Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

I own every hard copies of BG+ extension, Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2. I have played those games for thousands of hours combined. I got baited by a good bundle price. I was happy to being able to install these games on any machines without suffering a CD-Rom installation. So I jumped on the bundle. BG 1 does not have the original cutscenes, the intro and the menus are a mockery of design standards. The menu is horrible and useless. The screens grabs and video of gameplay on the product page are from the original version, not the "enhanced" version. Yes, that is false advertisement. NWN and 2 have no enhancements whatsoever. Same bugs and same Ui problems from 20 years ago. If I wanted or even needed extra Shaders in my scenes, I would have helped myself. These "Enhanced Editions" are a marketing travesty. Stay away from Beamdog's production.

This version has replaced the classic game - courtesy of Beamdog not wanting any competition for their EE version. I would have been kind of ok with it if the EE version had been any good. Sadly it isn't. Horrible cartoony sprites, a myriad of bugs, and some really intrusive and obnoxious new NPCs added to the game. I know the sprite outline can be switched off, but the alternative sprites still look worse than in the original. The UI has been remade into something barely resembling BG at all, as well. Thanks, Beamdog.

You'd be better off saving your money and getting the original versions and installing all the mods. With the mods you can play Baldurs Gate 1 in the Baldurs Gate 2 version of the engine with all it's improvements plus you can also make BG1, BG2 and the Throne of Baal one seamless game. Plus it's got all the graphical enhancements, widescreen mods, UI fixes, missing quests, community bug fixes etc etc. Basically the enhanced edition is pretty pointless and it's not as good as a fully modded version of BG1/2 so why bother :)

You can find the cd-key under "more" and redeem the original version. Den CD-Key für die Originalversion findet man unter "mehr" und dann einfach Spiel einlösen.

In case you're wondering why this release has such a low score, well imagine this. You've heard they're remastering Baldur's Gate. You've eagerly awaited this moment and are now among the first to install it. But gasp! What you discover is that not only did Beamdog include new companions that stick out like a sore thumb (and deffo not only because of their voiced dialogue), but also Minsc's lines have been altered to include some jarring political reference now. You realize this is nothing more than a re-release of the basegame but with stuff thrown in that you never asked for, or needed, or wanted. It's a thorn in the game's side and you feel it damages the integrity of this beloved classic. Ofcourse then, as a Baldur's Gate fan, you're gonna be pissed off. Even the 1080p thing is mostly moot because the game still runs at the same sharpness, it's just that you can zoom out a bit more. When you lower the camera to respective levels, It still looks basically the same as the 1998 version did. So what does this mean for someone who's a bit more at a distance? Well, luckily you don't even have to touch the new companions with a ten foot pole, and the Minsc thing has been walked back. What you're left with is actually a quite well done re-release with much appreciated bugfixes and quality-of-life improvements. It's not a remaster by any means, but that's probably for the best, anyway. I will be short about Baldur's Gate itself. There's so much that's great about it that going through all the superlative stuff is just cheesy at this point; it's all been said over the course of twenty-plus years. Instead, just go play it and see what you can take away from the experience. You'll probably start off not seeing what all the fuss is about, and be hooked come the third chapter.