During the first 100 hours, I was able to forgive the glitches, lack of tutorials, memory leaks, slow saving, boring kingdom management and annoying time limits, as the quests and fights are great! Chapters 1 and 2 were great; Chapter 3 was terrible; and then Chapters 4 and 5 were good again. But that final chapter... The final chapter, which took about 8 hours, was so bugged and so terrible that it ruined the entire game for me. I will probably never play the DLC or try an evil playthrough. Goodbye, Kingmaker.
Here's my memories with this game: 1. I made 4 attempts at this game before I managed to finish it. And with a solo character at that, somehow. 2. A friend asked me how D&D could be enjoyable with more fights than role-play. I directed him to this game. 3. The ghost of an elven girl laughed when I told her she was dead. The dragon fights are much more manageable than those in Baldur's Gate, I think. I don't understand how this game got better ratings than Baldur's Gate, though. Maybe it's because the fights are more fun? Maybe it's because the location is less cliché? Maybe it's because the bosses are so amazing? (Like really, I love every big encounter of this game) The only real negative I can think of is that it's a bit too linear for me. At least I can't miss timed quests I didn't know of.
This is one of my favorite games ever, even if the playtime doesn't reflect it. The team clearly had too little time for this game. It sometimes crashes and, sadly, some of the quests are bugged and might not completely if you do intended things in an unintended order. Stealth is disappointing because some invisible lines automatically initiate dialog, so the NPCs will notice you anyway. Enemies are so resistant to force powers that you can not go without using weapons. Too bad. That's everything bad I could say. All the problems I had with the first game are fixed. This time, you start leveling as a force user and levels go much higher (40 or so). Movement is also a bit quicker. The story had me engaged the whole way through. For about a week, I only talked about just how great this game really is. Be aware that some sections require you or one of your companions to go solo, so give everyone a way to deal good damage and survive hits without help. Apart from those parts, the game feels easier than the first, but maybe it's just easier to build an overpowered party. Every character is interesting. There's so many people to talk to and so many choices to make. What I think of when I see this game is: 1. The overpowered builds. 2. The bugs. :( 3. How you build your backstory through dialog with your companions. I've never seen this in a game before or since playing this. 4. The story. If you have enough money for only KotOR 1 OR 2, play 2.
It took me four started runs before I really got the patience to make it through the first 5 hours. Your movement speed is just so slow. You get the force power to temporarily move faster, but after using it out of combat, you awkwardly stand still for half a second. It honestly just feels weird. The obvious first planet to go to, Kashyyyk, is a very straight forward corridor with lots of backtracking, which I always hated. A funny thing is how long the alien voice clips take. Might be a one-word-sentence, but that wookie will still take 20 seconds to say it. The entire time, I felt that a 3-character party always falls short in at least one aspect. Half the time, I almost wished I was playing Dragon Age instead. At last, its still Star Wars, I still love the story. I still love the massive choice you have to make before the final "dungeon". I still love the ending. I still love this game. Do yourself a favor and play it. Play the second game too. A tip: The maximum level is 20. If you level up too much before getting your powers, your Jedi level is limited. My second run, where I stayed at level 2 until getting my powers, was much more enjoyable. In general, I prefer the second game, even with all its bugs.
Here are the things that I think of when I hear "Siege of Dragonspear": 1. The dungeons are mostly bad. 2. The difficulty is really low. 3. No Imoen (if you find her annoying in BG:EE, remember that she was optional). 4. There is a really cool encounter with a lich. I really loved that part. 5. The final two acts of the story line is so much better than the beginning, though the plot "twist" is really obvious. 6. I really like the antagonist. 7. The ending is kind of terrible. 8. The experience carries over into the next game, if you want to take your character into BG2:EE. 9. When an NPC wants to talk to you in BG:EE, they will talk to the next available party member. In the base game, you very rarely said your name in the dialogues, but in this add-on, you say it constantly. Now, Jaheira, Khalid and all the others all apparently have my name. This makes me laugh sometimes, but mostly really takes me out of the immersion.
A recommendation to everybody who likes D&D and is interested in the lore of the forgotten realms. The first few hours are pretty annoying, and the game becomes much more enjoyable from act 3 onwards. In general, the second game is much better, though. I can't say anything about how it compares to the original version, though.
