Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear

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2.6/5

( 299 Reviews )

2.6

299 Reviews

English & 6 more

Posted on: November 3, 2016

archy2

Verified owner

Games: 93 Reviews: 3

Fun dungeon-crawling, immature writing

GOOD: - Some really fun dungeon-crawling side quests, with interesting puzzles/secrets and foes. - New loot and store items are worthwhile and fit in well with the original ones. - Some battles involving whole armies, as never seen before in the Infinity Engine. Hurling fireballs and insect swarms has never been so satisfying! :D - New NPC lines from some of the original voice actors. How cool is that? - Beautiful new environment graphics. - Some very welcome UI changes (e.g. switching between a two-handed weapon and sword+shield no longer requires a zillion clicks!) BAD: - Main story line feels forced and suffers from plot holes. - Some questionable UI changes (e.g. confusing quest journal). - Many bugs at release (but most are fixed by patches now). - Some annoying fanfic-level writing, which expresses itself in: 1) Too flawless central characters [Mary Sue trope], 2) too much use of modern-day American colloquialisms that feel out of place in medieval fantasy, 3) too many attempts at popculture references, 4) some political soapboxing. POLITICS The Elephant in the room. First off: All the 1-star reviews that rage against "Social justice shoved down your throat!!!11" are being silly. The main plot and most side quests are innocuous heroic fantasy. But those who try to brush off all criticism as "Bigots scared by two lines of an LGBT character!!!11" are also disingenuous. There are a few moments scattered throughout the game that were cringe-worthy because the writers couldn't leave their middleclass-leftist politics out of it. Like the railroaded side-quests regarding the refugee crisis. Or the in-your-face reminders to treat the feminist self-insert char as a Strong Independent Woman™. Or the time an NPC literally calls you "racist" if you choose the 'wrong' option. But those are far and in between, and I just rolled my eyes and moved on. I think it's a symptom of immature writers, not a conspiracy to brainwash gamers.

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Posted on: March 10, 2018

diegosr

Verified owner

Games: 63 Reviews: 1

Get over it

I am a big BG fan. I played it the first time in 2001 or so and I was conquered. I play the full saga at least one time every year since. And I am deeply sorry but the first expansion of BG I was terrible. It was a poor hack & slash. Munch worst that this extension. First, the graphics: there are Ok. Not good, not bad, just ok. Lack the charm of the original, not hand painted, but still in the same spirit. The interface makes thing easy. Go and install the BG I with the original CD and you'll see how hard it is to go around. Second the writing: quite enjoyable. I am no leftist (quite the contrary) and I don't see anything like a forced SJW social comment. Must be an American thing to see bolshevik everywhere. Third: the story. Hey, its classic D&D stuff. A good little campaign, with some original stuff and a good twist. Four: the price: 24$ it's a bit much but you are on GOG. Just wait for a good time and you'll get it for half the price. Come on, the first BG I expension was the same price 20 years ago and it was merely and hack & slash. In the end, I enjoyed myself. It answered an old question: what happened in between the BG I and BG II. Ok, it's not Black Isle studio and it doesn't have this magic touch. Still, it's good. All the bad press his nostalgia or politic crap. It was made by a modern studio with modern standards. Get over it.

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Posted on: March 19, 2017

Lysandus_

Verified owner

Games: 478 Reviews: 1

Painfully underrated

It pains me that this game has such a low sore on this site and others, as it truly is a very well made game, with good story and good writing. I get that there were quite a few bugs on release, and ideed i stumbled upon a few minor ones even almost a year later, after repeated patching. The ending is pretty abrupt and not quite fulfilling as well. But aside from those two things, there is nothing i can objectively hold against the game. All the SJW scandal that errupted around it is a complete non-issue. It's such a minor detail, that it's not even worth considering. On the contrary, i did find the commentary on current events quite well integrated. The whole plot about Baldur's Gate being invaded by refugees,and all the stories that stem from it,really got me thinking about problems in the real world. And i find that to be a good thing. That's what good fantasy storytelling does: it takes real world, and real life themes and puts them in a fictional setting, in order to provoke thought. The characters, for the most part, are well written and fleshed out as well. I'm starting to wonder if all the people that complain about the poor story and characters, actually remember the original Baldur's gate as it was. Having played SoD right after replaying the original, i did find it is quite a step up story and character-wise from it's predecessor. It's much more tight, more complex, and indeed, more thought provoking that the first game. The bigger scope and set-pieces, such as the sight of Baldur's Gate city swamped by refugees, and the titular siege were quite impressive. So, in conclusion, i must say i am thankful i decided to ignore all the negativity around it, and try it out. I do confess that the 5 star rating is a bit much, as it is not a perfect game. Realistically i would have given it something like 4/5. But i did feel the game and developer needed all the support i can give. They have done a really good job, and i found all the negativity extremely unfair.

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Posted on: December 4, 2016

triofish1

Games: 0 Reviews: 1

Amateruish Writing & Unnecessary Additions

This game is severely undermined by amateurish writing and unnecessary additions. Many of the decisions Beamdog took with party NPCs were difficult to understand but given what happened in BGEE & BG2EE, my expectations were already very low. The bad simply outweighs the good by a considerable margin. Also there are too many bugs on release for a game of this size which is completely linear in scope. Given how some Beamdog contractors insulted fans of the original, begged for good reviews, and banned individuals giving valid criticism of their games (this also happened with BGEE / BG2EE) the lack of quality writing in Dragonspear was to be expected. Poor writing was magnified this time because for contractual reasons, Beamdog were not allowed to modify the contents of BG1 & 2 too much and with Dragonspear they could do whatever they want, and it shows. I am not entirely sure what purpose Dragonspear serves, because it does not bridge the gap between BG1 & 2 in a satisfactory manner. A lot of questions remain unanswered, for instance will the new NPCs appear in BG2 now? Judging by how some individuals at Beamdog conducted themselves in a supercilious manner, one would think their intention through the writing was to deliberately antagonize the demographic of the original games to garner media attention? Given the flaws of this game, BGEE and BGEE2, Beamdogs community manager, and some writers, are clearly out of their depth and have no business tinkering with an established IP, particularly one which was once held in such high regards amongst RPG enthusiasts. Getting their hands on the Baldur's Gate IP, and moderating an online forum evidently led some individuals to develop a false sense of grandiosity, whose professional and intellectual limitations were exposed when dealing with the negative reception to Dragonspear. In terms of positives, I suppose one of the few redeeming features of the game was Caelar Argent, as it is good to see a strong female antagonist (for comparison Mellisan or her real name Amelyssan the Blackhearted from Throne of Bhaal, had little impact) but again her involvement was not without flaws due to the lackluster writing. Overall it is a shame I have to write a review of this nature for a series I held so much affection for back in the day. Too many fans of the original Baldur's Gate essentially received the proverbial middle finger from Beamdog over the past 4 years through the Enhanced Editions and Dragonspear.

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Posted on: March 2, 2020

pedrodude

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 2

Solid expansion

As a player of the originals, I was mainly concerned with how well this expansion fit and felt like it deserved to stand beside them. Was a bit cagey due to it being a new developer so I bought it on sale. TL;DR In my opinion it feels slightly different (only in a bad way with one or two areas) but it's a solid effort. The story is decent and, although the writing that ties in to SoA leans slightly towards the cheesy side for my taste, it fits in well enough between BG1 and 2 that I'm happy to accept it as canon. The Infinity engine has given a bit of a revamp and the large battles and crowd scenes are impressive and add a lot to the atmosphere. The new characters are interesting and the voice acting is good. The returning characters (and returning voice actors) are great, with the exception of Safana sounding a little jarringly off to me. The interface tweaks are mostly good. I felt the new icons were unnecessary and I have no idea what happened with the journal, it's far less intuitive now. Some of the new items are lacklustre, powerful weaponry seems more abundant and less interesting as a result. Spoilers (maybe?): Caelar is a great antagonist. Would love to have heard some more about her. The story was interesting but felt slightly under-developed. As did Haephernaan's story - his whole thing was a bit under-whelming despite being very important to the story. The large battles, particularly the final one, were a little tricky because of the lack of opportunities to rest, and that felt like it unnecessarily added to the difficulty. Coupled with the trickiness of maintaining a healer as a good party. I feel bloated from all of the potions of healing I had to drink during that bit. All in all, glad I bought it, was fun to play and happy with how the story fit. Can't really ask for much more.

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