Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition

I've owned both Baldur's Gates in disc form, digitally via GOG and the Enhanced Edition (via Beamdog) and am super excited to see the enhanced editions here on GOG! (I just wish we got a key to add it to our library here if we'd already purchased it!) The Enhanced Editions add a lot of fixes to the game. Many are available in the form of mods for the originals, but some things couldn't be fixed by modders. Its nice to be able to play it without spending an hour modding the game (and making sure everything is done in the right order!) My favorite fix is that the GUI scales with the resolution. No more running at 1080p and barely being able to see the GUI! Additionally, the load times, both for save games and areas, are virtually instant (compared to the original where the farther you went into the game, the longer both seemed to take). Many of the mods have been updated to work with EE as well (though you certainly want to check before using them). I haven't found the new content and NPC's added to be outstanding, but it is nice to have. As others have pointed out, there are still some bugs and a major patch is expected to be released before year end. So is the EE for you? Well that probably depends. For me, my time is precious and as I get older, my vision gets worse! So being able to play it without mods and without squinting too much is great! I've also found that the interface works much better on touchscreens than the original did (though they have a bit of an issue with Microsoft Surface Pros, to which I hope they fix soon. The 1.2 patch of BGEE had it running fine, but the 1.3 patch made it near impossible to launch. Its been reported and they are working on it).

This would be a very nice update to a slightly outdated game. It gives a more visually pleasing UI and, in some places, a more functional one along with many other little updates and few larger ones. The problem is in the bugs that accompany the game. There are many that are simply game breaking that put you to a full stop right in the middle or just don't allow you progress. The second big issue (for me anyway) is the price point. This is WAY overpriced in my opinion when you can get the older version for half the price and are far less likely to have any sort of bug stop you from completing the game. BG2 is one of the best RPGs that has ever been made and it would be a shame if all the insanely awesome stuff in this jewel were missed out on by someone paying too much money for a game with bugs and only minor upgrades (upgrades that you could easily add yourself with mods in many cases). Bottom line, get the old version. It's just the better one.

Stop askign for reviews

BG:EE2 did not suffer quite as many teething problems as BG:EE did and it was quite a good game right after release. The game is still scheduled to get regular patches and improves the game in almost every conceivable aspect. As other reviews mention, it's basically a modded copy of BG2, so why would you pay money for it when you already have a regular BG2 copy? Well, it does offer some new content, classes, items, restorations and a boatload of fixes, but most importantly it's a single installer that offers all of that in one package, has ongoing support and multiple language packs included. No need to spend hours gathering mods and installing them, and best of all it is still mod compatible, so if you miss a mod from the original BG2, there's probably an up to date copy that will work with BG:EE2 as well. As with BG:EE I honestly didn't care for the new characters and their content but by all reports they seem to be fully fledged characters on par with some of the better modded characters. If you don't care for them, they can largely just be ignored, but they do provide some extra content. If BG:EE2 is worth it or not depends almost entirely on perferrence. In my opinion it's the best way to enjoy a classic RPG without hassle and modding, while having ongoing patch support.

I see that the game has achievements on Steam. Please add it here. From a developer perspective it's easy to add a very thin layer of abstraction for that. I like the original game, but achivements in EE also make sense and it's importance to more people would play the game more thoroughly