Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear

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2.6/5

( 296 Reviews )

2.6

296 Reviews

English & 6 more

Posted on: April 13, 2017

rationary

Games: 147 Reviews: 3

Almost perfect

Playing this for the second time around now and it's amazing to get that proper Baldurs Gate feeling that I grew up with! Good story, really great music (!) and sooo nice with clearer, crisper graphics and a better UI. Looking at this game with the improved graphics it really looks so much better than the original (with the sprite outlines turned off, mark me.) This game is true to the original games' style in the way the characters, dungeons and quests feel, but it's a bit more focused. This focus, while overall making the game better (quests and story line) is also what is stopping me from giving a 6 star review. The one thing I truly missed was the exploration of large areas and cities (like Baldurs Gate and Amn). This leaves the player investigating smaller areas, that though excelent, lack the grandness of the original games. But this game and enjoy it!

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Posted on: December 31, 2022

SpaceJaws

Games: 144 Reviews: 1

Fantastic side story

I really cannoy get behind the majority of critisms here. As someone who has been playing the Baldurs Gate almost ever year since release jave a new entry after so long was a dream come true. The expasion we got was more in line with a full fledged game than an expansion, and threw in enough new quirks and approaches to the Infinity Engine to make it seem more than just a fan project. The large scale battles and tweaked AI make it a .ore challenging game than the series, and it's approaches to some quests work the engine in new ways. The format itself is a shake up, an onward march that doesn't allow for revisitng areas. The new companions are fantastic and I really wish we could have brought them into BG2, along with returning characters and even returning aoice actors which is a testament to the efforts the team obviously looked at to try an recalture the original. The narrative itself is morality tale involving a Crusade and it's motives behind it, both personal and political which I think does a great job of uping the ante, without imposing too much on BG2. It's a tough line to meet when bridging the two games as to how much you can expose the player to and in my personal opinion I think it works best when revisited after the end of Baldurs Gate 2, as a way to be reuninited with the characters before the chaos kicks off in Baldurs Gate 2 in somewhat happier times. The writing itself I think is clear improvement from Beamdogs previous attempts which continually got better and better and as much as there is valid criticism and room for improvement, the sheer majority and scale that people have been outraged by it over the years reminds me very much of The Last of Us 2 reactions where ignorance and bigotry is being masked as legitimate critical analysis and it pains me because SoD, if you look pasts it's faults and see it's strengths and how well it does try to capture the Baldurs Gate spirit is pretty fantastic.

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Posted on: December 17, 2016

janttlo

Games: 0 Reviews: 2

Lack of professionalism undermines SoD

SoD is a good game particularly if you are a fan of the original games. The writing while in the style of the original (including Beamdogs content in BG1&2) is not the same quality if you were to compare it side by side next to the original BG2. Noticeable things such as the level and variety of vocabulary used and intellectual wit has been downgraded. The dialogue choices are simplistic evil or good etc. rather than the morally challenging ambiguous choices in a game such as the masterpiece that is Witcher 3. The writing while not bad in SoD lacks a certain sophistication. The story plot is adequate until the whole Skie fiasco at the end. There are many loose ends that could potentially provide new interesting content within BG2, but it is difficult to see what will happen now. I did encounter a few bugs with the Dusty Chicken and Rhino Beetle not triggering and one crash I still find the new party NPCs (except for Corwin) to be poorly written, weak and completely unnecessary additions. For the most part I like the new dialogue for the original NPCs. When it comes to NPCs it should be quality not quantity. As many others, have commented here on GoG and elsewhere, it is difficult to dissociate the lack of respect to fans shown by some individuals at Beamdog from the gaming experience. Whether this was insulting, trolling, censoring, banning fans, deleting accounts, spreading lies etc. on their forum. It was basically juvenile and unprofessional. Its rather like going to a restaurant, enjoying the food but on your way out, the waiter spits in your face for some unknown reason, just ruins the whole experience, no matter if you liked the food in the first place.

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Posted on: September 1, 2023

SimonThSorcerer

Verified owner

Games: 198 Reviews: 4

I like it

Don't pay attention to the negative reviews of people, who are not verified owners! I'm a verified owner and I like it, by supporting DLCs for old classics like BG2 you support new content for these fantastic games, which you absolutely should! If you want new content for them that is. Not as good as the original, but a welcome addition and new content, I will definitely buy any future DLCs, they can be sure of it, and disregard people who hate on DLCs, because they are DLCs. This DLC has been review bombed, a more realistic rating should be 3.5 instead of the current 2.5! I enjoyed it, and I'm looking for more (+ I like the new characters they added to the main game as well), works with most Enhanced edition-compatible mods as well, tested with using 50+ BG2 mods.

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Posted on: December 29, 2021

topgwim

Verified owner

Games: 184 Reviews: 13

Wasted potential

I'm not a shill or a blind supporter who's going to defend this trainwreck, but with that said I do think that Beamdog could have been saved from this fiasco had they adopted a different storyline. Forget Baldurs Gate, and forget it's established characters and stories; focus 100% on being a nameless adventurer who got captured by a powerful Drow sorcerer who has taken you into the Underdark where you - after defeating him, try to escape as a powerful Drow house in tandem with other dangerous Underdark elements are trying to hunt you down. There. Interesting story, decent premise and it doesn't ruin any of the established lore and on top of that even gives potential for Beamdog to hide it's obvious bad writing. I mean lets face it, whoever wrote BG1 and BG2 was a Shakespeare in comparison to Beamdogs toddler "I'm gonna make it so AWSUM" Michael Bay reject who drank a bit too much of the dominant coolaid narrative of that timeline. TL:DR: Black Pits should have been a longer storyline about nameless adventurers escaping underdark. This would have "saved" the company, but they were too arrogant. But then again, had they actually done SoD well we would have had BG3 delivered by Beamdog so I'm grateful that it did not happen anyway. I'll take Divinity Original "Baldurs Gate" 3 any time of the day over anything Beamdog can come up with. As for the game itself, there's not much to say beyond what others have already pointed out. It's alright in some places where there's very little story like Temple of Cyric which was a highlight for me, but the rest is so bad that you kinda can't go over the lowest rating. Bad story in your face preachy dialogue, little potential for roleplay, reused assets from Icewind Dale including it's final boss, linear gameplay that offers little freedom and overpowered items that are in many cases even better than some BG2 items.

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