This review contains general points about the baldur's gate series, summaries of both the main game and the expansion which I completed just recently, as well as my own personal experiences with both games.

General Points about the Baldur's Gate series
Anyone who loves hardcore rpg strategy-based games, with a more advanced D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) ruleset, will no doubt enjoy this epic game and its respective counter-parts. The Baldur's Gate franchise hinges on the story being based on the specific era where Nobles, peasants, commoners, elves, drow, orcs, ogres and all other manner of creatures of varying strengths and abilities existed. Brilliant story and brilliant gameplay indeed.

Know that you not only have the option to complete this game solo, but you also have the option of completing it with friends and/or other party members which you can also choose to have come on your journey with you.
If you're feeling super hardcore and are also brave enough to meet any challenge with your super over-levelled protagonist character/created party members, you can also try to complete this game on its hardest and newest difficulty "Legacy of Bhaal", but know that you will not be able to change your preferred difficulty if you chose LoB difficulty at the start of your session.

Summary of the beginning of Baldur's Gate
You start off in a place known as Candlekeep (your hometown) raised by your foster father Gorian and at some point he becomes increasingly concerned that you're in danger, so he urges you to leave candlekeep with him in the hopes that you'll be safer and shortly after leaving Candlekeep, Gorian and you are ambushed by a gang of thugs and Gorian fends them off himself so you can escape, sacrificing himself in the process.
A girl named Imoen offers to join you as your primary objective is to set out to find who the the leader of those gang of thugs really was that killed Gorian. From then on, the story can unfold in quite a few ways depending on what you decide to do next after that.

Summary of the beginning of the Siege of Dragonspear Expansion
After successfully beating the final boss of the main game (which henceforth declares you, the "Hero of Baldur's Gate"), you start off in an underground tomb underneath the Baldur's Gate city, accompanied by Imoen (who, if you recall from the main game, offers to join your party after you left Candlekeep), any other party member who was with you in the main game if at all, and the Flaming Fist (who are essentially, the military army you encountered inside the Baldur's Gate city from the main game when you first entered it), with your first primary objective, being to locate and bring to justice in any manner of your choosing (i.e. kill outright or leave alive long enough to have em taken into Flaming Fist custody) a certain avid follower of the Final Boss whom you defeated in the main game.
Once that's over with, your party members leave you to go on with their lives, while you and Imoen then end up within the Royal Ducal Palace bedroom of Baldur's Gate, for some rest and respite, until out of nowhere, some unknown assasins infiltrate the bedroom where you and Imoen are. intent on killing you.
However, Imoen is the one that takes a critical hit from said assasins, to the effect that a poison attack leaves her near death. Unconfirmed rumours then start flying around that it was the charismatic warrior, Caelar Argent, and her "Holy Crusade" who may have been behind this.
Accordingly, your new primary objectives for the rest of the game are two-fold: Firstly, to find out who specifically sent those assasins after you, and; Secondly, to also kill the respective perpetrator of those assasins, by any means necessary.

My own personal experiences playing both Baldur's Gate and the expansion, Siege of Dragonspear
I personally enjoy the thrill of being able to enter into battle wondering if I have enough weapons and armour attributes to survive the encounter. Having certain characters (or possibly other friends involved) as party members are also a great help.
When I do end up surviving said battle, my created character gains varying amounts of experience and sometimes upgrades, but when I don't, I either attempt to find other avenues of defeating that which had defeated me the first time or if I've exhausted all options, then I attempt to avoid having to fight it if I can.
Another thing I enjoy about this game series also, are the varying "relationship" dialogues that can happen between a created character and a certain opposite gender party member. The relationship between your protagonist and the opposite gender party member will either keep going or break up with you (even to the extent of leaving the party if bad enough) depending on how you respond to their dialogue with you.

Only thing that has frustrated me about this game series off-hand however, is that whenever a party member wants to go on a specific quest and you chose to let him/her into the party, but after a while when he/she realizes that your party is either "too good/bad" for him/her, he/she abruptly leaves the party and never returns, thus that quest that you originally accepted regarding that party member that abruptly left, remains permenantly unfinished for the rest of the game.

Addtionally, something that has really started to bother me about Siege of Dragonspear inparticular, is that while the gameplay itself is brilliant, the story itself lacks certain aspects which would have otherwise completed it fully. The most obvious example of this which immediately comes to mind, is that none of the relevant NPCs in this expansion explain nor even admit at all, to who actually sent the assasins to the palace to kill you near the start.

Other than all that, overall this is quite a great game and a great introduction into the epic Baldur's Gate franchise. You can also expect a similar kind of experience described above, in both BG2 Enhanced Edition: Shadows of Amn, Throne of Bhaal (Expansion) and the newly developed BG Expansion: Siege of Dragonspear DLC.

This review contains general points about the baldur's gate series, summaries of both the main game and the expansion which I completed just recently, as well as my own personal experiences with both games. [u][b]General Points about the Baldur's Gate series[/b][/u] Anyone who loves hardcore rpg strategy-based games, with a more advanced D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) ruleset, will no doubt enjoy this epic game and its respective counter-parts. The Baldur's Gate franchise hinges on the story being based on the specific era where Nobles, peasants, commoners, elves, drow, orcs, ogres and all other manner of creatures of varying strengths and abilities existed. Brilliant story and brilliant gameplay indeed. Know that you not only have the option to complete this game solo, but you also have the option of completing it with friends and/or other party members which you can also choose to have come on your journey with you. If you're feeling super hardcore and are also brave enough to meet any challenge with your super over-levelled protagonist character/created party members, you can also try to complete this game on its hardest and newest difficulty "Legacy of Bhaal", but know that you will not be able to change your preferred difficulty if you chose LoB difficulty at the start of your session. [u][b]Summary of the beginning of Baldur's Gate[/b][/u] You start off in a place known as Candlekeep (your hometown) raised by your foster father Gorian and at some point he becomes increasingly concerned that you're in danger, so he urges you to leave candlekeep with him in the hopes that you'll be safer and shortly after leaving Candlekeep, Gorian and you are ambushed by a gang of thugs and Gorian fends them off himself so you can escape, sacrificing himself in the process. A girl named Imoen offers to join you as your primary objective is to set out to find who the the leader of those gang of thugs really was that killed Gorian. From then on, the story can unfold in quite a few ways depending on what you decide to do next after that. [u][b]Summary of the beginning of the Siege of Dragonspear Expansion[/b][/u] After successfully beating the final boss of the main game (which henceforth declares you, the "Hero of Baldur's Gate"), you start off in an underground tomb underneath the Baldur's Gate city, accompanied by Imoen (who, if you recall from the main game, offers to join your party after you left Candlekeep), any other party member who was with you in the main game if at all, and the Flaming Fist (who are essentially, the military army you encountered inside the Baldur's Gate city from the main game when you first entered it), with your first primary objective, being to locate and bring to justice in any manner of your choosing (i.e. kill outright or leave alive long enough to have em taken into Flaming Fist custody) a certain avid follower of the Final Boss whom you defeated in the main game. Once that's over with, your party members leave you to go on with their lives, while you and Imoen then end up within the Royal Ducal Palace bedroom of Baldur's Gate, for some rest and respite, until out of nowhere, some unknown assasins infiltrate the bedroom where you and Imoen are. intent on killing you. However, Imoen is the one that takes a critical hit from said assasins, to the effect that a poison attack leaves her near death. Unconfirmed rumours then start flying around that it was the charismatic warrior, Caelar Argent, and her "Holy Crusade" who may have been behind this. Accordingly, your new primary objectives for the rest of the game are two-fold: Firstly, to find out who specifically sent those assasins after you, and; Secondly, to also kill the respective perpetrator of those assasins, by any means necessary. [u][b]My own personal experiences playing both Baldur's Gate and the expansion, Siege of Dragonspear[/b][/u] I personally enjoy the thrill of being able to enter into battle wondering if I have enough weapons and armour attributes to survive the encounter. Having certain characters (or possibly other friends involved) as party members are also a great help. When I do end up surviving said battle, my created character gains varying amounts of experience and sometimes upgrades, but when I don't, I either attempt to find other avenues of defeating that which had defeated me the first time or if I've exhausted all options, then I attempt to avoid having to fight it if I can. Another thing I enjoy about this game series also, are the varying "relationship" dialogues that can happen between a created character and a certain opposite gender party member. The relationship between your protagonist and the opposite gender party member will either keep going or break up with you (even to the extent of leaving the party if bad enough) depending on how you respond to their dialogue with you. Only thing that has frustrated me about this game series off-hand however, is that whenever a party member wants to go on a specific quest and you chose to let him/her into the party, but after a while when he/she realizes that your party is either "too good/bad" for him/her, he/she abruptly leaves the party and never returns, thus that quest that you originally accepted regarding that party member that abruptly left, remains permenantly unfinished for the rest of the game. Addtionally, something that has really started to bother me about Siege of Dragonspear inparticular, is that while the gameplay itself is brilliant, the story itself lacks certain aspects which would have otherwise completed it fully. The most obvious example of this which immediately comes to mind, is that none of the relevant NPCs in this expansion explain nor even admit at all, to who actually sent the assasins to the palace to kill you near the start. Other than all that, overall this is quite a great game and a great introduction into the epic Baldur's Gate franchise. You can also expect a similar kind of experience described above, in both BG2 Enhanced Edition: Shadows of Amn, Throne of Bhaal (Expansion) and the newly developed BG Expansion: Siege of Dragonspear DLC.