Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition

Much worse than the bugs, was discovering that they changed the original UI, wich was a real work of art, by that horrible generic crap. Sad and shameful, really.

For context, unlike many of the other reviewers here I did not play this series when I was younger (having not been born at time of release), so hopefully I can offer a fresh perspective for anyone in a similar situation. To begin, this is an absolute gem of a game. Good story, great companions and absolutely outstanding gameplay and length. Baldur's Gate has no qualms about throwing you in the deep end at the start, but once you master the gameplay systems and figure out how to build your characters there is such an incredible depth of quality content and replayability that this is an easy recommend for anyone. It is no surprise that Bioware went on to make so many outstanding RPGs; the likes of Knights of the Old Republic and the first Dragon Age seemed heavily inspired from their work here. As for the older negative reviews, Beamdog has done a lot to address bugs, over 50+ hours of play I have not encountered a single one. Much of the controversy also relates to new characters/companions added by Beamdog, which, to be honest, I did not think was too much of an issue. Overall I found the enhanced editions to be a much superior way of playing the game as there are a ton more customisation and UI/QOL improvements, and it takes a fair amount of modding to make the originals playable on modern systems. HOWEVER, if that all still irks you the original editions are bundled with this enhanced edition, so if you really are a hardcore purist you can still play the games the way you want. That being said, this is an easy recommend for me, just check out the tips here: "https://beforeiplay.com/index.php?title=Baldur%27s_Gate" and "https://beforeiplay.com/index.php?title=Baldur%27s_Gate_II" for a few helpful tips that won't spoil too much! Have fun playing :)

That one star? That's for this EE edition. I only have and only want the classic edition, but there's no store page to rate or review it anymore. The price is WAY too high (twice the price) for the classic and I'm not giving a game I don't want a good rating, especially when it's practically hiding the real classic, it's proper price and it's reviews and ratings, now. I'm not really all that interested in writing a review (what can I say about the classic that hasn't been said - it's GREAT), but since I can't even RATE the classic anymore, this is the only thing I can do. Suffice it to say that I loved, played and still own boxed editions (or would if I could ever get them back - long story that I won't go into) from when they were new. Anyway, what I'm really interested in is for the classic to be sold separately, have it's own store page, it's own reviews, ratings and proper price back. The classics sold far better than the EEs and what I've seen of the devs' attitude makes me want to avoid them (the EEs AND their devs). Now, people who only want the classics are going to have to buy the EE versions to get them. This looks like nothing more than a way for Beamdog to make extra sales from people who don't even want their editions, not to mention boosting their ratings and position in the Best Seller list artificially. I want GOG to know this, I want Hasbro to know this, I want everyone to know this. Anyone who feels the same should contact Hasbro and vote up the wishlist for unbundling this. Hasbro - corporate.hasbro.com/en-us/consumer-care Wishlist entry for unbundling - www.gog.com/wishlist/games/baldurs_gate_2_classic Archive of Bestselling list - web.archive.org/web/20160416185118/https://www.gog.com/games?sort=bestselling&page=1 The classics were easily found near the top of the bestseller list. The EEs? I don't know where they are in the list, but they've had enough time to get the positions they deserve.

This extraordinairly epic RPG is pretty much in the absolute "Top 5" of the absolute best RPGs ever designed on the PC. Period. The End. Believe me. It has depth, intelligence, maturity, fantastic psychological interaction between characters, a plethera of places to explore, fun loot to gain, fun mobs to slay, a fantastic story. It litterarly has it all. The game is just almost flawless. I'm not sure why this the rating does not reflect this, clearly some are incapable of judging genuine quality, but this RPG is pretty much as good as it gets, trust me. The only major flaw is the fact that you can 'Rest' nonstop in between combat and recoup all your healing/spells and 'Haste' just lets your party win easily. Beyond that, this is an absolute classic of an RPG and a 100% total must play. This version is divine, it looks really beautiful, although it would have been more epic if they implemented all the voices as voiceovers and an option to resize the UI. That is what is missing.

The new expansion has pretty much killed a decent game under the guise of improving it. If you have played the original and wish to relive the experience, don't bother and go get your original CDs. If you haven't touched the franchise, you might try this but will end up not understanding what all the fuss was about. For myself, disregarding the bugs and unnecessary interface changes, as well as the whole poor writing drama surrounding the game, I have found the streamlined 'improved' sprites aggravating. They add no real detail and just look like vector versions of what was already there, which is pretty bad for a 2016 game. So yeah, BG2 is a good old game. Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition 2.0 is not.