How long is ToB compared to SoA?

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SoA is a very long game - as in time consuming - and especially chapter 2 and 3. I started SoA at the end of June, and have played for several hours every day, and just finished it a couple of days ago.

Then I moved on to ToB, and found I started in chapter 8 (chapters ascending from SoA). After just 2 days, when I came back from fire giants lair, I was already transferred to chapter 9 to kill giant king Yamashura (sp?). I read somewhere that ToB only lasts til chapter 10, is that true? I feel I just started the game, and now I'm already halfway through - is this right? Or did I miss some places or quests when I went straight from giant lair to witch with hearts and after that to Yamashutra(sp?) outside Saradush? Is ToB really so much shorter than SoA, or am I mistaken? How many days approximately would it take to play through ToB if you play 3-4 hours each day, and do all quests and plots? Is it just an epilogue to SoA, or a complete game of its own?

I know SoA is on 4 cd's and ToB only on 1, but i assumed that was because they didn't need to install all that essential stuff like new characters and everything else.... but is it really so much shorter? How many chapters is it?

[This message has been edited by Blue (edited August 30, 2001).]

 

It indeed only goes to Chapter ten, and at your rate I'd say a week at the MOST...and that includes most of the quests. It was a very short game for me, and I was disappointed by the lack of AI improvement. At any rate, it's quite short compared to SoA.

 

It's not THAT short, but afterall it is an EXPANSION. WK is a mammoth in itself. Saradush and Amkethran are decent, although they are no Athkatla. Yaga Shura's Lair, Sendai's Lair, and Abizagal's Lair make a good chunk. And than there is the swamps of Mir and the Oasis and the Seige Camp, places like that. They are the problem. Those areas are super small compared to everything else, thus making the expansion seem smaller than it really is.

Don't always focus on quantity either. ToB shines in quality.

[This message has been edited by Big B (edited August 30, 2001).]

 

I agree that Watcher's Keep in itself is pretty huge. If you'd completed that in SoA it would make SoA seem all the larger in comparison to ToB.

 

I thought ToB was good length for an expansion.

 

ToB is quite short but I wouldn't like it to be any longer It's because the game itself offers very little compared to SoA. I expect lots of subquest to be in a RPG game and there are very few in ToB. Sure there is lots of cool powerful items, new abilities and spells but to me they're practically wasted. There should be some more walking around required to find each boss and some special way of defeating each of them. It's just like people at Black Isle thoought: “Hell it's the end, there won't be BG3 so why put effort in designing interesting story.” To sum it up ToB is too much like Icewind Dale. Simply go there and slay everyone. Repeatedly. To me ToB is not worth money which you're to pay for it.

 

I'd argue that at such high levels, why should your character be walking around doing subquests for people and whatnot. It's the conclusion of the game. The final stages of the prophecy are happening around you and you are hurtling towards it's conclusion. Ummm...lets see, and it's a expansion folks. Not to get off on a rant here, but let's face facts. Yes, the game could have been dragged out longer (though I don't support the idea of subquests, I just think the main quests could have been longer and more detailed), but since it's an expansion, that's all water under the bridge. For whatever reason, Bioware/BlackIsle have decided to move on to their next cash cow and leave Baldur's Gate behind for now. It's easy to complain about the game being an expansion, but I wouldn't complain about the expansion not being long enough. For the story they told, it was very high quality in my opinion and well done as well. I personally played on it for a month or two. Naturally some gamers are better than others, and if you have the time to play for several hours a day, you will compelte it in a couple of weeks I'm sure. It took me longer, but I'm not that quick either. All gripes about the game's form aside, it's about the best quality expansion I've played for a CRPG, and definately better storyline wise than any others the designers have put out to date. Considering what they were given to work with, I think they did a comendable job finishing up the Bhallspawn storyline. Then again, maybe that's just my opinion.

 

Yes, yes to Crawl you must listen...

I'm going through ToB and am reminding myself once again that it is great. My first time through I was in shock I suppose, now I can sit back and really enjoy it.

 

You also have to take into consideration how difficult it is to maintain game balance at levels as high as those attainable in ToB. I think you achieve 90% of your power between level 20 and 25. Depending on which class you play, new items and levels aren't going to make that much difference, and many players find it boring to play a character that no longer advances in power. Not being a game designer I can't speak from experience, but I'd imagine it's quite difficult to create a challenging encounter for a high-level party. If anyone here plays EverQuest, you'd see how much tweaking game designers have to do to keep the high-level game challenging.