This game is severely undermined by amateurish writing and unnecessary additions. Many of the decisions Beamdog took with party NPCs were difficult to understand but given what happened in BGEE & BG2EE, my expectations were already very low. The bad simply outweighs the good by a considerable margin. Also there are too many bugs on release for a game of this size which is completely linear in scope. Given how some Beamdog contractors insulted fans of the original, begged for good reviews, and banned individuals giving valid criticism of their games (this also happened with BGEE / BG2EE) the lack of quality writing in Dragonspear was to be expected. Poor writing was magnified this time because for contractual reasons, Beamdog were not allowed to modify the contents of BG1 & 2 too much and with Dragonspear they could do whatever they want, and it shows. I am not entirely sure what purpose Dragonspear serves, because it does not bridge the gap between BG1 & 2 in a satisfactory manner. A lot of questions remain unanswered, for instance will the new NPCs appear in BG2 now? Judging by how some individuals at Beamdog conducted themselves in a supercilious manner, one would think their intention through the writing was to deliberately antagonize the demographic of the original games to garner media attention? Given the flaws of this game, BGEE and BGEE2, Beamdogs community manager, and some writers, are clearly out of their depth and have no business tinkering with an established IP, particularly one which was once held in such high regards amongst RPG enthusiasts. Getting their hands on the Baldur's Gate IP, and moderating an online forum evidently led some individuals to develop a false sense of grandiosity, whose professional and intellectual limitations were exposed when dealing with the negative reception to Dragonspear. In terms of positives, I suppose one of the few redeeming features of the game was Caelar Argent, as it is good to see a strong female antagonist (for comparison Mellisan or her real name Amelyssan the Blackhearted from Throne of Bhaal, had little impact) but again her involvement was not without flaws due to the lackluster writing. Overall it is a shame I have to write a review of this nature for a series I held so much affection for back in the day. Too many fans of the original Baldur's Gate essentially received the proverbial middle finger from Beamdog over the past 4 years through the Enhanced Editions and Dragonspear.
