Welp, I had a good look into the pre-rewrite universe, and oh my, it perfectly explains a lot of the writing inconsistencies. It seems as if the rewrite was done WAAAY too late into the dev cycle, which also accounts for why Act3 is so filled with side content yet the main plot and how the characters fit into it is shallow, while characters that were added way later - Karlach, Emperor and Durge mainly - are underdeveloped. It's a shame. Its one of those giant "what could have been" scenarios, but something clearly upset the vision and they'd need another 1.5 years in EA.
After playing this game for almost 300 hours at this point, I have faith they can do it and I love the game, but critics were certainly very quick to praise the delivered product.
I don't know, if that fits more into the Durge posts or here, but I says more about one of the Dead Three than the Durge I think. There was a very disturing
Bhaal ending, if you as Durge chose Bhaal and then rejected hi in the end - shows again, why I think, Bhaal is the most dangerous and deranged of the three, which of course makes Orin a fitting chosen one. Be adviced, the description is pretty disturbing imo - I still think, it should have been kept in there, a dire consequence for a foolish decision:
Last edited by fylimar; 15/09/2309:13 AM.
"We are all stories in the end. Just make it a good one."
Yeah that fits more under any other Durge post, really, as it has nothing to do with Orin. But if I might comment on this:
Showing moments like these I felt like were missing from Durge quite heavily. The Urge itself is very, VERY absent across the entire playthrough, you either choose to be a psycho or you don't, your hands are never forced nor do you have to win saving throws versus the Urge barring two moments: killing Alfira / Dragon Alfira, and resisting killing your romanced companion. Durge is set up to be a fucking menace yet the writers don't really showcase it - comments such as "Necrophilia will be back on your schedule" "you love piles of bodies" are never really built upon. There is some fuel in Act1 - kicking the fuck out of the squirrel, killing Alfira, watching in pure amazement as the hyena gives birth while everyone else is terrified (which, btw, turns out that was bugged for me when I first did it, because I only had a "Continue" option which defaulted into watching the birth, but you have an option to just straight up kill the hyena), throwing dices at trying to remember your past amongst the insane headaches and manic moments - but it very quickly runs out, most of the time it's the Narrator telling you "oh it would be SO FUNNY if you were to brutally murder a family of four" but then you just select the option of "no" and move on.
All your companions are hyper chill with you as well, even after drawing a Bhaalist ritual circle in the camp using Alfira's gore, telling everyone you can't stop thinking and slipping into committing evil deeds, or trying to get your romanced companion killed, or telling everyone that you're a Bhaalspawn - or even showing your companions the Slayer. Durge is really no different from an average Tav to be honest by the way the companions approach them - this is especially evident in Act 3 where all companions just straight-up rawdog watching you getting brutally murdered by Bhaal and ressurrected afterwards.
You even have Jaheira give a lot of insight into the life of a Bhaalspawn, and despite her saying that "Bhaalspawns can never get a peaceful night of sleep" and "You're much more under Bhaal's influence than anyone she's ever seen" it just simply doesn't apply and comes off as tone deaf. Like, yeah I had a nightmare that I'm a Bhaalspawn, but... I haven't really done anything besides getting Alfira murdered. There is no internal (and external) struggle, there are no negative gameplay consequences of repressing the Urge (y'know, maybe being sleep deprived or seeing double, those Angelic potions would come in handy for once), in fact, it doesn't matter if you are Good or Evil Urge, you still get the strongest item in the game, the Deathstalker's Mantle.
And let me tell you how fucking silly and useless of a God Bhaal is. If you don't become his Chosen, he just... kills you like the petty idiot he is? Why not keep bombarding Durge with more and more nightmares, to try to salvage something out of the entire situation to hopefully break them by the time they're atop the Netherbrain? Why is he so lazy (through Sceleritas) about feeding the Urge? Were the squirrel and Alfira that huge of an existential threat? Why does He never punish Orin once for killing His literal best asset, and why doesn't He punish her for fucking up the entire Absolute plan? And if you become His Chosen and still defy him atop the Netherbrain, and taking the same option as the video you linked, right now what happens is literally 4 seconds after choosing to hunt down Bhaal, he just straight up mind controls you? WHERE WAS THAT POWER WHEN IT MATTERED THE MOST ATOP THE NETHERBRAIN? What a laughably terrible God, including that deleted scene.
And the last portion of my rant - move the fucking Withers ressurrection of Good Urge to the end of the game when you choose to commit suicide, BUT ONLY if you fix everything before it, else the payoff is shallow. Defy Bhaal in the Temple, atop the Netherbrain, move Lae'zel leaving with Orpheus to after you kill yourself, kill yourself to free yourself from evil, have everyone react (ESPECIALLY ROMANCED COMPANIONS), Withers comes along, ressurrect you using your original body, and have an actual epilogue that reflects on the world and your companions and not just some randos in Baldur's Gate.
Rant over.
Sorry, had to get that out of my system (even though I already got it out of my system several times in better-written posts.
Last edited by ghettojesusxx; 15/09/2302:35 PM. Reason: Meant to reply to the poster above and not OP.
Yeah that fits more under any other Durge post, really, as it has nothing to do with Orin. But if I might comment on this:
Showing moments like these I felt like were missing from Durge quite heavily. The Urge itself is very, VERY absent across the entire playthrough, you either choose to be a psycho or you don't, your hands are never forced nor do you have to win saving throws versus the Urge barring two moments: killing Alfira / Dragon Alfira, and resisting killing your romanced companion. Durge is set up to be a fucking menace yet the writers don't really showcase it - comments such as "Necrophilia will be back on your schedule" "you love piles of bodies" are never really built upon. There is some fuel in Act1 - kicking the fuck out of the squirrel, killing Alfira, watching in pure amazement as the hyena gives birth while everyone else is terrified (which, btw, turns out that was bugged for me when I first did it, because I only had a "Continue" option which defaulted into watching the birth, but you have an option to just straight up kill the hyena), throwing dices at trying to remember your past amongst the insane headaches and manic moments - but it very quickly runs out, most of the time it's the Narrator telling you "oh it would be SO FUNNY if you were to brutally murder a family of four" but then you just select the option of "no" and move on.
All your companions are hyper chill with you as well, even after drawing a Bhaalist ritual circle in the camp using Alfira's gore, telling everyone you can't stop thinking and slipping into committing evil deeds, or trying to get your romanced companion killed, or telling everyone that you're a Bhaalspawn - or even showing your companions the Slayer. Durge is really no different from an average Tav to be honest by the way the companions approach them - this is especially evident in Act 3 where all companions just straight-up rawdog watching you getting brutally murdered by Bhaal and ressurrected afterwards.
You even have Jaheira give a lot of insight into the life of a Bhaalspawn, and despite her saying that "Bhaalspawns can never get a peaceful night of sleep" and "You're much more under Bhaal's influence than anyone she's ever seen" it just simply doesn't apply and comes off as tone deaf. Like, yeah I had a nightmare that I'm a Bhaalspawn, but... I haven't really done anything besides getting Alfira murdered. There is no internal (and external) struggle, there ar e no negative gameplay consequences of repressing the Urge (y'know, maybe being sleep deprived or seeing double, those Angelic potions would come in handy for once), in fact, it doesn't matter if you are Good or Evil Urge, you still get the strongest item in the game, the Deathstalker's Mantle.
And let me tell you how fucking silly and useless of a God Bhaal is. If you don't become his Chosen, he just... kills you like the petty idiot he is? Why not keep bombarding Durge with more and more nightmares, to try to salvage something out of the entire situation to hopefully break them by the time they're atop the Netherbrain? Why is he so lazy (through Sceleritas) about feeding the Urge? Were the squirrel and Alfira that huge of an existential threat? Why does He never punish Orin once for killing His literal best asset, and why doesn't He punish her for fucking up the entire Absolute plan? And if you become His Chosen and still defy him atop the Netherbrain, and taking the same option as the video you linked, right now what happens is literally 4 seconds after choosing to hunt down Bhaal, he just straight up mind controls you? WHERE WAS THAT POWER WHEN IT MATTERED THE MOST ATOP THE NETHERBRAIN? What a laughably terrible God, including that deleted scene.
And the last portion of my rant - move the fucking Withers ressurrection of Good Urge to the end of the game when you choose to commit suicide, BUT ONLY if you fix everything before it, else the payoff is shallow. Defy Bhaal in the Temple, atop the Netherbrain, move Lae'zel leaving with Orpheus to after you kill yourself, kill yourself to free yourself from evil, have everyone react (ESPECIALLY ROMANCED COMPANIONS), Withers comes along, ressurrect you using your original body, and have an actual epilogue that reflects on the world and your companions and not just some randos in Baldur's Gate.
Rant over.
Sorry, had to get that out of my system (even though I already got it out of my system several times in better-written posts.
Let it all out . I just started a Durge, since I'm at the last few quests with my halfling bard, so I can't say much. I mean, the gods in Faerun are all not the brightest around imo, so yeah, full agree.
Last edited by fylimar; 18/09/2311:20 AM.
"We are all stories in the end. Just make it a good one."
e no negative gameplay consequences of repressing the Urge (y'know, maybe being sleep deprived or seeing double, those Angelic potions would come in handy for once), in fact, it doesn't matter if you are Good or Evil Urge, you still get the strongest item in the game, the Deathstalker's Mantle.