A few weeks ago I made a post where I talked about a game by the name of Baldur's gate and while writing it I decided to make more posts in order to talk about the game's sequel and its expansion.
The last post (where i talk about the enhanced edition of Baldur's gate) can be read here.
Today I'll be talking about "Siege of Dragonspear" an expansion made for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition which serves as a sort of "bridge" between the events of the first and second games.
This post will have a lot of spoilers, as i'll basically be talking about almost everything Siege of Dragonspear has to offer, but i'll make sure to mark the most important stuff so that you don't read it by accident.
Before we can begin talking about Siege of Dragonspear I have to talk about a thing that actually happened with it. You see, Siege of Dragonspear has a somewhat troubled release, with a lot of people criticizing the game for having a trans-gendered NPC and others criticizing how sloppy that character's introduction was, there were other reasons but these were usually the big two.
Some people exaggerated and complained about SJWs trying to "ruin" their game or something, and since this is the internet a lot of people believed this is what was happening without even playing the game.
In truth, said NPC is extremely unimportant and i didn't even care to talk with her about her backstory. In other words, it's an easily avoidable character with forgettable dialogue, people were just exaggerating and being hurt for no reason.
That being said however, Siege of Dragonspear is not the greatest expansion ever, for a couple of reasons i will talk about later...
Siege of Dragonspear is an expansion handled much like the Mass Effect games in that when you finish one game you can port your save to the next and keep playing with the same character, since this expansion takes place in between the first and second games you can port your save after killing the big bad evil guy of the first game, Sarevok.
The actual expansion doesn't start you with a siege related to a dragon's spear or anything like that, it puts you inside a little dungeon with all of the party members you had when you finished the game (or with party members that fit your alignment, if you're making a new character instead of importing a save), it's a pretty straight forward dungeon and it somehow feels like a tutorial.
There's more going on in the background however, Caelar Argent who's also known as the "Shining Lady" leads a mighty crusade (by the name of "The Crusade") through the sword coast, her objective is to lead it into the Nine Hells in order to save the lost souls of the people who fought in the Dragonspear wars, because these people were unlucky enough to be dragged into the Nine Hells (the version of hell in D&D vanilla).
Initially it sounds like a noble goal, but her Crusade has also left a lot more people dead, homeless and/or worse. Her Crusade has enough strength to stand against the major cities in the sword coast (like Baldur's Gate, for example).
The real story begins after completing this dungeon, some things happen in your home and then you find yourself in the war against Caelar Argent's Crusade. SPOILER ALERT: She sends assassins after you.
Before that you have to gather allies and from here it becomes clear that SoD is going to be taking a different approach to exploration, as soon as you're given control the player is limited to traveling through several key locations in the city of Baldur's Gate, all of them allowing you to interact with some of the possible companions in the game and those conversations also let you "set" which companions know your character and who are complete strangers.
The entire expansion will limit the areas you can explore at any given moment. In one chapter you'll be able to explore some places in Baldur's Gate and then the chapter after that you'll be limited to whatever new location the game wants you to go to. Since you're limited in every chapter you must complete the side quests available at that specific location before continuing, because moving from that area will usually leave those side quests unfinished and without the means to complete them.
An example, the locations below are places that cannot be explored again at this time and moving to the location above will make the places in the right unreachable.
This is one of the major complaints people have with SoD, the lack of exploration compared to the original games and the restriction placed on the player, I don't really see it as much of a problem because every area you're given access to has a lot of stuff in it.
Every place you can go to usually has one or two more side quests that can be done there and some parts of the map are really interesting, the only downside to this is that you have to comb every last part of the map to make sure you're not missing anything.
However, you do have to explore most places and do as much side quests as possible if you're starting a new game in the expansion, not because you'll miss on a lot of stuff but because otherwise the final boss is really hard.
The good part is that most side quests can be pretty interesting on their own right, there's one you get as soon as you start which has you entering a mine dug by some dwarves who released some unholy abominations because they dug too deep (this happens a lot in these types of games), and you can also finish this quest in two three different ways; you can either help the dwarves, the lich you just found or you can bamboozle the lich and kill him after he's given you his stuff.
This is a side quest where dwarves dug too deep.
This is another side quest where some cultist summoned monsters beyond mortal comprehension
This brings me to my next point, where i actually talk about the game's story which i believe is severely lacking.
For a game that sells itself on being "the bridge between Baldur's Gate 1 and 2" most of the time playing in this DLC is spent dealing with Caelar's Crusade, which has nothing to do with 2 since there's no mention of either Caelar or the Crusade in it.
The only thing connecting both stories is the "Hooded Man", a character that appears and will usually complain about the decisions your character has made through the expansion, praising you when you do "evil" things and criticizing if you do good. He's actually a major character in 2 and literally the only thing providing a bridge between both games, since Dragonspear can't do that on its own apparently...
Another point i have to make about the story of this expansion is that it's really dumb. I'm actually more invested into the side quests and notes that are dropped through the expansion than the actual story, this shouldn't be much of a problem if it wasn't for the fact that "it's supposed to be a bridge story between 1 and 2"
(Beware, this part has spoilers for SoD)
The biggest complaint with the story is Caelar, given that she's the villain for most of the expansion and my issues with her lie in the way her character is portrayed.
The game paints Caelar as a force of good who is doing terrible things in order to accomplish a greater goal, this is the first issue I have with her, Caelar's crusade does a lot of damage to the people living in the sword coast (either directly or accidentally) but the game always tells you that people praise her and their crusade because of their long term goal.
Let me put it this way, your name is Bob and you live in the Sword Coast, you have a small Inn that provides for your wife and children and you also have a bunch of neighbors you like very much, but then the Crusade arrives and in the ensuing chaos your Inn burns and crashes, killing your family, then your neighbors oppose the Crusaders and get killed but then this woman named Caelar comes in and tells you "everything is going to be fine, we're going to revive your grandparents"
And this is why I can't take Caelar seriously, some people will tell you she's a great character with a noble goal but i can only see her as an insane person who believes her way is the only way to do things.
The worst part about her though, is that her Crusade is based on a lie.
At the end of the expansion it's revealed that the only reason why Caelar wants to storm the Nine Hells is to save her Uncle, who sacrificed himself first to save Caelar from the Nine Hells in the first place. It's also revealed that Caelar, or anyone else for that matter, is incapable of rescuing the souls of the people sent to the Nine Hells during the Dragonspear wars, which means that all along she was lying to her Crusaders.
Granted, deep down she had this belief that maybe she could have found a way, but it still means nothing because she knew she didn't have an actual way of bringing back anyone and she also knew she was lying to the people she led.
In the end, all she did was bring blood and destruction into the sword coast all while saying how righteous and great her Crusade was, an NPC right at the end sums up everything I just said in a short sentence.
You promised to restore my wife, my children, yet all you've brought us is more death!
Some people can argue that she's not the true evil here, since all along the Crusade was being used by Hephernaan (Caelar's right hand) in order to open a gate into the Nine Hells so that his master, the Demon Belhifet, could do evil stuff, but you have to understand this:
Caelar knows how much damage she's doing, she knows how many people she's killing and she also knows she's lying to everyone in her command.
And she didn't care.
Why does he still refuse me? Why can't he see the righteousness of our cause?
Would she do that again? Yes, she says this herself in a dialogue tree at the end. And you're supposed to believe she's a character of a "Good" alignment.
Ultimately, her fate is decided by the player during her final conversation. She either fights Belhifet alongside the protagonist and the party or she joins Belhifet (after she finally realizes she's the big bad evil guy of the expansion) as a Blackguard (evil paladin, weird because she's a fighter not a paladin) and fights against the party.
SPOILERS END HERE.
The single greatest thing in this entire expansion has to be the interactions between party members. Despite the fact this expansion was released in 2016 (a full decade after the original games) the devs managed to find the original voice actors of everyone and make them play their characters again. There's a lot of delightful interactions like:
Siege of Dragonspear isn't a great expansion, or the best thing to ever grace the Baldur's Gate series, but it's definitely worth it. The interactions between party members and the amount of sidequests in every area will make this an enjoyable experience.
Just like Baldur's Gate 2 it puts romance into the conversations with certain party members, allowing your character to "woo" the ladies/sirs in the game... which doesn't really go anywhere because the romance is fulfilled at the end of the siege and then the NPC you spent so much time wooing just breaks up with you.
The new characters added in this expansion don't appear again in 2 and there was no update or anything allowing them to be in the sequel which makes you go "Why should I try?" when you realize that those characters will only kiss your character once and then break up with them. There goes your ship, sinking in the ocean.
The story is quite forgettable, the only thing i remember was how Caelar was really evil and how the game desperately wants you to be like: "well she has noble goals so she must be good" and the interruptions made by the Hooded Man.
I can't talk about the ending of the story in detail, just know that it's... not good.
There's a lot of railroading into it and it feels like the devs didn't know what to do after the Siege was done so they just did the most simplistic thing and forced the player down a path they can't get out of no matter what.
The expansion's strong points are those that don't focus on the Crusade or connecting the games, the side quests and the interactions between companions are what makes it good.
I'm not saying the expansion sucks or anything, i'm just saying that it fails in focusing on what it's supposed to do and that it feels more like a normal game of D&D where the players just do whatever instead of following the plot.
Siege of Dragonspear? Good. Does it make a good bridge story between the games? Absolutely not. Worth it? Yes, go play Baldur's Gate 1 and then SoD. Don't start with SoD, you'll thank me later.
If i was one of those video game critics I would give it a 6.5/10, because it's an enjoyable game but it's not a great one.
Next time I'll talk about the actual second game of the series "Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn". As always, thanks for reading my post and I hope you have a fantastic day.
See you later!