Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2 remakes reportedly in development

Wizards of the Coast is returning to Baldur’s Gate. PC Gamer reports that Wizards of the Coast is developing remakes of Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, with Kevin Martens leading development. Martens was the co-lead designer of Baldur’s Gate 2 and most recently was assisting in the development of Exodus, Wizards’ upcoming AAA video game.

Baldur’s Gate 3 was a major success for Wizards of the Coast and a sequel game seems inevitable. However, Larian Studios opted to leave the franchise to pursue its own IP, and Wizards has yet to announce what studio, whether internal or external, would take over. A remake of the first two Baldur’s Gate games would likely be a stopgap of sorts to keep fans interested in the franchise while lining up Baldur’s Gate 4, although a lot of work would be needed to update the games for modern consoles and PCs. Remastered versions were already released for iOS and PC a decade ago.

 

[saviirkad]

If they're remaking older Baldur's Gate, it'd be to have them feel like they're a part of the same visual pattern and style of BG3, I'm sure. How far they take that depends entirely on their budget and timeline, but I think a shared art style and gameplay to some degree will be a given. The goal will be to modernize the titles.

And we do have remasters already, so the original games are already updated and still playable. It'd be a lot of money for no gain to just do that again.

 

[cbwjm]

I might be interested to see the outcome via reviews and gameplay videos, but I'm fine with the current iterations (loved that there was an expansion for BG1 with the enhanced edition). I think I like the simplicity of 2e over what will become a 5e version of the game.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I look forward to a new generation of gamers learning to send a naked Khalid off to solo a Xvart village so they aren't stuck with a single class fighter without a strength bonus.

(Then feel marginally bad about it in BG3. )

 

[Gladius Legis]

Luckily for you RtwP hasn't been popular for a good while. Very high chance this will ship with TB.

Plus assuming (with nigh certainty) they're going with 5.5e in these remakes, that system is going to be impossible to adapt to RTWP. With 2e they could kinda get away with it because there weren't any reactions to worry about and TOTM was the default way to play. Not gonna be the case here.

 

[Gladius Legis]

I look forward to a new generation of gamers learning to send a naked Khalid off to solo a Xvart village so they aren't stuck with a single class fighter without a strength bonus.

(Then feel marginally bad about it in BG3. )

Heh, if they keep the raw stat numbers of all characters the same in this remake while changing to 5.5, Khalid will actually be pretty damn solid. STR 15, DEX 16, CON 17, INT 15 to start. He can even be an Eldritch Knight that actually uses INT-dependent spells.

 

[cbwjm]

I look forward to a new generation of gamers learning to send a naked Khalid off to solo a Xvart village so they aren't stuck with a single class fighter without a strength bonus.

(Then feel marginally bad about it in BG3. )

I almost always kept Khalid around. The only times I didn't was when I felt like trying out other companions so I'd ignore him and his sister. I never really felt like a high strength was necessary in the older editions, good to have, but not necessary.

I'd often let Dynaheir die so I could get rid of her and keep Minsc around though.

 

[Questianor]

Luckily for you RtwP hasn't been popular for a good while. Very high chance this will ship with TB.

Pillars of Eternity added turn-based mode retroactively nearly 10 years after release!

The Owlcat-developed Pathfinder games, which are normally RtwP, also had turn-based modes.

However, while I much prefer turn-based RPGs and don't really care for RtwP at all, especially for D&D and derivative systems, the problem IMO with turn-based alternate modes on a game that was originally designed for RtwP by default is that the encounters and pacing are not really designed for turn-based combat. You end up with a lot of really tedious small encounters all over the game that you would have breezed through in RtwP mode but which waste a lot of time in turn-based. And you don't really get to let the turn-based mode shine either because you can't meticulously craft encounter maps and the spacing/positioning of enemies like you can in a true turn-based CRPG like Baldur's Gate 3 or Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, since these combats are designed for RtwP where everything sort of devolves into a chaotic mess immediately.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Plus assuming (with nigh certainty) they're going with 5.5e in these remakes, that system is going to be impossible to adapt to RTWP. With 2e they could kinda get away with it because there weren't any reactions to worry about and TOTM was the default way to play. Not gonna be the case here.

Personally, I think it's more likely they will polish up the original games to run on modern machines again (removing the Beamdog stuff in the process) and reissue them to try and get in on the retrogaming trend.

Doing them in the BG3 engine is basically making a new game from scratch that is considerably bigger than BG3. It's only really the main story that would be reused.

But certainly not RTWP if it's an actual remake. Aside from the fact that no one likes it any more, and the 5.5 rules give PCs a lot more to do on a turn than simply hit enemies with a sword, you would need completely different encounter design. BG1 has endless trash mobs (e.g. rescue Dinahair from the gnoll fortress). In a turn based game you have a lot fewer fights, with a lot fewer enemies, but each one is an elaborate set piece.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Owlcat-developed Pathfinder games, which are normally RtwP, also had turn-based modes.

The went full turn-based for their WH40K game. The Owlcat Pathfinder games generally are a lot better in turn based mode. They faithfully implemented a bunch of class abilities that aren't really usable in RTWP.

 

[Horwath]

Plus assuming (with nigh certainty) they're going with 5.5e in these remakes, that system is going to be impossible to adapt to RTWP. With 2e they could kinda get away with it because there weren't any reactions to worry about and TOTM was the default way to play. Not gonna be the case here.

no problem with reactions in RTwP if they code them right.


you have tactics, so you can "auto" your AoOs and with spells have casting times, you can program that if you have counterspell, game pauses so you can press the button, or even better, you count on your own reactions to counter that spell.

shield spell can simply be reworked that you gain +1 bonus to AC or +3 if you have free hand, lasts whole day.