I love this game especially for its story, setting, atmosphere and memorable characters. All the dialogs are fully voice acted and you can tell that they put a lot of effort into it. Perhaps because the character development system and the disciplines (spells and abilities) are based on a pen and paper role playing game of the same name it is really creative and distinct from other games. For me the graphics are still beautiful. Especially the facial expressions are very well done even by today's standards. Their reactions really add to the conversations you have plenty of throughout the game. There are a lot of dialogues but it never feels exhausting or boring to read them. The only criticism I have is that there are abilities that are clear winners over others. I am not even talking about spells (disciplines), because in theory I think you could complete the game without even using them. But abilities like lockpicking, hacking and persuation are essential for every character. Sneaking also can break the game and combat. With a high enough level it seems to be impossible for the enemy to detect you. Furthermore some abilities feel really useless in comparison to alternatives (intimidation vs. persuation for example). And melee based combat seems to be way better than the use of guns. In the beginning ranged combat feels kinda clumsy and ineffective. For one or two playthroughs this game has a lot to offer. But after that you feel that the story does not seem to change much aside from some dialogue and character builds do not vary enough to justify doing another playthrough with a different clan. My recomendation would be to pick whatever you like except Malkavian or Nosferatu for the first playthrough. And then for the second go with Malkavian, because the dialogue and insight is really fun. Apart from that it is still 5/5. There really isn't an RPG with similar setting and atmosphere out there. It's just excellent!
I really enjoyed playing this and the Enhanced Edition is very well done! They just added new items and made some items available that were in the database but not obtainable in the original game. Furthermore they quests that were not finished and did not make it into in the original game available. I don't get the criticism that it is basically the original game with resolution patch applied. It is way more than that. It works now on all modern systems, the rules were updated to the ones used in BG2. The UI scaling is done perfectly. On my high DPI screen everything looks very good especially fonts. A resolution patch alone would not have done the trick. What is very convenient too is that you have more options to bind your own keys which made controlling the group more convenient than the original. You can make less mouse dependent with saner keybinds. If you like games liked Baldur's Gate and it's combat system and particularly enjoyed dungeons like Watcher's Keep you cannot go wrong with this game because it is basically just that! Each chapter is basically another dungeon area you get access to. Which also means that this game is very linear but I did not mind. One thing I have to criticize though is how the expansions Heart of Winter and Trials of the Lure Master are embedded into the base game. They feel more like three different games. Upon completing the base game you cannot just import your final save into HoW like you can do in BG2 upon starting ToB. You have to export and import characters. During that process you lose all the containers (like Bottomless Bags) and their contents. After completing HoW you cannot go back to do TotLM. You'd have to start HoW over again. I recommend playing the base game until you have reached the gnome camp in Lower Dorns Deep. Afterwards go back to Kuldahar and start HoW. Then go right for TotLM and after that complete HoW and then go back to Lower Dorns Deep to complete the game. It feels more connected that way.
