Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Baldur's Gate : Siege of Dragonspear [Your thoughts?]

When going through the forum I realized people often say " BG I, II and ToB". I do the same.
I forgot Siege of Dragonspear ever existed.

Mechanically it was literally BG2, the UI was improved together with sprites getting way higher resolutions etc.
The writing in the game wasn't necessarily that good but it was good enough and the only issue with the game was their "archaic" approach to certain subjects. Not worth digging into this aspect but that was the "louder" issue out there when it comes to Dragonspear. The story doesn't matter though, I finished BG2 so many times while knowing the story by heart so really the replayability is not about the story.

And it was the most recent take at making Baldur's Gate great again. Would be interesting to know your feeling about that game. It didn't become popular as far as I know. I played it once and never came back to it cause the story companions felt poorly written. Instead, I just went back to BG2 for one last run. A solo run. And finished my adventure with BG after killing Irenicus single handle until BG3 came out.

Did anyone else try it out and was there something there that you liked or disliked? I was really surprised that game was a failure but apparently bringing back BG2 in it's original form wasn't the way to go. Would be really cool to see BG2 fans opinions on it.

Okay story, great villain, mostly forgettable quests.
The thing that caught the eye of BG players was the bonkers encounter design. Expect facing 20 enemies at the same time, sometimes the framerate drops.
Many encounters in SoD can be considered the hardest in the series. Do you like fighting liches and dragons with a lvl 10 party? You better do, because SoD is all about extremely hard fights, it' probably the biggest flaw and the easiest way to notice it was made by another team.

I have no interest in it. I love BG1 and 2 to death, but an interquel is something I’ve never wanted or felt like I needed. It feels apocryphal to me.

I like SoD and find it to be a good and fun game. Don't see any reason to not include it in a BG run, and would much rather play it than ToB.

The only thing good about it is David Warner, and the fact that they added his amazing voice as an option for the player character.

I rather enjoy it. Very nice maps, good voice acting and a lot of returning actors, too - sadly, Jaheira's voice is missing.

A little odd on the atmosphere, it really stands apart from all the rest. That said, so did Throne of Bhaal, and it more or less does what ToB did for BG2. Higher level encounters, challenging combat that really amps up if you turn your difficulty slider up. But, I'm a twenty year veteran that plays through all of it twice a year, so that was rather welcome. I really like the combat encounters. Personally, I enjoy it more than I do ToB; as the problems are more... grounded.


I enjoy the villain, saw it coming a mile away, but that was fine. I was just happy to see him again. Also some fun new companions and all the companions that return in SoA. There's some fun combinations to try with quite some hilarious banter. Captain Corwyn stood out for me, I really liked that. Strong, silent, pragmatic. She has a job to do, people to protect and no time for nonsense. I liked that a lot. It's hard to find a character in Baldur's Gate that isn't a shouty parody of him/herself. I genuinely appreciated that.

That said, it goes the other way, too. An annoying Gnome, a shouty German... I don't care much for. Then there is Neera. Neera in particular, has the most annoying voice ever and they really upped the ante with her shouting in SoD.


Having said all this.... Starting SoA at level 12 is insanely overpowered, and it feels like cheating on a game I can already do blindfolded. So when I do a full saga run, I import my final-save from Sarevok's hideout, kick myself down five levels; I tell myself that Irenicus damaged me.

I liked it. It had it's flaws -- some of the side quests were dull, the gnome character was just okay and the game was overly linear. But it had lovely backgrounds and the EE version of the infinity engine is really great -- I never feel like I'm fighting the IE.

My favorite character was Corwin. She's a lawful neutral character done right and great counter example to people that think that alignment leads to cliched and/or unimaginative role playing. She believes in the law, she submits to authority. She'd rather not be here with you but she was ordered to do and she follows order. As you should. She would jump on a sword if the Duke of Baldur's Gate told her do so and thinks you should be ready to so as well.

Believable, interesting character. Minsc was Minsc and there were some funny lines with Dynaheir. I've seen it on sale for as low 9 dollars sometimes. I've paid more than that for worse movies.

It's fine. It sort of connects BG 1 and 2 and also settles the foreshadow which appeared in IWD 1's ending. Without it, the stories of BG 1 and 2 would not be consecutive.

And I think its story is somewhat better than BG 1. BG 1 contains more trivial quests; SoD lets you experience more memorable events. The final fight in SoD is also more impressive.

So far have never played it though I'm curious what Beamdog are actually up to if ever developing their own RPG (they seem on the lookout for Unreal Engine 4 artists atm according to their website). Am casually thinking about getting it, and am torn between picking it up, The White March expansions for PoE1 or Icewind Dale Enhanced (in parts because the original I never really played multiplayer, but wanted to try, so if somebody's interested...)



There's a direct connection between Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate?

Despite all the flaming received, the expansion is not that bad.
The companions are mostly interesting and varied(M`kinn and the captain Corwin you can recruit in the first game, for example), the returning companions dialogues are believable, the story was entertaining and the villain was great. Kinda missed Imoen but makes sense from a story point perspective.

The game itself is too linear and the side quests are uninspiring. For some encounters they went for epicness, making you fight demons and dragons with a lvl 10 party with +1 weapons and globe of invulnerability when you have to be fighting mephits in Athkathla.

It was a nice tide-in, but it also overlevels you when you start BG2 and it feels a little rushed sometimes, they wanted to make a lot of things in a short adventure.

Their main stories are not directly connected. But a certain unsolved matter you learn in IWD 1 will be settled in SoD. The story of IWD 1 happened before BG.

Yeah it is okay. I only played it this year for the first time, although I bought it a year earlier. The encounters are indeed hard, I was rather surprised at some engagements. I missed out on a lot of stuff, because I did not make use of the new companions a lot and generally tend to play with the ones that are available from the get-go. So I can not really comment on that, but there were some intriguing characters for sure. The antagonist was also nice, although the "villain with a point"-trope has been a bit overused lately, and I think the redemption was not entirely necessary.

It did make BG2 a fair bit easier, though, definitely and it was much more linear than BG2, something that I do not really enjoy, I like my central operation base and then work from there, but no game-breaker.

It was poorly received by players when it came out, mostly because players wanted a game as good as BG2, which naturally was too hard to achieve. Also PoE did that a year earlier so that was a recent standard. The biggest outrage though on the net was because it had a companion that told her story and part of it was being raised as a girl then turned man (or the other way around?). At first I thought that was unnecessary, too, but did not put much more thought into it. Then I played it, and it literally is one sentence within the first two hours of the game. It comes up, because Corwyn has a child and the child has a father, too, I think? Other than that it is not talked about really. To be honest it gave the rather bland character some depth and purpose. Anyway, it was unbelievably ridiculous to rage about it.

All in all, I say it was solid. Bought it for ten bucks, gave quite good additions to BG2, enhanced the storyline (although they did not reference it in BG2, due to timing, which feels somewhat odd), linear gameplay, decent characters.

Thanks for your input so far everyone Cool to have the opinions of others. In the end we all agree then it was good enough. I think they never aimed for more than that so there's that.

Yeah, it was. I mean, the originals hold a special place for a lot of people, including myself. I still play them religiously, and always have a good time. Following it up, or bringing something fresh to it will always be met with hesitation or even outright denial. That's fine, too. But in the end, one can tell a lot of effort, artistry and love for the originals went into it. It's a fun experience, if you allow it.

i enjoyed it, it did a considerably more impressive job of bridging the two games than BGT did back in the day, I was pretty happy with all the enhanced editions honestly. I was a little sad that they didn't get to make BG3 in some ways, although I can absolutely see why not at the same time.

They say they are working on an original IP game. They have definitely ruled out that they are working on a D&D game and also ruled out another EE (for now).

I played through it once. I don't remember much, except perhaps that everywhere I went it felt ... crowded? Afterwards I opened up a new game in BG I and got some fresh air.

Never played it. I own it, but am yet to get around to playing it. It’s an addon released years after the originals. Even if it were good, it will always be a tacked on addition in my mind - just as there is original StarWars trilogy and then there is everything else.

I enjoyed SoD and the Black Pits battle arenas well enough. Never really messed with the new companions that Beamdog added. In BG2 the first thing the Blackguard Orc guy does is murder the Order of the Radiant Heart so that was a reload for me. The Wild Mage I also found annoying. But overall I am very pleased with the work done to the Enhanced Editions. I will probably play SoD again whenever I do a full BG1 to BG2 playthrough.

It could not be as good as the other BG games, because they had to put it in the middle of bg1 and bg2 and it was very restricted regarding the story, it is more like a "filler arc". A very small DLC could have been sufficient for that 1 or 2 more levels, but I enjoyed it.