Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear – the gap-filling expansion

Conclusion

This time I can not be biased as I have played Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear for the very first time. But I have been playing Baldur’s Gate II and later as well as Baldur’s Gate for some time now. So I think I can tell that I’m at the very least an experienced player, if not a sheer veteran of this franchise. And I can tell ya: Siege of Dragonspear stands up to the high standard. Beamdog managed to resurrect the saga and the result is very good. The game is appreciably different from the previous ones because of the changed story narrative. So while previously you had the whole map open to you the whole time, you are now on the march so you can’t turn back. This is a new style of gameplay to the Baldur’s Gate family, and I like it. Beamdog managed to implement this change in such a manner that makes it work well.

Beamdog promised at least 30 hours of gameplay and they delivered it. I think that with all the sidequests it adds to well over 50 hours for at least for the first time. I played one of the early versions so there were still some glitches but before this review was finally ready for release, many updates were published. I would dare venture to say that absolutely most of the problems are now resolved. For $19.99, the Siege of Dragonspear is great if you are fan of old, pure-blooded D&D RPGs. And as a member of the Baldur’s Gate franchise, it has not let me down. After all, nowadays there are games with a similar overall playing time that cost five times as much (or even more), so even if I just estimated the price based on that, it is a great bang for the buck.

Beamdog also promised to bridge main storyline gaps. The result is OK for me. Indeed, in this manner, Beamdog did in fact bridge the gap between BGEE and BGIIEE. It works out. On the other hand the final result turns you from hero of Baldur’s Gate to hero for only one half of the city, and a monster for the other. Not the kind of result I would expect, it just doesn’t feel right to me. Not to mention that Siege of Dragonspear also created some loose ends on its own. There are already speculations about some further quests or expansions to the BGIIEE to solve some of those, so lets wait and see. Now myself, I can imagine a better way to do all this bridging. Especially when the final result of the story (in BGIIEE) doesn’t allow for many further additions. Well, OK, that’s never true, I admit, you can always re-open a story in some way. So, hopefully, Beamdog will manage to clear some of the things later on. Especially in the Baldur’s Gate III which was announced as a long-term goal. Though BGIII should be a completely new game, so it’s also possible it won’t have anything in common with the previous Bhaalspawn. But in the end, it is also entirely possible that it will. Some force may just throw you off your throne so-to-speak in Baldur’s Gate III and you will appear in the city of Baldur’s Gate once again, also cleaning up the previous mess once again during this process ;-) I’m already looking forward to that. For me, it’s 91 % for the Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear expansion.

And remember: The Bhaalspawn will return!

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