That is exactly what I meant! Playing BG 3 made me realize how I underestimated the effects of the original .
In the originals, the combat felt very visceral, the sound effects were spot on (both weapons hitting flesh and the companions grunting whenever they lose HP). The crits with dismembering were also satisfying.
Yeah the original BG games do that pretty well, conveying violence in a subtle but effective way, though I feel BG1 actually pulls this off better than BG2. I remember back when I was playing BG1 for the first time, the first time I saw a chunk death happen to a party member, I was like "holy crap, how did that happen?" And then some time later when I finally pulled off a chunk death on a gnoll, it just felt so good. Eventually after more testing I figured out that a "special death" happens when a creature's health falls to -9 (IIRC). Not just chunk death, but there's flaming, freezing, electrified death too. That said, once you get to BG2, chunk deaths happen all the time due to much higher damage output, so it kinda gets old and this may be exactly why it feels more impactful in BG1.
But yeah I agree. It's not simply just there being blood. How things happen and even sound effects are also part of the whole thing. If killing blows - like the stuff you have in Skyrim or Witcher 3 - are a thing in this game, that would be cool.
