Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition

I've been playing this game since release in 2000. Started playing it with my dad and we played for ages until he passed 5 years ago. This game is amazing and will always remind of my old man. The story telling is great. The DnD base it provides translates so well to even current editions. This game is worth the 3000+ hours and even more.

I don't know if I am just old, but there is no game like Baldur's Gate 2. I bought BG3 and played it few times through campaign... and its good, but for me, its not even close to Baldur's Gate 2 Saga.
Basically what I dislike from the most of new games is actually a world that is drawn and illustrated, rather then 3d one, where pretty much everything/every game looks the same. Nothing can give me immersion the way Baldur's Gate 2. Voice acting, music, ambient noise, sounds when passing by... its probably just a nostalgia for a certain era of gaming (I guess the same can be said for the movie era's as well, 90ies were crazy)... but BG2 is a masterpiece. It was masterpiece back in a day and I would say that enhanced edition is great as well.
Every little while I reinstall it and play it again.
BG2 and Fallout 2, still waiting for the game that will dethrone these.

Good game but doesn't quite hold up as well as the first did.
The beginning is overwhelming with the amount of events that take place and stuff to do be done rather than starting you off in a focused direction which gradually branches out and is fun right from the beginning to the end. In this you're thrown into this massive city off the bat with tons of people to speak to, quests to collect, conflicts to resolve etc, which detracts heavily from the pacing of the first. Also the main quest is extremely linear and has a habit of getting you locked into these very long chapters. The pathing is also somehow way worse than first game's too and outright frustrating at times.
The game has a ton of dialogue and it's not very good for the most part, party members never seem to shut up with their constant inane attempts at humour or boring you with their feelings, worries and emotional dribble, they really overdid it I feel.
With all that out way, it's still a very fun and endearing game once it gets going, the dungeons are neat and the encounters are challenging - requiring you to use every spell/tool at your disposal to progress past them and also it's damn beautiful to look at, the art, audio and atmosphere are incredible and definitely a major highlight of the overall experience.

Before you play any Baldur's Gate, understand: This is was the bar BG3 aspired to. This was the sequel that beat the original BG. This was peak DnD gaming short of tabletop. It's still great. It will always be great.

“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 disappointed 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.

Awesome game. If you like RPGs, consider trying BG1-2 after a bit of research to see if it's something you'd like to try. If you like CRPGs, buy it now. It's never a guarantee that you'll like x because you like y, but I see absolutely no reason why a CRPG fan shoudn't try this. I know it's easy to scoff at old games that people tout as the greatest ever out of countless games and who knows how many since its release. But this game is legit.
The main thing that surprised me is just how much content it had without being full of forgettable stories. As a BG3 addict who then went and played the first two games: Being so old, I was worried about the quality of BG2's side content, I couldn't be more wrong. At some points of BG1, I felt like the game was fairly bare; I did most side content I could, but did not care for much outside of the main story. However with BG2, the content-packed adventure is there like BG3. Tons of interesting characters to meet, side character arcs to witness, companion questlines, unique areas to explore and discover, interesting side adventures to complete, more unique dungeons, etc. The scope of the side adventures can become much much more than expected as well involving old gods, cults, and the most feared DnD monsters. The various strongholds are a particularly fun side activity. Each have their own fleshed out questline, followed by further little stories that happen as time passes.
I've never been a fan of real time with pause gameplay, so it took me a while. I had no idea about stuff like when I should pause or when I should use my abilities or should I save certain things for later. It's just a case of thinking it's more complex than it actually is. After a bit of experience, you can figure out what you need to do. I'd recommend setting auto-pause on cast and when enemies are spotted at least. There's also a bit of automation you can setup within the characters' profiles.
I enjoyed the hell out of it when it clicked. There's a decent-sized selection of classes, subclasses, races, all with their own attacks, abilities, spells, etc. The progression of some builds is especially crazy. With little spoilers, mages specifically have some insane shit. There's no shortage of enemies to use these on either. There are a bunch of fun unique enemies and bosses to defeat, and so many are from side quests or random exploration. It's also fun that it requires a bit of strategy and preparation for a couple of fights, like an actual adventure. If combat never clicks, the rest of the game is still 1000% worth playing even if you must lower the difficulty or cheat.
If you ignore visuals, I believe this game easily stands up to modern RPGs.

9/10

BG2 is one of the best games ever made and its one of my favorite games. it is THE forefather of all modern RPGs. if you love D&D then you must play this game. the story is great, the writing is great, the combat can be very challenging and the game is well balanced for a role play.

considering that its very dated, just like the first game. it utilizes the same glorified turn based combat from BG1, the same antiquated 2e ruleset and it looks awful. it also isn't a *true* RPG like Mass Effect or BG3. you can make various choices throughout the game but their impact is limited on story and the world.

despite its age, this game is worth the time. you WILL be rewarded by completing this game on AD&D cores rules. it will kick your ass. you won't know what to do. you will develop core memories. you will try and try again until you figure out how to get past that battle. when you *do* get past that battle you will reflect on how simple it was all along. you will repeat this process several times until you eventually achieve your destiny.

considering all that, DO NO PLAY THIS GAME ON THE HARDEST SETTING WITHOUT CHEATS. it is NOT fun or rewarding and it shouldn't have even existed. i cheated to get through it. i literally had an instant heal and instant kill button to finish it. nobody will be impressed with you completing LoB difficulty, we will just mock you for wasting your time on such lazy, trash setting after being warned not to. in fact, i am judging you right now for even considering that it may not be as bad as i am suggesting, that somehow i made build mistakes that you will avoid with your superior skill. i am also very condescendingly judging you for taking this warning as some sort of challenge that you have to accept. you do NOT have my knowledge or skill in this game and you prolly never will. i have solo'd the entire OG series with several different classes. i know this game better than 99% of the people who have ever beaten it. trust me when i tell you that LoB is entirely unfun and that you will regret trying to get through it.