Baldur's Gate II App Reviews

Update: The App Store application is now four versions behind (the latest version is 2.3; this is 1.3, which was released almost a year and a half ago) and crashes consistently on El Capitan. The developers have stated publicly that they are in no hurry to realease an update here (they’ve complained about teh review process, and apparently have messed up submissions); they claim that at some unspecified date they will eventually do so with some unspecified version. The last time this happened the wait was fifteen months for a functional version of the game to appear on the App Store, during which time anyone who had purchased it elsewhere could enjoy the latest versions. (For reference: version 2.0, a very major update with content changes and crash fixes, was released April 1, 2016; they subsequently released 2.1, 2,.2, and most recently 2.3.) If you are running El Capitan, this version will crash; you can work around (turning off the sound is said to help; also beware tooltips). 2.3 is said to fix that and is available if you purchase it directly from the developer, but if you purchase it here you are out of luck unless they eventually bother to submit an update. In short, if you must have this game, do not buy it on the App Store. ___________ Original review: Baldur’s Gate II is a wonderful game. BGII "Enhanced" edition is, um… mostly the same wonderful game, modified a bit to run on various platforms and with some added content that is generally viewed by those new to the game as interesting and by those who know it from way back as predominantly fanfic-level trash. But hey, it works on a Mac, which is more than can be said for the original, unless you go through ridiculous hoops and are highly tolerant of effort and compromise; take it from someone who has done this that you would rather not, particularly if you intend to try to install mods. Or rather, there is a version that I’m told works on a Mac. This isn’t it. The current version on the Apple store, as of December 17, 2014, is 1.2.0. That version was released about a year and a half ago and is a buggy, often-unplayable mess. Beamdog issued a patch in late 2013, but that patch never made it to the Apple Store version. As to why, allow me to quote an admin on Beamdog’s forum: "It sounds like the 1.2.2030 patch wasnt ever uploaded to the Mac App Store; well make sure the 1.3 patch gets there, along with all of the other platforms." That post was made on March 9, 2014, in response to Mac users’ clamoring for a patch that had been available for non-Apple Store purchases for four months. And that’s all she or anyone else had to say on the matter; they apparently never bothered to submit the bug fixes to Apple, so users have been stuck with an acknowledgedly-buggy version for over a year. Yesterday (12/16/14), version 1.3 was finally released; it is said to be replete with bug fixes and may finally make the game playable. But the only word from Beamdog as to when it will show up here (or whether they even bothered submitting the patch to Apple this time around) is a table entry that reads: "Available on Apple Store — No". So, potential purchasers, that’s what you get if you click "buy": a version that’s going on a year and a half old, when multiple patches have been written in the interim, from people who acknowledged that the reason for the omission is that they didn’t bother submitting to Apple and who haven’t said another word on the matter for over nine months. This is an unsupported game that is basically beta quality, even though the company has recently released Mac updates. Should you consider buying it if you can find a way to make it work? That’s another matter. If you want to run BGII on a Mac, the EE is probably the way to do it, unfortunately. (You can try running it on a virtualized Windows installation, but I’ve done that several times and found it works poorly at best. Or you can install the original, along with all the tweaks necessary to make it work; I’ve been through this and have never been happy with the result but if you’re tech-savvy and patient it can be made to work.) The new content is mostly poor and installing mods on a Mac is still kludgy as heck even when you get everything running (and mods are a central part of the experience for many BGII players), but if it works at all it may be worth it. You decide whether that’s worth getting involved with those responsible for what I’ve described here.

Don’t buy it here! This is an outdated version (1.2.0) the current patch (1.2.2030) is released everywhere else so you can’t play multiplayer cross platform. Go buy it directly on beamdog instead of wasting money here. The patch was sent nearly two month ago to Apple...

Il y a quelques bug but best game ever

It would be even better if the App Store version received some of the updates that the regular Mac version receives.

This game has always been incredible, and this release for Mac has been seamless relative to even the orginal game. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PATCH IT PLEASE! Hopefully beamdog will continue and create either BGIII or they will re release the ICEWIND DALE series.

Love this game! Definitly one of my favorite so far on the app store. Ran into 2 glitches so far: (1) Slayer form is unavailable. I transformed twice and now it’s gone forever. This is an unfortunate bug that hinders a major part of the game experience and should definitly be fixed because the slayer rocks! (2) Sleeping in the drow city tavern for some reason makes my character constantly target then untarget something that isn’t there (I notice it in his change in stance, swords up then swords back down). While walking this can be an inconvenience because he takes a couple steps then stops, then takes a couple steps then stops. Really annoying when trying to walk somewhere. Eventually it goes away, in like 15 minutes.

Great game but should have bought the Beamdog version. The App Store version hasn’t been updated yet. It’s been months.

The world demand an upgrade! We deserve an upgrade! Otherwise Grumm is useless!

…BUT UPDATE PLEASE!

I heard bg2ee 1.3 patch is done and was released at last month. and could be play on steam. I want to play 1.3 version very soon.

I’ve purchased this game to play over the network with my buddy. The game promises cross-platform support but the version diffrences between mac and pc prevents this. Year 2014 and still can’t play this game even with direct PC to Mac connection. Bad move beamdog as you gotta deliver what you promised :(

Only two stars until there will be the Italian version!!! Hurry up guys!!!

Note: See bottom for update on latest version Baldur’s Gate II is a wonderful game. BGII "Enhanced" edition is, um… mostly the same wonderful game, modified a bit to run on various platforms and with some added content that is generally viewed by those new to the game as interesting and by those who know it from way back as predominantly fanfic-level trash. But hey, it works on a Mac, which is more than can be said for the original, unless you go through ridiculous hoops and are highly tolerant of effort and compromise; take it from someone who has done this that you would rather not, particularly if you intend to try to install mods. Or rather, there is a version that I’m told works on a Mac. This isn’t it. The current version on the Apple store, as of December 17, 2014, is 1.2.0. That version was released about a year and a half ago and is a buggy, often-unplayable mess. Beamdog issued a patch in late 2013, but that patch never made it to the Apple Store version. As to why, allow me to quote an admin on Beamdog’s forum: "It sounds like the 1.2.2030 patch wasnt ever uploaded to the Mac App Store; well make sure the 1.3 patch gets there, along with all of the other platforms." That post was made on March 9, 2014, in response to Mac users’ clamoring for a patch that had been available for non-Apple Store purchases for four months. And that’s all she or anyone else had to say on the matter; they apparently never bothered to submit the bug fixes to Apple, so users have been stuck with an acknowledgedly-buggy version for over a year. Yesterday (12/16/14), version 1.3 was finally released; it is said to be replete with bug fixes and may finally make the game playable. But the only word from Beamdog as to when it will show up here (or whether they even bothered submitting the patch to Apple this time around) is a table entry that reads: "Available on Apple Store — No". So, potential purchasers, that’s what you get if you click "buy": a version that’s going on a year and a half old, when multiple patches have been written in the interim, from people who acknowledged that the reason for the omission is that they didn’t bother submitting to Apple and who haven’t said another word on the matter for over nine months. This is an unsupported game that is basically beta quality, evn though the company has recently released Mac updates. Should you consider buying it if you can find a way to make it work? That’s another matter. If you want to run BGII on a Mac, the EE is probably the way to do it, unfortuantely. (You can try running it on a virtualized Windows installation, but I’ve done that several times and found it works poorly at best. Or you can install the original, along with all the tweaks necessary to make it work; I’ve been through this and have never been happy with the result but if you’re tech-savvy and patient it can be made to work.) The new content is mostly poor and installing mods on a Mac is still kludgy as heck even when you get everything running (and mods are a central part of the experience for many BGII players), but if it works at all it may be worth it. You decide whether that’s worth getting involved with those responsible for what I’ve descrbed here. 2016 Update: Version 1.3 eventually was released through the Apple Store, and this is it. But before buying, be aware that Beamdog has done it again: They’ve released a new, dramatically upgraded version (2.0, released April 1, 2016) and then a patch for that (2.1, released April 15, 2016) that fixed some of its still-numerous bugs, but neither of those versions is available yet on the Apple Store nor has Beamdog said they ever will be. If you must have this game, look elsewhere.

Can’t import characters from bgee to bg2ee. Both were bought from the mac app store so they should be compatible. I read the forums and tried several different methods. Nothing worked. This is the sole reason I bought the enhanced editions so I could finally run a character through both games on my mac.

There are very few PC games I played 15 years ago that I still want to play today but this is one. I just beat the first and worked flawless so Im grabbing the second. Yes times have changed and this isnt skyrim but its a masterpiece.

Not sure how they get the highdef screen shots, but it runs in a lower res for me…cant seem to get it to run at a higher res at all.

Definitely isnt what I was hoping for. I know others are able to play this game with no troubles at all but after spending near an hour making my team for the black pits 2, the game force quit as soon as combat started. I havent tried to play SoA or ToB yet, as I was unable to import my save game from BG:EE. I have never played BG2 in the past, and when I saw this game I was pretty stoked. It is just a shame to me that I was unable to get started in combat, as there is a lot of it in this game! I have high hopes for future updates, and I will periodically pick this game up and keep trying to see if Ill get lucky. But it wasnt a very good way to start my experience. --Edit-- I have now been able to successfully play this game, it runs great and looks great as well. The only thing I have to get used to is fighting higher level (deadlier) enemies, but once I get the basics of this game down Im sure Ill have at least twice as much fun as I did with BG:EE. I came across a couple of ways to try and import your characters, so I am going to give that a shot. Even if it doesnt work I wont be too disappointed, as Im sure it will be fixed in a later update. Changed the rating from three to five stars.

Great sequel to the original BG:EE… Just finished BG:EE and started BG:EE2, the latter if which Ive never played before even though I loved BG:EE when it first came out. So far the BG:EE2 lives up to its predecessor and Ive encountered no issues playing the game on a 15" MacBook Pro Retina. If you want to import your characters from BG:EE to BG:EE2, which is one of the major reasons I bought the sequel (and I know Im no alone), just copy the saved game folder you want to import the character from from the BG:EE save folder to the BG:EE2 save folder and then, when importing, just select the option to import from a saved game and selec the save you copied over. And, if you created a custom portrait for a character youre importing from BG:EE to BG:EE2, be sure to copy the "portraits" folder before importing and BG:EE2 should pick your custom portrait up automatically (at least, it did for me). Overall, Im excited to continue the BG saga and am thrilled this game has been brought back to life… Just wish developers would continue making RPG games as good as these!

This is the RPG by which all other RPG’s are measured. Playing this game will make every other story-driven game you play a sight disappointment. The inteplay and banter between the characters is something so well-done and so natural that I have yet to see it reproduced. Oh, and no, import characters isn’t broken, it just takes some cajoling: Start a new game in BGIIEE, then save it. This will show you where the save folder is located. Then take the “final save” from BGEE and put it into that save folder. You can import your character from that save folder. I can’t remember the exact pathways, but I can say that both can be found in your Library folder.

This is one of the best story driven RPGs of all time, must buy if you are an RPG fan