➤ Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, review 🎮

For some time now, the sequels seem to be gaining less and less favor from critics and audiences, but old fans of the Baldur's Gate series know well that for the creature of BioWare it was not at all like this. If in 1998 the first chapter in fact established itself within its own genre as the masterpiece that we still remember today, in 2000 Baldur's Gate II at least managed to equal the company, bringing us back to its endless fantasy universe based on Dungeons & Dragons. Thanks to the magnificent combination, this same universe has become a real cult over the last decade, surviving in the memory of fans even the many other role-playing games that have arrived on the market. But dwelling on the success of Baldur's Gate we would certainly end up repeating what was already said on the occasion of the review of the Enhanced Edition of the original, dating back to exactly one year ago. Twelve months later, Overhaul Games has finally brought Baldur's Gate II back to our screens. Given the opportunity offered to us, we naturally took the opportunity to return once again to shoot for the Costa della Spada, in order to see what the developers have been up to in this new remake.

Baldur's Gate II returns to our screens thanks to its Enhanced Edition: it is immediately nostalgia!

Prison is megl che uan

To make sure we do things right, the guys at Overhaul Games have included in this Enhanced Edition both the basic version of Baldur's Gate II, subtitled Shadows of Amn, and the Throne of Bhaal expansion, dating back to 2001.

Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, review

With them basically ends the story dedicated to the protégé of the magician Gorion, known during the adventure told in the first chapter. Hoping that even in this case you are already aware of what is narrated inside Baldur's Gate II and its expansion, let's do a brief summary for the benefit of those who have only recently played the first chapter (once again, we only justify you if you were too young at the time). This time the protagonist of the adventure wakes up in a dark prison, without remembering how he got there. However, he soon learns that he has been imprisoned there by a mysterious wizard named Jon Irenicus, who intends to perform some experiments on him. Just as he is being tortured by the wizard, our hero witnesses the intervention of the old acquaintance Imoen, who frees him from the cage in which he is imprisoned. However, it will only be the beginning of a troubled story, given that it will be the protagonist's childhood friend who will pay the price, who will therefore find himself with many questions and with the mission to find her again, in a territory unknown to him as the Amn region. The events of Throne of Bhaal instead tell us the final moments of the struggle between those who represent the progeny of the God of Murder, with our protagonist again involved in the first person: needless to say, even in this case, the plot remains of the highest level even after more than 10 years from its realization.

The formula does not change

The Enhanced Edition of Baldur's Gate II follows quite closely what the development team did for the first chapter, starting with the addition of the new characters: three of them are actually already known acquaintances, since they are the monk Rasaad yn Bashir , of the wild sorceress Neera and of the blackguard Dorn Il-Khan, all of which can once again be recruited within their gaming party.

They are joined by the mysterious thief Hexxat, who adds her own storyline to the story of Baldur's Gate II, already composed of a main plot and many sidequests that give the game a practically endless dimension. Even the aforementioned trio returns with new quests regarding the background of each of its components, for which some new ad hoc settings have been created both within Shadows of Amn and in Throne of Bhaal. A rather welcome addition, given that it is unreleased game material, although - the members of Overhaul Games don't want it - the difference with the content originally created by BioWare is quite evident. Continuing the list of similarities with the previous Enhanced Edition, in Baldur's Gate II version 2013 we also find the mode entitled The Black Pits 2, which is practically an evolution of the Black Pits already seen a year ago. Again, the main feature is to make the player fight inside an arena. In this sense, the effort of the developers in giving the mode a context, such as the dialogue parts present and the arrival of a new figure inside the arena, that is to say a sort of presenter who comments what happens during the battle, is appreciable. Although the game tutorial is always present, revised for the occasion, it should be borne in mind that even Baldur's Gate II is not among the simplest role-playing games ever, so newbies would perhaps do well to recover the first chapter before launch into this. Particularly welcome, since death is always around the corner, the possibility of using a button to perform the quick save.

Always towards the Infinity

We know that it is more or less from the beginning of the review that we have been repeating it: the operations carried out by Overhaul Games on Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition directly follow those of a year ago.

The technical sector also fully confirms this statement, within which the zoom remains almost useless, given that the grain of the images persists if the detail is increased. Support for wide screens naturally returns also on this occasion, while the work done to recreate the cutscenes of the first Baldur's Gate was not carried out this time: good news especially for the purists of the old role-playing game, to whom the reinterpretation of the Overhaul Games comic strip footage was not liked. According to the developers, the time saved was spent in optimizing and improving the original textures used in the game dated 2000: the touch is there and it shows, but we are far from highlighting shocking differences. Multiplayer also returns and the ability to play the main adventure together with other people. Not exactly a bombproof netcode, however, as Overhaul Games itself warns about some problems that still concern it.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

The editorial team uses the ASUS CG8250 Personal Computer
Processor: Intel Core i7 860 at 2.8 GHz
Memory: 8 GB of RAM
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670
Operating system: Windows 7 64-bit

Minimum requirements

Operating system: Windows XP
Processor: 1 GHz
Memory: 512 MB
Video card: OpenGL 2.0 compatible

Comment

Prezzo: 22,99€ Digital Delivery: GOG, Steam Resources4Gaming.com

8.5

Readers (46)

9.0

Your vote

At the cost of repeating ourselves to the point of exhaustion, even the final considerations on Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition perfectly resume those made a year ago. In this case, however, it is necessary to highlight the content added by Overhaul Games to a foundation in itself already solid. The Black Pits have become more fun with the additions of this version, while the presence of what are four new characters with their additional story is certainly a pleasure. But there is always the same dilemma: it is worth spending the 22,99 euros of this version, or contact GOG.com to take home the original version of the game, including the Throne of Bhaal expansion, for 9,99 EUR? The decision is yours, bearing in mind that also in this case we will see a tablet version of the game and that, by word of the same insiders, the realization of a possible brand new Baldur's Gate III will depend on this project.