GB Feature: Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear Review

It’s been a Baldur’s Gate-heavy several months for us as we’ve been busy bringing our original subsite up to our modern day standards, but within this bevy of work, we’ve also made a point of reviewing Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear. Many of you have probably already picked the expansion pack up at this point, but here’s a little something about the campaign just in case you don’t yet know what to expect:

When the game opens up, you learn that somebody named Caelar Argent has started a crusade to free the souls of the people captured by demons during the Dragonspear Wars. This sounds noble, but the crusade is heavily into the ends justifying the means, and they don’t care who they trample on as long as they get closer to what they want. You become aware of the problem when refugees start pouring into Baldur’s Gate while fleeing from the crusade, and then when Caelar mysteriously sends assassins to ambush you, you decide to get involved. There are also whispers that maybe Caelar is a Bhaalspawn, which gives you extra incentive.

Sadly, while the premise seems fine, it’s also about 90% of the story. You never learn much more about Caelar, or about the Dragonspear Wars, or about the crusade. You just set off with a coalition of forces from Daggerford, Baldur’s Gate and Waterdeep to confront Caelar, and this trip takes up the majority of the game. I’ve mentioned in other reviews that I much prefer my RPG campaigns to be novels rather than anthologies, but Siege of Dragonspear is heavily into the latter category. It’s basically a road movie with generic fantasy encounters.