Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear

'Author's Note: This review was made to point out the flaws and pros of this controversial game from a neutral point of view. I do not support the writers and developers who added unnecessary changes to the franchise, and I do not support the people who blindly give the game hate for a single character, joke, and any other minor details. Both sides are in the wrong, and this was made to put this game is as much of a neutral light as possible. Thank you for understanding, and on with the page.'

Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear is a role-playing adventure game developed and published by Beamdog, while the console ports were published by Skybound Games. The game is an entirely new stand-alone title that is set between the events of the first and second Baldur's Gate games and is meant to tie the events of those two games together. It requires the Enhanced Edition of Baldur's Gate to run, but is an entirely new game in itself. The gameplay remains similar to the original Baldur's Gate, but new features have been added as well. The game released on March 31, 2016 to mixed-to-positive reception from critics and large controversy and backlash from audiences for reasons that will be detailed below, as well as an overall disrespect to the source material of the series.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The main issue is that the writing of the game is a huge drop in quality from the other games in the series, and is riddled with plot holes and cliches that the game's plot overall can really ruin one's enjoyment over the whole experience.
 * 2) * A big issue is that a lot of the stuff that the player does is often unrelated to the bigger picture that unfolds at the end of the game or leaves little impact to the rest of the story. One good example of this issue is that the player's party will have to recover a fort to become useful to their cause due to its high tactical value, but is never used again by the player or even mentioned that much afterward, as if it never happened despite how much the player is told that it's vital to their effort against the villain. Stuff like this is often within the game's quests and in the end it can sometimes feel like what they player is doing within the story is a waste of time, reducing their urge to keep playing the game.
 * 3) * The game tries to put in the player's face that the game's villain, Caelar Argent, is more than what they are told and that she walks in both the parts of the light and the dark, in an attempt to make her seem more deep or have the player feel sympathetic for her. However, in the end it just feels like the writers are trying to make her feel as equally important to the world as the game's protagonist. The problem is that the protagonist spot is already taken up by, well, the protagonist. Because of this they made her a villain instead, but at the same time she isn't actually the game's villain, they just needed her to do bad stuff to move the plot forward under the orders of the game's actual villain, who in the end ends up being a typical villain who wants to end the Sword Coast because plot. This antagonist issue makes it seem like the writers want to make a strong character who has a deeper motivation to be good, but having all of this and an actual guy behind it all just ends up making the plot confusing and to convoluted than it ever needed to be. Basically we get an antagonist that fails because she isn't an actual antagonist even when in the role and a true antagonist who fails because he is so cliche with shallow motivations that they also fail because they have nothing interesting going for them, and a protagonist who's attention is constantly trying to be taken away. And this is a shame because despite their issues, Caelar can be a really interesting character, and having their light stolen in this way is quite a tragedy in some ways.
 * 4) * The dialogue choices are not all that great because none of them really represents what a player would really want to say in a given situation, instead you are given a bunch of choices that are all really what the plot demands with no rel true freedom of choice, despite them having different outcomes, which is somewhat counter intuitive and in the end creates an adventure that doesn't really feel like your own, but one that you are experiencing as it progresses on its own. You can also be given some choices that have a really powerful decision for the player, when in reality all roads either go the same way or there is only one actual way to progress, a start contrast from the choices in the older Baldur's Gate games.
 * 5) * Since the expansion/game takes place in between the events of Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II as a way to help bridge the gap between the ending and opening of those said games, your actions in the game can cause some serious inconsistencies with the plot of Baldur's Gate II. For example, one of the companions known as Khalid is found dead in the opening dungeon of Baldur's Gate II, but he could die any other time during Siege of Dragonspear which can be a bit confusing if you play the games back to back.
 * 6) On an equally upsetting scale, the writers of the game seemed to have tried their very best to push their personal agendas into the game's writing and it also adds to a loss of overall enjoyment.
 * 7) * The biggest issue that should be known before we get into the agenda problem is that Dungeons & Dragons is by no means a series that is supposed to be forcing politics on the players. The whole point of the tabletop RPG and everything else in the series is to immerse yourself in the game that you are playing and enjoy yourself in fantastical worlds and explore dungeons, collect money and level up, and even experience a plot whether it's deep or shallow, with or without friends to come along for the ride. It's about escapism and pure entertainment, and having modern issues such as representation and politics being brought into the mix not only ruins the point of escapism, but can essentially ruin your enjoyment of the game as a whole which is what made the issues below cause such controversy. We shouldn't be having real world issues put in our entertainment, the place where many people go to escape these things, unless it is done well.
 * 8) * This brings us to what exactly caused so much controversy, which can be boiled down to two main issues that pretty much started a war between both social justice and pro-GamerGate cultures.
 * 9) ** One piece of dialogue from Minsc, one of the most beloved characters in the entire Dungeons & Dragons mythos, caused significant controversy. The line itself was "Really, it's about ethics in heroic adventuring", which is a reference and possible jab at the GamerGate movement. Whether you support that movement or not is beyond the point here, but not only can the line be seen as not making sense to the adventure at hand, but it is also a bit out of character for Minsc, which can be seen as somewhat heart-breaking for fans of his character. It also once again brings up the issue of having agendas forced into our own personal escapism, and it's obvious it was added in for the writer's own personal stance on the controversy when it would have been best not to include the line at all.
 * 10) ** The second big and fairly problematic piece of controversy was the inclusion of a transgender character in the game. This doesn't sound bad at all, as representation is good and honestly quite healthy for a medium if it is done correctly, as evidenced by great games such as Night in the Woods, and this is where it all comes crashing down. The character itself is not well written and the fact that they are transgender seems to have been included just for the writer to say "Oh, we have a trans character now". There isn't much character development on it either, just a passing comment that she was raised as a boy, and nothing else. This may pass the representation checkbox and in reality such a thing isn't a bad thing at all, but in the end the way it is done and handled by the writers makes that personality trait of the character essentially a throwaway detail that adds nothing at all.
 * 11) *** The moment itself is also written badly in a way because the conversation doesn't take the direction that other games in the series take. Usually in the series, there is a joke or evil option of dialogue every single you can respond in a conversation. Here, after she shares her story there isn't that kind of option available. This can be seen in two different ways. On one hand, it can be seen as giving respect for a new character since a trans character was never included before in the series. On the other, it also remains untrue to the tone of the series by not including these options. It's a win-lose situation for most players in the end.
 * 12) ** Another aspect that seems to be ignored is that the writers wanted to include a lot more female characters in this entry, and again, that can be a very good thing if it is done correctly. But once again the writers fail in this aspect by taking the term "strong female" too seriously. Rather than having a variety of female characters with different personalities and motivations to make them interesting such as with the party members of the original two games, the writers instead chose to just make a lot of the female characters strong warriors with heavy voices. This in turn makes all of them feel generic and in turn causes their goal of including more strong female characters for increasing diversity to fail badly. This could have been prevented by taking a page from BioWare's book by having some from different backgrounds and crafting a unique backstory for each, and heck if done correctly it could have added some different racial backgrounds as well in a way that doesn't feel forced.
 * 13) * Even outside of these there are some events in the game that seem to be heavily politicized and made for the sake of making them more in with modern times, which is also somewhat agenda pushing such as:
 * 14) ** The refugee flux to Baldur's Gate has shocking similarities to the European Refugee Crisis, which can also be seen as culturally insensitive to modern times.
 * 15) ** Safana calls out Corwin for being a working mother.
 * 16) ** M'Khiin accuses the player character of racism for no real reason.
 * 17) ** Diana and Jaheira both joke about how useless their men are.
 * 18) ** A reference to cat-calling.
 * 19) Forced linearity. Related to the lack of choice described in the third sub-pointer in the first pointer, a lot of the time the player has to go through a specific path to go through the quest, often given little room for exploration or to try anything different. Linearity in games isn't inherently bad, far from it, as a lot of games use linearity really well and is sometimes the only way to go in certain kinds of games like adventure games and side-scrollers. However, there are two reasons why this really breaks some enjoyment off of the player, especially veterans to the series.
 * 20) * The Baldur's Gate series was always story-focused, as with many of the other Infinity Engine games, and even some of the other expansions weren't trying to be linear and gave the players a coupe of different options to play the way they wanted. Even Icewind Dale, an Infinity Engine title that is somewhat well known for being strictly linear, had some side quests to take you off the beaten path, especially with the bonus adventures included in the complete version of that game. Siege of Dragonspear does the opposite however, forcing players to take a set path that rarely ever diverges, making the player feel a bit claustrophobic and that they aren't in control of their own adventure like in the previous games. A change in direction isn't a bad thing, far from it, as in some cases such as in rebooting a series or wanting to do a course correction after a previous failure, it can be a good or even needed change. But when a formula that worked perfectly well with past games is changed when it isn't even due for a change, such is the case with this one, it can end up disappointing a lot of players outright.
 * 21) * The way the game puts you back into the proper path given is almost insulting to the player. If you try to diverge off of the beaten path in the adventure, the game will often spawn in something, often a very high level wizard that can't be killed, or put you in a scenario where the player is killed as punishment and you are reloaded to your last save game. This almost feels like the developers are punishing the player for trying to follow by their natural instinct of playing one of these games, and is simply not a smart move to do if you want them to keep playing. At the very least have a world detail or a piece of dialogue to say this isn't the right way to go rather than killing them outright.
 * 22) Sadly the issues with the game's writing also seeps into the characters as well, which leads to unnecessary personality changes to the characters and even making some of them turn from likable companions and friends into annoying sidekicks devoid of what made them special in the first place.
 * 23) * While some of the companions from the original game are still likable and retain their great and engaging personalities, others have been changed drastically. The most tragic example of this would be with Neera, who was a good little romantic option in the original game and led to some of the more memorable moments from that game. Sadly, in Siege of Dragonspear she goes from a likable romantic interest and memorable companion to an irritating sidekick who won't shut up about having the voice of Adoy in her head, who is now an inner voice in her head, and her dialogue about it isn't interesting or deep, it's just her constantly complaining.
 * 24) In the original release, there were some technical bugs that were either unnoticeable by players or kept appearing to frequently to ignore. Examples of these bugs include:
 * 25) * The game will crash at random times.
 * 26) * In the Steam and GOG.com versions, and this is still an issue, mods will not work normally and you have to get through a bunch of technical hurdles to be able to use them.
 * 27) * Multiplayer won't work correctly.
 * 28) * Due to the massive scale of some of the battles, framerate drops are also somewhat common.
 * 29) The UI is worse than in the last two games, and has a lot of unnecessary changes while barely bringing in anything new to help improve it.
 * 30) * For one, it seems really odd that a completely new game built from the ground up, released in 2016, has to share the same user interface as the original games from over 20 years ago, as the developers could have easily added in some alternate UI setup to best fit the standards for modern gaming, as admittedly the user interface of the Infinity Engine games hasn't aged the best. Players still have to double click to use thief skills and the inventory management is still pretty dated to use, as hovering over an item won't compare it to your current one, you have to equip it and compare it to your last one item, which could easily be fixed. Even properly stacking items is also still an issue, which is something that really should have been improved.
 * 31) *The UI also changes the color for some unknown reason to a much darker grey color, which is an issue for a few reasons. For one, it clashes with the overall aesthetic of the other games in the series, which wasn't all that dark and moody even in this expansion, and such a color change was unnecessary in the first place considering players really like the original color layout . But the more upsetting part is the color also makes it harder to see the icons that were already a bit dark to begin with, so it can be hard to tell what icons you are seeing, especially when playing in a darker place. There also isn't a way to change it back to the original color scheme, which is also not that great.
 * 32) Another issue is that the voice acting is quite a mixed bag. While others do match the dialogue and characters well, the problem is that for a lot of other characters, the issues with the writing of the campaign and characters will drag down the voice acting with it, and can make the characters as well lose some charm or aspects they had going for them. For one, some voices just don't sound like what people would talk in terms of the medieval fantasy setting. Some just sound too "modern" and out of place that it can possibly break some of the player's immersion. Another good example of this would be for the female characters. A very big side effect of the game's writing is that the writers wanted to include more strong, female characters, which again isn't a bad thing to do considering that woman are under-represented in games, but due to the issues listed above about the issue, all of the female characters end up sounding the exact same because the writers took the idea of such a character too literally and in the end it makes the voices of the side female NPCs with smaller in-game roles just as generic and bland as all the other in the same place.
 * 33) * To be fair, the voice acting does have some really good parts to it, as some of the original characters still sound great (David Warner was even hired for the voice acting, which is really cool) and the villain voices do give off their personalities well, but it's the other side of the acting that brings it all down.
 * 34) Overall the campaign itself feels very unnecessary and another story added to the Baldur's Gate saga, and let alone set between the events of the two games, was not needed due to how the two games connected their two stories well enough already, and there wasn't really too much space for events to be expanded upon. Essentially, there wasn't really anything in Shadows of Amn that hinted to a bigger conflict that we see in this campaign as apocryphal.
 * 35) * The events of this game even seem to be ignored entirely with the sequel other than the ending, but even so Siege of Dragonspear's ending had to be done in a way to connect to the events of Shadows of Amn so as to not feel contradictory.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The game's combat is without a doubt, probably the best combat of all the games that used the Infinity Engine.
 * 2) *For one, battles are on a much larger and more epic scale than before, as players will be teaming up with other people on their side of the conflict such as soldiers and other troops and going in massive battles against enemy armies, which strikes an incredibly fine balance between keeping the game rooted in its high fantasy CRPG roots while also giving it a bit more of a tactical/RTS kind of feel to it than before that makes the fights truly something special. This gets even more apparent as the game continues, and the final few hours of the game, such as the actual siege of Dragonspear and a final stretch to the game's end are probably among the greatest and most grand combat encounters in any CRPG period. The stakes are high, you got lots of friendly and enemy units everywhere, spells are going off all over the place. The large environments and units give a lot more tactical options for your party, and a lot of other things make these battles so special.
 * 3) *The variety between combat encounters are greatly enhanced and less generic than some of the earlier games, and are a testament to how game design has changed between entries over the past two decades. One of the more interesting kinds of encounters in this game is that you can get your war camp attacked by waves of enemies, and dedicated wave based encounters is something completely new to the series in the first place. But going even deeper than that are the factions aspect to these fights, where throughout the game you can meet different leaders for a different group or faction in the world, and you can help them out so later in the game they can aid you when defending your camp, and is one of the very few optional things a player can do in the campaign.
 * 4) **In addition to that, the generic dungeon crawl encounters from past games have pretty much been done away here, as every encounter is unique in its own way, especially in the case of boss battles, which are incredibly diverse and stand out from the rest of the encounters.
 * 5) *The fact that all of these grand encounters are being done on the Infinity Engine at all is amazing, and it goes to show how an old game engine can be capable of doing so much more when put in the right hands. Stuff like the aforementioned large scale battles and heavy NPC usage were probably unheard of for BioWare and Black Isle Studios back then, yet here they are and it really goes to show the true power of a game engine that is already beloved by the masses.
 * 6) Ignoring the fact that unnecessary changes were made to the game's structure, gameplay, and characters, the gameplay itself isn't to bad for the most part, as some aspects remain unchanged while other things have been enhanced in a minor way.
 * 7) *Players have all of the character creation options given to them from the past two Baldur's Gate titles, and a new class known as the Shaman was added into character creation as well which is a nice touch.
 * 8) *Even if the UI still remains problematic and outdated for a game released in 2016, the improvements of labeling and navigation of the map when in Baldur's Gate is a much needed change, as in the past games the city was poorly labeled and hard to navigate.
 * 9) *The sound effects, while still sounding a bit bad, have significantly improved and sound better mixed, and even really satisfying at times.
 * 10) *Even if some characters have been re-written poorly in some aspects, many of them are still really likable and memorable, and are a great throwback to what made the original games so special.
 * 11) Some of the new characters aren't that bad and really fit within the game, and some even feel like they could have been written by the BioWare team themselves. For example, despite having massive flaws in their delivery in the story, Caelar Argent does have some interesting aspects to her and can be seen as likable.
 * 12) * On the subject of characters, the game does a really awesome job of tying up Icewind Dale's cliffhanger ending by bringing back Belhifet as the final boss here after we were warned he would return in the conclusion of Icewind Dale, which is a good attempt at fan service and tying up lose ends.
 * 13) The controversial aspects of the game were later patched out by Beamdog, showing they realized their mistake. In the 2.5 patch, the GamerGate joke was patched out of the game entirely and Mizhena's (the transgender character) story was expanded upon to make their orientation less of a throwaway detail, and while the backlash around the original inclusions still remains, it was a good move on the developer's part as an attempt to please both sides of the controversy.
 * 14) * In addition to that, including a transgender character in the franchise was not a bad idea at all, and is the first time the video games tried to add a character in a minority since the addition of Bertram, a gay male, in the video game version of The Temple of Elemental Evil which is pretty cool. And even before their story was rewritten, Mizhena wasn't a bad character at all, it's just that the original version of their trans background was handled poorly until the patch.
 * 15) * A gay character and a bisexual character are also included, and while they are also forced and didn't get any re-write treatment like Mizhena, it is still a nice inclusion even if it may be problematic.
 * 16) The game's music is spectacular in almost every single aspect, and does help get across the epic vibe the game is trying to evoke.
 * 17) *For one, nothing in the soundtrack feels out of place for the gameplay and setting of the campaign. One minor detail that may go overlooked is the lack of electronic instruments used in the soundtrack, as it mostly used instruments such as trumpets, flutes, and other similar instruments along with some vocals to remain natural to the setting.
 * 18) *The soundtrack also knows how to perfectly balance the quiet and intense moments of gameplay, using quieter tones for the areas when the player is in cities and doing exploration, to tenser themes for pivotal plot moments and standard battles, and finally going all out in the game's most epic moments like the huge battles between factions, and it feels absolutely amazing.
 * 19) Players, regardless of whether they liked the game or not, really should be thankful that the game even exists at all, as the expansion was the first new Infinity Engine adventure and return to the Baldur's Gate storyline for the first time in 14 years when it originally released, making it a lot more of a fresh experience than other games being released at the time. Most games don't get this much support that long after the original release date, so the fact that the game even exists at all is a blessing on gamers and fans of the series.
 * 20) *In fact, the release of a new Baldur's Gate title during the CRPG renaissance era, which was still going on at the time, may have actually contributed to the interest in creating a Baldur's Gate III, although that is created by a different studio, since it was essentially one of the defining games of the genre coming back to modern audiences.
 * 21) The graphics look pretty good and are another example of how this game pushes the Infinity Engine to its limits for this adventure. Despite taking place from a top down setting and some parts of the graphics haven't aged too well, like the flat and pixelated character and NPC models, the main appeal here are the stunning background vistas. The developers at Beamdog were able to capture both the feel of the original games while also adding their own personal touches to the word design. In particular are the dungeon areas and the backgrounds found in the big battles, which are very colorful and have a lot of creative and detailed aspects to them such as luscious forests full of giant mushrooms, a dark floor with a bunch of lava veins to evoke a dangerous feel, and dark dungeons with mossy areas that may have beams of light or sunshine coming in from above.
 * 22) * In addition to having great backdrops, the game's cutscenes look pretty cool and match the look of the remastered cutscenes from the enhanced editions of the original two Baldur's Gate games, with much detail being put on the characters and backgrounds and a sort of web-comic movement to them.

Critical Reception
Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics. They generally enjoyed the game's combat and the nostalgic feel of the experience, but opinions on the story were mixed. Hayden Dingman of PC World stated "Siege of Dragonspear won me over, and I'd like to see what the team does next" and that while it might not please every fan of the series, he said the passion was there. Destructoid's Patrick Hancock was a bit less enthusiastic about the release, stating that the game's faults were hard to ignore despite the game being rather fun to play. In a more mixed-to-negative review, GameStar heavily criticized the story of the game, pointing out numerous plot holes, character changes, and the ending. In a more positive but still mixed look, PC Gamer thought of Siege of Dragonspear as a far cry from the original campaigns and was more of a imitation of those games, though they did like the effort put into the campaign and that Beamdog has "proven they can continue the Baldur's Gate story". Many critics noted the crashes and bugs in their reviews.

Audience Reaction & Controversy
Upon release, Siege of Dragonspear was given immediate backlash and negativity by players in contrast to the mixed-to-positive critical reviews. While there were definitely civil reviews that list the game's many flaws that critics failed to noticed, such as not staying true to lore, the overall story, and lack of freedom, many players boycotted the game and gave it negative reviews for its inclusion of a transgender character and Minsc's controversial line. Most of these being a respectable boycott, while others went to far with their actions. One user in particular took their effort of backlash to far by posting a video called "Tranny Abuse", showing the character being brutally killed by the player party. On the more civil side, many trans users themselves were insulted by the character's inclusion and found it demeaning and unneeded. On the ethics side, some users reportedly attacked and threatened the developers for its inclusion, while others were quieter about it and calmly requested its removal.

In response to the controversy, many news and gaming outlets posted articles describing what was happening within the gaming community and in the Baldur's Gate fandom. Polygon's Colin Campbell described the mass negative reviews coming from players because the transgender character promoted "political correctness," "LGBT tokenism" and "SJW pandering". Trent Oster, the CEO of Beamdog, responded to the backlash with the following statement "Yes, we have a transgendered character. I know a number of transgendered people and they are genuine, wonderful humans. Yes, we also have a character who cracks a joke about ethics. The original Baldur's Gate had a whole sequence about The Bob Newhart Show. If this generates controversy it makes a sad statement about the world we live in". Later on, Trent Oster released another statement, telling players if they are enjoying the game to leave a positive review on GOG, Steam, and Metacritic to balance out the negative reviews from a "vocal minority", which really wasn't the case. Naturally this gave more fuel to the fire, and gamers began to put up a ton of reviews that mocked this statement. In further response to the controversy, Amber Scott, one of the game's writers, stated that she wanted to address the quote "sexist" parts of Baldur's Gate and didn't care if inclusions of minorities were found to be "forced or fake" and that she is proud to be a social justice warrior and wants to include as much aspects as possible in her games, indicating she does in deed run with an agenda here. In a statement before the game's release, that she included more "If people don’t like that, then too bad", seemingly to jab at critics, whether civil or troll-like. In a more respectable and civil response than Amber, Ed Greenwood, the creator of the Forgotten Realms setting, defended the trans character's inclusion and addressed the toxic audience responses by stating: "If it's not for you, that's fine. I hate wearing certain shades of yellow. But I don't scream and yell at someone I see wearing those shades of yellow, and call them names, and threaten things. My right to dislike yellow applies to me; it doesn't extend to others".

Developer Response
In light of the constant fighting from both sides, Beamdog responded to the controversy on their April 2016 post. In their post they stated along with putting out bug fixes, that they will be removing the GamerGate joke from the game entirely as well as giving Mizhena more backstory. They stated that "In retrospect, it would have been better served if we had introduced a transgender character with more development". The result from the developers was likely a way to keep both sides happy, keeping the representation entirely and strengthening it for the social justice crowd while removing a questionable joke and making the representation more than what they viewed to be tokenism for the other side. Naturally this caused more responses and flareups from the media. Paul Tumburro of CraveOnline in particular was highly against the changes presented in the patch and the developer, stating that the response was "spineless and disappointing" and that the developers were on the side of the gamers, and stating that the transphobic levels of hate directed at the game were never addressed and dealt with properly.

Aftermath
Currently Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear sits at a score of 6/10 on Steam, indicating generally mixed reviews from players. On GOG.com, it sits at a score of 2.6/5, one of the lowest scores on the site. Since the incident the amount of positive reviews have risen a bit, though the game is still being criticized by gamers even outside of the messy background, as players are still upset with how the game feels unnecessary, doesn't live up to expectations, and criticisms directed at the plot and writing are still apparent. At the end of the day, both the social justice side as well as the audience side. It's never okay to inject politically correct views in a gaming franchise that is over 15 years old and was never made for it in the first place and force your own agendas everywhere you go, and in a franchise made to be politically incorrect as well nonetheless. However, it is also not okay to constantly attack the development team for their inclusions and warring over in the most unprofessional and ways possible and going about with mass negative reviews all because of one character and line in a video game. Nowadays the controversy has died down entirely, though the game is still divided among fans.

Videos
VFyl-_LqhSs OnuXluzwQg8 aJy9AQPuxhM VSzZ9jIl7pY -SQgZ6v3U5U eXjmn_BXslM