{"id":8465,"date":"2016-04-28T00:00:28","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T07:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/baldurs-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-review-the-last-gasp-of-a-dying-breed\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T12:02:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T19:02:18","slug":"baldurs-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-review-the-last-gasp-of-a-dying-breed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/baldurs-gate-siege-of-dragonspear-review-the-last-gasp-of-a-dying-breed\/","title":{"rendered":"Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear Review \u2013 The Last Gasp of a Dying Breed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"h2\"<\/p>\n

Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
\nBeamdog<\/p>\n

I must admit that I\u2019m a proud undercover role-playing geek. \u201cHow can you be proud of something that makes you want to be undercover about it, Ian?\u201d\u2014I can hear you all collectively asking right now in your noggins. Well, what I mean by that is that I\u2019m proud, in a self-congratulatory way, that I was able to hide my rather fertile geekiness so well\u2014it\u2019s a testament to my personal stealth abilities. I definitely must have the skills of a level 20+ Rogue.<\/p>\n

As a youngster, I\u2019d frequently hang out with some of the \u201ccool\u201d people at certain times, and then go and hang out with my comic book-slash-role-playing buddies afterwards, after I made sure that the coast was clear. I played all sorts of role-playing games, but the only one that really stayed constant with me was good ol\u2019 Dungeons & Dragons<\/em>. So, it goes without saying that when Baldur\u2019s Gate<\/em> arrived on the video game scene, I jumped on it so fast that you could practically see a smoke trail behind me, just like the ones left behind by many of the Looney Toons cartoon characters when they\u2019d dash off somewhere.<\/p>\n

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I remember spending many a lazy afternoon thumbing through my beloved, spiral-bound Baldur\u2019s Gate<\/em> manual as if it were a D&D Dungeon Master\u2019s Guide<\/em> or Player\u2019s Handbook.<\/em> At the time, Baldur\u2019s Gate<\/em> was pretty cutting edge, presentation-wise, and its writing was out of this world. Of course, I had to play its sequel, Shadows of Amn<\/em>, which was equally as impressive as Baldur\u2019s Gate<\/em> in every way. Those memories will forever occupy a special place in my memory and remain a benchmark as to how immersive a video game can truly be.<\/p>\n

So, imagine my sense of glee when I\u2019d first heard that a new expansion to the recent release of Baldur\u2019s Gate: Enhanced Edition <\/em>was coming up, titled Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear<\/em>. I looked forward to once again forming a party of interesting characters, outfitting them with powerful gear and potent weapons, and sallying forth on the next grand adventure. When I found out a little later that Siege of Dragonspear <\/em>takes place between Baldur\u2019s Gate<\/em> proper and Shadows of Amn<\/em> and that your characters started off at level 7, I was even more ecstatic because that meant that I could transfer my pre-existing party from Baldur\u2019s Gate<\/em> directly into Siege of Dragonspear<\/em>. And that\u2019s exactly what I did, well sort of\u2026<\/p>\n

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The first thing I noticed was that although indeed I did export\/import my mighty adventurers over from the Enhanced Edition<\/em>, they showed up for the festivities naked. No, I don\u2019t mean that in a birthday suit manner but rather as in with none of their gear. I tried to transfer them over multiple times but to no avail, so I just had to grit my teeth and forego their hard-earned equipment and re-equip them with new stuff. Although I\u2019ve heard that many other gamers have experienced various glitches and bugs with Siege of Dragonspear<\/em>, the loot-less transference was the only one that I witnessed and was something I could bear.<\/p>\n

Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear<\/em> begins where Baldur\u2019s Gate<\/em> ended, with your party still in Sarevok\u2019s dungeon. From there you must mop up his remaining lackeys, and then the main adventure commences. You manage to be the nearby city\u2019s heroes and get to enjoy a quantum of solace, and then you learn of a new threat emerging in the north in the form of Caelar Argent, otherwise known as The Shining Lady. Backed by the Flaming Fists, your party once again sets off to fight for the forces of good and save civilization from the malevolent malcontents.<\/p>\n

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Which brings me to the writing. Is it as good as the original Baldur\u2019s Gate?<\/em> I\u2019d say it\u2019s a mixed bag. In some areas, Siege of Dragonspear<\/em> is on par with the epic-ness of the original narrative, in others, downright silly. Some of the plotlines are revealed in hammy fashion, and while interacting with NPCs, you\u2019ll find that many of them are really condescending and perpetually wise-cracking. I don\u2019t mind a little lippy-ness here and there (I\u2019m as sarcastic as they come) but full-on sass parades without much respite can get a little tired sometimes. There is also an inordinate amount of Social Justice Warrior rubbish and identity politics blather, which really doesn’t belong in the Baldur’s Gate gaming world,\u00a0or any other game for that matter.<\/p>\n

The actual storyline and the game\u2019s structure is also very linear, much more so than Baldur\u2019s Gate.<\/em> Although there are some opportunities for branching out and exploring a few new areas, there just aren\u2019t many. On the flip side, this more restrictive facet of Siege of Dragonspear\u2019s<\/em> storytelling allows for tighter, more focused writing. In other words it\u2019s a trade-off: Less poking around, but more depth\u2014 narrative-wise.<\/p>\n

While I used to be a big fan of the Infinity engine, that was a full fifteen years ago. Yes, Baldur\u2019s Gate: Enhanced<\/em> Edition <\/em>bumped up the visuals somewhat, but you\u2019re still basically looking at the same game with a slightly shinier paint job. Luckily, this means that the game runs pretty smoothly and can be ideal for playing on a decent gaming laptop (I enjoy portable gaming myself). You\u2019re still basically looking at aging, pixilated spell effects, and your characters are still performing two or three frame movements with their weapons when they \u201cswing\u201d their swords, maces, and other such arms.<\/p>\n

\"5\"<\/p>\n

There is, however, a much larger body count. That is to say, there are more people and monsters on the screen at once than ever before. This makes cities look more bustling and vibrant, and bands of enemies more intimidating. Well, unless you\u2019re packing a wizard with some serious area-of-effect spells. Then you can just push a button and watch him spray a cluster of bright, shiny pixels at a cluster of enemies and watch them explode in heaps of similarly bright and shiny pixels.<\/p>\n

Overall, I found Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear<\/em> to be a decent adventure, but only for nostalgic folks or for curious younger gamers who never got the chance to play a Baldur\u2019s Gate<\/em> game, and are curious about experiencing one of the original icons of computer role-playing games (CRPGs). Oh, and it\u2019s got multiplayer, too.<\/p>\n

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That being said, there are plenty of superior hack & slash titles on the market right now, including Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin, <\/em>and Grim Dawn<\/em> (granted, the latter being more of an action RPG). These other games have great backstories as well, just as the original Baldur’s Gate<\/em> had, and they don’t have any of the annoyingly preechy SJW rhetoric, so it’s hard to recommend this game to anyone beyond die-hard fans.<\/p>\n

SCORE: 61%<\/p>\n

Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear <\/em>is the perfect game to play on an upscale gaming laptop, such as this one:<\/p>\n

<\/a>
MOTHERS DAY FANGBOOK 4 SK-X17 PRO<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Visit CyberpowerPC\u2019s website<\/a> to check out all of the other great deals as well!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear Beamdog I must admit that I\u2019m a proud undercover role-playing geek. \u201cHow can you be proud of something that makes you want to be undercover about it, Ian?\u201d\u2014I can hear you all collectively asking right now in your noggins. Well, what I mean by that is that I\u2019m proud, in… Read More »Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear Review \u2013 The Last Gasp of a Dying Breed<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":5758,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2732,2741,2742],"tags":[2520,254,3113,3114,741,2537,2488,2527,67,2486,3115],"class_list":["post-8465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-games","category-gaming-reviews-news","category-product-reviews","tag-4k-gaming","tag-action-games","tag-baldurs-gate-siege-of-dragonspear","tag-beamdog","tag-cyberpower-pc","tag-fantasy-games","tag-game-review","tag-game-reviews-2","tag-gaming-pc","tag-ian-kane","tag-isometric-rpg-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15682,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8465\/revisions\/15682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberpowergaming.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}