Making more progress in Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. As mentioned before, I really like how the Watcher's Keep dungeon is designed. It's six floors deep, but each of them has a side exit which can be opened from within. This minimizes the need for backtracking and keeps the gameplay flowing naturally. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a group of Helm worshippers, who have been tasked with keeping someone very powerful imprisoned in the deepest parts of the structure. Apparently, they need our help to strengthen the magic wards that are holding everything together. Also, one of them is a merchant who sells some nice items, including the firetooth crossbow. We purchased that one, and then took a short trip to the pocket plane to get it upgraded. By now, my archer has become highly proficient with crossbows as well, so he will use the new firetooth +5 as his secondary weapon.

The first floor of the keep isn't too dangerous, save for the final battle with the statues guarding the exit portal. Also, the notes of Lum the Mad that are scattered here may seem like complete gibberish, but they make perfect sense once you find his machine. This area has some nice treasure as well, including the paladin bracers and the foebane sword. But most importantly, we found the quiver of plenty here, which provides unlimited +2 arrows when upgraded. My archer combined that with the very fast Tuigan bow that we had acquired way back in Athkatla, giving him 4.5 attacks per round. And under the effects of improved haste, this turns into 9 attacks per round, which is pretty crazy. Granted, these attacks are only +2 enchanted, but that's good enough for most low level enemies, and he now has the +5 crossbow for the tougher ones.

The second floor is still pretty manageable, though it does feature some powerful enemies like fire giants and adamantine golems. It's also a bit more puzzle oriented, as you need to figure out the weaknesses of the elemental guardians by reading through a bunch of laboratory notes. The final showdown with the chromatic demon is usually a long and tedious affair, as he resists most types of damage. However, he had no defense against Jan's spike traps, which allowed us to end things fairly quickly.

The third floor is where the difficulty really ramps up. It's essentially a maze filled with tough monsters, deadly traps and environmental hazards. For me, the most dangerous sections were the dead magic zones, where all of your buffs get nullified, and you can't cast any more spells. To make things worse, these areas are usually populated by powerful demons, who can quickly decimate your characters while they are in that state. My strategy here was to rely on protective gear, rather than spells and potions. For example, the dragonslayer sword grants protection from panic when wielded. This is crucial for fighting some of the demons in these areas, as their mere presence projects an aura of fear. There are also a few wild magic zones where spells behave erratically, so it's best not to cast anything there.

After defeating two large groups of demons and a powerful wraith, we finally managed to exit the maze. At the end, we were greeted by a cambion and his party of extraplanar misfits. This seemingly friendly demon challenged us to play a game using the Deck of Many Things. It took a few reloads, but we managed to win a scroll of Wish for Jan, and a powerful scimitar for Jaheira. Predictably, the demon turned on us after we denied him the way out, so we had to put him down, along with his friends. For our efforts, we got the last gem that was needed to unlock the portal to the next floor, as well as the Deck of Many Things. This deck can be used to acquire some nice bonuses, but the outcome of each draw is randomized, so it can take many reloads to get something really good. We then went back to the pocket plane to upgrade Jaheira's new scimitar and to take a small break. After a good night's rest, and with our buffs reapplied, we were ready to proceed to the fourth floor of the keep.

Still on Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. Upon reaching the fourth floor of Watcher's Keep, we encountered a mage who was trapped inside the machine of Lum the Mad. It soon became clear that we needed to release him in order to proceed further. This floor is split into three large sections: the central area with the machine, the mind flayer lair to the north, and the githyanki hideout to the south. We started by clearing the central section of all monsters, which led us to a huge locked door with two rows of braziers in front of it. This is a puzzle, and solving it will open the door. But for that, we needed to get some special items from the other two areas.

The mind flayers were effortlessly dispatched by my archer, as he can now one-shot dozens of them by using greater deathblow together with improved haste. The same goes for the githyanki. In their area, we also found a red dragon and a demi lich. But at our current levels, they weren't much of a threat, as weird as that sounds. Back in the central section, we solved the brazier puzzle, only to be attacked by two powerful minotaurs. They were guarding a unique hammer, which we used to free the trapped mage. He showed us how to open the portal to the next floor, before running away. And since we've been gathering Lum's notes, we were able to use his machine to grant the party some very nice bonuses. There was also a lot of treasure here, including a vorpal axe, a flaming sword, a ranger's cloak and a powerful staff.

The fifth floor is where things get really interesting. Basically, you need to unlock three seals which protect the portal to the final level. And to get the seal keys, you need to complete a number of challenges. These weren't overly difficult, and some didn't even involve combat. The standout for me was the one where you direct a character solely through dialog prompts. Anyway, after completing all the challenges, the real fun begins. Opening each seal releases several guardians that you have to fight. These are some of the hardest battles in the game, especially the one with the succubus, beholder, snake demon and various drow warriors. However, since I have Jan in the party, this went a lot smoother due to his spike traps. You also get some powerful items on this floor, including the gauntlets of extraordinary specialization.

In contrast, the sixth floor only holds the imprisoned one. I won't spoil who that is, but I'll just note that it took direct intervention from Helm to seal him here. This is usually an incredibly difficult battle, demanding careful planning and the use of many protection spells and items. But once again, Jan's spike traps saved the day. Setting just six of them before the fight was enough to one-shot this extremely tough boss character. Yeah, spike traps are very overpowered. And with that, we said goodbye to Watcher's Keep. The party is currently heading toward the lair of Abazigal, who is the next Bhaalspawn on our list.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-01-17, 08:08:

But once again, Jan's spike traps saved the day. Setting just six of them before the fight was enough to one-shot this extremely tough boss character. Yeah, spike traps are very overpowered.

Ookay..

I've only once played through ToB due to the ungodly lenght of the full BG2+ToB and that was ages ago, and I remember only three things about it: I liked the music, the end fight was kinda ass, and the mentioned denizen of Watcher's Keep's basement put up a hell of a fight. I guess turnips are good for you.

Started Thief Gold yesterday, way too early to form up a solid opinion of it but so far I can say the atmosphere it paints is definitely not a fantasy world of rainbows and unicorns, quite the opposite and I kinda love it. The ambience is great! Though I'm a little unsure how I'm going to feel about the size of the maps and not having a detailed map with you, feeling lost isn't quite what I look in videogames. Eh, just need to shake off the brainrot caused by too much hand holding in modern games.

Also I'm having trouble seeing what is treasure and what is not at a glance, I'm pretty much collecting everything I see just in case. Looks to me hard difficulty is the right one for me, I like the extra objectives the game gives on harder difficulties but I'm a little worried the amount of treasure you need to find on expert is a little too steep for me.

Well.. I haven't been able to cross that final stretch to finish Baldur's Gate III, and I find my interest in doing the endgame stuff waning day after day..

So I went ahead and started Skald: Against the Black Priori. Oh wow. This game is GREAT. All of you who enjoyed playing gold box SSI games and Ultima V-VI should definitely play this.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-01-17, 10:26:

Looks to me hard difficulty is the right one for me, I like the extra objectives the game gives on harder difficulties but I'm a little worried the amount of treasure you need to find on expert is a little too steep for me.

While the extra objectives are great, I don't like that the higher difficulty settings also remove a lot of resources from each map.

For example, if a map has 3 fire arrows on Normal, you might only find 2 on Hard and 1 on Expert. This may not seem like much at first, but it quickly adds up. It affects your initial gear as well, e.g. instead of starting with 20 water arrows on Normal, you get 10 on Hard and 0 on Expert. And yeah, having to collect a preset amount of treasure just to complete a level is super boring.

Finished Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. Upon reaching Abazigal's lair, we found that the entrance was guarded by his son Draconis. I think this encounter is probably the hardest dragon battle in the game. Mainly because Draconis likes to go invisible and heal himself fully whenever he gets badly injured. You can interrupt him if you're really fast, but it's pretty difficult. To avoid this, I had Jan set his spike traps about two screens away from Draconis. Then, the party buffed using all manner of defensive spells and attacked. The human form of Draconis went down quickly after Keldorn dispelled his protections, but as soon as he transformed into a dragon, I pulled the party back toward our ambush spot. The big lizard predictably followed us, and got one-shot by the traps, without ever getting a chance to heal.

The interior of Abazigal's lair is connected by several underwater tunnels which you need to dive through. I always found this area to be needlessly convoluted due to that clunky travel method. After dispatching dozens of salamanders, fish folk, elementals, beholders and yet another dragon, we finally got to Abazigal himself. He's much easier to deal with than Draconis, as long as you protect the entire party from electricity and cold. Summoning a planetar to tank his powerful melee attacks also helps. After Abazigal's demise, it was revealed that the monk leader in Amkhetran would be our next target, so we returned there. That fight was a breeze compared to the last two, and the baldie Bhaalspawn quickly fell to consecutive whirlwind attacks from Jaheira and Keldorn.

It was time to finish this, but first, we needed to complete two more trials in the pocket plane. Dealing with Cyric's followers was easy, but fighting the Ravager was most certainly not. He hits like a runaway train, keeps summoning magical floating swords, remains constantly surrounded by a blade barrier and is highly resistant to physical damage. There was no chance to set any traps for this fight, so we had to tough it out. Imoen and Jan kept casting stone skin and mirror image to occupy the floating swords, while the rest of the party focused our strongest attacks on the Ravager. Everyone had to buff up fully for this, including using the hardiness ability (where available) and Jaheira's 7th level regeneration spell. After a long and grueling fight, the Ravager finally went down, while leaving most of us badly wounded.

Then, at long last, we entered the eponymous Throne of Bhaal. There, we were attacked by the former high priestess of the dead god. After beating her the first time, she went to gather more divine essence, which proved to be her undoing. Why? Because it allowed Jan to set some of those overpowered spike traps of course! Every subsequent fight with the priestess was a piece of cake, as she would get severely damaged by the traps, allowing us to take her down by merely landing a few more hits. After the third battle, she was finally done for, and the Solar teleported in to give my protagonist a choice. I won't spoil what happens, but you can get one of four different endings here, depending on your past and current actions.

Ultimately, I can't recommend the Throne of Bhaal expansion as highly as the base game. However, I still think it's worth playing, because it does conclude the Bhaalspawn story in a fairly satisfying manner. Just don't go in expecting something on pair with Shadows of Amn.

Word Rescue (Apogee) with my 6 year old. Big fun with Bookworm Benny. Or Benny Bookworm. Anyway nice guy who helps out with the buckets full purple goo.

Recently returned to playing Elden Ring and started an RL1 (level 1) challenge run.

Currently in the mid-game. It's been challenging but quite fun so far. I'm at a point where almost everything can one-shot me. Reminds me of playing old school NES platformers where you die in one hit.

Alright, I've now reached mission 5 in Thief Gold and I have extremely mixed feelings about it. There are parts of it I really enjoy and parts I really hate. While playing the game I must look like Fry from Futurama from that episode where he is about to get executed by sex, constantly switching facial expression between delighted grin and horror.

Biggest positive for me is definitely the horror-esque ambience which puts many modern games to shame, Prey 2017 for example has a mood made out of cardboard in comparison. The sound design is great, even normal inhabited houses are atmospheric. In mission three (bonehoard something) you go down deep into a undead infested crypt to find a horn and as you start getting closer you begin to hear it playing a somber tune somewhere in the distance. Also EAX effects really came to life there, there was a hall there where the moaning of the zombies and footsteps echoed all around you.

By looking at gameplay footage on youtube patching the game to newdark and modding it can make the game look much better (vanilla game has that 16bit washed out look to it), those nice EAX effects get flushed down at the same time. I wonder could they be reimplemented by using OpenAL Soft, never tried that.

The biggest negative? Well there's two. The lesser but still rather frustrating is how janky platforming is in this game. There was a pool of water in mission two where I had the hardest time climbing out of it, hopping on a rope takes like three-four tries before I manage to grab it and I constantly have issues with mantling in general.

But for me the worst is how labyrinthian the levels are at times and there's no detailed map to check where you are. First level was a mansion and it was fine, the game has that square-roomed sparsely decorated 1998 look to it that doesn't help with telling places apart from each other but I don't mind that too much. Felt a bit lost at first but I got my bearings soon enough. The second mission was less fine, bunch of similar looking caverns sprawling around. It was easier to navigate than it first seemed but still didn't enjoy it. In the third mission things started to get really frustrating, I didn't like those burrower caverns in between the crypt parts at all and the disorienting main crypt at the end wasn't much better.

But then I got to mission four and I loved it, another mansion and I had a blast exploring it. Though it took me like an hour to find that damn silver fire-poker you are required to find on hard difficulty...
still enjoyed the hell out of it and left the mission with a smile on my face. Which then got wiped off hard once I got to mission five. I hate it. I really do. Sewers that sprawl EVERYWHERE. I quit the game yesterday wondering should I even bother with it, the game is such a frustrating mixed bag for me. I don't like that kind of level design on first person shooters either but at least there you can just run through them and greet eveyone with a shotgun, while this is a slow paced stealth game and Garret ain't much of a killer.

Playing the game feels like finding money on the ground at every other step and stepping on crap with every other. And still as I'm writing this now there's a part of me that wants to hop back on it. I can already tell a love/hate relationship is forming.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-01-19, 09:09:

But for me the worst is how labyrinthian the levels are at times and there's no detailed map to check where you are.

Yeah, that's one of the unfortunate issues with the Thief series, especially in the first game. It's like the developers deliberately made some of these maps hard to navigate, which may not be far from the truth. Also, some of the bonus levels from the Gold version aren't that great, including the sewer maze that you're currently on. For what it's worth, I think you're close to "The Sword" which is one of the best missions in the game.

The level design is much improved in the second game, and the atmosphere starts leaning more toward steampunk than horror. Personally, I like that better, but other people prefer the horror and supernatural themes of the first game. Of course, the EAX implementation is further improved in Thief 2, with occlusion playing a big role.

P.S.

One of the reasons I don't recommend playing on anything higher than Normal is because sometimes, the level layout changes slightly, making it harder to traverse certain maps. Some plot critical items also get moved to harder to reach locations and so on. And this is from someone who finished the entire game on Expert, it's just not worth it.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-01-19, 09:18:

The level design is much improved in the second game, and the atmosphere starts leaning more toward steampunk than horror. Personally, I like that better, but other people prefer the horror and supernatural themes of the first game. Of course, the EAX implementation is further improved in Thief 2, with occlusion playing a big role.

On a hunch I might lean towards horror, I love scifi but steampunk less so in general. But that will not be an issue if I otherwise find the game better. Hopefully Thief 2 also has a bit better sound positioning, I can't tell are guards walking on the hallway next to me, above me or below me. Would be mighty handy!

One of the reasons I don't recommend playing on anything higher than Normal is because sometimes, the level layout changes slightly, making it harder to traverse certain maps. Some plot critical items also get moved to harder to reach locations and so on. And this is from someone who finished the entire game on Expert, it's just not worth it.

Oh. I had no idea even the level layouts might have differences. Even though I do like the extra objectives perhaps I should drop to normal, especially with my issues with the game. I can always replay the maps I like on harder later if I make it through the game.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-01-19, 10:08:

Hopefully Thief 2 also has a bit better sound positioning, I can't tell are guards walking on the hallway next to me, above me or below me. Would be mighty handy!

I think sound positioning does work a bit better in the second game. You may need to use headphones for optimal effect though.

Oh. I had no idea even the level layouts might have differences. Even though I do like the extra objectives perhaps I should drop to normal, especially with my issues with the game. I can always replay the maps I like on harder later if I make it through the game.

Here's an example from the prison mission that you've already finished. It should give you an idea of what to expect when playing the game on higher difficulty settings.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-01-19, 09:18:

And this is from someone who finished the entire game on Expert, it's just not worth it.

The game kept calling me back and after two hours of pain I managed to finish The Thieves Guild. And that's with me googling where a hard difficulty extra objective was, I don't even want to know how long it would have taken me to find that bracelet on my own in that mess of a map.

I've taken your advice and dropped to normal, I have to say the way the game lets you pick the difficulty for each mission separately is a feature I'm highly appreciating right now. The next mission is The Sword you mentioned, looking forward to that.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-01-19, 18:22:

The next mission is The Sword you mentioned, looking forward to that.

Enjoy! That's my favorite level from the first game. The one after that is also well liked by the community, but I'm not that fond of it because of all the undead enemies. Still a nice mission.

BTW, if I haven't mentioned it already, you can run Thief Gold at 1600x1200 with a simple .cfg tweak as shown here. Not that it will do much for the low res textures that the game uses, but I still kinda like it. The sequel supports that resolution natively.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-01-19, 18:56:

BTW, if I haven't mentioned it already, you can run Thief Gold at 1600x1200 with a simple .cfg tweak as shown here. Not that it will do much for the low res textures that the game uses, but I still kinda like it. The sequel supports that resolution natively.

Oh cool, thanks! Even the UI seems to scale fine and the game definitely does look better. I already had AA & AF cranked up, the benefits of having an OP Win98 system.

There was also a setting for audio channels, tried to set it to 12 there but the game keeps dropping it back to 8 every time I launch it. I guess the game is limited to 8 even though the setting in options goes up to 12.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-01-19, 19:37:

There was also a setting for audio channels, tried to set it to 12 there but the game keeps dropping it back to 8 every time I launch it. I guess the game is limited to 8 even though the setting in options goes up to 12.

Yeah, I've noticed that too. Not sure what's going on there, but it's been like that on every sound card that I've ever tried with the first Thief game.

Also, once you change the resolution to 1600x1200 in the .cfg file, it might be best to avoid opening the in-game Video options. The options screen doesn't know what to do with that resolution (as it's not listed) and may revert back to something lower.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-01-19, 18:56:

Enjoy! That's my favorite level from the first game.

Finished The Sword. I can see why it's your favorite, it was great. And very weird. Weirdly great? Easily best map so far, at first it seemed just like another mansion and I was wondering what the big deal was. Then I headed upstairs and went oh.

There was an extra objective for harder difficulties to find more information about the guy, I played on normal as earlier mentioned but still tried to find that information but couldn't. Don't know where it was, I bet I missed a ton of stuff in that looney house.

Which is too bad, because I have questions 😀

The next one is called The Haunted Cathedral. Sounds delightful, I'm sure there's nothing bad going on over there.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-01-20, 15:45:

Which is too bad, because I have questions 😀

Those will be answered as you progress through the game. I can't really say anything more without spoilers, but things are certainly going to get interesting.

The next one is called The Haunted Cathedral. Sounds delightful, I'm sure there's nothing bad going on over there.

Good luck! It's another nicely designed map, I just don't care for the undead enemies. But that may be because I last played the original (non-Gold) version. From what I've read, some of the undead enemy behavior has been slightly toned down for the Gold release. And that's a very good thing IMO.

Took a small break of retro gaming to play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Back to my backlog of classics I never get to play or finish! Finally finished DOTT after playing the first third of the game 2 or 3 times over 3 decades... I now need the strength to get back to an older savegame of Monkey Island 2 before a glitch made lose 5 hours of gameplay... ugh...

Linoleum wrote on 2025-01-20, 18:21:

Finally finished DOTT after playing the first third of the game 2 or 3 times over 3 decades... I now need the strength to get back to an older savegame of Monkey Island 2 before a glitch made lose 5 hours of gameplay... ugh...

Nice games, both of them (although I only played the remasters).