BG/TotSC - The Grey Clan Mod Review

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BG/TotSC - The Grey Clan Part 1
Version played: v.1.00
First posted: July 6, 2004
Updated:
Download from: http://www.gibberlings3.net/tgc/index.html

In the last few years there have been very few mods coming out for BG. There have been a fair few for BG2, but it seemed like BG was overlooked. So it was with some excitement that I installed and played the Grey Clan mod. The mod begins after you get to the city of Baldur’s Gate. There you will meet an NPC who will get the story going. This is just as well, because you will need a relatively advanced party to be able to tackle it.

The mod isn’t too long, playing at only an hour and a half, to two hours. But since this is the first part, I imagine that subsequent episodes will add to that time. The mod itself adds NPCs to existing areas, rather than cobbling a new series of areas together from re-used maps. Personally I much prefer it this way. You know how much of an area there is, so can judge how much ammo etc to need. Mods that re-use areas and paste them together to form a dungeon often go on far too long for my liking, so I was pleased.

The new characters in the game added a much needed element. By the time your party reaches level 8, very few battles in BG will challenge you. This mod will. The battles are made pretty hard, but not so hard you won’t win them after a few tries. They’re challenging, but not impossible, the final fight in particular. The addition of a sorcerer to one fight in particular makes it very interesting. As well as adding in some new enemies, there were a couple of new items. The use of garlic was a new approach, and my understanding is that herbs and plants may play a larger role in the future. It’s a direction the games haven’t taken before, and brought an interesting element. Also there were a couple of new weapon additions. These weapons are a lot more powerful then you can purchase in the normal game, so I was concerned that they may unbalance the game. However, I used them to play through TotSC with, and didn’t really notice too many problems in that regard.

There were a couple of downsides to the mod. At the end of the mod the Friendly Arm Inn wasn’t usable. This is because the Inn area is used as a battleground in the mod, and at the end the Mirrorshades will not perform their normal tasks. You cannot rest, be healed, or buy equipment. This in itself wasn’t drastic, because at that stage of the game you shouldn’t need it, but it was still an annoyance. Also, the mod suffered from the problem a lot of mods do, in that it would over-populate an area with enemies. Some might like this aspect, but I found it a little too much. I prefer maps to feel a little less crowded. One other aspect was the game sometimes relies on you solving clues to continue the plot. This makes it quite fun, but one clue in particular could be confusing, and lead to frustration. On the actual mod itself I was playing version 1.00, I did notice one or two bugs, but nothing that really affected me playing the game at all. The latest version, 1.54, should have these tweaked out.

So on the whole, I found The Grey Clan mod to be a great addition to the game. It breathes some extra life into the game, and manages to avoid the tedious nature that some mods have by not being overly long, or having long sequences of re-used maps pasted together. Personally, I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a little more from their BG experience.

 

You forgot to mention the best part: This mod is compatible with BG1 Tutu.

Nice review BTW.

 

Thanks Rednik. I did indeed forget to mention that this is Tutu compatible. I mostly forgot to include it because I dont play BG with Tutu. I dont know why, but I kinda like the old look of the game. It also makes jumping to BG2 that much more enjoyable.

 

I'll have to agree with Takaras review on all points Not being able to sell stuff or get healing at the FYI was a minor annoyance, but the use of the dead space in Beregost was a great idea Challenging, but not way to hard. It was a very good mod. Congrats Baronius

 

I'm tackling the mod with a solo fighter/mage/thief now and I can tell it's pretty damn tough. Great fun though.

 

Thanks a lot Sorvo! The annoying things and the garlic animation (looks like everything except a garlic) will be fixed in v1.6 for those who haven't played Ep1 yet. Episode II is also under development!

@Apeman: yeah it isn't easy. A small hint: invisibility (potions)

 

Does that work in combination with..I don't know..a certain back stab multiplier

 

will this mod work even without totsc?

 

The mod is advertised as a TotSC addition, though it lacks any connection to it. Even so, I believe the mod is also compatible with straight BG.

 

Update: it has a new edition called In Candlelight. It requires TotSC (because of its improvements on the engine).

[ February 16, 2006, 02:22: Message edited by: Baronius ]

 

How balanced is it?

SPOILER
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In the the first encounter with Stinking Steve and his friend you get 5000xp, 4500 gold per head and a bunch of garlic thats grants 30% cumulative magic resistance for ten turns. (which will make any battle into a breeze.) Thats more money then taking out bosses like Daeveron.
Is this typical of the haul from the mod?

 

Not really. The strongest weapon you can get in this mod is one +3 sword. You will see it if you play it. However, it's very challenging, with hard battles. (Well, considering the date of your post, you either finished the mod now or did not even start it.)

 

Thank you Baronius.

I'm allergic to mods that just throw stuff at you. Even the regular game often doesn't make you work hard enough for the money.