Quick Look: Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

@Haze said:

Now I need to decide whether to play this or just skip it and get Balder's Gate 2 on GoG.

They might let you import your completed BG1 saves if Shadows of Amn enhanced ever comes out. The original let you do that

I remember the Koveras->Sarevok reveal blowing my mind as a kid. It was in front of me the whole time!

Oh man, this is painful to watch. PRESS THE SELECT ALL PARTY MEMBERS BUTTON THEN ATTACK! Anyway, as a dude who bought the game when it first came out while in college, I played the shit out of this game and it's sequel. From what I can tell though, it doesn't seem much different. I guess compatibility for newer OSes was the main goal of the project. There seems to be a 2d drawn cutscene thrown in as well. Might get for the ipad maybe.

@Sword5 said:

Early Mages are a bummer. You cast magic missile. Now go to bed.

I seem to remember using slingshots a lot with those guys? Not sure how useful it was but at least they had something to do when out of magic missile.

@august said:

Total Dragon Age rip-off!

You almost made me do a spit take.

oh man, ryan, the LOWER the armorclass the better

@Haze said:

[snip..]

Now I need to decide whether to play this or just skip it and get Balder's Gate 2 on GoG.

Baldur's Gate 2 is the better game in terms of starting power of your dudes, because low level in AD&D is bad, really really bad... with BG 2 you start at level 7 or so, which is better in terms of raw power. Technology wise, there are mods that allow you to play BG 1 in the BG 2 engine and so forth. BG 2 can run on higher resolutions including widescreen, but you need mods for that.

You can tell by Ryan's voice that he's really not enjoying the game. I finished this game back in the day and yes, it's a difficult game and your party has to be well managed. I use to keep my thief in stealth and let them explore ahead. That way you're prepared.

Never rest outdoors. :)

Anyway, I feel like I need to defend the game, because it's a bit painful to watch them play it. It's one of the greatest RPG games, where managing your inventory and party members is a must. Every piece of loot is crucial. There's no random junk items.

I plan on picking this up again when it's available for Android.

Honestly...I don't know that I'm excited for this.

@TatsurouXIII said:

See, Ryan, it's not that games got better. They got simpler and require you to think less. You seem to be forgetting how old this game's core is. Sure, gear comparison windows are handy, but it's really not that much of a pain to do it manually.

The problem is that the basic movement just isn't fun in these games. It's clumsy. Sure, the systems are interesting and the world is cool to explore, but it would be so much better if the game was fun moment-to-moment instead of only in aggregate. Baldur's Gate is cool, but there's a ton of filler, everything takes too long, and the gameplay is just not good.

Taxi Driver is from 1976!

Silence of the Lambs is from 1991!

I can't believe I know that!

It looks like they spent all of half a day "enhancing" the UI and UX. That's very disappointing. :(

unpardonable Snider....

unpardonable!!

I always thought you wanted a low THACO!!?? so now to hit someone with and armor class of say 10, He's got to roll 30!!??

UMMM, that sucks

its not less than $10. It is $20.

Well they sure made this game look like shit.

why is ryan not looting those hobgoblins and not dragging the cursor to select his entire party omg worst quick look!

nah, this was pretty fun. thanks for quick looking a 10+ year old classic game for us, Ryan and Vinny :]

@bluecollaralaskan said:

I always thought you wanted a low THACO!!?? so now to hit someone with and armor class of say 10, He's got to roll 30!!??

UMMM, that sucks

No armor class improves as it gets lower not higher. The many wonders of AD&D 2nd ed.

Yup, Baldur's Gate is reaaaaaly rough to go back to. It's easy for me to excuse a lot of the things Ryan was getting wrong because that's one convoluted mess trying to learn without an understanding of 2nd edition D&D. It's even worse in Baldur's Gate 1, especially at the start where you're level 1, can be killed in one hit, and can cast a single spell a day. It doesn't get much better from there. It's a fucking brutally hard game.

My problem with the port is the lack of polish (armor armor) and the way it seems to make the Infinity Engine look worse in some ways. I have to also point to the Baldur's Gate: Tutu mod. You can get that up and running by buying either the big Infinity Engine pack which includes The Baldur's Gate saga, Icewind Dale saga, Planescape: Torment and Temple of Elemental Evil (not an actual Infinity Engine game) for the same price as this. Or you can get DRM free versions of Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 on GOG. Either way, you're getting a whole lot more game, and the things you're missing out on are minimal (though I really do love the idea of the WIld Mage NPC).

Being a *die hard* fan of the game, I'm still thinking of getting the Enhanced Edition to give me a reason to play through Baldur's Gate again, but remembering how rough the combat is, regardless of how tactical it is, I'm just not sure if I should.

Unless you're getting this to play on your ipad I really don't think this is the version to get. The gog bundle and easytutu works great and offers real enhancements. For less money too.

the scroll is cleric spells, ryan.

Emblemic. Ryan channels his inner Will Smith.

@CaLe: This game is awesome if you like thie kind of RPG. But it has not aged well. This game is from 1998 or something like that.

anyways, after the initial annoyance, watching you guys stumble through this game is pretty hilarious. equipping the flamedance ring and so on.

I can only imagine how you'd react faced witha genuinely difficult to figure out rpg interface like that of fallout 1 or the early heroes of might and magic games.

Anyways, I think baldur's gate with the tutu mod or whatever, that gives you things like tab to highlight things you can loot (absolutely essential) still holds up perfectly well today. I'm one of those cranky old grognard gamers who thinks modern games are dumbed down and who gave 100+ dollars to project eternity though, so ymmv.

@Sarx said:

Baldurs Gate 1 with BGtutu installed seems more enhanced than this "enhanced edition". A shame, really.

This so much... I really dont see what the point of this is.

My 'otel is clean as an elven arse!

Damn, I loved this game. The first time I played it I didn't even know english, I remember thinking Imoen and Jahira where hot.

All respect to Ryan, but given that these types of games are the domain of Dave, I was really hoping to see Dave at the helm with Vinny along for the ride (and bonus points with Drew).

@bluecollaralaskan: if he had a THAC0 of 20 and was attacking AC 10 he would have to roll =>10 to hit (20 - 10 = 10). If AC was 5 and he had a THAC0 of 18 he would have to toll =>13 to hit (18 - 5 = 13)

When Ryan says "he doesn't care" about the game he's playing, it really breaks the magic for me, and makes me ask why I'm even watching two dudes play a game for 50 minutes. Jeff played Funky Barn for four hours, and DAMMIT he cared about that farm.

If you want story you want Planescape: Torment, Dave.

Dave

DAVE

This does not look like $20 of enhancement.

@Mr_Skeleton said:

Is it coming out on Steam?

Also I'm very bummed Dave wasn't in the quick look.

Nope, it's only being sold on the PC platform from http://www.beamdog.com/

Kind of a shame that they're not spreading to other vendors, like Steam, but the guys who worked on this HD-ified remake, OverHaul games, are owned by Beamdog so I guess it makes sense.

This could achieve the goal of getting Beamdog as a service name a bit more out in the public. For which has worked because I only know about Beamdog through checking out this remake.

I'm... uh... what's a "plug tail"? And do I wanna know?

I have very fond memories of this game, but I came into it when it was new and with a firm grasp of AD&D 2nd edition. Ryan's experience is probably emblematic of what a lot of first timers might go through. I was pretty interested in this project, especially with the new characters. But at $20 It's a bit much.

@august said:

If you want story you want Planescape: Torment, Dave.

Dave

DAVE

Dave doesn't think Planescape Torment is one of the greatest games of all time. It's pretty much proof that he's wrong on everything.

You must get to grips with the basics of this game before venturing forth.

to anyone watching this who hasn't played these games before, you do not have to tell each and every individual party member to do a basic attack separately. you can just select em all and give them one attack order.

I'm surprised at how little damage everyone is taking. Even those Hobgoblins do some considerable damage to your guys if you're not smart and Ryan was just wasting everyone without really thinking or using any tactics.

I might've just made myself sound stupid but I just can't remember if there was a difficulty setting, in my mind there wasn't.

P.S. Will be getting this for my android tablet so I can play games and be with my family too.

Such an awesome game deserve to be returned to.

Can not wait for it Android release!

Where did Ryan get this for less than 10 bucks? I only see it for 20 bucks on the main website.

I think this game deserves a second quick look when Dave has time. It really needs it! Ryan just doesn't know what all is going on here...

@Lamashtu said:

All respect to Ryan, but given that these types of games are the domain of Dave, I was really hoping to see Dave at the helm with Vinny along for the ride (and bonus points with Drew).

Think Dave is really busy crunching for the new website beta ^_^

If I had to choose my favourite game of all time, it would be Baldur's Gate 2. I've finished that game well over ten times, and I still go back to it with another class combination about once a year. That said, going back to Baldur's Gate 1 is pretty fucking rough. Baldur's Gate 2 improved on that game at every single level, especially the gameplay. I think Baldur's Gate 1 is a good game, but honestly, it doesn't even compare to the best Infinity Engine games (Icewind Dale 2, Baldur's Gate 2 and Planetscape). Baldur's Gate 1 has a historical value, but if someone asked me which Infinity Engine games I'd recommend, I'd tell them to read a short overview of the story in BG1 and just jump right to BG2).

This "Enchanced Edition" seems pretty pointless on the PC. Baldur's Gate 1 with a few mods is more than enough. It's pretty cool to have on the iOS I guess, but I wouldn't personally play such a long game on my iPad.

Damnit, Ryan, if you're just going to basic attack with everyone you don't need to select them individually.

@AMyggen said:

If I had to choose my favourite game of all time, it would be Baldur's Gate 2. I've finished that game well over ten times, and I still go back to it with another class combination about once a year. That said, going back to Baldur's Gate 1 is pretty fucking rough. Baldur's Gate 2 improved on that game at every single level, especially the gameplay. I think Baldur's Gate 1 is a good game, but honestly, Baldur's Gate 2 is so much better.

This "Enchanced Edition" seems pretty pointless on the PC. Baldur's Gate 1 with a few mods is more than enough. It's pretty cool to have on the iOS I guess, but I wouldn't personally play such a long game on my iPad.

Playing BG1 with the Tutu mod is quite alright!

The game might not be worth twenty dollars (it is twenty dollars) for what it is, but it's still easily the best version of the game. I've played BG1 on the TuTu mod, and this is a lot better than that from what I've played (with no save deleting bugs that I had ran into on Tutu). The enhancements are a bit more subtle, like in some of the inner UI work, bug fixing, and performance in general. They never (and they couldn't) touch the graphics besides upscaling.

And you can adjust how often your party speaks during selection and attacking, which was in the original version. The VO's seem to be all original, besides some that they added for the main character.

That said, Baldur's Gate 1 is still really hard to go back to for someone who's not used to it. It's not until BG2 where you truly see the character development and dialogue that Bioware is known for (and subsequently squandered). BG2 is still my most favorite game of all time, but BG1 is still a great adventure of a game.

and for the love of god, press tab on items to get their name up quickly.

@AndrewB said:

My problem with the port is the lack of polish (armor armor) and the way it seems to make the Infinity Engine look worse in some ways. I have to also point to the Baldur's Gate: Tutu mod. You can get that up and running by buying either the big Infinity Engine pack which includes The Baldur's Gate saga, Icewind Dale saga, Planescape: Torment and Temple of Elemental Evil (not an actual Infinity Engine game) for the same price as this. Or you can get DRM free versions of Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 on GOG. Either way, you're getting a whole lot more game, and the things you're missing out on are minimal (though I really do love the idea of the WIld Mage NPC).

I'm glad you mentioned this version since very few people seem to know of its existence (including myself, until a Steam friend gave me a heads up). If people are looking for this full DnD pack - which, when combined with the BGtutu mod IMO represents much better value than either this 'Enhanced Edition' or the prices on GOG - they can get it from the Gamestop online store. I don't know of anywhere else to get the digital version, maybe Gamersgate?

I play BG2 once a year, every year. The game absolutely holds up.

YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY BEFORE VENTURING FORTH. Dammit.

Last edit: It looks like Ryan never turned on the AI scripting...

To everyone watching this who's taking Ryan's word/impression/whatever on it: the Infinity Engine isometric era is basically the RPG equivalent of 2D platformers. A early and significant peak in gaming that is well worth going back to if you enjoyed a successor such as Dragon Age.

@the_unabomber said:

I think this game deserves a second quick look when Dave has time. It really needs it! Ryan just doesn't know what all is going on here...

As someone who never played the BG games, I'd rather see a quick look done by someone who also has 0 or limited experience. Gives me a better idea of what I'm in for.