Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition (Nintendo Switch)

Product Information

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. 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.

What many people seem to mistake for a nostalgia is simply the fact the different people have different preferences. 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! 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. Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition supports the following languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese Combat can be tough, sluggish and hard to get your head around to begin with and the early stages are tough goingAs 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: 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.

It all works deftly and is integrated so smoothly that I rarely, if ever, feel the need to switch to the alternative cursor-based control scheme. As for everything outside of movement, the port handles that through full use of the Switch’s many buttons and shoulder pads. You might not be able to navigate its menus as fast as you would with a mouse, but that was never on the table. 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! 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.

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. Legendary Dungeons & Dragons classics are now on Nintendo Switch™! Immerse yourself in an epic RPG series where every choice matters. Play over 100 hours of adventure in enhanced editions of Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II— plus the full Siege of Dragonspear expansion! They even added a few small subtle details and item fixes that make the gameplay even smoother. Upping item piling dramatically was a huge relief (esp in BG1 when you could essentially only carry 60 arrows at a time, 20 each slot, now its 80 per slot, that's 240.. game changer), now you can go beyond 5 scrolls/potions and 20/40 ammo per slot, which gave me goosebumps when I discovered that (no lie). Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition supports the following languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Korean, Simplified Chinese Baldur’s Gate 3 is the next major RPG from Larian Studios (the team behind the Divinity games). After watching a lengthy gameplay demo, I spoke with David Walgrave, the game’s senior producer, about whether it was even possible to make such a complex, beautiful experience run on the Switch.

One bizarre thing the game does is swap automatically from mouse controls to driving controls after combat ends. This is annoying because you may be trying to select some loot for example and then suddenly your characters are running out of position. 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! 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.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.

One thing I don't like is that selection of interactable things in the environment is done somewhat randomly based on the direction you're moving. If there are bats in a cave and you meant to loot a barrel for example you may have to fight to select the correct thing.

Latest Reviews

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. Is there any shot in hell this game runs on Switch at any point in time? “Not yet,” said Walgrave. “We’re currently focusing on PC. We’ll start thinking about other platforms as soon as this one is done.” Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate 2: Enhanced Editions aren't magical ground-up reworkings or spectacular remasters; these are games that are showing their age in many ways and there’s no doubt that some of the more recent tributes to the glory days of the Infinity Engine – games such as Divinity: Original Sin or Pillars of Eternity – are, in many ways, more readily accessible and appealing to modern audiences. However, these are still classics of the genre that are absolutely worth persisting with. Once you get to grips with some of their more antiquated ways you’ll be handsomely rewarded with some of the deepest combat, best writing, voice-acting and characters you’re likely to find in the genre. The Switch really is turning into an RPG-lover’s dream machine. 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. Having to press 3 or 4 buttons on a console controller to accomplish what one key would do on the PC version is killing me slowly.