Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Previous Baldur's gate games! Dated?

I agree that there is a wide difference between the more open world and random traveling in BG 1 versus the more focused outdoor areas and quest in BG 2 and that it is a matter of preference which you like more. There are a lot of people who prefer BG 1 over BG 2 - and that is fine, I am on the edge myself.

But I want to propose that this difference is not due to them moving away from a TT adventure, but instead of them properly adjusting the scope of the campaign as the characters become powerful and wealthy. While in BG 1 much of the outdoor content could be right out of a random encounter table, it just doesn't make (speaking from an immersion point of view) sense for a high-level party to just randomly stumble across interesting adventures by trekking through the wilderness of Amn. You'd be much more likely to stumble across another Xvart village than across a dragon's lair, or something else level appropriate. That is why high-level characters in 2nd edition D&D are supposed to have strongholds, fame, wealth, followers and property per the written rules - and as you can see, true to TT, BG 2 did implement those. In terms of adventure what happens is that you get sought out for challenges beyond the capabilities of low-level parties.

This kind of progression is not unusual for D&D computer games either - see for example NWN 2 where you start with a travel adventure to the city but end up managing a keep and only going on important quests at the end. Even within Baldur's Gate 1 you already see this progression start. If you don't do this, you often end up with a game where you fight level 2 wolves at the start and level 60 wolves at the end. Or you level-scale and have the bandits all equipped with extremely valuable daedric weapons as in Oblivion.

In conclusion, this change of scope - whether per your preference or not - is entirely TT appropriate. In my own P&P games most of them stopped before reaching this level range. The ones which didn't, either skipped over a lot of mundane travelling like BG 2 does, put you in special environments where everything is more exotic and dangerous (e.g., other planes) or focused on social interactions while traveling.

Regarding the cutscenes, it is a different story - but I think outside of the somewhat annoying dream sequences they never took control from your character away for long.