Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear (2016, Windows) Review

NEEDLESS FAN FICTION

Also for: Android, iPad, iPhone, Linux, Macintosh

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In my recent review of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, I wrote that I appreciated the freedom of that game. Without being open world, the main game was a triumph in world building, creating a universe full of fun interactions, challenging strategic combat and inspiring rewards. It was such a joy to explore, close to the sensation I got out of reading Lord of the Rings for the first time as a kid (or watching Peter Jackson's movie adaptations, for that matter).

Here comes an expansion that removes that joy in favor of linear progression; a military march through tough challenges, ridiculous difficulty spikes and vague quest goals. It's such a disappointing turn of events. The lingering question is: why..? Why did I need to play this?

Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear is the belated expansion/DLC to Baldur's Gate that no-one really asked for. Released by Beamdog, it attempts to bridge the gap between the stories of Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. In truth, I think very few really cared to know exactly what happened in that gap. It's not like heroes can't lead uneventful lives from time to time. Why must every waking hour in fiction be laden with drama?

Well, this one starts soon upon the ending of the first storyline. You are celebrated as the "hero of Baldur's Gate", but new trouble's already brewing in the north. A woman - an aasimar of godly descent - named Caelar Argent leads a crusade, spreading death and discord across the region. Their rampage ends as they reach a castle called Dragonspear. The game is about you joining a sizeable army to march there and lay siege to the rock, and end her insurgence.

The main story has very little to do with either of the pre-existing Baldur's Gate-games, but through an extended prologue and epilogue, it manages to haphazardly bridge the storylines. But I still felt oblivious as to why I needed to play this long-ass expansion. None of the major events are ever referenced in the other games. I never felt the hours fly past, like in the predecessor. This time I had to brute force my way through every section, with dwindling interest.

I complained about the dungeon design and their tedious progression in the first entry. But in that game, those sections were in the minority. Siege of Dragonspear, on the other hand, is all about that. Even when it takes place in the outdoors, the maps feel cramped and claustrophobic. You need to micromanage scouts to sneak ahead and look for traps and enemies all the time, often stopping to give them time to search. It's hard to determine, by sheer looks, what is traversable or rugged terrain. And most corridors are filled with traps and/or ambushes, whether outdoors or indoors.

Besides, the enemy selection is too varied, which might sound like an odd complaint. Every map contains too many different enemy types. I question the logics behind the different dwellings that co-exist so close to one another. In the main game, you could enter a new map and realize: "This is a spider area!" and prepare your party accordingly.

Here, anything goes; you must face off against all manner of difficult creatures and constantly reconfigure your spells and equipment. I've rarely spent so much of my time digging through menus, memorizing new spells, changing arrow types, and switching back-and-forth between different weapons and armor. After some sessions my mouse-hand ached like a clicking motherfucker.

This makes every map a chore to get through. You can spend a dozen hours going back and forth between the same two maps, completing pointless sidequests or going back to rest, resupply and revive fallen comrades - who you then have to re-equip because they dropped all their gear upon death.

I do, however, like the attempt to implement large scale battles á la Helm's Deep (from the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers). Siege of Dragonspear contains two of those, and they're surprisingly solid, considering the engine isn't optimized to deal with gameplay like that.

But most of all, this expansion reminds me of Icewind Dale (2000), a more linear, dungeon-crawling Baldur's Gate companion piece, that was a lot more intriguing and atmospheric than Siege of Dragonspear. It was released in tandem with Baldur's Gate II, but to much less fanfare. I finished Siege of Dragonspear to great relief after 50 hours. I don't hate the story - it is decent by all means - but nothing about it justified such a big time investment. And although the presentation is unremarkable, at least it maintains the aesthetics from the older entries.

The character interaction is subpar, with a few cringey, eccentric characters (Neera, Glint, and I've never liked Minsc) not fitting into the generally mature and high-strung tone of the main storyline. The dialogue options often seem limited to the same three different character traits; one empathetic, one sarcarstic and one cruel response. This makes it hard to roleplay as anything other than those archetypes. 

And I once again chose a bad romance (Safana), one that seems destined to fail for canonical reasons. I kinda liked that, actually. I guess my main protagonist, the half-elven fighter-mage Flint, is lucky in combat and unlucky in love...

...albeit not so lucky in the final boss fight, which left a bad aftertaste. My weapons, that had sufficed through the entire main campaign, literally couldn't harm the bugger, who also was seemingly 100% magic resistant. A few, specific high-level spells might have helped remove some protections, but that would've meant going back a few fights to scribe, memorize and rest - and I still wouldn't be sure if that'd work. Instead, I tried lowering the difficulty one notch, and that did the trick.

You gotta do what you gotta do.

One thing I like about the game, at least theoretically, is that many quests and roadblocks have multiple solutions, depending on your class, stats and choice of companions. My uncharismatic hero couldn't often convince others through dialogue, so I had to fight or sneak my way past many situations. Ways to magically enhance every attribute exist, however, so you probably have an easier option if you experiment a little with stat-increasing spells and potions. Sometimes you can also ask a companion to chip in, when they meet a requirement you don't.

I also like the new unique equipment; magical capes, rings, tiaras and whatnot with interesting lore and cool gameplay features. It introduces some rechargeable magic items that you can use a few times each day. One item (I believe it was a mirror) allowed me to identify four items per day, learning about their hidden qualities, an otherwise tedious process that involves a lot of menu-fiddling. Regrettably, I gave it away all too soon to complete a quest.

In spite of many updates, bugs still hamper the experience. My characters would often clip into each other and get stuck, forcing me to spend a lot of time trying to separate the two. An early sidequest glitched out and wouldn't progress, so I had to skip it. Also, the game hard crashed on me once, forcing me to replay a few tedious fights. I don't expect any of this to be patched out at this point - this release is eight years old by now.

So I came away from Siege of Dragonspear feeling depressed and let down. I'd been looking forward to take part in previously unplayed Baldur's Gate-content for the first time in ages, but this one lacked the ambition to recreate the greatness of the original. My future playthroughs of the series will probably see me skipping this part. I'll miss out on a couple of level increases - the new experience point cap brings your characters to around level 10-12 - but you never needed that head start to complete the far superior Baldur's Gate II.

I can only recommend Siege of Dragonspear to true completionists. And believe me when I say that 99% of those will prefer every other game in the series.