Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

Haven't played this game in 20 years. Until now. Still one of my favorites!

First thing's first: I didn't grow up with this game. I know that GOG has this funny habit of giving every game they remembered playing as a kid a 5/5 and turning every CRPG on this site from the last 40 years into a 10/10 GOAT CLASSIC, but this isn't that. That said, I love this game. I bought the 2E books just to better understand this game. I ended up running 2E for my friends (still my preferred edition). You don't need any of that though. It is about as distilled down as the zero-to-Hero power fantasy gets. Romping through dungeons and getting magic loot that actually feels better, traveling a mostly contiguous openworld map with little if any handholding, managing a party of up to 6 from a roster of like 30!? It starts to feel more like fantasy Jagged Alliance 2 than a CRPG sometimes. You'll start killing rats in Candlekeep and end up battling the (hopeful) Avatar of a dark god below the bowels of a major city (and if you take your character through to BG2 and Throne of Bhaal, the stakes become even higher and the reward of completing the journey even more satisfying and epic in scope). That said, I go back to this one more than BG2 or 3 on any given day. Story is there but largely unintrusive, class mechanics and spell lists are small scale enough to not be a headache to manage 6 separate ones, its fast and furious and fun. As far as EE vs original goes, just get the fanmade Nostalgia UI and Sprites pack from the beamdog forums and the original videos to replace beamdog's honestly embarrassing tweened animations. Done, you've now get the best version of one of the best RPGs of all time.

I came back for another Sword Coast playthrough and decided to grab the EE several months after release. I must say overall the remake held up surprisingly well over my last modded playthrough. I found Neera and Rasaad to be quickly forgettable, however enjoyed both Dorn and Baeloth for my evil-aligned party. The changes to the UI felt adequate and when compared with my old save felt like a decent upgrade over the widescreen mod. I didn't encounter any earth-shattering bugs however there still were some present, which is a bit of a shame and shatters that selling point somewhat. Multiplayer worked well when tested however it was not he main focus of my time. The Black Pits was a bit iffy, and I quickly went back to the main game, but it may appeal to those that like arena style gameplay. Overall the EE is a solid product that performs as advertised. Is it worth the asking price? For someone who already owns BG, probably not. But for a newcomer who has not experienced the Sword Coast, this seems like a good bet. Afterall, it's still the same epic tale, and I had the same amount of fun with my 60+ hours with the EE. Give it a shot!

For the original content I would give 5/5 stars, for the Beamdog version I'd give 3, so I guess the mean for those would be 4. The reason I'm not satisfied with Beamdog's version is that I found the extra content a bit dull, the extra characters are not that exciting imo. Otherwise I don't have any problem with the game, I highly recommend it if you'd like to play the original title. I think that the policy of Beamdog about this series is not really fair. Most of the writing in the extra content is dull, the game would be much better off with the original content. The only thing I liked was Durlag's Tower, but even that could have been done so much better I think.

The graphics and the first impression that would be satisfying would be very pleasing if it wasn't for the whole mass of "improvements" that can't be turned off, the most pissed off is that the characters themselves cast spells during combat, often when they issue another command. I have checked most options so far and it is still impossible to disable it. Shit shit shit I do not recommend it better to modify the "old" version