Most people here praise the first game, but the second game is often ignored. And is not only because I prefer mid/higher level. I liked much more the story, encounter design, psionics, spells, graphics, quests and ambiance. You have some memorable NPC's on the Wake of the Ravager like Matthias, more investigation, to the point that I had to use the cluebook a lot of times, and a extremely better encounter design which challenges far more you. The story is very interesting. The game starts with the aftermath of the Sorcerer King's death.
Matthias, the lv 18 preserver who leads the Veiled Alliance and a conversation with him
And when the journos on the video above said that the game is harder than the first one, they aren't lying. For example, my first death to that game was in the Tyr's Ziggurat. Where you need to fight a small army of defilers while the arena is full of dangerous traps. I was wining till my half giant gladiator failed a save VS domination against the defiler, and my party could't survive. On my second try, I beat then with no problem.
To even reach that ziggurrat, you need to investigate a little and find a secret passage
► location of the entrance
And the underdark, you need to get access to a mine, investigate the mine, and when you descend into the underdark, is a really nasty place full of powerful mindflayers and no place to rest. I sadly had to save scum to get trough the underdark. Mindflayers are not only extremely powerful but also has powerful half giant gladiator slaves. That encounter was very hard and fun.
The whole point of the game is that once the Sorcerer King is dead, the city is not freed from tyranny. In fact, maybe the sorcerer king is protecting their city from nasty outsider things. I get that most people here prefer low level, but mid level is not that unpopular according to my last poll. I suggest to give a chance to Wake of The ravager. Wake of the Ravager is not a high/epic level adventure. The level cap is 15. If you prefer low level gameplay but enjoyed BG2 : Shadows of Amn, you can enjoy Dark Sun : Wake of the Ravager, since both adventures are in about the same lv range. In fact, preservers caps at lv 15 on this game, while they caps at lv 17 on BG2:SoA.
You can get Meteor swarm scroll? Yes, but it is a one time scroll in the entire campaign.
► Wake of The ravager - Where to get the scroll
So, if you believe that the game will gonna be a "magecentric" game due higher level cap, I suggest to try it anyway. The game is fully playable with zero preservers in your party. If you hate any supernatural power, than it is not for you as everyone knows psionics. Even my brainlet half giant gladiator. Clerics are far more useful than preservers. I love the game so much. Is my favorite TURN BASED D&D game.
My unique critique is the bugs and that some times you have no clue about what to do. This problem is mitigated via the cluebook. The game also could get more in depth mechanics, for eg, on TT half giant gladiators are very powerful but require a lot of food/water. On the CRPG this trade off doesn't exist. I an not saying that the first game is bad. Quite the contrary. I just prefer the second.
