That's per person for sure, not enjoying BG1 combat at all atm. I could walk down stairs, get some coffee, and these dorks would still be swinging away.
Yep. I've never understood why so many people say the combat in the original BG games was so great. I mean, it was fun at the time, but at the time I didn't know any better. And then they say the combat in Planescape: Torment is so much "worse" than BG, but that boggles my mind as well, since it's the same damn combat.
It wasn't even fun back then. I only played BG2 when it came out and I recall the arena fight in the copper coronet where my dual-wielding bard would swing away endlessly. As would the enemy. Even at level 7 some classes simply could not engage in melee. Nobody understand that back then. However the enemies misses as well and since it was real-time it was hard to keep up with misses and hits and there were 6 people in the group multiplying your hit chances. Had it been really turnbased it would have been unbearable. Which interestingly is precisely why this game feels so slow. One attack at a time at 45%-95% hit chance. Many players still do not like that.
In any case, BG1 and 2 were not successful because their combat was adhering to the rules, but because of how the game presented itself to the player. You hade the fantasy world full of the known tropes, lovely drawn backgrounds and maps, and a good (BG1) to excellent story (BG2). Just picture the best DM you can find and you have the essence of BG. That felt enticing to the PnP crowd that saw their wet dreams come to life, while the gamers were drawn into a very immersive RPG that could mesmerise them as well.
