Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition 1.2

Overview

The 14 year old classic RPG hit from the PC has been ported over to the iPad with a new enhanced edition. Anyone who’s played or heard of the Baldur's Gate series knows of its strategic role-playing prowess, but how does it stack up on the iPad? The initial 1.0 release received countless complaints of bugs and awful controls. The question now, is how improved has the game become within the last few patches? One thing I can say for starters is that it’s definitely better and better is good when it comes to playing the ever popular classic from the late 90’s.

I’ll be honest with you, I waited several long nail biting months for this re-release and when it finally released I was more than disappointed. The game was riddled with bugs and clumsy touch screen controls that made the game nearly unplayable. The worst part about it was that everything in the game looked and felt just like the original with the addition of welcomed enhancements, but all was for naught as simple tasks like walking through a door became more difficult than fighting challenging monsters. Currently the game is on version 1.0.3 and seems to have gotten the game to a point where playability is now an option. You’ll still run into occasional bugs and frustrations along the way, but that’s a small price to play this gem on your mobile device.

Baldur’s Gate was a revolutionary game back when it was released in 1998. It managed to combine the sophisticated combat system of Dungeons & Dragons with a new style of role-playing games that enchanted the experience from combat and the freedom to play the game how you want. The enhanced addition was aimed to flesh out the more than 400 bugs in the original game, as well as completely rebuild the visual aspect to deliver a crisper looking game on a resolution well over twice as high as the original. Though the game now has new bugs that riddle the game, the true faults appear in the less than optimal touch screen controls. From trying to enter a building to checking the description and stats of an item can be a tedious challenge. The updates have addressed this to work much better than before, but don’t expect that the overall controls have changed; they’ve just been made to work more accurately, which is a big step.

On top of the visual enhancements Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition also includes as new mode called The Black Pits. It’s a gladiatorial mode that throws you in 15 increasingly difficulty battles of enemies for the amusement of Baeloth the Entertainer. It’s an enjoyable mode, but plan to fight the same battles over and over to earn enough XP and gold to better your equipment. It’s also a great tool for newcomers to practice in battle, Baldur’s Gate was hardly a forgiving game back with initial release and don’t expect that to change. If you’re not prepared for even the smallest of battles, you’ll easily find your party face down and dead waiting to reload to a previous saved entry.

Installation

Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition is available on iOS 5.1 or later. It’s currently priced at $9.99 and can be downloaded in the App Store.

Interface

The interface is laid out the exact same as it was in the original title, but now with revamped visuals that make for a sharper and stronger picture. My only complaint about the interface is that the touch controls can sometimes be frustrating when it comes to handling items.

Pros

• One of the greatest most in-depth RPG titles ported to a portable version Enhanced visuals are a welcomed edition
• Plenty of voice acting
• New Black Pit mode
• New update makes the game much more playable

Cons

• Poor touch controls for some features
• Plenty of bugs and frustrations still to be experienced.

Alternatives

If you’re looking for a game that offers the same concept of combat and story with a newer age of graphics, than Star Wars: Knights of the Old Repulic for iPad is a solid choice. Both games were originally developed by BioWare and Knights of the Old Republic manages to improve on nearly all the elements of gameplay.

Conclusion

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition still offers a wonderful experience of nostalgia to anyone who played RPG games for the PC in the late 90’s or early 2000’s. There’s a good chance that younger generations may have trouble seeing the value in a title like this, but it’s not to say this game is only for the nostalgic crowd. It still manages to have more depth and substance than RPG titles of today. If you’re a hardcore role-playing fan, this title still offers one of the greatest RPG experiences today. Even with all of the bugs and the at-times frustrating touch controls this is still a great title that can provide more than 100 hours of enjoyable gameplay.