>>720614943
I don't think it's just the beginning. The entire original trilogy is pretty dark, I think.
Sure, there is humor here and there like with Minsc and Jan, but I feel the overall point the developers were trying to convey was that living on the Sword Coast sucks, and being a Bhaalspawn sucks extra hard. And even if you're a hero, it doesn't mean life will ever go like you want it to.
That guy who becomes a chicken in the first game? Has a 50% chance to die if you try to turn him back. When asked why it happened, his teacher just says "that's what you get for fucking around with magic without understanding it, shit is dangerous".
That random peasant who went to beat up a local troll nearby since he wanted to be an adventurer? Yeah, he's dead already, adventuring is deadly like that. Maybe you can recover his corpse if you don't share his fate.
How are cities in the game? Mostly shitholes with stark class division. In Athkatla mage gestapo snatches everyone who casts shit on the streets, and doesn't care who started it. Unless you pay them off, of course.
Are you a hero who saved an entire city from pointless war? Yeah, a random high-level mage can kidnap and torture you if he feels like it, he has the power. You have to remember, Irenicus has no relation to the whole Bhaal thing, he's just a random high- level evil mage who felt like becoming a god. It could literally be any other mage, god knows there are enough in the setting. For all you know, there were three others who succeeded at stealing the essence, you just never heard about them.
When Bhaal's essence was pretending to be Irenicus and talking in your dream about he could kill a random woman who was generally pretty strong and successful because he is powerful and she isn't, at least not in that way? Yeah, it had a point.
Playing through the game, I really felt like it was deliberately very dark and gritty. It didn't feel like a lighthearted adventure to me at all. Sword Coast is a shithole.
