Forget Baldur\u2019s Gate 4 \u2013 We need remakes of Baldur\u2019s Gate 1 & 2 Wizards of the CoastMany people are still playing Baldur\u2019s Gate 3. It\u2019s the kind of game you could do countless runs through and still find new stuff, especially if you love experimenting with builds and playing with the Origin characters. However, many are asking \u201cWhat next?\u201d Unfortunately, Larian Studios has confirmed it\u2019s not doing any story DLC for Baldur\u2019s Gate 3, nor is it working on the sequel, which is a task that will be undertaken by a new team. Expectations are high for Baldur\u2019s Gate 4, but there are other entries in the series that are in dire need of a remake. Modern fans might be enthralled by the story of Tav, but what about the characters who started it all? Baldur\u2019s Gate 1 needs a remake Baldur\u2019s Gate 1 is the perfect example of a game that\u2019s important to the history of the medium and especially the RPG genre, but isn\u2019t that fun to play. There are a few reasons for this; chief among them is the D&D rules used as the basis for the gameplay. Baldur\u2019s Gate uses the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ruleset, which is the second edition of the game, while Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 uses the modern fifth edition rules. AD&D is far more complicated, unintuitive, and unbalanced than its forebears. There\u2019s a reason the manual for Baldur\u2019s Gate 1 was practically a reprint of the AD&D Player\u2019s Handbook, as you need a crash course in the rules before you can start playing. This is the edition where spellcasters tend to die in one hit, where your armor score gets lower the better it is, and where specific class\/race combos weren\u2019t allowed for no good reason. The balance is heavily tipped in the enemy\u2019s favor, with monsters likely one-shotting your group during early encounters. This isn\u2019t helped by the game\u2019s first story dungeon, the Nashkel Mines, being one of the worst in video game history, with constant traps and Kobold Archers waiting to snipe you as soon as the Fog of War is peeled back. Once you get your head around the baffling AD&D rules, you then have to contend with everything else. For one thing, most of the overworld maps and dungeons are boring as hell. Prepare to see lots of natural caves, green fields, and forests, with barely anything interesting to distinguish them from each other. The story and the quests carry the game, but they\u2019re bogged down by everything else. The developers deserve all of the praise in the world for so faithfully adapting AD&D into a video game, but that commitment drags down the experience rather than elevating it. Baldur\u2019s Gate 2 just needs fresh rules & visuals Baldur\u2019s Gate 2 is one of the best video games ever made, even with the shackles of the ancient visuals and outdated AD&D ruleset. If you haven\u2019t played it, you should, as a modern remaster is available. Just skip the first game and jump into it. That being said, if Baldur\u2019s Gate 1 is getting a remake, then it\u2019s natural to do the same for the sequel. All Baldur\u2019s Gate 2 needs is modern visuals and an adaptation to the D&D 5E rules. The story and characters should be kept as intact as possible, as they\u2019re the reason people still love the game, even after all these years. Where Baldur\u2019s Gate 1 had drab and repetitive environments, its sequel had otherworldly and unique locations wherever you went. Nearly every quest was well thought out and had powerful magic items as rewards rather than junk that you didn\u2019t need. A remake could also flesh out the Throne of Bhaal expansion, which was a bit lacking in the final release, as the Bhaalspawn Crisis could practically make up a full third game with a little extra content. A new version of Baldur\u2019s Gate 2 that updates the romances to extend to all character types, dumped the antiquated AD&D rules, and threw in some QoL improvements could make for an epic video game, one that rivals Baldur\u2019s Gate 3. Can you adapt Baldur\u2019s Gate 1 & 2 to D&D 5E\u2019s rules & timeline? Here\u2019s the important question \u2014 can you adapt Baldur\u2019s Gate 1 & 2 in the first place? It\u2019s no small feat to swap everything from the AD&D rules to D&D 5E. You essentially need to change every aspect of the gameplay experience, from the monsters you encounter to the items you find. It would be a massive task. You also need to factor in progress. D&D 5E rules only go to level 20, while Baldur\u2019s Gate 2 and Throne of Bhaal went way beyond that. Even if the remake of Throne of Bhaal extended to level 20, it would completely change how everything is balanced. Then there\u2019s the thorny issue of the timeline, especially if you want to stick to it. For those unaware of D&D lore, Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 takes place a century after the events of the first games because D&D did a time-skip in the previous edition. This means that certain elements of the game from the D&D 5E era didn\u2019t exist when Baldur\u2019s Gate 1 occurred. These include the Dragonborn race, who didn\u2019t appear until later. It would be relatively simple to retcon these elements, but it\u2019s another thing that needs to be considered, as including things like the Warlock class, playable Tieflings, and the existence of Dragonborn would change aspects of the setting. To remake Baldur\u2019s Gate 1 & 2 using D&D 5E rules would be a monumental task, as it wouldn\u2019t be as simple as a straight adaptation of the story and characters into a 3D environment. You\u2019d be making something very different. However, these lore and rules changes wouldn\u2019t affect the core story and world, which drew fans to the games in the first place. Remakes of the older Baldur\u2019s Gate could elevate some of the greatest games of all time, making them palatable to a modern audience and fixing some of the issues that were present over twenty years ago. With Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 being such a huge hit, it\u2019s time to show the newcomers why people were clamoring for a sequel in the first place. Hasbro needs to find a studio that\u2019s willing to gather a party and venture back to the past and give the Bhaalspawn Saga the retelling it badly deserves. Wait, does Icewind Dale also need a remake? No. 3D visuals and the D&D 5E rules can\u2019t improve that game. (Because it\u2019s already perfect.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Forget Baldur\u2019s Gate 4 \u2013 We need remakes of Baldur\u2019s Gate 1 & 2 Wizards of the CoastMany people are still playing Baldur\u2019s Gate 3. It\u2019s the kind of game you could do countless runs through and still find new stuff, especially if you love experimenting with builds and playing with the Origin characters. However, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}