Genre: RPG
Publisher: Atari
Developers: Overhaul Games
Released: November 15, 2013
Platform: Windows, OS X
Mode: Single, multi-player

Ratings

Story: 10/10
Design: 7.5/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Presentation: 7.5/10
Overall score: 8.7/10

As a person who started playing videogames not long after the umbilical cord was cut, I have no hesitation in stating that Baldur’s Gate II is the greatest RPG ever made. Yes, I’ve played them all, and undoubtedly, BG2 stands above old-school roleplaying games such as Wizardry, Betrayal at Krondor, Icewind Dale, Fallout, and Planescape: Torment.

Baldur’s Gate II was the complete game, featuring attractive graphics, a dark sweeping tale (before gritty dark stories became fashionable) with endearing characters so memorable that I still held fond memories of them ten years later, and stellar gameplay with such tactical depth that it put most strategy games to shame.

Yet when publishers Atari first announced Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition for release, I was far from excited. This was in spite of the fact that developers Overhaul Games promised to include in the enhanced edition both the base game and its fantastic expansion, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Not only this, but Overhaul marketed other new potentially exciting features, including higher resolutions and widescreen support, thirty new locations, more sidequests, new characters, all of which are romancable and a totally new standalone side story called The Black Pits 2: Gladiators of Thay.

Production values

Released in late 2000, Baldur’s Gate II is nearly fifteen years old. Compared to current day isometric view RPGs such as Diablo 3, the game’s old Infinity Engine seems lacking, yet at full HD, the game looks quite appealing for its age. Utilising the complete glory of 1080p, the game’s old-school artwork holds a nostalgic appeal, featuring beautiful 2D environments that add character, detail, and depth to the world.

Aside from the upgraded resolution, Overhaul Games have also improved the UI and the menus, though little else. Perhaps it is for the best, considering that unless they created an entirely new engine, they would have been unable to modernize every visual aspect of the game, hence resulting in inconsistency. For example, modern looking new spell animations would have seemed comical with the game’s older aesthetic style.

That being said, this conflict does exist in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition.

Storyline

Baldur's Gate II features one of the greatest stories ever told, and thankfully, the enhanced edition leaves the crux of the main narrative untouched. When you start the game, you wake up in a dungeon, where you are being tortured by a wicked mage named Jon Irenicus, who is trying to draw your innate abilities. You later learn that you are one of the off springs of Bhaal, the God of Murder, who has planned his rebirth through the death of his children.

Soon, you make your escape, only to be pursued through the game’s 300+ hours by Irenicus, as you befriend interesting companions, and experience a wide variety of beautifully crafted adventures that take you to locations which range from the exotic, to the desolate, to areas beyond your imagination. Created at a time when there were no focus groups, and mass market appeal was unheard of, the storytelling in this game is sometimes as good as literature, especially when compared to the cookie cutter fantasy adventures in games such as Dragon’s Age.

The new quests and characters added in the Enhanced Edition are a positive force to the game, and make for some fresh content. But some of this new content can be uneven, and at best, these additions to the narrative of Enhanced Edition can be summed up as an interesting new flavour that can’t replace the original.

Gameplay

Be warned, if you’ve never experienced an old-school RPG, then Baldur's Gate II may prove harder to crack than an orc’s skull. As with the original release, Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition features the same wonderfully unforgiving D&D rules which demand that you sacrifice your first born at the altar. The game’s learning curve is steep, and my recommendation is that gamers use strategy guides to acclimatize themselves with the lack of spoon feeding. Most adventures in the game require careful planning, where spells must be memorised in advance, parties must be selected carefully, and the right supplies must be stocked (for there are no shops in dungeons). Moreover, certain difficult adventures, available in the second chapter of the game, must only be experienced when your party has become powerful enough – which won’t happen until many chapters later.

There is no doubt that the game sometimes requires immense patience. In one adventure which I had reloaded for the umpteenth time after my party was slaughtered yet again by a giant golem, I managed to get the monster stuck behind a door. Here, my sole surviving member, an elven archer, fired arrows at the creature, which only did the slightest of damage. When my archer ran out of arrows, I had him go close to slash the monster, which although did damage, had my elf come too close to the punching golem, almost resulting in his death. So naturally, my elf slept in the corner until he healed, and repeated the process until the golem was finally dead.

This entire battle with the golem took over an hour of real time, and a few days in the game! What is more taxing than the game’s difficulty is the amount of bugs in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, where the adventure crashes often. What’s more, Overhaul Games haven’t made as many additions to the actual gameplay, especially considering the game’s hefty 25 US dollar price tag, which is half the price of a new game.

Final words

Enhancing a nearly 15-year-old game is a monstrous proposition, and although Overhaul Games haven’t reinvented the Baldur’s Gate wheel, they’ve certainly slain the dragon. But, is Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition worth your coin? Well, the answer lies in how badly you wish to relive one of the most influential video games without the annoying hassle of modifying the original version yourself. Certainly, the Enhanced Edition is expensive, considering that at less than half the price, the original game can be purchased and even improved upon through free mods via GoG.com. In the end, it is your path to choose, but the adventure must be had.