Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition - Pre-orders & Release Date

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Overhaul Games has launched the website for Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. You can pre-order the game on Beamdog for $24.95 for PC and Mac. The game will be released on November 15th.

Kidnapped. Imprisoned. Tortured. The wizard Irenicus holds you captive in his stronghold, attempting to strip you of the powers that are your birthright.

Can you resist the evil within you, forge a legend of heroic proportions, and ultimately destroy the dark essence that haunts your dreams? Or will you embrace your monstrous nature, carve a swath of destruction across the realms, and ascend to godhood as the new Lord of Murder?

Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition brings this critically acclaimed role-playing experience to PC, Mac, iPad, and Android.

• The Final Chapter - Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition includes Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, the epic conclusion of the Bhaalspawn saga.
• Four New Party Members - Bundled with the PC and Mac versions and available as DLC for iPad and Android, four new characters can join you on your journey. At the behest of his dark patron, Dorn Il-Khan plunders and defiles the Sword Coast. Hunted by Red Wizards, Neera the Wild Mage evades and disrupts the Thayans at every turn. Exercising his growing combat mastery, the monk Rasaad yn Bashir leaves his former allies to hunt the dark figure that corrupted his brother. A mysterious thief in service to mysterious master seeks powerful artifacts from across the globe. Recruit them, use their powers, and uncover over 30 new locations.
• The Black Pits 2: Gladiators of Thay - Explore the tactical depth of high-level Dungeons & Dragons combat. Undermine your captors and prey upon their weaknesses while you dodge traps and battle for your life against Demi-Liches, Mind Flayers, and Githyanki.
• Easy Multiplayer - Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition makes it easy to find, list, and join multiplayer games, even while behind a firewall.
• Widescreen and More - Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition features full widescreen support, remastered area artwork from original renders, and a host of other interface and gameplay improvements.

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You can visit the link here for screenshots, and more info.

 

Forgive me if I'm not exactly ecstatic about this announcement...

 

It looks the same as BG2...

 

NPC mods, tactics/AI mods, banter mods and tweaks allow anyone to exceed greatly that which is promised by Beamdog as far as BG2:EE is concerned. And all for the price of BG2 off GoG (as low as $2.99 in one of their sales, iirc!). Compare that to $24.95, for a vaguely improved multiplayer support, a game which requires all existing BG2 mods to be re-written to accommodate the engine changes, and which will require numerous rounds of play-testing and patch-releasing before it becomes reasonably stable; not to mention that the damn thing still won't run correctly on most Intel platforms!

As we say in the UK, bu**er that.

 

BG:EE is the game some people envisioned BG1 should be. They fixed a lot of flaws alright, including most of the ones which made the game more fun and gave it character. I've spent a decade playing this game and I take great pride in discovering complex or situational but incredibly effective exploits of all kinds - only to have the majority of these removed simply because a lot of modders are apparently Lawful Neutral. Game balance doesn't even enter the argument - it didn't even matter if these exploits or distinguishing features were gamebreaking or just plain fun or not.

The only thing I liked about BG:EE was the new content, especially the new NPCs, but even they're not worth playing a neutered BG2.

 

I think Paracelsi nailed it quite astutely.

 

I see "30" new areas to explore. That's a whole new expansion in itself. A new NPC Evil Thief. Yes, many things added are already included in the mods, but of course now you don't have to worry about installing new mods and breaking your game. It is now a clean install from the get go. Once they remove the bugs that is. Which I am sure there will be a few until that happens. They did start releasing many updates right away after the first release though. Probably will be the same with this release as well. You also have to consider they have added many new kits after the release of BG:EE. They will be incorporated automatically in BG2:EE. They are not listed as new content per se. Some of those kits are pretty fun to play. The Dragon Disciple Sorcerer, which is basically a Sorcy with even more of a limited Spell selection, some Fire-breathing abilities and an upgraded to d6 HD. A nice variant to play. The Dwarven Defender is pretty awesome as well.

BG:EE was and is still fun for me. The NPCs are awesome. Dorn has a great story and a unique but not overpowered Sword. The monk has a good story, but his character is weak. Though if he will get powerful in BG2:EE.

I will be purchasing the game.

 

Can honestly say, BG was painful to play. BG Tutu made it possible for me to actually play through the game. BG:EE made it so the game was balanced for the levels you were playing.

Graphics look a lot cleaner with the enhanced versions as well. The widescreen support is stable, the loading and saving is a breeze (finally) as well.

There's a ton of positives that came with overhaul games enhancements. So don't just listen to the nay-sayers "there's already a mod for that". New players will not seek out mods. Heck, there haven't been any new players, so I'm okay with getting some new people and solid multiplayer support added in.