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kinuskikakku · 6 years

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Something off about Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Editions

Okay, so! I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while now. And if you’re fan of the good ol’ Baldur’s Gate games, you might have.. all sorts of thoughts on the matter. But here are my thoughts. (there will be spoilers)

Okay, so, some of the old fans in general seem to have been generally against of just.. adding anything to the Enhanced Edition. Which, sure, people tend to dislike change in things they love. But one thing that seems to cause a lot of discord is the new available party members in the games, some seem to dislike the fact alone that they.. well, exist. Even more so some people seem to just loathe the fact that The Gays(tm) dare to exist. Like how dare The Gays(tm) do that? This stupid PC bullshit is ruining everything. (disclaimer- I am super gay myself, and I’m actually being facetious).

Me? I’m fine with these new characters existing, they can be nice additions and now Baldur’s Gate 2 has something it didn’t really have before: a pure-class thief. I do have a different sort of gripe with these new characters though. Wanna know what it is? Well too bad, I’m going to tell it anyways.

So, I’m gonna focus more on BG2 (particularly SoA) here, since it’s got a lot bulkier story, generally a lot more character interaction, more in-depth romance and so forth. But anyways, I’m gonna go just point by poitn here.. kind of.

First thing is... a lot of these new possible party members have this weird tendency just intersecting your adventures with drawn out cut-scenes that just shove them in the player’s face. This seems invasive, takes away any sense of discovery, and just.. I dunno. I understand that Beamdog wants to bring out their creations and make them easily accessible. But when you have to halt what you were doing for what seems like.. way too long after a couple of playthrough, I feel like they’re doing something wrong.

Granted, the vanilla game also made some characters kind of intersect your character with their.. thing. Like Jan Jansen trying to sell you his dubious stuff, or Viconia DeVir being on the stake about to be burned, or Edwin Odesseiron being a quest giver, or Anomen Delryn getting on your face about duty and honour and stuff while hanging out in a seedy bar). Yes, they do that. But also, in the vanilla game these moments seemed a lot more well-woven and these characters were acting in-character. (to be fair, the new EE characters are also acting mostly in-character but.. much less well-woven)

While I’m not against adding new things and new characters, I’m just wondering if there could’ve been some better, less invasive way to implement them in the game?

Then, the new romances. Baldur’s Gate 2 was one of the earliest RPGs to implement romance in their games. And to their credit, the vanilla game handled things exceptionally well for their time. (honestly, this over 17-year-old game handled romance much better than some modern games do)

So, how are these added romances handled in Enhanced Edition? Generally speaking, okay. The people writing them clearly put their best into writing them, I’ve no doubt about it. They do a really tough act to follow, though. So at times, they seem less good compared to the vanilla game’s romance. Still, for the most part, they’re fine.

But now, earlier I mentioned two things: 1. I am super gay, 2. the evil Gays(tm) dare to force themselves in this.

And here, “evil gays” is sadly kind of accurate.. not just kind of, but literally accurate. I do think they were genuinely trying to add diversity with the best intentions, but it comes off.. weird, when both possible queer romances - the bi-/pansexual Dorn Il-Khan and the purely homosexual Hexxat - are Neutral Evil by their alignments. I mean.. EVIL gays.

Okay, sure, in DnD “Evil” is mostly about self-interest and stuff like that, not exactly about mustachio twirling cartoon evilness. STILL I feel like there’s some really bad implications when you make your queer characters that way!

But I do have some other gripes too, especially with our big Dorn here. And that’s... it’s not really romance, and for another.. Dorn doesn’t seem really Neutral evil, but rather Chaotic Evil. To comedically summarize the “romance” with Dorn: “Hey, let’s go commit mass murder and use blood as a lube on top of the pile of bodies!”

But to be more in-depth. First, the alignment thing. Dorn’s deal seems to be that he just wants to go around murdering people just for the thrill of murdering people, without paying any mind to to whether or not this benefits him in the slightest. Which is CHAOTIC EVIL. A Neutral Evil person in this world would mostly focus on the question of how does a thing benefit them. Sure, they would have zero qualms about killing someone, and might even do it if someone looks at them funny in a bar if they’re in a lousy mood. But they’re not usually interested in the thrill of killing itself, death and murder are just means to their ends.

Then.. the.. ugh.. “romance”. The thing is, what you get with Dorn isn’t romance or love. What you get with Dorn is lust and something that is purely physical. Dorn never is interest in your for you, Dorn is attracted to power, and you are playing as Gorion’s Ward, a Bhaalspawn, a demigod. From the get go, Dorn makes it clear that he sees power in you wake, and that’s what draws him to you.

And even if you argue that there is some semblance of love, it’s purely conditional on Dorn’s part. It’s his way or the high way in this relationship.

Now, I can’t speak for all of The Gays(tm), but as a gay man myself, I can’t be into this. I don’t understand why is this sociopath appealing. And why after the interest piqued by a queer guy in this game am I so badly let down.

Hexxat though? I think she’s pretty cool. I mean, haven’t finished Throne of Bhaal with her. But her behaviour seems to be focused more on the question of “how does X benefit me?” as per Neutral Evil. But in SoA it wasn’t like she was devoid of compassion or empathy to others. Sure, she might act nice and cool to others for her own benefit, but hey.. at least that makes her someone appealing. Not sure what to think of using the evil lesbian vampire trope, but.. even with that, she seemed fairly well handled.

Ugh, this got so rambly, but at least I got out all my steam about this! If you bothered to read this through, thanks. And if you don’t like The Gays(tm) in your games.. I dunno.. go away, don’t tell me about it. I get to see it more than enough already, trust me.

#rant #ramble #me babbling #baldur's gate #baldur's gate enhanced edition #lgbt #lgbtq #the gays(tm)

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