No, it's not worth it.

[Dexter]

Most reviews seem to be going easy on this and are kind of missing the point since they seem to be reviewing "Baldur's Gate" as a game again, which almost everybody can agree was wonderful and can still be gotten from GoG[www.gog.com] or even as a Dungeons & Dragons Anthology[www.gamersgate.com] together with Baldur's Gate 2 + Throne of Bhaal, Icewind Dale 1+2, Planescape: Torment and Temple of Elemental Evil for about the price of this Re-Release.
Everybody knows that the game was and largely still is rather beloved: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-08-game-devs-favourite-is-baldurs-gate

Most of them seem to be appraising Baldur's Gate itself as a game instead of the "Enchanted Edition", what it has to offer by itself or what new it can bring to the table. It shouldn't be allowed to rest on the laurels of ages gone by with a game that everybody can still buy in its original form.

I was surprised by how much Overhaul managed to screw this up. They had what initially looked like a winning formula. Just take Baldur’s Gate, an award-winning game still beloved by a great many people, make it HD, maybe add some fixes and rake in the dough.

Instead they decided to screw it up royally in every way they could possibly think of. First they couldn’t get the original high-res art, since apparently it “doesn’t exist” anymore (sure, as if an EA-owned studio would simply hand them over their means to let them make money off of without getting anything in return).
Following that they introduced the amazing Blur-filter they put most of the game through (not even a resolution option, really?):
http://baldursgate.com/images/neera/screenshot04.jpg

and that gold-edged excuse for an interface:
http://www.baldursgate.com/images/media/screenshots_nov22/Screen05.png

This was also one of the screenshots of an area they had designed themselves, a horrible blurry mess with stretched textures over 3D terrain showing they have no grasp of how the previous areas were designed (or simply don’t care): http://baldursgate.com/images/rasaad/screenshot02.jpg

And because they were so popular in recent BioWare games, hey let's add some new romances: http://i.imgur.com/EPukq.png http://i.imgur.com/aix59.jpg despite Baldur's Gate never having those and being better off without them.
And the only new content aside from that is some sort of separate Arena Mode that’s supposed to last for hours but doesn't have any story of its own, all of it sounds like it’s custom-designed to violate the legacy left behind by the original games.

There was also an interesting incident with their new in-game map, that first appeared in this article: http://www.pcgamesn.com/article/baldur-s-gate-enhanced-edition-everything-we-know and had like 4-5 spelling mistakes, pretty much summing up most of the development of this “Enhanced Edition”: http://images1.pcgamesn.com/baldurs-gate-map.jpg
Since it brought them some bad PR they suddenly decided to make it disappear and pretend like the guy doing it doesn’t exist instead of admitting mistakes, they even deleted the thread talking about it instead of offering an apology or clarification: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/4832/updated-version-of-baldurs-gate-map/p1
Despite him apparently being an artist doing professional work and him previously stating that he was commissioned for it: http://www.mugwortdesigns.com/baldurs-gate-map

Not to say that most (like 90%+) of the “fixes” they’ve integrated in the game directly stem from Mods that people had already made for free and they’ve asked for permission to use/implement. Of course they will likely not get any reimbursement for their work and worked for free, but at least they have the "honor" of having worked on Baldur's Gate in some official capacity.

They even used people and their passion for the game to translate it into different other languages for free, why do it yourself or put any money behind it if the Option exists?: http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/11/16/baldurs-gate-contains-close-to-a-million-words-of-dialog-and-how-fan-translations-helped-the-enhanced-edition/

It’s like a bunch of children got handed a Pissarro and they decided to take their paintbrushes and paint all over it because they know they can improve on it…

It reminds me of the old lady who tried to restore a century old Spanish fresco and it became an Internet meme:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuPuVEPgtjc
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/online/2012/8/22/1345647849262/Ecce-♥♥♥♥-by-Elias-Garcia-006.jpg

Not to mention that they even changed some Cinematics out of some incomprehensible reason while removing some of the others entirely, likely because they didn't want to pay any licensing money to RAD Video Tools/Bink for their new Release.

Original:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Kmmggc6jH8
"Enhanced" ("beautifully hand painted animated cinematics"):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egfgFZATd5E

There's also a lot of Bugs that have been reported, from some of the new quests for the new characters not working right because the scripting seems to break, to a Bug that apparently skips the Ending-Cinematic entirely (people apparently didn't know if they didn't make one and cut it out or if it's a Bug).
The game doesn't even start on PCs with Intel graphics or Macbooks and a few other configurations.

The iOS/tablet version had also been delayed several times since Apple declined them over and over by not approving their "App" because of bugs including crashes:
http://images.vg247.com/current/2012/11/trentoster.jpg
And after it came out people were especially disappointed over the reworked tablet interface, that doesn't seem to work particularly well.

TL;DR: It's just generally a joke and it's sad that the quality of the initial game that came out 14 years ago is being used to justify this "Enhanced Edition", and the GoG/GamersGate-Version with BGT or the Big World Mod would Fix a lot of the same things that this did, with a lot less Bugs and better, even integrating both parts and their Add-Ons into one big narrative arc, also possibly adding more features if you so choose.
http://www.shsforums.net/files/category/38-bgt-weidu/
http://www.shsforums.net/files/category/72-big-world-project/

If you are looking towards acknowledging that top-down RPGs still work today and are "still viable" with your money, I think it would be a much better idea to spend some of that towards Wasteland 2[wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com] or Project: Eternity[eternity.obsidian.net] or waiting for the upcoming Torment[www.nowgamer.com] successor, since they are all new creative works instead of a Cash-In on an old, beloved franchise.

[bloodraven43]

"Enhanced" (beautifully hand painted animated cinematics):....lol...the original was much better

[General Plastro]

While i disagree with you in 2 topics, your post pretty much sums up my opinion on this game. As a Project Eternity backer & Wasteland Enthusiast i was happy you mentioned them.

The 2 Topics i disagree with you are:

"Most reviews seem to be going easy on this and are kind of missing the point since they seem to be reviewing "Baldur's Gate" as a game again"

Most of the reviewers i saw gave this Enchanced Edition a pretty low score (around 6 out of 10), most of them saying the "enchancements werent worth it".

The other topic being:

"And because they were so popular in recent BioWare games, hey let's add some new romances: http://i.imgur.com/EPukq.png http://i.imgur.com/aix59.jpg despite Baldur's Gate never having those and being better off without them. "

Have you tried BG1NPCs mod? a well done romance with your PC greatly improves the story in general, it makes both your PC and your love interest grow as characters, giving you a more deep feeling & motivations within the overall story. Dynaheir (from BG1NPC mod) or Viconia (in BG2) serve as my best examples to this.

With that said, after alot of mods added romances in BG2 & BG1, i expected Neera to be at least in par with them... but no, it is very amateurish work. In modding tutorials, they teach you that Bioware romanceable NPCs (from BG2) were "amateur" and teach you that you should always strive to do better, Neera is not only worse than what the modding comunity has to offer, but worse the than original romances from BG2.

With the Enchanced Edition being just an supposed improvement, i would expect that those 3 NPCs would have a crapload of interaction with the story.

I cannot say much about the other 2 new NPC's romance, but as normal party members they are very dull (pack mules!).

[Alu]

Well, the game is fine by me however for now it's too expensive. I'll buy it when it will be on 75% sale. OP made some valid points.

[Elazul]

This deserves to be a sticky IMHO.

[Lord Jerec]

£15 for the whole BG collection perhaps yes, BG 1 on its own? No.

[The New Romance]

Have you even tried the game? You're basing your rant on preview information, most of which is outdated (such as your UI screenshot or the stuff with the map - the one you linked to has NEVER been official, and none of the developers have ever said so).

[Chromeflamin]

The bottom line here is this game should be left to the minds of those who originally played it.

[General Plastro]

Początkowo opublikowane przez The New Romance:

Have you even tried the game? You're basing your rant on preview information, most of which is outdated (such as your UI screenshot or the stuff with the map - the one you linked to has NEVER been official, and none of the developers have ever said so).

Excuse me, but have you played the game? mine has that UI and the OP presented very valid points.

Początkowo opublikowane przez CHROMEFLAMIN:

The bottom line here is this game should be left to the minds of those who originally player it.

I dont understand what you meant by that, as a BG veteran i am all for new people to try this wonderful game, what i am against is this "Enchanced" Edition not only removing content but charging for stuff that is avaiable for free and what little hastely done content it contains doesnt excuse for this price tag. This version is actually very inferior to a modded BG1 install, thats my main problem with it.

[theBlackDragon]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Team Rocket:

With that said, after alot of mods added romances in BG2 & BG1, i expected Neera to be at least in par with them... but no, it is very amateurish work. In modding tutorials, they teach you that Bioware romanceable NPCs (from BG2) were "amateur" and teach you that you should always strive to do better, Neera is not only worse than what the modding comunity has to offer, but worse the than original romances from BG2.

Odd, I always thought the BG2 romances were some of the best ones I've seen from BioWare, but maybe that's just good memories talking.

That said, while I would very much appreciate a BG version that supports higher resolutions properly I rather not have a game that has been messed with, at least with mods I can opt-out of stuff I feel I don't need or changes I feel are for the worse. A lot of it is also nostalgia, I wouldn't say the new cinematics are bad per se, but the originals, well, good times, good memories...

[Exostenza]

Thanks for this. I won't be buying it now for sure. I will probably head over to GoG and get that pack of all the games in one.

This should be a sticky for sure.

[chrisjones]

Good overview. I would recommend folks avoid the iOS version as well. The interface wasn't redesigned well for a touchscreen device and everything about it was awkward. This was when the game was first released, so its possible they may have improved it by now, but I lost interest and just started replaying my GOG PC copy with mods for my BG fix.

--Chris

[General Plastro]

Początkowo opublikowane przez theBlackDragon:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Team Rocket:

With that said, after alot of mods added romances in BG2 & BG1, i expected Neera to be at least in par with them... but no, it is very amateurish work. In modding tutorials, they teach you that Bioware romanceable NPCs (from BG2) were "amateur" and teach you that you should always strive to do better, Neera is not only worse than what the modding comunity has to offer, but worse the than original romances from BG2.

Odd, I always thought the BG2 romances were some of the best ones I've seen from BioWare, but maybe that's just good memories talking.

That said, while I would very much appreciate a BG version that supports higher resolutions properly I rather not have a game that has been messed with, at least with mods I can opt-out of stuff I feel I don't need or changes I feel are for the worse. A lot of it is also nostalgia, I wouldn't say the new cinematics are bad per se, but the originals, well, good times, good memories...

BG2 romances are probably the best Bioware did, they great in their own way. What i mean is that modding tutorials (at least the 5 ones i read before getting into modding) always refered to the Bioware Romances as the basic working ground, that every beginner modder should look foward to topple the Bioware Romances both in writing quality & complexity, i belive it was a way to make us always try to improve. I said that because Beamdog didint even did this basic first step when it came to their new NPCs and they had much more potential then modders would ever have (at least i belived that, with them being a company & all).

As for having options, that would have been an excelent option, to would be able to play original uncut BG1. If you look at a good example would be the new Rise of the Triad remake, not only you will be getting the original Rise of the Triad, but you can play the remake with all the sound & etc from the original.

[Diggory]

Unfortunately I agree with this assessment and I should have read this forum before buying. Buggy is an understatement.

[Yodosaan]

Too bad i've read those comment AFTER buying BGEE.. i was caught by the 'hi res' graphic, new character and new 'arena' but the game it's a total mess.. the arena is exactly that.. an endless row of unbalanced duels between your party and the enemy without any background, the most unappalling thing you can find in a RPG game.The game is 'sluggish' even on a top end machine.
More than this i can't understand WHY on earth they changed the movies!! if the game in enhanched simply enhanche it, don't change it! they don't deserve the money i spent for the game.
I'm going to install my boxed and original copy of baldur's gate right now.

[hero1900]

if they made a native version of this for linux then i will not have any issues since it will be new game for me