Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

I can't say enough good about this, even though it's old its still supper fun to play. Some might have issues with the D&D 2nd edition rules (which i cut my teeth on), but aside from character creation it should not hinder anyone.

I don't understand all the bashing on Beamdog here. This game is freaking fantastic, and looks amazing on widescreen displays, with the full 16:9 aspect ratio that wasn't there in the old days of the CRT monitor. It's not just the presentation, but it blends in just the perfect amount of fantasy, and reality. I'm a JRPG person, and I am extremely, extremely impressed by this endeavor. This game reminds me a lot of Legend of Dragoon, with the balance of seriousness in combat, and comic relief in dialogue. The voice acting is super top-notch, and the characters actually have life to them, especially Neera, who had a very similar demeanor to Meru, and the voice acting on her sounds like something I'd hear in a big-budget production film. The soundtrack is pretty good, may I add! The addition of story mode is an extremely welcome addition to folks such as I, who just want to enjoy the game, but slay things at the same time without a hitch. So far, I'm not seeing any glitches, or bugs that unfortunately plague many PC games. I thought a game rated 4.1/5, Kingdom Come: Deliverance would be a great game from just the ratings alone, but after seeing that it contained bugs, and had a lot of extra annoyances with all the different negative stats plastered onto it in an attempt to be realistic, this is an incredible relief. I see why people love Baldur's Gate. I originally bought this on a sale a long time ago, and when I saw the reviews trashing Beamdog, I didn't give it a real try, and fast-forward to today, and I finally gave it a shot. I am quite impressed. A far, far cry from the 3.7 average I'm seeing here. Personally, I give this game a 4.45/5 stars. It is a classic that I recommend to any RPG fan. Once you get used to the isometric point-and-click nature of this game, it has plenty to offer. Overall, the story is original, and well-written, characters have special charm to them, and the voice acting was especially well-done. The game speaks for itself, play it!

This game is now much better than the original, modding included. I have played both many, many times, and modded both, and I must say that using the EE starts you off with the best foundation, and in conjunction with the Big World Mod, you get everything, and nows so simple to have it modded. The Big World Mod auto installs most mods available, has all the latest patches, updates, and makes sure they work seamlessly together. This all works with the latest patch, and the has an active community of updates. The problem I had with modding the original Baldur's Gate, is that you always had to run around getting new updates, and one incompatible mod that clashed with another mod, would ruin your game entirely, and you would have to re-install and start all over again, being super careful of what mods would glitch out, or completely stop your game. It was a massive amount of time wasted. EE at least starts you off with widescreen, relative combat info, zooming function, easier UI functionality etc. You now only need to download the Big World Mod to have them all, and it makes sure that they all work seamlessly together, so they don't clash- this alone is a life saver. You also don't need BG2EE to run this mod, and can just start with this game first if you want. This is the first time playing, where I have zero glitches, it's modded to the teeth, and the game runs 100% smoothly. There has never been a better time to play Baldur's Gate, and it rivals, if not exceeds Pathfinder: Kingmaker, POE etc.

My first experience playing Baldur's Gate was from a multi-disc folio in 1999. I revisited the EE version in early 2020, and it has come a long way. I love turn-based RPGs with an emphasis on story. Baldur's Gate gave that, and I remembered it fondly, but never fondly enough to play the sequel. With EE, though, came Siege of Dragonspear. Oft-maligned, SoD adds a few things that finally made me start playing the sequel. First, it bridges the gap. When SoD ends, you are thirsty to find out what happens next. It not only resolves the story from BG1, but it makes the gear-erasing opening scenes of BG2 palatable by making them part of the story. Another thing SoD and EE bring to the mix is fresh new NPCs. I never cared for Minsc. But with Khalid and Jaheira, I was left to fill out my party with someone I just didn't want. EE gave me plenty of heroic options that brought a wealth of story. SoD scattered them to the four winds and made me hunt them back again, but I DID get them back; I still felt like I was playing "my group" by the end. SoD also gives an epic conclusion to the story of BG1. There's nothing wrong with the end of BG1, but the finale we get in SoD is epic by comparison. As a lifelong DM, it's the ending I would give my tenth-level party. Players may be nervous that there's been a lot of talk about a single transgender NPC. Take this: I read six paragraphs of a dwarf talking about how he needs new boots or he's just sure he'll die in his next fight. Then I read three paragraphs of a woman explaining how meaningful it was that I returned something to her. Both were explanations of the McGuffin hunt that I had just completed. Both were as meaningful to the story. The only way to be offended is to be offended that this NPC simply exists. The fact that mere existence was offensive to so many is the real story. For twenty years I went without playing BG2. Because of EE, I have begun and already progressed into the second chapter...and I have zero regrets.

I don't get the hate. As a veteran of BG and BG2 myself I was honestly surprised at how decent this version is. Running BG on anything more recent than an early 2000's computer required a bunch of mods and tweaks and the result was a playable but somewhat unstable experience (BGTutu and Nvidia degreenifier? No thanks). Yes, the mods were free, and their significance has never been played down by the community. The Enhanced Edition however does more than just package a bunch of "free" mods together: as of this review, this is arguably the best BG & Tales of the Sword Coast experience available. It is smooth, it is sleek, it is stable. Yes, they changed the UI, tweaked some rules, added a bunch of nonsense companions and some new locations. Who cares? Just ignore them! The graphics can be zoomed to look as small or big as you want, and the game looks fantastic even on high resolutions and ultrawide screens. NPCs come pre-scripted to attack and use spells and abilities automatically, but this can be easily customized or turned off (this is why they "cast spells", they are not ignoring commands!). Even as a long time fan I have to admit that at least for modern systems, this is the best BG1 & TotSC experience available despite the changes, and it runs flawlessly in both Linux and Windows. The additions are crappy and should be ignored, but the core game is still as relevant as it was back then. Considering that people still pay $60 for generic 10 hour games I don't think $20 for this is bad, but if you see it on sale it is a no brainer.