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General discussionLooking back at Baldur’s Gate II as it celebrates its 20th anniversary(23 posts)(23 posts)
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Posted September 21, 2020
There are some things that just go well together. Peanut butter and jelly, Tom and Jerry, bacon and egg, and video games and Dungeons & Dragons. While both video games and tabletop Dungeons & Dragons are amazing on their own, the two work perfectly together.

The Baldur’s Gate series is one such example. The first one was a masterpiece and then, somehow, Baldur’s Gate II managed to be even better. With the second title in the series celebrating its 20th anniversary and Baldur's Gate 3 releasing as Game In Development in just a couple of days, we thought it was the perfect time to look back at this timeless classic.

We’ll look back at the story, the gameplay, and how these things came together to make a video game that is as good today as it was 20 years ago.



The story of Baldur’s Gate II
If you like grand adventures, then this game is for you. Set in the medieval Forgotten Realms of Dungeons & Dragons fame, Baldur’s Gate II continues the story of the first game. You find yourself locked in a cage and, with the help of some new friends, you are eventually set free.

Both your savior and torturer are eventually arrested for the unauthorized use of magic and that’s where the game really begins. You’ll have to use all of your wits to get to the island where both people are held, and you’ll be presented with plenty of options on how to complete your task.

Those choices have consequences, and outcomes will change depending on what you choose. Will you choose to be more confrontational or will you try to talk your way out of altercations? Sometimes friendly conversations eventually end in fighting if you say the wrong things, so choose wisely!

You’ll meet plenty of unique characters along your journey and if you are worried about this being a short game, have no fear. If you spend time in the world and complete most of the sidequests, you’re looking at a 200-hour gaming experience!



The gameplay of Baldur’s Gate II
While a solid story can solidify a game’s experience, having tight, exciting gameplay can simply take it to the next level and Baldur’s Gate II delivers.

When you’re not making choices with NPCs, you’ll be leading a team of up to six adventures through epic fights. The game is presented in isometric view so you always have a bird’s eye view of the battle, and this will come in handy.

That’s because, while the game is played in real-time, you can pause the action at your leisure to hopefully set up some strategic attacks. For each player in your party, you can assign different actions and movements, letting you execute flawless flanks and absolute domination.

Because this is set in the D&D world, you also get access to a bunch of unique classes to explore and master. These include fighter, ranger, paladin, thief, bard, mage, cleric, druid, barbarian, monk, or sorcerer. Personally, I’m a fan of the paladin class, but every player is unique, much like the classes.



The making of Baldur’s Gate II
Developed by Bioware and published by Black Isle Studios, would you believe that the team only started production on the game in January 1999? That means this epic title was completed in approximately a year and a half, as it was released on September 21, 2000!

Part of what made this possible was reusing the same engine from the first game, which helped cut down on time. But don’t let that fool you, the engine still received plenty of improvements to go along with the sequel to the hit isometric RPG.

One of the goals of the team was to improve on as many elements of the original as possible, and they succeeded. Each department had a list of goals and improvements and most of them made it to the final game.

The end result was a smashing success, both in terms of sales and accolades. It received many RPG Game of the Year awards and more recently, various outlets and reviewers have listed it among the best RPGs of all time.



Enhanced Edition
Since the game’s original release, Baldur’s Gate II has seen two awesome expansions, Throne of Bhaal and The Black Pits 2: Gladiators of Thay, which extends the world of Baldur’s Gate II even further. And we can’t forget to mention Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, which not only includes both of those expansions but also adds new companions, improved area artwork, interface updates, widescreen compatibility, and more. On GOG.COM it comes together with the classic version of the game packed as a bonus goodie.

What are some of your favorite memories from Baldur’s Gate II? Do you plan on revisiting it (or diving in for the first time)? Let us know down in the comments!
Posted September 22, 2020
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Ajaarg: Baldur's Gate 2 has only one expansion, throne of bhaal. The "enhanced" edition has one additional expansion.
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EchoOfMidgar: Is The Black Pits 2: Gladiators of Thay good?
Well maybe if you enjoyed the black pits expansion from the first game " baldurs gate 1 " ;)

it is a continuation, and yea it is a great way to try out all kinds of characters to see how they can behave combat wise

if you search on youtube you can find all kinds of run, even a bunch of older drunken americans who go at it with 4 .. at 4 .. in the morning and tape their escapades
Posted September 22, 2020
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nightcraw1er.488: Yes Indeed, as I mentioned above they crammed in some political agendas, ruined the flow and the balance of the game with them, added a load of bugs and then went on holiday. Just the same as KoA.
But you keep defending paying through the nose for the same thing over and over, the saying is a fool and his money are soon parted.
Yep. Keep bashing remasters you have never played.
Posted September 22, 2020
I play through the whole series every year with a new character setup. It feels like I always experience something new every time I play the games. Some new item that I've never seen before (or may have forgotten about) and some new spell combo that is more awesome than fireball + cloudkill etc...I totally love these games and has played BG for 22 years by now, every single year. And the Enhanced edtions were just what I needed to keep on playing the games. Also the new expansion that was very welcome.
I so much wish they could keep adding stuff to the enhanced edition. Like one new NPC or Area or Quest or Character or item every year. As long as they just update the content a little little bit, it would make me play the games until I die. I will probably do that anyways, but just something extra stuff to discover every session I play it.
I never want to over-do the game, I always pretend it's the first time I play the game and I don't want to read about what is the best combo of everything etc. I want to try everything like I was a n00b.
Post edited September 22, 2020 by Yffisch
Posted September 22, 2020
I love this game so much, happy 20th anniversary! :)
Posted September 22, 2020
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nightcraw1er.488: Yes Indeed, as I mentioned above they crammed in some political agendas, ruined the flow and the balance of the game with them, added a load of bugs and then went on holiday. Just the same as KoA.
But you keep defending paying through the nose for the same thing over and over, the saying is a fool and his money are soon parted.
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paladin181: Yep. Keep bashing remasters you have never played.
I will indeed keep bashing developers, and the industry wide plague of remaster money grabbers who emerged from it, who shamelessly profiteer on doing nothing.
Posted September 22, 2020
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nightcraw1er.488: I will indeed keep bashing developers, and the industry wide plague of remaster money grabbers who emerged from it, who shamelessly profiteer on doing nothing.
And they didn't do "nothing". I've played both the originals and remasters, in many cases in parallel to contrast and compare changes. They are far more wide spread than you're trying to intimate because you dislike the people trying to make a thing better. They didn't succeed in making everything better, obviously. The actual results of some of that work isn't even the question here. It's the false premise that they did nothing. They did a lot of work in many cases to integrate changes the community made in mods (though not usually using the same often piecemeal techniques, just because something has a similar result doesn't mean it has the same or even a similar process), but also changing how the games work under the hood to have better optimization and work more fluidly with less overhead, often times making the end result even more mod friendly in the future.

To reiterate: Not everything translates in tangible screenshots.

As far as Beamdog goes, I think after the debacle of the changes made in the first BG, they learned the lesson of messing with the content too much beyond a facelift or mechanical improvements when people lashed back exceptionally hard (and rightfully so) about them changing story elements and adding in poorly written characters to an existing well-loved game. Their treatment of BGII, PS, NWN, and ID kind of showed that they learned to keep their noses out of the story and character content. So you'll complain about them improving (mostly at least) games and call it doing nothing, and also complain when they change story elements and do something. Seems like you just don't like Beamdog in general because of the bad taste of that first BG and SoD (which were both admittedly badly handled). They also didn't just take a vacation and rake in the cash: They've been constantly updating and fixing BG, BGII, PS,and ID (all the same engine, so that's not as big a deal) as well as NWN since release, squashing bugs and editing features to work better where they failed to improve things mechanically.

But nope, just a plain old no work cash grab, huh? I know you'll answer with "nuh-uh, they suck" and that's fine. I just dislike it when people try to dissuade potential customers from buying a thing because they disagree that there was anything wrong with the game that got upgraded. I want people to have the actual facts instead of the twisted narrative that you love to throw out, which is a shame. We agree on so much on these forums. You're a generally helpful guy. No disrespect for you personally, man, we just really disagree about this.
Post edited September 22, 2020 by paladin181
Posted September 22, 2020
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nightcraw1er.488: I will indeed keep bashing developers, and the industry wide plague of remaster money grabbers who emerged from it, who shamelessly profiteer on doing nothing.
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paladin181: And they didn't do "nothing". I've played both the originals and remasters, in many cases in parallel to contrast and compare changes. They are far more wide spread than you're trying to intimate because you dislike the people trying to make a thing better. They didn't succeed in making everything better, obviously. The actual results of some of that work isn't even the question here. It's the false premise that they did nothing. They did a lot of work in many cases to integrate changes the community made in mods (though not usually using the same often piecemeal techniques, just because something has a similar result doesn't mean it has the same or even a similar process), but also changing how the games work under the hood to have better optimization and work more fluidly with less overhead, often times making the end result even more mod friendly in the future.

To reiterate: Not everything translates in tangible screenshots.

As far as Beamdog goes, I think after the debacle of the changes made in the first BG, they learned the lesson of messing with the content too much beyond a facelift or mechanical improvements when people lashed back exceptionally hard (and rightfully so) about them changing story elements and adding in poorly written characters to an existing well-loved game. Their treatment of BGII, PS, NWN, and ID kind of showed that they learned to keep their noses out of the story and character content. So you'll complain about them improving (mostly at least) games and call it doing nothing, and also complain when they change story elements and do something. Seems like you just don't like Beamdog in general because of the bad taste of that first BG and SoD (which were both admittedly badly handled). They also didn't just take a vacation and rake in the cash: They've been constantly updating and fixing BG, BGII, PS,and ID (all the same engine, so that's not as big a deal) as well as NWN since release, squashing bugs and editing features to work better where they failed to improve things mechanically.

But nope, just a plain old no work cash grab, huh? I know you'll answer with "nuh-uh, they suck" and that's fine. I just dislike it when people try to dissuade potential customers from buying a thing because they disagree that there was anything wrong with the game that got upgraded. I want people to have the actual facts instead of the twisted narrative that you love to throw out, which is a shame. We agree on so much on these forums. You're a generally helpful guy. No disrespect for you personally, man, we just really disagree about this.
And you appear to be blinded to those things that made the BG releases so bad. The extra bugs, maybe they have gone some way to address them, need not have happened in the first place. Fixed the old version, so there was a patch to add more cores, should have been a free patch to the main game. Update to characters personalities, why should we accept them trying to reinvent these in their new political stance? Additions to the game, the game was complete original, the full adventure, there is no room to squeeze some dodgy extra PC content, likely unbalancing a finely balanced game originally. Then there is breaking the 10 years worth of mods which had built up, sure quite a lot of moderate have gone back and tried to update , but a fair few have still gone.
The only things they have done have made the games worse.
And I am only talking about BG here as that’s the thread title, can’t talk on the others.
So if they are so invested in the fans why did they not push out a patch to fix the technical aspects (which I keep being told about) rather than removing the original al and forcing a new, more expensive version?
Also, why have they not updated icewind dale 2? No source code, yeah my shiny arse, too much effort.
No I am afraid they have ruined BG for me and proliferated the money grab industry we now see before us.

(None taken by the way, no one agrees on everything all the time.)
Posted October 27, 2020
One of the best RPGs out there. I played it multiple times, including a solo (no party) playthrough on insane difficulty. This game does not have any weak points (unless you hate reading, because it is not fully voiced). The story is good, gameplay is good, graphics still hold up, music is awesome.

I recommend enhanced edition, if only for instant loading times.

Larian has some big shoes to fill here with BG3. No pressure. ;)
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Community
General discussionLooking back at Baldur’s Gate II as it celebrates its 20th anniversary(23 posts)(23 posts)
(23 posts)