The problem was never *the* (singular) general tone, the problem was that D:OS couldn't hold it's own tone, like an incontinent mood writer always leaking tone over things where other tone was intended, and often completely confusing what was funny, goofy, serious and absolutely grim. (sorry for that analogy ,p). There are many places in the game (D:OS) that are very very dark and grim, but the game ignores that tone, often times ignores the entire place and acts as if that isn't really there to begin with. (Immaculate village mass grave?) This is in stark contrast to the "mood" the game has. When you play the game, the general mood is one of danger and darkness. Exploding skeletons, murdered people, a murder plot intrigue, good vs evil battle. This stuff just doesn't lend itself to random "funny" or if you go that way, you have to go that way ALL the way. (Would make D:OS more like a JRPG or a parody though.. but not necessarily worse ,p)
Also again, D:OS is nothing, writing wise, compared to BG2. It doesn't even play in the same league. BG2 played it's DnD roots straight and more importantly, it played it's campaign roots 100% straight, it had some of the best game writers that existed in that era who came straight from decades of DM experience (aka, people who knew what worked in DnD and what didn't), it NEVER strayed from it's own tone. Certain areas were grim, others were dark, others relaxing (rest dialog sometimes), but the general tone was always fitting. Everyone was always in character, even Minsk and spacehamster Boo, which because the game played it straight, was infinitely better than if the game had played this "goofy" .
Also to me, D:OS was grim. The random goofyness only helped to throw me out of immersion, but from the basic level? The story and things you do and see in this game are GRIM and dark. Which is what people generally mean when they say "The game confuses it's own tone"
To sum it up, the reason you missed a "pull" into the story, was because the game didn't play it's own strengths straight. It didn't know what it wanted to be. Nowhere else can this be more seen than with the dual dialog system, which oftentimes turns a situation into a caricatural mood. Meaning it's 2 different, mutually exclusive moods (very often this is the case). Maybe worse, you can tell this is often not even intentional.
I hope with new writers, more important than new writing, comes a writing oversight, a moderator that checks *all* writing so that it fits a required mood. (required by the scene)
