Booting up the original reveals the extent of the work Beamdog has done here, as it was designed in the days when we drooled over resolutions in the neighborhood of 800圆00. In this new Enhanced Edition, Beamdog's clearly learned some lessons from its first attempt at enhancing the franchise last year, and its new content and built-in tweaks and conveniences render it a generally satisfying ride for newcomers.īG2EE even looks like the 2000 version, down to the cutscenes (which were sadly replaced in last year's Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition). Then, as now, Baldur's Gate II's stats will lead you down countless labyrinthine passageways if you let them, but there’s something ingenious about a game that uses an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons ruleset and still gives you at least a fighting chance of survival. Thirteen years may have passed since the original release of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, but I still remember pulling out the 263-page user's manual, feeling my eyes widen in intimidation at stats like “THAC0,” and chucking it to the side and jumping in without it.
