Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

While I played and loved this game when it was initially released, nowadays I struggle to see the fun in micro-managing a party of 6 in real-time. I'd rather play a proper turn-based RPG or a more casual real-time game like Dungeon Siege. While beatable solo with extensive grind, a smaller party in BG1 doesn't lend itself well to casual shorter playthroughs. By the time you finish your first main quest, minutes into the game, you already have 3 extra companions pushed into your party too on top of your starting limit of 6. Balance is absolutely intended for full parties, as trying to go smaller will make every battle a life-or-death (most often death) deal, especially given how fragile low-level characters are by official AD&D rules. The tabletop rules were never meant for full-party management: each player creates their own character, with extensive options, abilities, items... to manage. While this can be eased properly into a video game, having it be real-time ends up being the worst of both worlds. A lot of this could perhaps be mitigated by having smaller parties start at level 2 or 3 but alas, that's not a feature in the game or this enhanced edition. Winning a battle in which the odds are against you won't give you enough experience to level up either, even if you do it multiple times in a row or with the fewer units to divide the experience pool with - which means progress is likely to be woefully slow if you're playing casually (such as sticking to the main quest only). Baldur's Gate is a beautiful game and worth getting at 70% off if you're going to explore all of it, read every paragraph of dialogue and micro-manage each party member for literally 90 hours of gameplay (source: How Long To Beat) but if you've been there and done that already or are looking for a good video game rather than a narrative campaign, you can do a whole lot better in 2022.

Baldur's gate is one of my favorite games/series ever and I am very glad the saga lives again! The enhanced edition alone was nice but didn't had much compared to the existing mods. However, the new expansion Siege of Dragonspear is amazing and really make EE worth it. First, let me state that making a new expansion to such an old saga already brings simpathy. The old players such as I will be happy to play again their favorite game and discover a new adventure and the new, younger players will discover the whole amazing saga of BG. The siege of dragonspear adventure is really worth playing, it perfectly fits the story gap between BG1 and BG2, it is more epic than BG1, like BG2 is, but keep the adventure style of it. It is also long enough to be a game in itself. The game very playable, much more than the old BG. The interface has been change, it is fine, however there are new possibilities in term of inventory management that are very welcome (2-weapon wielding and a bow for instance) . A lot of small things have been changed to make the game more playable so that new players are not repulsed by it. I still have to signal a few bugs, nothing really bothering and I am sure it will be fixed soon if it is not already the case in the most recent versions. Slightly bothering are the dialogue boxes where now you often have to scroll down for your answers but it doesn't hurt. Both the little improuvments here and there and the siege of dragonspear expansion makes this game a real and great ENHANCED edition of the old BG, those who like it before will love it and it is much more playable for new players. I hope the game will sell as it deserves it and that many players will discover the joy of it. And for beamdog, good work! I hope they will make a new sequel, or new adventures of this style!

One of the games made purely for players and not for money like most of the games we've seen so far. I grew up playing this game and I was extremely happy that GOG actually offers both parts in their store. And especially this enhanced edition. Grab it and savour it. One of the best RPG sagas ever made that's what Baldur's Gate offers.

An excellent modern revamp on the classic Baldur's Gate. I very much like the tweaks that Beamdog has added, it makes the game much more streamlined than the classic version. If you haven't played the game, it has a relatively steep learning curve, but it's not impossible. The game play itself is easy but unless your'e familiar with AD&D rules 2.0 it will take a bit of manual reading to get an idea of how the stats, attack rolls, and armor class factors in. Otherwise the game plays quite easily from the start as far as controls, but the game play itself can prove quite challenging at low levels. Once you level up to level 3-4 it begins to become a lot more manageable as your party members can become more robust and really carry their weight. It's a true classic, and beamdog did a good job of getting it streamlined. They added some new characters which I was apprehensive at first about, but later found to be decently executed and worthwhile.

I never played this game when I was younger but it was always on my radar. When I saw an enhanced edition, I used that as an excuse to try it. Baldur's gate holds up really well as a game and the enhanced edition makes it a good game in 2017. I know some of the improvements such as quicksave hotkeys, modern journal and zooming. Those made the game playable for me. Would it have been possible with mods? Probably. But I don't really care. This package deal makes the game great for someone who doesn't spend much time figuring out which mods to use, especially not for a new game.