Baldur’s Gate 2 Enhanced Edition: Review — A worthy sequel

Baldur’s Gate 2 begins shortly after the original. You’re one of the Bhaalspawn and a half-sibling of Sarevok who you killed previously. But now you’re held captive in Irenicus’s dungeon and tortured for your unique gifts. However, a timely distraction caused by the Shadow thieves allows you and Imoen to free your friends and find your way out. To do this you must negotiate a maze of twisting corridors and cavernous chambers.

This goliath of tactical gameplay will appeal to the hardened RPG fan. Gamers who enjoy deep story-driven gameplay and the D&D ruleset will love Baldur’s Gate 2. However, similar to BG1 It also incorporates (THAC0) or Armor Class system when deciding on the results of randomized attack rolls. “What!” I hear you say. Basically, it’s a method for determining how much damage you’ll sustain during combat. However, it does yield unsuspecting results.

All combat is in real-time meaning you have to pause gameplay to assign moves to your characters. This can be frustrating as it’s not always clear who’s active especially when there are a lot of characters on screen. You’ll find general gameplay quite challenging depending on your difficulty settings. Expect to spend hours killing the various creatures in the dungeon before you finally feel the wind on your face and the sweet smell of — well, sewerage. Athkatla is not a very clean city!

However, once you and your companions escape Irenicus’s underground complex you emerge into the bustling city which is ruled by the anonymous Council of Six who are the leaders of the territories. It’s worth noting that the environments are still beautifully rendered despite the fuzzy pixilated characters and it still shares the same game engine and graphical interface as the first.

If you know the D&D ruleset like the back of your hand, only eat Cheese and Onion crisps, and urinate into a bottle to avoid toilet breaks then you might complete BG2 fairly quickly. However, if you’re like most of us you’ll need to dedicate some serious time and effort into completing this videogame. Its hardcore RPG mechanics can be frustratingly complicated if you don’t know your stuff but also extremely rewarding when things go right.

Baldur’s Gate 2 — A worthy sequel

Baldur’s Gate 2 has all the charm of the first, the same branching non-linear dialogue which unfolds with the gameplay and a host of memorable characters such as Minsc a so-called berserker who has a pet hamster called Boo and the ever-loyal Imoen. This enhanced edition offers four new characters called Dorn, Neera, Hexxat, and Rasaad but the graphics are still underwhelming for an enhanced edition.

It has a different story structure from BG1 which feels more confined with quests being the main focus for progression. The open-world style of the first which allowed you to explore many different regions in any order has been replaced by a more refined narrative which ultimately gives you a more playable videogame.

Verdict

There’s not a lot to set the Enhanced Editions apart from their originals. A decade worth of mods have accomplished the same overall presentation as the new kids on the block, and in some instances, the originals still shine more brightly with less pixelated graphics. However, if you’re playing on console and appreciate the new companions and quests then the Enhanced Editions are worth playing. Baldur’s Gate 2 is a worthy sequel to the original with a deeper story-driven focus that yields greater rewards than the first.

Created by: Beamdog

Distributed by: Skybound

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Originally published at http://www.oggieplays.com on January 17, 2020.