This expansion sometimes feels more like an Icewind Dale expension than a BG one. It plays more like Throne of Bhaal in that the freedom to explore is more limited.
That said this is a great addition to the series and right from the first dungeon you can see that a lot of love has been put into this game.
Sure, the social and political issues are there, but they do not hinder gameplay.
New NPC's are great and I would love to see Corwin and the Gnome Thief/Cleric available in BG2
The villain seems a bit weak compared to the other characters; I feel that she could have been fleshed out more.
If you are a fan of Baldur's Gate, this is a safe purchase that gives hours of fun.
Beamdog have used Baldur's Gate as a trojan horse to push their political agenda, promoting very specific views concerning income distribution, the refugee crisis, and gender (to name a few), through a poor, shallow, and in-your-face writing that is insulting to both the franchise and the players and has succeeded to anger also those people whose interests it sought to promote. My biggest disappointment in gaming (I was really looking forward to this expansion) and the worst "RPG" I have ever played.
I do not own this mod.
In the past 6-7 years the standard has become to build over an existing title or create the next retarded zombie/survival/space anything. Creating an EE version of a game is one thing, but building over BG is atrocity (heroes 3 hd, anyone?). Marketing this as a new game is probably a good thing, but building on the shoulders of BG is plain wrong. On top of all the price is outrageous. SquareEnix broke the Thief franchise and the Tomb Raider series, now BG had to be butchered, what's next - the Discworld series?
This game claims to takes place between BG1 and BG2. Sadly it is poorly written and buggy as hell. The devs don't care about Baldur's Gate, they don't care about a good RPG. They are completely out of touch, what Baldur's Gate is all about ... they only care about forcing their superior political opinions on gamers, by compromising a legendary game, an established name. That happens sometimes subtle, sometimes blunt.
Why didn't they just develop a completely new title from scratch and used that one to spread their propaganda? No, they needed to abuse Baldur's Gate, of all games.
A user named "Totenglocke" summarized it and I copy it in here, because I couldn't say it better:
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They shoehorned in several SJW elements (a forced trans character, a gay character, a feminist who berates a male character for asking about the well being of a female character, a character who just randomly exclaims that you're racist, and they made a character say something snarky about gamergate) in addition to completely changing two female characters personalities because they found them to be "problematic" in the original game, thus breaking continuity as well.
Furthermore, the main (only?) writer for the game, Amber Scott, gave an interview to Kotaku where they talked about how the original Baldur's Gate was "really sexist" despite not being able to come up with any examples and she said that they were "correcting" the plot and that anyone who didn't like it can go to hell. She then later posted on a forum (I'm not sure which, I've only seen a screenshot) that she's proud to be a SJW and hopes to put more SJW content in future games.
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If someone wants to hold to SJW- or whatever-beliefs, I don't care. But to stain the legacy of Baldur's Gate is just insidious and is a mockery of any fan of the series.
Zero stars for this abomination of a Baldur's-Gate-game.
