I personally preffer the game to have less NPCs than BG1, because in said game, there were A LOT of crappy NPCs that you wouldn't ever want them to join you. Now there are less NPCs, and everyone is good for something.
Sure, in BG1 you could go everywhere and there were TONS of maps. But, can you tell me how much of this maps actually had something interesting? There were A LOT of maps in BG1 that were totally waste of space. I personally believe that half the Cloakwoods was a waste, with only a few things to do. And the map were you find Viconia, Peldvalle, was another waste of space.
As for doing every single quest in chapter 2, that depends on your playing style and your experience playing the game. Some people just do some quests and then head for Brymlaw, while others just stop to do ALL the quests they can do to get more powerful. And there are others that just use a FAQ to make their way through the game a cake-walk.
I personally don't feel the game to be very lineal. The fisrt time I went through the game, it was in multiplayer with a friend and we were amazed at HOW much quests we had to do that we weren't sure about how or when to start! There's the Main Quest, with revolves around rescuing Imoen and finding Irenicus, and there are tons of Major Quests such as the Unseeing Eye and the Windspear Hills dungeon, and tons of mini-quests to do. You want a lineal game? Play any of the Final Fantasy Games, they were ALL VERY LINEAL games with the exception of, perhaps FF6, wich was an open quest when you reached 60% of the game in the world of ruin, and they were all great games, despite the fact that they were all lineal.
As for weak monsters, I AGREE with you on that one, I remember saying to myself "why the hell are there a lot of hobgoblines and gibberlings at this point of the game? they are crappy and give no exp" when playing BG1. It is just irritating when you are at a high level later in the game and you are forced to fight with some easy monsters.
As for romances, I guess they weren't many options for romances with female chars, because Jan is a crazy gnome, Yoshimo...well, we know what happens to him, Korgan is an evil dwarf that only cares about himself, Edwin is really arrogant to even show an interest in someone, and Keldorn HAS wife and child. But what about Haer'Dalis and Cernd? they could have been good romances.
And lastly, let's suposse you are in a tight-fight in Athkala with some goons that are tracking down Jaheira, and you are about to lose, and your only salvation is to release lighting bolt that will surely kill two or three peasants, but will win you the battle. In a situation like that, I would be glad that there are temples to restore my reputation at the expense of my hard earned money.
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