Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear Critic Reviews

Beamdog’s first effort at original storytelling is a good start, and I’m excited to see more in the future, even if it’s in the world of Baldur’s Gate.

Via this new expansion pack, Baldur's Gate awakens after many years in hibernation. Even though it will not prove so sensational in the current era of kickstarted RPGs, it still succeeds in finding its place among contemporary epics, such as Pillars of Eternity and Divinity: Original Sin. Siege of Dragonspear may be a bit late to the party and not flawless, nonetheless it's a faithful installment in the series.

Will it please every purist? Of course not. As with any beloved series, passions run high and nostalgia’s a hell of a drug. There are bound to be those who wish Beamdog had stuck to a purely conservationist role. But Siege of Dragonspear won me over, and I’d like to see what the team does next. Go for the eyes, Boo.

The best quality of Siege of Dragonspear is the fact that it is a real Baldur's Gate game. This expansion is linked with its great predecessors not only by name - it fills the blanks between BG one and two and is full of RPG magic from the past. It could have been a bit better though - it's too linear and the Infinity engine is way past its prime.

Returning home to Baldur’s Gate makes Siege of Dragonspear one of the most enjoyable RPGs that I have played in a long time, both for the nostalgia factor of revisiting an all-time favorite and for the impressively designed and involving narrative that captures nearly everything that fans love about traditional D&D. Even though the engine creaks in spots, the overall experience is everything that a hardcore D&D fan could ask for, and a superb expansion of one of the most legendary franchises in all of roleplaying game history.

A good effort to bring back the essence of Baldur's Gate, and a mechanically successful demonstration of what makes combat special in this series. Good encounter design with some memorable dungeons, but bugs and linearity along with some shortcomings in its story makes it fall a bit short of its potential.

Beamdog’s expansion embraces both the past and the present. The adventure is inconsistent, ragged and the script could be a lot better, but at its best Siege of Dragonspear captures the essence of Baldur’s Gate - even if fleetingly.

Living up to such legacy seemed impossible but Beamdog understands Baldur’s Gate and created a game true to the original. Unfortunately along with the party you need to gather a band of patches, because bugs are crawling all over the place.

As a Baldur's Gate adventure, Siege of Dragonspear works well. While it's not entirely tonally consistent with the original series, it does a good job of inserting itself into the middle of the story without feeling like sacrilege. As a result, though, it requires that you still be invested in that story. The fact is, a decade and a half later, there are much smoother, more enjoyable RPG experiences available.

It's a different sort of game when compared to its brothers, but it works very well in the space it occupies. It's unfortunate that there are quite a handful of technical issues, because otherwise this is a great excuse to head back to the Sword Coast.

Still though, while I can’t find a reason for Siege of Dragonspear not to exist, and while it completely entertained me throughout its unbelievable 30-hour run time, it comes off more as wholly unnecessary.

Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear is a good expansion pack, with more content than what we expected.

Decent expansion to the classic RPG, which -in addition to the inevitable technical limitations- suffers mainly due to the uneven quality of the script. All in all, it is a very good excuse to once again venture into the world of Faerûn.

With Siege of Dragonspear, Beamdog has come on a long way. It’s not perfect, either at matching the style or being a great new RPG in its own right, and future games will need some heavy QA loving. But, as the company’s first big attempt to both follow in BioWare’s wake (the presence of former BioWare people notwithstanding), it’s a good start and at least a good first step to one day giving us that Baldur’s Gate 3 we’ve been waiting so long for – another nostalgia trip, but with a slightly more practiced eye on the future.