Unfortunately I believe one of BG2’s biggest strengths is also a huge weakness: its scope. Where BG1 offers enough side content to keep you busy, BG2 has so much as to be overwhelming or even tiring.

And so much of it can trigger in quick succession. I literally had a situation where I was trying to get somewhere for a specific timed quest, and in entering an area triggered a fight for a completely different quest. During that fight, an NPC appeared and took away one of my companions for a third quest chain. So then I had to finish the fight with a smaller party, rush back to town to get my companion back, and hurry back again to be in time for the other timed quest, all the while ignoring the reason for the fight completely.

This not only gets tiring, but also makes it hard to remember what you were doing and why.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s a great game. But there’s a reason I’ve finished BG1 multiple times and have yet to do the same with BG2 even once.