Amazon Maximum Age: 20 years Amazon Minimum Age: 144 months Binding: CD-ROM Brand: Black Isle Studios EAN: 0040421004034 ESRB Age Rating: Teen Format: CD-ROM Label: Black Isle Studios Manufacturer: Black Isle Studios Model: C95-898-0 Publisher: Black Isle Studios Sales Rank: 12931 Studio: Black Isle Studios Variation Description: Expansion: Tales of the Sword Coast
Amazon.com Review: Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast delivers what we've all been screaming for--more Baldur's Gate. Although it does not significantly extend the story line, it does provide enough new goodies to augment an already great game.
Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast provides four new areas for you to explore, all of which share the richness that made Baldur's Gate a groundbreaking masterpiece. Players are given the opportunity to explore a few new islands, visit a suburb of Baldur's Gate, and engage in a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl beneath Durlag's Tower. Players can also embark on a quest that will take them back into the city of Baldur's Gate itself. These new quests tend to be even more involved and challenging than those found in the initial game, as they gravitate more toward puzzle solving than pure combat.
The additional areas are at least as satisfying as any found in the original, featuring three new types of monsters as well as new magic items, enemies, and spells, all of which are woven seamlessly into the game play. Those who are already deeply involved in a campaign or have already completed the game need not start over to take advantage of the expansion. Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast raises the character experience cap by at least one level and can be integrated at any time during your campaign, easily providing an additional 20 hours of game play.
For a Baldur's Gate enthusiast, the four new areas alone make this expansion worth having. An added treat is the included software utility that allows players to speak to each other online via microphone, giving multiplayer games a live role-playing feel. Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast may tend to give you more of the same, but in this case, you wouldn't have it any other way. --Joshua B. Coombs
Pros:
New areas just as good as first ones
Powerful new magic items and increased experience cap
Enables your BG characters to get tougher, ready for Baldur's Gate 2
Free online speech software
Cons:
Doesn't significantly extend the story line
Amazon.com Product Description: A new chapter in the popular adventure game, based on the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, which, in turn, is based on the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game system. Essentially an add-on to the original version of the game, this chapter asks you to continue with the character you created in the original.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Oh my!
More baldurs gate? This expansion adds a higher xp cap, more areas, more weapons, and more baddies. If you were a fan of the original, then you will definitely find more gaming goodness here. This adds around 20 hours of gameplay, as well as making the original game more of a challenge, which is always a plus. If you liked the original, get this now!
Rating: - Got it.
Got the colection, when I ordered the expantion, but it installed still, and plays great.
Rating: - good, but not necessary
It added a little to the main game, but nothing earth shattering and the quests don't have much to do with the main plot. The quests are VERY difficult to get through and take more than a little patience and perserverence to succeed. My advice? Seek out and downloadthe unofficial add on "Dark Side of the Sword Coast" to suplement Baldur's Gate and this Expansion Pack instead.
Rating: - Brutally Hard
When I played Baldur's Gate, it was a wonderfully long experience of exploration and balanced encounters. If you ran into an over-powering encounter, you knew your party had ventured into the wrong place at the wrong time. This expansion is a bucket of cold water in the face. It's short, just four areas with a dozen or so levels, and brutally hard. Maybe I didn't level-up correctly in Baldur's Gate, but I found every step a struggle of high-level encounters, traps my their couldn't disarm and, worst of all, key puzzles. Additionally the expansion didn't have of the story elements of the original game. The game itself had almost no changes although there was a new auto-pause feature that was very helpful. Hard-core Baldur's Gate fan with a high-level party (10+) will love Sword Coast but other should probably skip it.
Rating: - Tales of the Sword Coast
This is an expansion pack to Baldur's Gate, it is an add-in, and it does not expand the original plot. There are three new areas that your party can explore. The experience point cap is also up to 161.000 in this game, making it possible to gain 1 or 2 more levels, depending on your class. The three add-in areas are: Ulgoth's Beard, a small town north of Baldur's Gate where more or less all the expansion adventures take their start from, an...island(trying not to reveal too much), and Durlag's Tower. Of these Durlag's Tower is the most challenging and interesting. Durlag's tower is the biggest dungeon in the entire game, and can be a challenge for even experienced parties. The other areas, offer some interesting information, but are less exiting to play through. All in all it is an interesting expansion, although not an expansion in the true sense of the word. But since you can sometimes find both Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast in one package at a good price there is no excuse not to get it.
- Oh my!
- Got it.
- good, but not necessary
