Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

I don't know how the game was when it came out; I only got it just recently. I loved the original Baldur's Gate and played it several times and initially I avoided the Enhanced Edition (EE) like the plague because of the controversy around it. Having played it now (several years after its release) I can say that the game in its current form is pretty good and enjoyable. I didn't notice much in the story / character interactions related to the EE (which is a good thing) and the things I did notice were either welcome changes or I considered them neutral. The local multiplayer is pretty unstable, I had multiple crashes but otherwise the game is good, I'd recommend it. I removed 1 star for the frequent crashes.

It's Baldur's Gate alright. And the graphical improvements are a godsend (yes, I know that the vanilla game has a high resolution mod, but for me at least the EE fix works better. ONCE YOU DISABLE THE UGLY CHARACTER OUTLINES THAT IS). There's also some new content; new classes and such for what I can tell. It's somewhat interesting, but there are mods out there that do the same thing just as well, so this is zero-sum. By the way, while BGtweaks works, many vanilla trilogy mods still don't work. The deal-killer is the price. Spin it any way you like, these improvements are just not worth the money when you can get the original saga for a third of the price. It's still the same game. I only got it because there was a 85% discount. I advise you wait for the same, or a better one.

Once an opinion is canon, no other opinion gets to the surface, but even when I have Baldur's Gate bought several times during my life (two physical, a previous one in GOG) I think this EE totally deserves your investment because it gets rid of so many bugs and glitches and fixes so many broken quests. So. Many. Bugs. I tried to play the original release last year with all the patches and enhancements and the thing crashed, burned and glitched like crazy. Only thing you will miss, and I actually miss, are the EAX enhancements which sounded so great.

While I don't appreciate the removal of the direct purchase of the original version, I have to say that the restoration work is more than good. The "lost" content is quite negligible, the interface improvements all welcome and the additions avoidable if you don't appreciate them. Despite the improvements that have occurred with the post-launch updates there are some things that could have been better tweaked like the balancing of some parts of the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion. In addition, the new Legacy of Bhaal mode is more than playfully difficult at times unnerving due to how unbalanced some fights have been. I liked The Black Pits standalone story, new classes and new options. In particular, the possibility of pressing a key to highlight the elements on the screen with which to interact can be useful. It remains a free choice of the player. The game itself is a very pleasant adventure for low-level heroes. The setting and the rules are quite faithful to the reference Dungeons & Dragons version. While not offering an obvious multitude of approaches, the game is much less limiting than others of the same genre, does not explicit many solutions that it is up to the player to discover and is full of small surprises. Knowing the original rules can help you master it sooner. However, it remains a game that can be played even by those who have never played D&D. For me the greatest value is the atmosphere: music, voices, forest explorations, etc. Recommended above all to fans of the D&D setting and to those looking for a CRPG from a period in which the genre was beginning to be codified as it is seen today in the mainstream which, despite being one of the first to modernize itself, can be fascinating today also precisely for the its older components. Not to be underestimated compared to its more famous sequel.

All Beamdog "Enhanced" editions are garbage. You can't even change the resolution. If you happen to have a 4K screen, the mouse cursor will be tiny. New UI art looks like it has been made by an intern.