Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition

I used to play this when it first came out (non enhanced) years ago and it was my favorite and remains my favorite game. This is the pinnacle of isometric RPGs.

Many games have attempted to recreate Baldur's Gate I & II. Most fall short due to mechanics, disjointed story telling or painful voice acting. It is 2025 and you are still better off on your 8th play through of Baldur's Gate than trying anything new in the steam store. This game spirited me away to a time when graphics were terrible & story was king. Immerse yourself in a rich tapestry of voice actors who's emotion and pacing throw shade on the modern AAA pipeline.

Discover every room, unlock every chest & defeat every enemy. Truly, the adventure of a lifetime.

BG2 is a masterpiece.

best game. BG3 failed completely. This is by far better than bg3.

This game takes me back to playing D&D with paper, pencil, and dice!

The absolute classic. Been playing since early 2000's and come back every now and then

Send in the bears.

I played this over and over in my early teens. I was looking for a game to play while I wait what feels like another 20 years for patch 8 to arrive on BG3, so going back to replay my favorite RPG of all time!

The classics are the best.

Disappointing. Just boring tbh

I can turn into a rat!
Very cool :3

It's fantastic. I heard the opening music and flashed back to the joyous time I had last time I played. This time is just as good.

BG2 is the greatest game ever published. It's actually wild to me that all games aren't just Baldur's Gate 2. EE is fine if you turn off the Party AI.

One of my favorite RPG's. It has challenge, it has replay, and you get to kill beholders and dragons. Great game all around.

It's definitely a bit dated, but still a very good game with some very cool character builds.

Excelent remake of a wonder classical game. totally recomemnd this.

I love this series, strongly recommend it to all enthusiasts of the cRPG genre.

a good game

the game it is playable and fun in every way 9/10

It's classic D&D fun with many hours of fun

My dislikes:
Not fully voiced, some silly bugs, some banters really didn't age well, male romance for female PCs really did't age well, and personally, I can't do deep dungeons or manage inventory to stay alive so it has been a struggle.

My likes:
Great writing, villains are freaking cool and based most of the time, fun riddles, fun to interact with famous DND characters, world building is so cool.

Lastly, thank you BioWare for finally letting us romance a villain mage in DAI. You always did evil or depressed or anti-social mages so well.

a classic 2D top down rpg, make your party, explore and carry out quests! spend hours of fun solving puzzles, winning battles, collecting treasure and uncover mysteries

“Mobile vegetable peddling versus heroism, the eternal question.”
~Gorion's Ward

Making a sequel to Baldur's Gate was an impossible task. The original BG was the most anticipated CRPG of 1998 and guess what? It was one of them rare cases when game actually exceeded the expectations. While acting as fantasy take on Fallout (both heavily revolved around dialogues that originated in Star Control II), it also delivered a fantastic rendition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons tabletop rules, while looking and feeling like our usual real-time CRPG. More importantly, it gave us full control over our ethics. Like in those tabletops, our characters were free to be good, evil and everything in between. Should I say it felt awesome? There was nothing like it before and up to this day, it's one of the very best fantasy RPGs you can play. Yet somehow, its makers were supposed to make it even better.

Like I said, an impossible task, but guess what? They did it. BG II kept everything we loved about the original, but it was better in pretty much every way. The global map became a bit confusing (you can't just go, say, east to unlock new location that lies that way anymore), but BioWare fixed their D&D mistakes (rangers, for example, finally got their dual-wielding), made dialogues deeper, added romances and... Yeah. The story became much more dark and complicated. Again and again game wanted to remind us that life is unfair. We were to lose friends, make sacrifices and do our very best to shape our own future the way we want it. It was amazing. Rarely we get a game that feels like a good fantasy novel, yet BGII was exactly that.Good thing to have it in Steam, right? Well. About that...

As you can easily tell by looking at the title, what we have here is not the original version but so-called Enhanced Edition, heavily modified by Beamdog, a company founded by a couple of ex-BioWare employees – Trent Oster and Cameron Tofer. And if you've played the Enhanced version of previous game, you know just how butchered it felt. It had mobile-oriented enhancements (god mode included), it had features it wasn't supposed to have (like “press button to show secrets” thingy that allowed you to get one of the very best armors in game soon after prologue) and pretty much every new thing played against balance, which wasn't that great to begin with.

Thankfully, when it's about BGII, it was a little bit easier. For example, that “press button to reveal stuff” feature was planned this time and therefore there's nothing wrong with it. Same thing with dual-wielding rangers. Like I already mentioned, BGII was supposed to have 'em, no impact on balance. Yes, this version does have all the mobile-oriented crap too, but oh, well. Also, not all of it is bad. Old geezers like yours truly, for example, will sure appreciate things like bigger fonts. The problem is – while the first game had quite a lot of new content (including one heck of a new expansion), this here? It doesn't have much. It comes with a sequel to so-called “Pit” (which, pretty much, is just an arena with some basic excuse), there are new companions and quests, but that's it.

Moreover, neither of that feels good. Not like the new stuff felt good in the previous game, but here? It's a disaster. It's so easy to break things for yourself without even knowing it. Like, there's a new location with some new quests in it, but if you'll finish a certain one of them first? You'll render the others unbeatable. Or take another new quest for example. It lets you either agree to cooperate with one of the most infamous villains in Forgotten Realms or refuse his offer and fight him. Naturally, if you're a Lawful Good guy (like Paladin, for example), you'll want to take second option. Guess what? Bad idea. Just because it'll break your quest and left it unbeatable. Like... what? The game literally gives you an option that... leads to the dead end? And it's not like it's only one quest or somethin'. Wow. Just wow. Even arena I've mentioned, they've managed to mess up even that with bugs and overly confusing parts. And when there was a real need for a change? They didn't do a thing.

I'm talking, of course, about Throne of Bhaal expansion. I haven't seen detailed interviews about what exactly went wrong, but the general knowledge is – the big guys screwed us all again. Originally planned as much bigger thing, Throne of Bhaal ended up being a much smaller experience. It wasn't, by all means, bad, but it did commit one major crime – it took away our freedom. There were still choices, of course, but pretty much every major part? It was linear as F. And not in Shadows of Amn way (SoA made some peaceful solutions impossible on purpose to play with our ethics, like there was that certain quest, in which the only solution was to kill the poor guy's best friend, while knowing there won't be any punishment or penalty for doing so). Throne of Bhaal was just... linear. It needed you to do certain things because screw you and your wishes. It was about combat, OK? There was a lot of battles and you were able to reach very high levels, but... Let's just say it felt lacking. Even despite the fact that story-wise it was a perfect conclusion to Baalspawn saga and even came with Fallout-like postscript for your party members, it was hard not to feel disappointing a bit. Why must we give part of our soul to that evil sucker while being righteous Paladins? Why there's no alternative solutions to quests that are asking for at least a couple? Some mods did try to fix that. Beamdog did not. They had one in a lifetime chance to make arguable expansion shine and they didn't even bother.

What they did manage to achieve, though, is adding new bugs. Tons and tons of new bugs. Personally, I've experienced so much that... it didn't even feel like playing BGII, really. I mean, BGII was never the buggiest game out there. It sure had its share of bugs, but I was never annoyed by it. And I did play it on release. Beamdog? They brought bugs. And unlike some other guys, who kept working on their products until things finally became smooth, they didn't really care. I mean, they did release some updates, but at some point they've just stopped the support and called it a day. Which means that the game ended up being more buggy than it was originally. Again, wow.

K, I complained a lot, which may make you think that this here is a terrible release, but the truth is – it is not. BGII is a fantastic game and even in this form it's totally worth playing. Beamdog did quite a lot of good too. New characters and their stories are good, romances include some non-straight options now (not enough and for a lesbian lady, for example, the only option will be evil Vampire, but still, choices are there), and, of course, the fact that this version was made to work in modern environment is a good thing. The problem is – the Enhanced Edition doesn't feel like a commercial product. If something, it feels like a mod. Clunky, rough and buggy alteration. Something you may expect from ModDB, not Steam. The good idea will be to let us choose. To make fully customizable version that lets us switch between mint version, the new features and everything in between. Like Paul Reiche and Fred Ford did in their free version of Star Control II called Free Stars: The Ur-Quan Masters that allowed us to to combine features from the original DOS version and enhanced 3DO port. Beamdog thought they knew better. They did not. So make sure not to expect much here. Still, like I already said, BGII is a great game. And no matter what, you should play it at least once in your life. Dixi.

Love the combat system, needs strategic planning on attack, buff and debuff.

65/100 I recommend with a caveat - the Enhanced Throne of Bhaal is worse than the original (which wasn't great to start). At that point of the game, I'm 20 level - why am I herding cats for 400 xp? I stopped playing right there. That being said, Shadow of Amn is great.

best crpg ever. hands down. i played it when it first came out back in like 2001-2 something like that. i still remember it. best villian.

a legendary game, and arguably the best RPG ever made

A lot of content for a small price. All that for it's time and still great to play!

A fitting time to write a review for this classic game. I finished it many times as a teen, so it's safe to say this is one of my favourite old school CRPG's.

Pros
- Easy to pickup, a few extra class options come with EE and makes for a more interesting experience although I will admit I still have never played a Shaman character yet.

- TOB is a short but good experience, especially for this who are already familiar with BG2. Sometimes you don't want to play a 40+ hour adventure so it's perfect for this, that and being a high level means high level abilities.

- A quality cast of characters and it's also easy enough to play with mods or a custom party. In the past you had to make a party in multiplayer, export them to your singleplayer folder and it was just a lot of extra work.

- I know some OG fans hate the new UI but it didn't personally bother me, the general QOL added outweighs most of the problems.

- Meta builds aren't necessary to win unless you are playing no reload on Insane with mods like SCS and Legacy of Baal with a lower level party or lack of custom characters. There's many ways to break the game, that's half the fun! (at least for me).

Cons
- Early>mid game can be pretty frustrating for a first timer, thanks to some very powerful debuffs (Vampires level drain, Mind Flayers sucking your brain or Beholders killing you straight up).

- Lategame is pretty overwhelming on higher difficulties.

- LOB difficulty is for the masochists. While there are moments of fun, expect even basic fights to be a bit of a slog even with meta picks. At least this becomes much easier by lategame once you unlock HLAs and the top tier weapons, honestly feel like the first game on LOB is harder just because of the early to mid game being very unforgiving.

- Some rare bugs or pathfinding issues still plague the game (not as bad as some other Infinity Engine games like Icewind Dale but can be annoying).

Overall, this game is a classic for a reason and goes on sale regularly so it's never a bad time to pick it up. I recommend starting on Normal/Core Rules if you are a first timer or newer to the BG series, it has a very generous difficulty curve or story mode/easy if you don't want to worry about dying and status ailments.

Probably the best RPG ever, entertaining and challenging with a great story line without overdoing the combat aspects which some later RPG's tended to do.

I have played this game first long before BG1 and before my Steam account, so I have more to review about this one.

This game holds up very well despite being over 25 years old. The paint-style visuals still look pretty good these days, especially this EE version, the musics are awesome giving so much atmosphere to the varied game environments, and the UI serves it’s purpose with the icons and the hotkeys. The real-time system might be quite a hazzle with so many individual party members to control at the same time. Luckily you can always pause the game any time and you can also define the party AI.

As a RPG game, this game is not so open-ended nor does offer interactions with the game world, like climbing or smashing barrels. The game is too often about fighting over and over again, and the situations cannot be solved in different and in flexible ways, unlike in Fallout 1 and 2. And apparently stats like the alignments and charisma have no real impact to the dialogue choices. Luckily the combat is more versatile and tactical with lots of spells, enemy types, class abilities, equipments and items like wands, potions and such.

One of the things I really dislike is the obsolete AD&D system with the ridiculous weapon and armor restrictions. The D&D terms like THAC0, Sawing Throws, Hit Dice and AC won’t tell anything to those who are not familiar with the D&D rules. It’s funny that a small halfling can wear the same suit of armor as a big half-orc considering the weapon and armor restrictions. There are too many weapon proficiencies to choose from in the character creation, and not all of them are worthy. So a warrior can wield a longsword masterfully but a shortsword is too difficult to him. And I don't like how the actions are so binary, like door bashing or lock picking and such.

The real star of the game, besides the well-written story and the villain, are the followers with their dialogues, backstories, personalities and their side-quests. They are not just mute pack-mules,you actually start to care of them, and you can even have romances with some of them. The tons of NPCs with their dialogues make the game world more lively and believable. And not to mention the villain of the story with so much build-up, his motives and the personal connection to the player. And of course, there are nostalgia value and the multiplay.

I know there was Baldur's Gate I before this, but Baldur's Gate II is light years ahead of that game and I daresay after playing Baldur's Gate III, BG2 can easily give that game, 20 years its junior, a serious run for its money in scope and storytelling.

It might take people quite a while to get used to AD&D 2nd Edition but man this game is soooooooo fun. I replayed it twice and it is a super loooong game. Much longer than BG3.

Baldur's Gate II is a direct sequel to Baldur's Gate I, following on with the story line of your PC plus a number of recruitable party members, some from the earlier game.

The story is compelling, making you want to know what is going to happen next.

There are a lot of side quests, perhaps too many side quests that sometimes feel overwhelming. But there is always something to do.

The difficultly is a notch higher than the previous game, with some combat situations feeling near impossible without the use of a guide.

Overall, this is an amazing game!

Back in the day if the simplicity of Diablo bored you there was this. A deep open varied application of the D&D rules. Rich beautiful characters that make you fall in love with them, sometimes before their own plots take them away from you. Immersive and immensely enjoyable. If you enjoy 3/4 view RGPs you will love this one.

Steam says I've played this game for over 80 hours and would like to know if I'd be willing to write a review... Well first of all it's far more than 80 hours I've sunk into this game. I've only 80 hours into the steam version of this game. I had this game the day it came out in 2000.

Honestly? While it IS for certain the better of the first two Baldur's Gate games I found this one disappointing, not for any reason that would deter me from playing it like crazy, but because Jon Irenicus is literally the most effective antagonist that could possibly be tailor made just to make me hate him. And the way the game starts? I hate it so much. It's good mind you, objectively. It's a great start, but I absolutely hate Irenicus and he's already practically won in the opening moments of the game and he killed off two of my favorite characters from the first game. And then how he has left his scars on Imoen? I hate him. It was a horribly disappointing start to the game, it just sucked the life right out of me. The entire game I felt horrible for Imoen who had always been a bright spot no matter how bad things got in the first game.

But, that's how stories go sometimes and holding that against this game would be like holding the reaper invasion at the start of Mass Effect 3 against it, so there I was horrified by the beginning of BG2, and I started play anyways, and then I went on to play one of the best games ever.

Eventually I put my old dream team from the first game back together, or at least 5/6 of it. My character, Imoen, Minsc, Jaheira, and Viconia. In the first game that 6th slot was filled by Xan the ever-defeatist, hopeless Elf-mage with the blue flaming sword. He made me laugh non-stop. In this game it was usually Yoshimo but sometimes Aerie.

The social interactions in this game were a huge step up from what had previously been seen, but these days it's still pretty primitive and very restrictive. Even so, if you follow a guide on that respect you'll unlock some truly great conversations. Jaheira and Viconia both are among my very favorite characters in any video game.

To those who might be reading this after having played BG3, just know Viconia was butchered in BG3. Instead think better Minthara, and then prepare to finish this game and be offended by how badly Larian ruined Viconia in their game.

BG2 is great. In 2025 it's obviously quite primitive compared to BG3 (a game I have clocked over 950 hours in and I still don't think I've played it as much as either BG1 or 2) but the roots are still there, you can see everything that made BG3 great exists in a more primitive form in BG2 (same with BG1) and honestly? There are a few things it does better IMO. At least in terms of allowing you to travel and explore other regions of the Sword Coast.

So if you've played 3 and want to see what all the fuss is about with the earlier games, you'll have to prepare yourself to lose a lot of quality of life improvements made over the last 25 years as well as production values and graphics, etc. But the freedom of storytelling roots are still there, the social game is still there, the combat is still pretty close to what you know.

But honestly? If you've played 3 and are going back? I hope you've already played 1, otherwise why are you looking at this game? Play 1 first.

And in which case? If you've played and beaten 1, this game is better in every way, but be prepared for a serious gut punch to start this game cause it'll hit you where it hurts.

This was one of my favorite games as a child, and it still holds a special place in my heart. And unlike many games that grow stale with age, BG2 is still a wonderful story-driven game that deserves, if not a next-gen remake, than at least the enhanced edition which is a worthy improvement to the original.

I loved it from beginning to end, but goddamn my eyes hurt.

You can read the review in English and Polish :)

ENG: Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition – A Legendary RPG Experience

"You dare to attack me here? Do you even know whom you face?" – Jon Irenicus

Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition is like a fine wine – it only gets better with age. Originally released in 2000 by BioWare and later enhanced by Beamdog, this game remains one of the most legendary RPGs of all time. If you haven’t played it yet, where have you been for the last two decades? Living under a rock? Or worse… under Candlekeep?
Story & World – Welcome to the madhouse

The game throws you right into the action. One moment, you’re celebrating your victory over Sarevok, and the next, you wake up imprisoned by the sinister mage Jon Irenicus. He’s conducting experiments on you in a dungeon that would make even the most sadistic villains envious. Your goal? Escape, figure out what’s going on, and – if you’re feeling a little vengeful – make Irenicus regret ever messing with you.

Once you break free, you enter Athkatla, the grand city of Amn, where politics, crime, and dark magic intertwine. From dealing with the treacherous Shadow Thieves to facing dragons, vampires, and liches, the adventure never slows down.

The world is gigantic, filled with secrets, memorable characters, and thrilling side quests. One moment you’re solving a political conspiracy, and the next, you’re helping a talking sword find a worthy owner. It’s the kind of game where even the side content is better than the main stories of most modern RPGs.
Gameplay & Mechanics – "Go for the eyes, Boo, go for the eyes!"

The game runs on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition rules, meaning you will die. A lot. This is not an easy game, and if you go in without a strategy, expect to see the "Game Over" screen more times than you’d like.

Combat is a real-time strategy affair with an active pause system. Spells, positioning, and buffs play a huge role. Charging at an enemy without thinking will get your party wiped out faster than you can say “Fireball.” Speaking of Fireball – save your game before using it. Friendly fire is very real.

The party interactions in BG2 are legendary. Your companions have personalities, rivalries, and romances. One wrong dialogue choice and two of them might start a fight to the death in the middle of a quest. And of course, there’s Minsc and Boo – the iconic duo. If you don’t like them, we can’t be friends.
Graphics & Sound – Still charming after all these years

BG2:EE updates the visuals with higher resolutions, UI improvements, and some graphical tweaks, but the core is still that beautiful hand-drawn isometric art. The spell effects have a nostalgic charm, and the environments remain atmospheric.

But the true MVP? The music. Michael Hoenig’s soundtrack elevates every moment, from the tension of battles to the tranquility of a peaceful inn. And when you hear the Battle with Irenicus theme? Chills. Every. Single. Time.
Pros & Cons

✅ One of the best RPG stories ever written
✅ Huge world full of meaningful choices, side quests, and deep lore
✅ Tactical combat that rewards strategy
✅ Brilliantly written party members with unforgettable banter
✅ Enhanced Edition adds new content, improves UI, and makes the game more accessible

❌ Pathfinding AI can be… frustrating (yes, I’m talking to you, Jaheira, stop running in circles!)
❌ New players might struggle with difficulty
❌ Sometimes your party members just stand there while getting attacked (hello, Mazzy, could you maybe defend yourself?)
Final Verdict: 10/10 – "I must gather my party before venturing forth"

Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition is the gold standard of RPGs. It’s long, rewarding, emotional, and endlessly replayable. Whether you’re playing for the first time or the tenth, this is a journey worth taking. If you love RPGs and haven’t played it yet – what are you waiting for?

If you enjoyed my review and would like to support me, feel free to check out my Fantasy Games Archives Music & Soundtracks channel, where I share the best game soundtracks! 🎶

https://www.youtube.com/@sonofgames/featured


PL: Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition – Legenda RPG w nowym wydaniu

"Śmiesz mnie atakować tutaj? Wiesz chociaż, z kim masz do czynienia?" – Jon Irenicus

Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition to gra, która starzeje się jak dobre wino – czyli w ogóle. Oryginalnie wydana w 2000 roku przez BioWare, a później odświeżona przez Beamdog, to absolutny klasyk, który każdy fan RPG powinien znać.
Fabuła i Świat – Witaj w domu, bohaterze!

Gra zaczyna się w momencie, gdy budzimy się w ciemnym lochu, gdzie Jon Irenicus, mag z ego większym niż jego moc, przeprowadza na nas eksperymenty. Szybko okazuje się, że sprawy przybierają bardzo zły obrót.

Po ucieczce trafiamy do Athkatli, największego miasta w Amn. Tu czeka na nas prawdziwa uczta dla fanów RPG – od politycznych intryg, przez walki gildii złodziei, po polowania na smoki. Każda misja ma swoją historię, a postacie poboczne są lepiej napisane niż główni bohaterowie wielu współczesnych gier.
Rozgrywka i Mechanika – "Boo i ja... będziemy walczyć dla chwały dobra!"

Gra bazuje na zasadach AD&D 2nd Edition, co oznacza jedno – błędy są kosztowne. Jeśli nie planujesz walk, nie używasz buffów i nie dbasz o pozycjonowanie drużyny, licz się z częstymi ekranami "Game Over".

System walki łączy strategię z aktywną pauzą. Czarowanie Fireballa bez przemyślenia? Twój mag będzie miał na sumieniu więcej trupów niż przeciwnicy. Nie zapominaj o częstym zapisywaniu gry – tu jeden błąd może kosztować Cię całą drużynę.

A drużyna to absolutne złoto – pełna osobowości, tarć i romansów. Możesz zebrać bandę świętoszków albo szajkę psychopatów. Każdy wybór ma znaczenie, a postacie potrafią sprzeczać się, kłócić, a nawet rzucić sobie wyzwanie na śmierć i życie.
Grafika i Dźwięk – To ma swój klimat

EE poprawia grafikę, dostosowuje UI i dodaje kilka ulepszeń, ale nadal czuć klimat oryginału. Muzyka? Arcydzieło. Każdy dźwięk w tej grze buduje klimat – od spokojnych tawern po epickie bitwy.
Zalety i Wady

✅ Jedna z najlepszych historii RPG
✅ Taktyczna walka pełna głębi
✅ Olbrzymi, pełen tajemnic świat
✅ Genialne postacie i interakcje

❌ Słaba ścieżka poruszania się postaci
❌ Nowi gracze mogą mieć trudności z poziomem gry
Ocena końcowa: 10/10 – "Muszę zebrać drużynę, zanim wyruszę"

To arcydzieło RPG, które trzeba przeżyć na własnej skórze. Jeśli jeszcze nie grałeś – nie czekaj.

Jeśli podobała Ci się moja recenzja i chciałbyś mnie wesprzeć, zapraszam na mój kanał Fantasy Games Archives Music & Soundtracks, gdzie udostępniam najlepsze ścieżki dźwiękowe z gier! 🎶

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I first played this 20 years ago, it was the only game my brother and I played that our dad could really get into as well. Great story lines, excellent character development which still stands up to this day. and even compared to the newer baldurs gate 3, there are things I prefer from this one. The new baldurs gate does a much better job of tracking time and your interactions having an effect on the status of other quests and interactions, but in this one, it is truly open world, you can attend any quest you with what feels like a much greater variety of characters, collecting your team in the manner you see fit. I have come back to this so many times over the years and always have a blast. Even now, I find character interactions I have missed, cut scenes I never knew about and new ways of doing things.

If I could give a "mixed" review I would. I recommend this game at 5$ or less, 20$ is way overpriced for a 25 years old game.

The quests are mostly an improvement over BG1, but you always know exactly where to go and what to do so the sense of mystery and wonder of the first game is kinda lost. The enemy variety is slightly improved. The music was underwhelming. The story is a continuation of 1 and on the same level of quality. The difficulty is unfortunately all over the place, you either destroy the enemy encounter or get oneshot yourself, there's rarely a middle ground. The BS encounters are mostly relegated to side quests which you can receive since the beginning of the game so you if you engage with them you will find yourself in pretty terrible situations, while the main story is mostly a gradual and fair increase in difficulty. Even in the endgame these OP encounters must be cheesed to not die instantly, which takes away from the fun, hence the "mixed" rating. The games is mostly magic based and there's a lot of magic spam.

Overall I find it a worse experience than BG1 because of these cheesy encounters, but it's still a good game with great quests, NPCs and dialogue. It goes on sale pretty often so wait for a discount.

I will only comment on the Enhanced Edition and the work of Beamdog, the original game from Bioware was discussed more than enough.

The single player version of the enhanced edition was alright in my opinion, it has some bugs and does not look pretty and rather clumsy by modern standards, but it was playable and enjoyable to a certain degree, I still would recommend it if it was the only possible way to play the game.

The multiplayer mode however, is very bugged close to unplayable. This is known for years and while Beamdog allows Neverwinter Nights to be patched by volunteers, this game has not been once patched in this decade. Playing multiplayer means permanent discounections, crashes and disappearing items all the time. And no we didn't use mods or any other thrid party applications. The original game was far more stable in multiplayer mode and that was coded about 20 years ago.

To make it quick, I can't recommend this game because Beamdog has plain and simple fucked it up and gives a damn about it since years. I would suggest get the original version if you can and play it on an emulator. And don't buy anything from Beamdog ever again! The Baldur's Gate series has deserved better treatment by far.

I'd like to dedicate this review to Edwin, who previously saved my ass twice, first by ambushing the Beholders with a mirage, and then by petrifying an entire (red) dragon.

Umm, it turned out the game is hard and confusing. I didn't enjoyed the game. The user interface is very unfriendly. It's like you have to read a thick manual book to be able to play this game properly.

I had an absolute blast with this game. I enjoyed the first one, but this one just blows it out of the water in terms of story and characters. BG3 still has the deepest characterisation and arcs of the three IMO, but I feel this one has a stronger plot and central villain, with a great performance by David Warner. Lots of funny moments throughout, some great locations, puzzles, enemies, etc., and the companions actually feel fleshed out this time. Well worth playing if you're a fan of RPGs.

The Throne of Bhaal expansion was also very enjoyable, if short, and I especially loved what they did with a certain character from the first game (and am now disappointed that BG3 ignores the potential character development they can have, because reconciling with said character was a highlight of the game for me).

Fun old school crpg. recommend only having one character and have the npc's join you. You can use EE keeper to change their class info if you want to run with a different party. I.e. make a fighter/cleric dual into a fighter/cleric multi. The personalities and their respective quests are fun. Add a lot of flavor.

fun for anyone who likes or wants to learn AD and D

I liked the open, lower level adventure of the first game but this was still very good. Buffing your party before every fight is not fun but it is required at higher levels.

LEGENDARY,

one of if not THE GREATEST RPG EVER MADE,

now remastered/enhanced for modern hardware.

Still one of the best games ever made. Great story. Memorable characters.

I'll be honest, I enjoyed this game a LOT less than Baldur's Gate 1 or Planescape: Torment. Too much combat, too much trash loot to sift through, lots of dialogue but very little in the way of interesting story being told, very samey brown environments. I ended up putting it on Story Mode and rushing through the main quest just to get it done, and then noped out entirely when it automatically started me on the Throne of Bhaal expansion.

If you REALLY liked the combat and inventory management of BG1 then you'll probably enjoy this as it's much more of the same, and for that reason I'll give it a thumbs-up. I just personally found it tedious and overly long, and the story it was telling wasn't worth the effort of actually playing it.

One of the greats - ignore the hours played, most are outside of Steam.