Contents
- 1Introducing the Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
- 1.1Siege of Dragonspear music
- 1.2Graphics
- 2Game area and story
- 2.1Game area
- 2.2Random encounters
- 2.3Story: the beginning - first dungeon
- 2.4The rest is over
- 3Story cont'd
- 3.1Getting ready
- 3.2The bridges
- 4Story Cont'd
- 4.1The Coalition camp
- 5The Siege of Dragonspear
- 5.1To the Nine Hells
- 6The Crusade grand finale
- 6.1The bitter ending
- 7Companions and enemies
- 8Conclusion
- 8.1Discussion
Game area and story
Game area
The Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear game still takes place on the Swords Coast (refer to the BGEE review for details about the game universe and different areas). For now, they’ve just given us some new areas and a new map. As you follow Caelar Argent’s Crusade which comes from the north, you obviously head north of the city of Baldur’s Gate to join with them. Unfortunately, assuming I haven’t missed anything, you won’t learn exactly where in the “north” the crusade originated, but my guess would be somewhere around the Start Mounts area or so. Soon the Crusade takes possession of the ruins of the Dragonspear Castle and makes a base of operations inside it.
The Siege of Dragonspear game area itself includes couple areas from the original Baldur’s Gate. Those are mostly unchanged, though shrunk as to include only pieces necessary for the Siege of Dragonspear storyline. Then there are the outer areas between the city and the Dragonspear castle, plus the short expedition to the Avernus (first level of Nine Hells). And than some dungeons including caves under the Dragonspear castle and ruins of the old temple of Bhaal.
Random encounters
I would also like to mention one new thing Beamdog added to Siege of Dragonspear. Unlike in BGEE (and even BGIIEE), there are brand new random encounters. While previously there were just a few maps which were just had continuous respawning, there are now special random encounters. There are about 3 or 4 new small maps, some of which even contain a special dungeon of their own!
Story: the beginning – first dungeon
The first place the you start in is inside some dungeon underneath the city. The timeframe this takes place in is about two weeks after slaying Surevok and hunting down his folowers. Now you find yourself hunting down the remaining officer of Sarevok’s forces, Korlasz. There are some ordinary things to do, besides killing Korlasz, like helping some undead getting their rest (by some more killing), bringing stuff to certain places, etc. Unless you create new characters, you can just continue with your old party here. Also, most of the equipment gets imported but not all. You loose the bag(s) you were previously holding, as well as pouches. So basically the items that will be carried over are only most of your important stuff, as well as some of your best magic items.
This can hurt you somewhat as there are not that many really good magic items in the Siege of Dragonspear. Only by the very end of the game are you able to obtain items of equivalent “strength”. This initial part of the game pictured above is mostly a kind of tutorial, so you can expect most of the enemies to be pretty easy here. Though there are some traps and other hurdles to watch out for, so it is good to be cautious either way. With the new game diary and all, I’ve been occupied most of my time playing just wandering about trying finding my way.
I am not sure whether this is due to the fact that I’m playing it for the first time, or because some of the tasks or instructions are not as clear as they could be. Or perhaps a little bit of both. Though I sometimes also experienced these problems even in the old Baldur’s Gate (and Baldur’s Gate II). All things considered though, thinking about it, I would still say the game is OK despite that. Making it much more simpler than it is would make the game end up like most of the modern games today, which are marketed towards idiots. It’s no fun playing those — a proper RPG must contain some level of uncertainty. Only then can you really be encouraged to explore and have fun while doing it. It’s not like you’re constantly lost here in BGEE or Siege of Dragonspear, but it does happen from time to time. Well at least to me it does. And some of those ‘stuck’ situations are sometimes actually bugs which get fixed sooner or later. I encountered at least one problem which was confirmed to me and Beamdog already had it fixed by the time I asked them for help.
You also find some of Sarevok’s old papers here in the dungeon so you can learn how it all began. After slaying Korlasz (and all the rest of them, plus doing all the quests here if you wish) you leave the area to go for some well-deserved rest as the Hero of Baldur’s Gate. As there is nothing else to do, all your companions leave you at that moment. (At least they leave the items they had in their inventories to you). This also severs the romances from BGEE, which is somewhat strange if you ask me. I mean, yeah, the characters you had a relationship with know you, and they know you well. But now it feels as though nothing had transpired before, and you’re back to just being acquaintances. Yet at the same time you know you saw them only a couple days beforehand. So you have to start all over again if you want to build a romance with them. Well, that just doesn’t feel right to me. So anyway, you stay at the palace with only Imoen. But nothing lasts forever, or so they say…
The rest is over
Pretty soon, somebody launches a surprise attack on the palace and tries to kill you! They also stab and poison Imoen. It all happens very quickly, so at first, no one knows exactly what’s going on. But soon, as you repel the attackers, you learn that the Caelar Argent herself ordered your assassination.
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