Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

I first played the original BG in 2006, obviously as laptops and operating systems have developed, I was unable to play the PC version any more and so was delighted to find it available on GOG. Even nearly 20 years on, it's still really engaging. There are so many character combinations , which in some circumstances drive the quests, that you don't get tired of playing the game. The graphics are still good and I like controling a team, rather than it being a single person shoot up. I also like that when you finish BG, you can export your main character to other games in the family.

While the game mechanics are clunky by modern standards and AD$D 2.0's ruleset is downright archaic and confusing for 5e players, Baldur's Gate remains a phenomenal game that emulates much of the experience and joy in playing tabletop RPGs without having to schedule around all your friends. Beamdog has done an excellent job of making the game playable with little to no fuss on modern computers, and the plot is great fun. If you like RPGs and D&D, this game is still worth your time, minor old warts and all.

While Baldur's gate 3 might be more technically and graphically impressive, BG 1 will always be one of the only DND games that is a real time action RPG, not only allowing the creation of your own character but the creation of your other party members aswell if you so wish it. I have been hooked on it quite some time.

Baldur's Gate, as the first infinity engine game, obviously aged the worst compared to the others. The Enhanced Edition's primary benefit is that it 'just works', out of the box. Not that we still get games in boxes anymore. 1. No need to find and install fixpacks, tweak packs, widescreen mod, stability mods, etc. 2. Modern resolutions and UI scaling 3. Puts all of the expansion pack content together in one place 4. Adds a new arena fighting mode to test out the combat (The Black Pits) 5. Adds four (not three) new characters, who are more BG2-style characters with personal quests and full voice-acting. They clash a bit with the original game, admittedly, but it's easy enough to just ignore them if you want. While it is entirely possible to make Baldur's Gate a fully modern-feeling and modern-looking game using mods, personally I'd rather just click 'install' in GOG Galaxy and start playing. The game is more than a decade old now and any really nasty bugs that may have been in Beamdog's original release are long since fixed. I encountered nothing notable in my playthrough.

The BG series is nothing short of praise, which I will not reiterate when the real question is: why play the originals now that you could play BG3 with its final patch? The answer: it just keeps getting better since decades thanks to an ever so determined modding community. The skill and quality at which new content is created raise the whole game beyond the average ratings. What awaits is an epic journey from humble beginnings to facing gods. Which can be shaped exactly to your liking once you understand the game after one vanilla play-through. Or so people say, but I have to disagree. Despite its greatness it is not without flaw in its original state. So pick these up for your first adventure (search for BGEE + mod name): - DLC Merger [mandatory to continue if you own Siege of Dragonspear] - Dragonspear UI++ [if anything you want a modern UI or suffer inventory management] - BG1 NPC Project [to modern standards you need this to bring your companions to life or wonder where all the praise is coming from] - BG1 NPC Music [add some flavor to above mod] Final note about the buzz around the enhanced editions: they are a truly fantastic gift to the community. The enhanced engine is what enabled modders what was previously thought impossible and in that sense keeps on giving fabulous improvements to us players. However, with them came new content which many [myself included] consider badly integrated (this does not mean bad in itself). Add to this some abysmal marketing and community management, and you may see why some die-hard fans have come to peace yet. But fret not, as modders also found a remedy for this to restore the original experience: - Convenient Enhanced Edition NPCs [tone down or completely remove unfitting content] Enjoy your first run! And if you get infected like many others, it will only be the beginning to merging BG1 and BG2 together (or even IWD and NWN), push the AI to new limits with SCS, and tweak the game into perfection to last you a lifetime.