After Beamdog's statement last night, that proved them to be partly innocent of the heavy blame that we laid upon them for (for supporting neoliberal agenda), i hereby change my review.
However as much as i like the path they have taken towards improvement, i really hope they will adapt their game a little more, so it fits the entire BG community. By that i mean adding more dialog option in certain situations that aren't patronizing players.
All I know is this, I went to start over Baldurs gate: EE before playing Dragonspear, aside from the crap graphics, and re worked UI (which no one asked for), my game crashed about 10 times in a row when I went into the training basement right at the beginning of the game. This never happened before the update. I am going to have to re-buy the original game now, because EE is broke AF. Did I mention the graphics? It looks like someone chewed up borderlands and deficated it back out on top of everyone in BG. The more you zoom in on a battle the more ridiculous it becomes.....how someone green lit that is beyond anything I could possibly comprehend.
More pertinent to me than any SJW themes themselves is that it genuinely appears that they outsourced the writing of this expansion to the internet. The dialogue has the wit and nuance of the average Disqus comment section, which causes all of the virtue signaling to look incredibly shallow and ham-fisted, included for the sole purpose of being able to say that they included it. I don't feel like you could actually put less effort into this. As an actual gay person (who considers themselves to have an identity beyond 'being gay'), I honestly think it's kind of patronizing. Their 'inclusiveness' is the gaming equivalent of one of those obnoxious facebook morality memes (you know the ones: "Like and Share if you think solving world hunger is important, IGNORE IF YOU WANT MILLIONS OF CHILDREN TO STARVE TO DEATH"). Some people will complain about this stuff no matter what. People objected to 'Pray the Gay Away: Dragon Age Edition' as an entire character arc in Dragon Age: Inquisition, but I thought it was worked into the narrative fairly well, had quality dialogue and delivery, and as a result was able to display real gravitas. There is nothing of that here. You will find more moving dialogue following an absolutely random person on twitter.
On top of that, this expansion breaks several mods, the multiplayer is currently unplayable, the graphics with the upgrade are (absurdly) WORSE than the graphics of the original (and consider this: a child born at the launch of Baldur's Gate is currently graduating high school...so that's a real accomplishment), and several characters from the original game have become utterly milquetoast, because a female character having any personality trait or characteristic other than 'empowered' (subtrait: 'sassy') is now considered to be sexist.
Terrible cash grab of an expansion to Baldur's Gate, terrible game in its own right. I honestly struggle to find anything redeeming in it at all.
So I'm about ten hours in and I'm pleasantly surprised. A LARGE portion of the original voice cast are back in enriched roles that, for the most part, are true to character or expand on a one dimensional concept from Baldurs Gate 1 (which, as someone who only played it a few years ago, I don't have quite the rose tinted glasses on about the characters that other decades long fans might).
The world has gotten an ambience upgrade thanks to advanced technology, with bigger fights and large populations. The story is quite urgent and linear, but it feels like it should be. The main antagonist is nuanced and convincing. Generally, I feel like it flows naturally as part of the Baldurs Gate games and is a nice bridge. I can't speak too much to combat as I play in story mode, but it's essentially the same as the old games but with some extra bits thrown in (see again the bigger fights, more enemies on screen) and some new abilities to play with. Anyone who enjoyed the originals should enjoy this.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the current drama, so let me be clear. There is a minor side character who, after TWO OPTIONAL dialogue prompts by the player, will tell you she is trans. The backlash is, as usual, about 'gamergate' types taking umbrage at that and (at this point) realising that the general populace don't support that and so shifting their criticisms to 'bad writing' (again, it's one optional line of dialogue).
But don't take my word for it. Don't take their word for it. If you consider yourself a reasonable and autonomously thinking individual, gauge whether you can handle such an assault of 'SJW' values and just try the game yourself. If you're a fan of old school isometric RPG's and Baldurs Gate in particular, chances are you'll get some enjoyment out of this, or an integral new part of an old series at best. As it stands, I'm having a great time with it.
