Skip to main content

Massive expansion Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear announced

Earlier this year, we reported that Beamdog, publisher of Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition was working on an addition to the series that it called “Adventure Y.” This game was to be set between the events of the first and second Baldur’s Gate games. Now we’ve finally got more details on what that game will be.
Recommended Videos

Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear was officially announced yesterday evening with a brief teaser trailer. Instead of a standalone game, it is an expansion to Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, and requires that game to run. Just because it’s an expansion, however, that doesn’t mean it won’t be big.

Siege of Dragonspear is said to feature over 25 hours of gameplay. As we initially heard, the expansion takes place between the first game and its sequel, Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn.

As you would expect with any good expansion, Siege of Dragonspear adds new areas, monsters, NPCs, and a new class in the form of the Shaman. In addition the game boasts a redesigned interface. The original cast will return, and the score comes courtesy of Sam Hulick, who provided the music for Mass Effect 3.

The expansion also takes a new approach to difficulty. If you’re just here to experience the story, the Story Mode difficulty “allows players to experience the entire story with none of the Game Over screens.” If you’re in it for the challenge, the Legend of Bhaal difficulty will be more your speed.

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition came to a wide variety of platforms, and Siege of Dragonspear will as well, coming to Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android platforms. Even better, the expansion will feature cross-platform multiplayer, at least between the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions of the game.

There is no word yet on when the game will be released, as it is currently only listed as “coming soon.” Our original report had the game coming in 2015, but for now we’ll just have to wait and see. For more information, see the official website.

Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
Baldur’s Gate 3 is gunning for the top of the Steam charts with jaw-dropping stats
Jaheira in Baldur's Gate 3.

Baldur's Gate 3 left early access and officially launched on August 3, and it's seeing an unprecedented level of success. At the time of writing, the peak player count for the game is hovering around 537, 000, according to data from SteamDB.

Baldur's Gate 3 saw steady growth in player count ahead of its early access launch in recent weeks, and that player count number has only continued to skyrocket. Right now, Baldur's Gate 3 is the third most concurrently played game on Steam. The only games Baldur's Gate 3 is lagging behind are Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and DOTA 2, two popular multiplayer games with massive communities. PUBG: Battlegrounds, the game in fourth place, is around 200,000 players behind Larian Studios' latest.

Read more
Is Baldur’s Gate 3 coming to Xbox?
A mage holding a flaming object.

After years in early access only on PC, Baldur's Gate 3 is finally here in its final state. This CRPG has the internet buzzing about just how long and varied the experience can be. What's even better is that it can be played in co-op, though with limited cross-platform features. Those looking at the game may notice that there is only ever mention of a PC and PS5 version, which obviously raises the question about Xbox consoles. Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't have any exclusivity deal with PlayStation, so why isn't it on Xbox, and will it ever be?
Will Baldur's Gate 3 come to Xbox?
https://twitter.com/Cromwelp/status/1685821620756021249?s=20

Long before launch, Larian stated that it intended to release Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox consoles alongside the PC and PS5 releases, but ran into a technical hurdle that it wasn't confident it could resolve. That issue was that the game couldn't run in split-screen mode on the weaker Series S. Because Xbox requires games to be able to run on the S as well as the X, that meant that the team had no choice but to delay the release on that platform.

Read more
Before starting Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ll need to know these Dungeons & Dragons basics
A Drow prepares to throw an item in Baldur's Gate 3.

If you’re looking to dive into Baldur’s Gate 3, but don’t have any knowledge of the series, don’t worry. The new CRPG tells a standalone story that doesn’t require that you have any knowledge of the series’ first two games. You might, however, want to be a little familiar with Dungeons & Dragons.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is the most comprehensive adaptation of the tabletop game ever made, heavily drawing from D&D’s 5th edition ruleset to build its own RPG systems. And while everything is explained in the game through tooltips, the mass of systems can be overwhelming if they're totally new to you. You’ll have to learn a wealth of tabletop gameplay knowledge in a short time to start killing owlbears and charming your way through conversations.

Read more