Baldur’s Gate; the epic gold standard of Role-Playing Games was revamped and improved from the original 1998 edition to claim more souls for the Lord of Murder.
From what I heard at first, this game was meant to be very buggy, but due to playing it recently I never encountered anything game breaking. The developers have done a great job in fixing any bugs or issues that were in the release. I won’t be going into too much detail on Baldur’s Gate – the game has been reviewed so many times, and instead I will be looking at the Enhanced Editions updates. But you should know that everything from the original game (its expansion, sounds, recruits and portraits) remain unchanged in the Enhnced Edition.
Single Player
The game has received a major graphical overhaul. The interface has been improved, and is a lot more modern compared to the 1998 release. On the older versions of the game, original and collections, I never really got to experience the multi-player mode, but on this edition I got to try it. Let’s just say, I enjoy the single player mode more, but it’s nice to have that multi-player option to play with friends. It was, however, great to try-out Tales of the Sword Coast for once, as I could never get the expansion pack to work in the older editions.
The three new characters: Rasaad, Neera & Dorn. They are a nice addition, each have their own side quest which adds a new area to the map. The portraits for these characters are really beautifully done, and they fit the style of the originals. I did, however, find it difficult locating them.
One major improvement that I found was both amazing and awful at times, were the new cinematic scenes. They are beautifully painted and the animations work well with the game, but I feel that the original editions “introduction & ending” cut scenes worked a lot better. The new scenes work well with this edition, but the original intro seemed darker with the blood flowing through the cobble stone path as opposed to a body lying in a pool of red. The ending cut scene in the original was very clear, but the green light is really annoying in the new version and the crumbling statue didn’t look too impressive. Again those where just the two issues I had that really could have looked better and were the only things I really didn’t like.
(Yes, all cut scenes are this stunning!)
The Black Pits
“The Black Pits” is a mini game; an arena-styled adventure separate from the main adventure with a bit of story and nice introduction video. You take control of six characters, pre-made or custom, or play it in multi-player mode, and fight waves of enemies with breaks so your party can resupply for the next battle. It was a fun challenge and the characters and voices were really well done, but I feel it could have been added to the main game rather than having it as a separate mini game. It could also have been a bit longer, but it’s still enjoyable to play.
(The Black Pits fourth or fifth wave.)
Overall
The renovation of this classic is astounding. We still have the game we all know and recognize, along with some additional areas, followers, classes (Archer, Kensai, Wild Mage etc.) and art work. I really did enjoy playing through this edition of the game, and can’t wait to try out the sequel with the improvements. You will mostly be buying this game for the artwork and the new graphic enhancements. Most of the bugs are fixed and the game can be picked up for a few dollars. If you have the original games and you want to try it out, it is well worth the money for one of the most enthralling, gorgeous, intelligent & difficult Role Playing Games ever created.
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