Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Editions

 Switch
User Score
6.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 22 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 22
  3. Negative: 8 out of 22
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  1. Barmagloth
    Feb 8, 2020
    0
    I met errors in the game that alcohol will soon be able to buy for themselves in the store, because they will soon be 18. Siege of Dragonspear crashes regularly with errors.
  2. fodschwazzle
    Jun 28, 2020
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. For reference, I played through the whole game series for the first time on this Switch release, but I've previously played every part of the Baldur's Gate series on PC except for Siege of Dragonspear and the BG1 expansion Tales of the Swordcoast. I did not try the Black Pits or Black Pits 2 in my hundred + hour campaign, because those parts do stand alone. My review score reflects a couple of key things that haven't aged well: bugs and some problematic storytelling.

    Before that, here's what really works about this game:
    Controls--Wow, I really have to hand it to Beamdog on redoing this for consoles. The main thing holding me back from buying this was concern over the point and click nature of the game. You can still do that with a simple button toggle, but most travel happens by highlighting the whole party and just using the thumbstick to directionally travel. I cannot overstate how smooth this makes the gameplay--pathing issues stop mattering because all of your characters more or less follow your leader, even if they're hasted. It's great.

    UI--all aspects of the UI feel like an improvement on base PC version. Whole lot of love for consoles here.

    Siege of Dragonspear--there's a lot of trolly reviews for this game that are directly related to this content and supposed SJW themes that happen here. Take it for what it is: some great quest building using the design of Baldur's Gate to its limits. This addition is a lot bigger than I expected and culminates in some great fights. There was only one trans character, and I felt the writing for her was pretty good. Some of the other series standard characters felt better developed than ever. It's a nice bridging point, though the early introduction of a series baddie felt a little unnecessary.

    Beyond that, if you didn't want to mod the game, I feel strongly that this is the best version of it.

    Why the 7/10?
    Bugs! Irritatingly, although BG1-2-TOB are all part of the same package that a single character can play through, the games all have different crashing bugs that activate at different times.
    BG1: Crashes when you save, wiping the whole save file. This starts to happen late game more often in my experience.
    Siege: Same deal as BG1 but way more often. This expansion crashes all the time.
    BG2: Primarily crashes when changing areas but will start to crash late game when a lot of special effects are firing at the same time. I didn't have any save wipes, but it could happen.
    TOB: Again, same as BG2 but the save crash comes back. This expansion was crashing once every couple of hours, which is not great.
    Here's a very important trick that will save you infinite frustration: 1. Save constantly. 2. Make at least 2 save files and save in them interchangeably (like save 1, then save 2, next time save 1, etc.

    Problematic! Some of the things that happen in this game really don't hold up well 20 years later. As someone who really loved the games as I was growing up, I found it harder to take certain story events at face value. Some of that stems from race and gender issues inherent in D&D, on which this is based, but that's no excuse. Baldur's Gate gets no free pass for being a game that was a formative experience in gaming for many people my age. Here's a few things that stuck out (spoilers):

    1. Spellhold Battle: at some point you have to recruit people who have mental illnesses (caused by magic, the game suggests) to fight a wizard who will kill you in a scripted event if you do anything else. There is no way to keep these people alive, no matter how well you fight. The game handwaves this as, well these people were tortured and harmed by the wizard. What it really comes down to is simple: the game views them, the people with serious psychological needs, as expendable assets to drive the protagonist's quest onward. That's hugely messed up.

    2. Moments later in the game, we come across two other racial factions. Let's be totally clear, it's possible to kill every single NPC in each of these situations and not lose any "good guy points" over it because they are characterized as evil, even though in both cases, the game gives exceptions to that from NPCs within the groups that are more willing to help the character. Again: your character can commit an act of genocide and not even take a penalty for it.

    3. Smaller issues like Dynaheir, a clearly Black character, being voiced by Jennifer Hale, a clearly white woman, being written to talk in an awkward, overly formal, foreigner English kind of way. Or the way this game casually has children die in a number of quests. Seemed pretty often I had a child's body in my inventory to bring it to their parents. These kinds of things are upsetting and make the game feel a lot less welcoming in 2020.

    I write this in the hopes that Larian, creating BG3, will make a more conscientious CRPG. We don't have to make everyone happy, but we should be able to recommend a game to friends without reservations.    … Expand
  3. thomasjohnwolfe
    Oct 30, 2019
    9
    I was concerned the controls might be awful but I actually like them better than on the computer. I find it very enjoyable to play this game on my TV more than I did when it was released originally. There’s a lot of parts of this game that are very experimental by today’s standards, and I love it for that reason. It makes things not so cookie cutter. For instance, Wilds Mages haveI was concerned the controls might be awful but I actually like them better than on the computer. I find it very enjoyable to play this game on my TV more than I did when it was released originally. There’s a lot of parts of this game that are very experimental by today’s standards, and I love it for that reason. It makes things not so cookie cutter. For instance, Wilds Mages have uncontrollable effects. There’s some real love by Beamdog here. I’m impressed with how they’ve mapped the controls for a console because it could’ve been a nightmare… Expand
  4. Steyraus
    Feb 27, 2020
    0
    Baldurs Gate was a story for the ages, it was perfect, so what do they do "Make Changes", add characters and tamper with Dialogue to be more woke, make females less appealing to men and more appealing to lesbians. After the 6th time the NEW Gay orc had made an attempt to sodomize my character, when I was trying to work on Aaeries romance tree, I gave it in. The changes might not be hugh,Baldurs Gate was a story for the ages, it was perfect, so what do they do "Make Changes", add characters and tamper with Dialogue to be more woke, make females less appealing to men and more appealing to lesbians. After the 6th time the NEW Gay orc had made an attempt to sodomize my character, when I was trying to work on Aaeries romance tree, I gave it in. The changes might not be hugh, but man are they in you fkn face..
    This IS not the Baldurs Gate people fell in love with, play the OG game with mods..Youll be waste hours of your life thinking your experiencing a game beloved by millions when if fact it not at all that game.    … Expand
  5. Drejoe
    Nov 4, 2019
    8
    I was afraid the controls would be horrible, but after an hour I got used to the controls and they actually work quite well. I never finished Baldurs Gate on PC, but I just might have the time to delve into it now as it is portable. I hope online play will be available in the future. Until then I'll give it 8/10
  6. sdyk2019
    Aug 18, 2022
    5
    This was a great game back in the day. I've purchased it for two consoles in the last couple years, one being the switch. Unfortunately I am unable to give a 10/10 as much as I'd like to, but for my switch and other console, I'm not sure if anyone else had it, the game was near unplayable due to the game constantly crashing. I'd had it a few times where the game would crash and delete allThis was a great game back in the day. I've purchased it for two consoles in the last couple years, one being the switch. Unfortunately I am unable to give a 10/10 as much as I'd like to, but for my switch and other console, I'm not sure if anyone else had it, the game was near unplayable due to the game constantly crashing. I'd had it a few times where the game would crash and delete all my save files.… Expand
  7. DinoBeam
    Apr 30, 2023
    3
    You click an enemy for your party to attack, they attack and kill it. They immediately ignore all the enemies right next to them and run back to where they were before you told them to attack. This is an abrasive hot pile of garbage that is only recommended by a stereotypical boomer mentality; like fully recommending a car as a 10/10 car, only to find out it breaks down all the time, andYou click an enemy for your party to attack, they attack and kill it. They immediately ignore all the enemies right next to them and run back to where they were before you told them to attack. This is an abrasive hot pile of garbage that is only recommended by a stereotypical boomer mentality; like fully recommending a car as a 10/10 car, only to find out it breaks down all the time, and when you tell them that it breaks down all the time, they make fun of you for not pushing through having to fix it all the time and being 'entitled' to a product that actually **** works. Do not trust any who recommend these games!… Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 12 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 12
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 12
  3. Negative: 0 out of 12
  1. CGMagazine
    Jun 4, 2020
    90
    This Switch version is hands down the best way to play these games. They hold up remarkably well in 2020 thanks to the engaging story and memorable cast of characters.
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  2. Nintenderos
    Dec 6, 2019
    55
    We can enjoy the mythical saga of Baldur’s Gate in portable mode, but everything is overshadowed by its poor quality, its poor controls and with hardly any improvements in the graphic section or at least not in a remarkable way.
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  3. Cubed3
    Nov 27, 2019
    80
    Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II shine beautifully on the Nintendo Switch thanks to some excellent optimisation on the console and a brilliant control scheme. It can seem convoluted initially, but this is nevertheless inspired stuff from Beamdog, who has pioneered a new way of playing isometric RPGs with a gamepad. Everything about the Enhanced Editions is slickly presented, even if the games themselves show their age in their outdated mechanics. Still, this is worth playing for the RPG fanatic and provides a stellar history lesson on the forefather of modern role-playing games.
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