Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition (Nintendo Switch)

Product Information

For some, the slower nature of these Dungeons and Dragons inspired titles mark them down as relics of a bygone age, superseded by the more accessible RPGs they inspired. But with portable console play now possible, anyone who has been previously tempted by the much-lauded history of the games has no excuses to prevent giving them a try. The truly fascinating part of Beamdog’s implementation is that it actually makes the game much faster to play. After just a few hours I’m sailing along on my adventure, much further along than I’ve been in past iterations of the game without putting in more hours. This is the best revamped control scheme for an entire genre since Firaxis released XCOM: Enemy Unknown in 2012. Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear supports the following languages: English, French, Italian, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Ukrainian Walgrave made it clear that making sure the game works on a controller is no longer a concern. Much of that work was already done when Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel came to consoles. “It’s more about memory,” said Walgrave. “It’s just about memory and processing power.”

BioWare‘s seminal classic set the stall for franchises like Neverwinter, Divinity, Pillars of Eternity and their own Dragon Age. With the current resurgence in the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons, it’s the perfect time for Beamdog to port Baldur’s Gate over to current consoles and show us all how it used to be done. Using a script or add-on that scans GameFAQs for box and screen images (such as an emulator front-end), while overloading our search engine I can't think of anyways how they could have improved the port to a console control there is simply no way to truly replace mapped keys on a keyboard. I have gotten decent at the console controls but I think if I walk away from this game before a full play through it will not be be because I was bored or it was "too hard" it will be because of the controls. Please note I do not at all blame the company who ported it I think they did as good a job as you can given the circumstances. The game’s tutorial, unfortunately, explains virtually none of this, and there are a number of other thoughtful additions I found just by messing around and exploring.Objective truth can be found in the natural sciences, not in videogame journalism or art criticism.

That's a pretty ignorant statement to make. It's like saying the people who prefer Super Marios World over New Super Mario Bros' Wii U are only doing it for nostalgic reasons. Or that people who prefer Final Fantasy 6 over Final Fantasy 15 are just blinded by their own nostalgia. Some people throw around and misuse the word nostalgia far a lot. Explore a brand new chapter in the Baldur’s Gate Saga! Siege of Dragonspear is a full expansion to Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, with 25+ hours of adventure in the classic style of the original RPG. People should recognice that most of the time people who like different things than they do themselves just have different opinions, it has very little to do with nostalgia. It should be noted that these specific Baldurs Gate games are the most recent Enhanced Versions and , IMHO , they truly are the best versions of which to play enjoy these amazing old school RPG's. Again, the visuals all look great. The frame rate of everything in motion is absolutely spot on. Zoomed in or Zoomed out - the graphical integrity of this enhanced version of the original Infinity graphics engine hold up as beautifully as you will ever see them. Also, the colors pop and the graphics are sharp and pixel perfect on the smaller portable display of the Switch and this game has never looked better!As for the games themselves, there’s much that’s been written about why they’re timeless classics. Let us point you to our colleagues over at PC Gamer for their definitive verdicts on the PC versions of the titles now expertly ported to Switch: As far as the multiplayer aspect of this bundle goes, so far there's nothing to report beyond the fact the main menu has a "multiplayer coming soon" placeholder. Beamdog says its hard at work on that element of these enhanced editions, so we're sure it'll turn up soon, but it's still something of a shame this hasn't been implemented for launch here. Combat can feel tough and awkward to the uninitiated; the pausable real-time Advanced Dungeons & Dragons system at work here – with its often mind-bending, sometimes soul-destroying dice-rolling antics – can be baffling, especially in the early parts of the first game. You’ll find yourself dying at the hands of the weakest of enemies in the opening handful of areas, your low-level party prone to waving their weapons around uselessly at fresh air as they take a beating from a handful of imps, or get ravaged by a bunch of tiny rats. Combat can be tough, sluggish and hard to get your head around to begin with and the early stages are tough going

There are no objective ways of measuring quality in a videogame, just differrent opinions. Sometimes some opinons are more popuar than others, but with the course of time they do change. I've been playing BG1 & 2 since they came out. By far 2 of my favorite games of of time. It's getting hard for PCs nowadays to be able to play this old classic game, and part of the reason I decided on a Switch was because Nintendo actually ported it when no one else would. Well, it was worth it. Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition brings you the classic RPG with fresh updates for modern adventurers. Customize your hero, recruit a party of brave allies, and explore the Sword Coast in your search for adventure, profit…and the truth. The enhanced edition includes: For example, you can opt to play in the new Story Mode, which makes the game a walk in the park, but veterans of the genre and fans of the franchise won’t play lower than the Normal difficulty, and the challenge hike is real. Purists may even choose to play by the true D&D 2nd Edition Ruleset, which is another thing altogether. You begin by creating your protagonist, which in itself can take a while. In time-honoured D&D fashion, it’s not as simple as just modifying a face and choosing a race. Each class has several variants which alter stats, abilities and equipment (a Ranger might opt to be a Beast Master, for instance, or a Thief could choose to specialise as an Assassin or Bounty Hunter). Each character has a moral alignment from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil, which affects how they interact with each other, with NPCs and the world. Stats can be rolled, re-rolled and tweaked within their parameters and you can choose to be adept in certain weapons and techniques. Levelling is slow, and the gear you can use will have a bigger impact on how you progress than the numbers you’re chasing.If it does, Baldur’s Gate 3 will be all the better for it. As Beamdog’s Switch port of the series’ first entry has shown me, throwing out the mouse and keyboard tradition that’s become so ingrained in computer RPGs can work wonders. Not only did it allow Beamdog to create a port that suited the controls of Nintendo’s handheld console, but it did so in a way that’s as appealing to new players as it is refreshing to old ones.

I did make use the font size manipulation features and the added Nintendo Switch Lite Zoom features to make everything very easy on the old eyes. No need to squint to see anything on the small screen!Story plays a major part, which is a hardly surprising if you’re familiar with BioWare’s later offerings like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic or Mass Effect. The writing throughout both Baldur’s Gate games is excellent, with moral choices that will make you think and decisions that will have you second guessing yourself for a while after. It’s not fully voiced, so there’s some reading involved if you want the full picture in each instance. Going from the old school original mouse and keyboard controls to a modern controller setup (of the Switch) left me quite curious and even somewhat apprehensive to play this version. However, I am relieved to say that the conversion felt very intuitive! What many people seem to mistake for a nostalgia is simply the fact the different people have different preferences.