I don't get all the negative reviews, so I felt compelled to write one that doesn't trash this expansion for minor quibbles: It's true that it's not perfect but the good totally overwhelms the bad. STORY: The main plot is well written, D&D compliant, and it works well as a bridge between Baldur's Gate 1 and 2; it has mistery, nuances and complexities like in BG1 and most of the side quests are quite engaging (the dungeons are particularly awesome). Some minor quests are a bit on the cheesy/boring side, but what RPG doesn't have some of those kind? Anyway the "fan fiction writing" some reviewers mentioned simply isn't here. NPCs: The NPCs in your party have the same personalities they had in BG1 with the better interactions of BG2. They are not annoying at all, even the new NPCs in this expansion are quite interesting and likable. BUGS: Didn't find any worth mentioning. GUI: This is the only area where I felt they didn't get it right. It's too dark and flat, so it's not easy to navigate, and they changed GUI elements that were better before in BG1 EE. But you can apply a GUI mod, and there are quite few for the Enhanced Edition that are good, thank god. ROLE PLAYING: It's more linear than BG1 or BG2, because the map is made on sections that you have to explore in an given order: when you advance in the map previous areas become unreachable, so you have to be sure to have explored everything in an area before moving forward, Having said so, there's a lot to do and discover in the single areas and the approaches to the situations can be chosen like in previous BGs. Being a war campaign with no villages (only encampments and fortresses) it also offers different situations than the cities of BG1 and BG2. LONGEVITY: It easily exceeds the advertised 25 hours of gameplay; it can reach the 30/35 hours mark if you do everything this expansion has to offer, DIFFICULTY: It's a little bit easier than the old Baldur's Gates, but this is not necessarily bad: it features more balanced fights that are still challenging (more so if you are at a low level or ill equipped) and some modern aids to overcome the limitations of inventory space. Maybe some items you can buy or find are a little on the powerful side, but most of those are hidden/related to optional quests, and anyway you'll never feel like an invincible god. So in the end it almost feels like a long lost expansion, and the modern addictions to the formula don't detract from the enjoyment but add variety and some welcome improvements. It's also reasonably consistent if you plan to play BG1, this and then BG2 (as I'm doing, and as I would advise to do). It would be 4.5 stars, but I'll give this game 5 stars rather than 4, because the low rating this quality title is getting is simply ridiculous.
I have to admit that I never played the original, so my gaming experience with this game begun with the enhanced edition, and what I've got is a very deep and engaging old school RPG that stood the test of time with it's very entertaining and solid gameplay, great story, amazing variety, complex interactions with NPCs and quests approach. I also like the fact that this game follows the classic 2nd edition D&D ruleset (the ones I followed playing D&D when I was young and which I think are perfect for immersive roleplaying) and the Enhanced Edition doesn't mess with that. In fact the EE doesn't mess with anything: it simply adds bugfixes, selectable gameplay tweaks (you can choose if to apply them or not), various enhancements to the GUI, HD resolution and new content; and as for the current version (2.3) it's all rock solid, except for some minor bugs in the new journal (anyway it succeed in making the quests more manageable). I found the new quests and NPC quite good and on par with the original content, and the support from Beam Dog is excellent (they are still supporting this game with bug fixes and improvements after 4 years). I honestly don't know why you would mod the original when this version exists: you'll end up with lots of bugs and instabilities due to using multiple mods and you'll get a similar experience, only worse. So I can recommend this version of the game as the "go to" version.
