Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

You have to manage your expectations with this Enhanced Edition. A remake on the level of Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII this is not. It seems the developpers took BG2's engine, modified it to run on modern systems with big, wide screens, ported Baldur's Gate 1 assets in it, and added a couple of refinements and some small pieces of content. It's mostly perfunctory and don't enhance, nor worsen the game. Some new pieces of the interface are still unclear, such as choosing a class and sub-class, or that very welcome toggle to always get full dice of HP when levelling up. Its first seem to be tied to difficulty level, only to then be revealed as a gameplay option. There are a few new NPC to show off the new classes. It seems they each have a quest tied to them, something that was only seen in BG 2. CGI cinematics have been replaced with drawings and voice-over, which is probably for the best. Otherwise, it is the very exact same game that was released 20 years ago. I've found back the feeling I then had, from vague explanations on where to go to do the quests leading to lengthy exploration of wild swaths of relatively empty wilderness. It's in a way refreshing. Leveling is still slow and arduous, making for a relatively harsh and frustrating beginnings. The magic system is as weird as it was, being completely unchanged. At its core, the game is utterly unchanged. So any problem in AI, pathfinding, overall writing or pacing you might find was there in 1997. If you don't like them now, you wouldn't have liked them then. If you think that's nonetheless a kind of game you may like, I suggest to turn to Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny or Larian's Divinity Original Sins. Since that's the only official way to enjoy this 1990's classic now, one should make its peace with it, and swallow the price or wait for a sale.

Linux installation does not work straight, you need to install some obsolete libraries, i do not advise doing so. I tried to install with play on linux there in a run error but the game works and you can go until the end. You don't need to install the patches the game is all ready pached. I use linuxmint 20.3, it is based on ubuntu.

Each decision has a later effect. Each menber of your group has its own history, and complex personality. Very smart gameplay. Awesome grown up story that takes their player seriously.

Regardless to what you might think of the original, "Baldur's Gate" deserves its place in history - the game that re-ignited the RPG genre on PC and became the pinnacle against which many games of the genre has been judge was (and still is) a gem to RPG fans. True, first instalment in the series may not have aged particularly well (much like Star Wars its initial success came from the absence of anything like it at the time), it still holds much value as a gaming experience none the less. BG was a party-based RPG where the player created his own character and formed a team with various, recruitable NPCs to uncover a great conspiracy and find his/hers place in the world. The second game improved on nearly all aspects of its predecessor (only some "cosmetics" I find being done poorer in BG2 in comparison), making this series a classic. There is no dening though that, graphic or writing-wise the game has aged. Beamdog made an effort to renew this legendary title, possibly encouraged by the sudden re-emergence of the "old school cRPG" aesthetics such as "Pillars of Eternity" or "Tyranny", to name just a few. Not sure if their goal was actual love for the series or a shameless money grab, but dependable on what you wanna judge, BG:EE is either a "worthy game" or "needless enhancement". The changes to the ACTUAL game are not particularly ground-breaking - Beamdog enhanced the graphics resolution, but that doesn't really help the game any, since they're still just as dated; this is possibly even a bad idea, because the pixels and lack of details from the original are made that much more evident. The User Interface, which most reviewers seem to complain about, is actually THE SAME as in the initial game, so I don't see where this "b***ching" comes from - if you didn't mind it than, you shouldn't mind it now. In fact, so aspects are actually preferable for players like managing your backpack; the inclusion of gem bag, scroll tube and potion bag (which, as I recall, WHEREN'T in the original BG) certainly helps in managing your equipment and loot. Everything else in UI is just as I remember it in the original game and if you're familiar with "old school RPG", you should have no trouble with it. Bigger changes came in the form of gameplay and "story"; first of all Beamdog decided to include ALL character classes in the game - the original BG didn't provide players the chance to select monk, barbarian nor sorceror as their class, which was actually a shame because with BG's level cap Sorceror is so much better than wizard. This also provided a somewhat annoying imbalance when transferring your character to BG2 - if you wanted to play as any of these, 3 classes, they would ALWAYS be one level short compared to others, provided you finished the original game. A little thing, but I certainly like it. Further still, all the class specializations are included in BG:EE too, so your Bard can by a Blade or Tricker from the get go. This I have mixed feelings of, as while I don't particularly mind it, I'm kinds stuck in thinking adding specializations in BG2 (which level cap is MUCH higher than the original) made more sense gameplay-wise. Still, this isn't anything really game-breaking - you don't want to, you don't have to specialize your character now. Another novelty are new, recruitable NPCs that Beamdog provided and these are a mix bag on their own: I really liked Neera and Baeloth - they were just the right level of eccentric to match the cast of the original game (ever-pessimist Xan, a bit childish Imoen, mad Xzar, flirtatous Safana etc.), which made them feel like they actually were NPCs that just didn't make the cut for the original release. Neera is a Wild Mage (a class added in BG2: Throne of Bhaal), who can be annoying, but does grow on you and her wacky behavior and stories really corresponds well with some of the weirder members of the original cast. Similarly Baeloth is so over-the-top ego-centric that he not only makes Edwin work for his money, but even exceeds him and the first time you run into him in BG is pretty funny. He is a Sorceror, so a good boost to magic in an evil party. Sadly, the same praise can't be directed towards Dorn nor Rasaad. Now the latter is fine (lawful good monk) and provides you with insight what playing a monk in BG1 would be like if nothing else. He's a rather passive character by nature, but very by-the-book... but we already had Ajantis for the latter, so there's little outside his character class that would make Rasaad stand out. I take him into team occassionally, but being a low-level monk he just doesn't cut it as the party's tank and thus he is mostly there for "role-playing reasons" than actual usefulness. Dorn is, arguably, the worst in the bunch: not only is his presentation not consistent (he claims he needs Gorion's Ward to talk to people, despite the fact he has one of the highest Charisma score within the game), but over-the-top and not in a fun way. For a, supposedly, extremely deadly fighter, he is no better than virtually any other NPC who is adept in meele and he is just so drastically evil that it hurts. Now Edwin is evil and annoying, but at least his comments tend to be funny... Xzar is no saint, but his madness adds a fun spin on the character... Montaron doesn't hide his love for stabbing stuff, his distaste for authority is a bonus... with Dorn you're just constantly informed that Dorn likes bloodshed and there's just nothing more. Considering new NPCs strike conversations with Gorion's Ward in the vein BG2 does with its NPCs, a character that only wants to remind you that he kills stuff is just boring. Another thing is that these characters (most of them anyway) have personal quests, again like in BG2... and, again, it's a mix bag. Dorn's the most uninspired as you simply travel around the area to kill people no more or less virtuos than him (to make it worse, you can't even complete this quest until chapter V). Rasaad's fairs a bit better, adding a new area to the game; the quest can being in chapter V only and takes you to a hidden temple. The enviroment is pretty, but aside from that there's little to praise: the enemies are fairly easy to defeat by this point in the game (they're roughly as powerful as Rasaad, so at best they're glass cannons) and the story is rather predictable. But hey, Beamdog gets a high score for effort here. Neera's quest is probably the most entertaining, allowing you to either slaughter everything in your path or actually take a more diplomatic approach. Much like Neera's character itself, the plot is a rather wacky one and can be funny at time, though the new area it takes place in is not as interesting as Rasaad's. Basically the new NPCs are okay - Dorn aside they don't really leave a negative note and it is a new area of the game to explore for those that played BG many times already. Beamdog also substituted the original's FMV with more "comic-like movies"... you may like the change or you may not; to me it doesn't effect the enjoyment of the game nor story at all, so it's okay. In some cases, they look better than original, so... Overall I would say that BG:EE is okay. If you never played "Baldur's Gate", Enhanced Edition is a good place to start as it's very much the same as the original and the original, even today, is still a pretty good RPG. But if you're a long-time BG fan, than this edition has little to offer you: 4 new NPCs, not all of them in the spirit of the original, just a few new locations and some changes to the quests (for example, now when recruiting Kivan, you need to find the Bandit's Camp fast, otherwise he will simply leave the party permamently). Some of the changes are good, other are needless, so paying THIS much for a game you probably have is not that tempting in my opinion.

I grew up playing both BG1 and BG2. This game certainly brought back some great memories. I highly recommend both of them.