BG2 - Unfinished Business Mod Review

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Unfinished Business
Version Played: v7 (released April 11)
First Posted: May 7, 2004
Updated:
Download Location: http://www.pocketplane.net/ub

Unfinished Business (or ‘UB’) is a great mod that restores numerous cut quests, items, and encounters to Baldur’s Gate II: SoA. BioWare didn’t implement everything they had planned for the final release because of time constraints. This mod gives answers to many questions by filling in some blanks (i.e. Kalah and what he was promised and Pai’Na), adds/extends quests, and does a few tweaks that just make more sense (like Xzar’s creations being necromantic).


Additions

Several additions have been made to make the gameplay of SoA more complete. I know that I was a little disappointed to learn that Minsc had no quest, and a little confused when I finished the Circus Tent quest and nothing more about Kalah or, more importantly, what he was promised, came up later in the game.

The Minsc quest is probably the biggest addition to UB. It’s full of colourful characters and great Minsc dialogue. They really captured Minsc’s character in this one. I also liked the fact that Minsc gets debilitated and depressed about Boo missing. The only thing that I didn’t really jump over is that they basically point you where to go in the quest.

I really like the addition of the Bodhi Hunt, even though it didn’t work in my game. I just think that it adds to the whole “Let the hunt begin” thing. In the original game she just shows up when you’re almost out of the dungeon. This way she’ll show up at least once, depending on your level.

The extended Illithium quest was pretty cool too. Unger and Gorje’s dialogue is pretty funny in some places. The only thing I didn’t quite understand was how he could be surrounded by monsters and not be attacked. There’s even a dialogue option that asks him about it, but he evades the question like every guy evades that “Do I look fat?” question. Oh well, the quest is still interesting nonetheless.

One thing that peeved me a little bit was that the new battles were ridiculously easy. But I guess it can’t be helped because many of the additions were previously done by BioWare, but were never implemented, so they are how they are.

Something that is totally irrelevant, but I’m going to say it anyway, is that during the Pai’Na/Spider’s Bane quest you talk to a couple of pest control officers. If you offer to buy the sword from them, and you offer the maximum, they tell you off by saying “Oh yeah. Like you’ve got X amount of gold just sitting around. Bugger off.” This really took me by surprise. I mean, you could show them X amount of gold pieces, right? Oh well. I’m not complaining. I got the sword cheaper because of it.

Another thing I didn’t really agree with is the addition of The Boots of the West, which, among other things, increase your charisma. The reason I think this should’ve been left out is because BioWare already put, in my opinion, way too many charisma increasing items in the game. With the addition of these boots, it’s possible for a cleric to acquire 24 charisma with items alone. Add this to the Hell Trials and your character has god-like charisma. Severe balancing issue here.

But all in all though, the items they added were balanced according to the gameplay (I especially like the addition of Bala’s Axe because it’s unenchanted, but has a very intriguing ability). Most of them were throw-aways almost however. I really didn’t find any use for the Wraithform spell, both swords, and the Websack Wand (surprisingly enough).

And last but certainly not least, I really didn’t like how Artemis Entreri shows up in Bodhi’s lair. And I really didn’t like how bloody easy he was. I mean, he’s the Realm’s deadliest assassin. He didn’t even hit Drizzt once! There’s no reason for him being there either. No story for him showing up and trying to kill Drizzt, other than he hates him. Fortunately, the UB team recognized this, and makes a special note of you having the option to install it separately in the readme.


Bugs

There are a few annoying little bugs that I experienced.
A couple people I was fighting just stayed at ‘Near Death’ (I even sat there hitting them for thousands of HP just to make sure).
Bodhi didn’t show up in the Cat & Mouse hunt like she was supposed to. I saw her dialogue, but she herself was AWOL. Apparently this section of the mod is a major problem for the coders, being filled with bugs. The readme said they completely redid it, but I guess there’s still some wrinkles.
There was also a typo when Minsc talks to Delon during his quest for Boo.


Verdict

The thing about ‘UB’ is that it’s a work in progress. As it stands right now, it’s not even a third done. The plans that these guys have for it are pretty fantastical, and they’re even going to do a ToB version. They’ve done about a third of it in 9 months. With every new release (which come out fairly often) they’ve either added another component or fixed some major bug, or both. Some of the best quests are still to come. (Note: There’s a complete list of the planned additions at the Pocket Plane Group forums at http://forums.pocketplane.net/index.php?board=19.25)

This is a mod that really spices up BG2 for the vets because the original game gets a tad repetitive after 20+ times. This will add a few answers and raise a couple more questions, so it makes BG2 a pretty fresh experience. I would highly recommend it to practically everyone who’s played an unmodded BG2 a couple of times.

[ October 29, 2004, 16:30: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

Aargh. I've recoded this, Ghrey's recoded this, and the bugs still persist in popping up. Where exactly were you when the problem occurred?

 

I was in the room just outside Dace's coffin room, the one down the hall from the Umber Hulk room. It has all the skeletons and mummies in it. I'd just finished off the undead in there, when she popped in and said her bit (BTW, the screen auto-scrolled to somewhere outside and down the hall to the particular room I was in), but when I exited the room, she was nowhere to be found.

 

The only problem i've had with UB is when I was running Dungeon-be-Gone at the same time and instead of that dude offering to teleport me out I just got a Valygar and Suna-Seni dialogue!! Weird. I'm not certain on the compatability issues however.

 

That would be some sort of install order problem. Shouldn't happen under normal circumstances.

 

POSIBLE SPOILER


I don't know if a bug, but I have installed tactics which improves liches and adds a pit fiend, so, when you do Sir Sales quest, you are required to find the brother of the duergar, for instance, if you didn't do Umar hill quest, when you go down where you have to go, you see how the guy is killed by the pit fiend, making impossible to finish the quest, so I recomend to do firt Umar quest then ask for Sir sales quest.
Also, to the people who made this mod, if will be an update, can be done something about Jan quest? is kind of unfinished, looks like it would be some problems but nothing happens, also, Isea Roenal promises "this is not over" when you release Nahlia but he never come back. And what about the Habib (or something) guy who throws you a scimitar?. Ejem, the worn out boots? the empty bottles? Just some ideas and maybe lots of work, anyway, good job.

 

SPOILER ON ISEA:


Isea Roenall DOES come back - that's how you finish the fighter stronghold. He comes back with his "army" which sadly only amounts to about 10 people. As soon as you kill him, the battle ends, regardless of whether you kill the other enemies or not.

 

** CONTINUED SPOILER

Sorry, but it's Lord Farthington Roenal, Isaea's father, that returns in the final fighter stronghold quest. Isaea does not return.

 

**** STILL THE SPOILER

That's what I'm talking about, the stronhold works fine, and you don't have to kill Roenal but his minions, I'm talking about if you don't have that stronghold, Isea takes to jail Nahlia, you get him into trouble and he promises to come back, but he never does...

 

As a french player, I offer to translate this Mod.

 

One of the UB authors speaks French and has been working on a translation.

 

I know that but I am sorry to say that I don't know anyone who should speak THAT FRENCH !!!

 

CamDawg, believe me when I say that speaking French does *NOT* a translator make.

 

Regarding that Bodhi popping up part:

During the trials you get to a map where the demon says you should not have been teleported to, where you originally fought some immence size trolls, Bodhi drops in with 2 Vampires. Then another Bodhi brings 2 more vampires along. These bitches dont die and remain at near-death state.

Next map after talking to Saemon Havarian you try to sneak past and enlist the help of the inmates. Bodhi says her piece wether she can see you or not and insists on repeating it every 5 secs.

I was told this part has been temporarily removed til the bugs were out. Still ironing?

 

The second time I played it, it worked perfectly, and every time after that, so I don't know what your deal is. I guess it must've started down in level 1 or 2 of the Spellhold dungeon.

But last time I checked the site for updates I didn't see anything about the Bodhi hunt.

 

@Djeff & Gwendolyne
Does including the French BG community count? Or are they not qualified to translate as well?

 

Just to reassure you: I was born and raised in a french-speaking town by french-speaking parents, I'm a linguistic major in a french-speaking university, and I probably speak french better than you do. But don't worry, I'm acting mainly as a supervisor, the bulk of the translation is being done with the team at La couronne de cuivre.

 

@ Camdawg & Barren Fischa:

My comment was merely a general one. I didn't mean to imply that the quality of the French translation was bad or anything (I haven't seen it myself). I was merely reacting to these statements:

As a professionnal translator, I always feel ticked off when people assume they can translate when they speak the language. For all I knew, the UB author mentioned could have been someone who took a few French classes in school and thought he'd make a great translator (Gwendolyne's comment seemed to imply that the translation was of dubious quality). Contrary to popular belief, not everyone who can speak and write in a given language can translate into this language -- it's like saying a math teacher can automatically make a great accountant.

Having said that, if Barren Fischa and his team are fully qualified, then more power to them and to the users of the mod. Maybe Gwendolyne could clarify her meaning?

Sorry about the rant -- maybe I'm a little jealous of the people who actually get to translate RPGs; I'd give my firstborn kid away to be able to do that as a living!

[ August 23, 2004, 20:57: Message edited by: Djieff ]

 

Don't worry, my comment was mainly aimed at Gwendolyne, whom I felt was talking without knowing. I know that speaking french and translating are two wholly different things (I realized that during my translation works in college), but I still think that we can do some good work. (These guys have already translated quite a few mods)