a party of one. Which is fine if you want a action-ortiented game, but not so fine if you were hoping for something on the level of Baldur's Gate... I wish the strategic emphasis was higher, combat went a bit slower, and they made a real effort to make party-based gameplay the emphasis and not just a oft-frusterating optional element for a few fans.