Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition

Alright. **Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition** is done and dusted. BG II is actually my all time favorite game. Although my first time playing the Enhanced Edition, I've easily played the original version forty to fifty times. It remains an all time great game even today, and I imagine this will continue to be perfectly playable years from now. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3028351318 ------------------------- So....**Shadows of Amn** is the base game. The story is a classic. While it is comical that all your companions not captured by *Jon Irenicus* somehow had business in *Athkatla*, it is pretty convenient since that is where you are being held prisoner to begin the game lol. Beyond that though, this story is an amazing continuation of the Bhaalspawn campaign. You can also really see *Beamdog's* hand in this updated version. The UI is cleaner, loading screens are gone, some new quests are added, some NPCs are rewritten a bit to make more sense, camera zoom, enhanced graphics, a lot of bug patches (there are still a couple quest bugs still, but not nearly as many), and continued addition of a few new series characters. Plus a new expansion of course. *Shadows of Amn* took me about 70 hours to complete being fairly thorough AND doing *Watcher's Keep*, but I would think that if you're less familiar with the game and the **2nd Edition AD&D ruleset**, you could probably add another twenty-ish hours to this (or more). https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3027153968 ------‐---------------- **Throne of Bhaal** is the conclusion to the *Bhaalspawn* story, and it's quite the epic conclusion. You do not want to skip this if you played *Shadows of Amn*. It took about seventeen hours for me to complete, but again, I'm very familiar with this expansion. ------------------------ **The Black Pits II** is a continuation of Beamdog's **The Black Pits** from the *Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition**, but standalone from the BG campaign. It takes place in **Thay** and actually has some legitimate side quests and story to go along with the arena battler. The first entry explored this a little, but this second entry really added depth to the arena. Still, at their core, *The Black Pits I and II* are there to teach you the AD&D ruleset, and if you're unfamiliar with these rules, you should play these expansions before diving into the base campaign. For me, it took roughly four hours to play through this with the story additions. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3028473605 --‐---------------------- As far as Steam Deck compatibility is concerned, it functions the same as BG1. You will want to switch out of the recommended controller layout in favor of a community layout or your own custom settings. I personally found "Baldur's Gate EE with character swap" to be perfect for Steam Deck play. I did also try out the *Legacy of Bhaal* difficulty setting for about seven hours before starting my main playthrough. Definitely doable, but you really need to be familiar with both the game and the ruleset to play this way IMO. Anyway, this entire *Enhanced Edition* was fantastic and a definite must play. With different party and character builds, you could easily log in hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay. Cost vs value is some of the best in gaming. [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, it would be appreciated. Cheers. https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/[/code]

GO FOR THE EYES BOO AAAAAAAAAA

Yo Baldur's Gate 3. I'm happy for you, and I'm gonna let you finish, but Baldur's Gate 2 is the best RPG of all time!

It's a good game, the writing is solid and there's a plethora of things to do outside the main arc, but honestly, it's punishing in a way that isn't fun after a while. Difficulty doesn't ramp up so much as become a vertical cliff that you've got to climb, then when you get to the top, you realise there're three more editions of the same cliff, stacked on top of one another. If you want any third party evidence of this, just look at the number of people who 'game the mechanics' to get through the bosses and dragons (there are dragons, it's D&D,) usually by doing the 'trap trick' or simply utilising effectively game-breaking "cheese" to accomplish their goal. If you want to play the game on Core Rules and above, you better hope you created your character correctly at the start (or even the start of the first game, if you're importing your character from one to the other) or you're screwed. I made this mistake, thinking I'd make up for any missing stats as I played; it's 2nd edition D&D, that's not a thing. I'm not saying 'don't play it' because you absolutely will get a kick out of the story and the feel of D&D, if you're a fan of the universe, there's a lot to love, just play it on Story Mode and save yourself the frustration of cake-walking some fights, only to be obliterated in one hit during the next one.

Incredibly good CRPG. Long, complex, replayable, challenging... You won't be disappointed.

Going to assume anyone reading these reviews either came from BG1 or BG3 and the game needs no explanation - I'd just recommend Quick Saving often as I ran in to weird movement bug a few times where characters will magically stack then get stuck on top of each other then can't move anymore.