Prior to playing the enhanced edition i used to play the original version as a young teenager and i barely remember much of the game. In itself i dont really have much nostalgia for the game nor do i think that you should excuse any issues a game have, except its graphics, with the phrase oh well its old. Baldurs Gate is definetly a good game but i just want to point a few things out that might turn off some people already but i will also mention the many good things that might attract new people to this game.

Gameplay
As a "real time" strategy game baldurs gate tends to be harder than it actually is just because of some design issues. You dont really have to understand what the numbers actually do except that you have to know which number is better. The lesser armor rate someone has, the better as base armor rating is 10 and a platemail will lower it to 1. While other numbers like weapon damage are better the higher they are. Some things dont even do anything in the game like infravision or some spells.

Also when you start a game you might be overwhelmed by the many different classes. But this is actually where the most fun lies. I often had my most fun creating a different class and testing out new team compositions. There are probably over 40 classes with 10 or so primary ones. There are lots of different weapon types to skill on and they do all have a porpuse despite some being clearly better than other ones. As an example bastard swords are the best one handed weapon type. But the problematic thing is that in baldurs gate you can only get better gear really by buying / finding enchanted magic items. There arent that many enchanted bastard swords in baldurs gate, but lots of longswords. Some enemies are immune/resist certain weapon types.

Therefore a variety is needed which is something the game doesnt warn you about. Another example is that the archer can choose a nemesis, an enemy type he is better against. The game gives you the option to choose dragons and so on. But there arent any dragons in baldurs gate at all! These things are just plain bad game design. Many of these issues could have been removed if the game wouldnt have sticked to the pen and paper ruleset that strictly.

Combat itself is incredibly fun. Well in early mid to lategame at least. Because in the early game you wont have any options really to do much as you are still collecting party member and slowly gain skills and stronger enemies will be fought. Each harder situation needs careful planning and execution. You are annoyed by small fry and dont want to click the whole time and control every class yourself? There are lots of premade scripts you can activate that does this for you. Class restrictions on armor and weapons add another layer of depth to the game.

Some classes are clearly better than others. As an example you dont want to play as a wizard slayer on your first run as he cant wear almost any enchanted gear and his stats dont make up for his negatives. Some classes are starting to get good only in baldurs gate 2 because here your max level will be around 8. Its fun trying out new things and still being able to win with classes that are more complicated and worse than other ones. You could see it as an additional difficulty option. While starting first on the D&D difficulty rules may be intriguing it can be quite difficult on your first run, with lots of reloads but being quite doable with some preperation. Highlights where for me the various special encounters that can be really though and require you to prepare a lot for.

Enhanced Edition
The launch of the enhanced edition was one of the worst launches i have witnessed. The game features lots of bugs and foreign languages that the original game had werent included in the game. Over the time many bugs are fixed yet still many persist. These arent game breaking but pretty annoying. Like a click above an item may even delete it at times. I still prefer this version during a sale over the original.

Now the enhanced edition did add some smaller "nice to have" things into the game. Just some smaller stuff that made the game overall more comfortable. I still wish there would have been an option to turn the game into vanilla mode via one click and just add the widescreen support mod.

The big new changes are the 3 new characters with their own quest lines and the black pits.While the characters itself are a great addition i personally never use them in my parties except maybe dorn. Rarely i take the new mage with me and never the monk because its low level dungeons and dragons. Monks are just complete lategame heroes and they are just a complete burden in the early levels.



Multiplayer
Multiplayer can make a lot of fun in this game if you and your friend both are on the same mindset while playing the game as you either want to skip all the dialogue/read only the main stuff or really want to read every bit of detail. If one of you is on a different mindset it can really be annoying or a borefest for the other. But overall multiplayer is a good reason you might want to pick it up.

Black Pits
Probably my favorite part about the enhanced edition is the new story campaign. Its a simple battle arena story where you get money train your fighters and try to escape the whole situation. You level faster and the annoying early game is basically not there anymore. I have some complaining to do. The whole campaign is way too short and some of the later fights are just plain idiotic to add in here. Some might rage quit at the trolls as some people dont know that D&D trolls are only killable trough fire. Another thing is one of the very last matches puts you up against clay golems. Which are immune to anything except enchanted blunt weapons. That would be fine but they give you around 5 of these to fight at the same time. Not really doable on harder difficulties if your whole party isnt prepared/ build around this fight. Multiplayer wise Black Pits wont work. After each chapter the game will get stuck in an arena. Sad beamdog.

Story
In itself i always tought that people overhype this story. Its average fantasy stuff. I didnt really personally like the story but didnt hate it either. Its mostly that the main story is just badly told. Generally speaking what sets the game apart and makes it stand out are the various characters you meet (around 26 companions all with more or less fleshed out story/personality) and the fantastic writing. There are lots of situations where i burst out in laughter as the game itself is actually pretty serious but the hilarious jokes dont break any of the immersion i had. The whole worldbuilding is great too as ferun is pretty credible.

Graphics
Baldurs gate static backgrounds still look pretty good. You shouldnt zoom too close to your player characters tough.

Sound
Often my second favorite thing in games is a good soundtrack and a good atmosphere. There are lots of fantastic tracks from the famous title music to the calming yet mysterious night tracks. I love it.

The voice acting is, for the most part, great too and the enhanced edition adds some new fantastic voices aswell.

Conclusion/TL;DR
I did have much complaining to do, partially about the enhanced edition, partially about some general game design issues too. But that doesnt mean i didnt like the game. Infact its one of my favorite games. But there are some clear issues with early game combat, non explained gameplay features and some things just being fluff and not having any ingame porpuse. But the whole gameworld is just so incredibly immersive combined with the fantastic OST and as the game goes on the midgame is so incredibly rewarding and boss fights are so perfectly challenging that for me it was a really good game inspite of its flaws.

Great isometric RPG