The first two Baldur’s Gate(s) were celebrated as some of the best RPGs of their time. It’s a testament to their popularity that they still have a dedicated modding community after 20+ years since the game’s release, and that community is still finding creative ways to add to the games.
You might have just started playing the game series with the hit Baldur’s Gate 3, or maybe you’ve already played them all. Regardless, you might be intrigued about this free and recently released mod, Crucible, enticing new and returning players alike to dive into Baldur’s Gate 2 Enhanced Editionwith an “aim to provide a more climatic ending to Throne of Bhaal by adding a final assault into Bhaal’s realm.”
What’s in the Mod
In the supplementary information, the creator promises players an additional 1–3 hours of game time. In addition to the endgame content, those familiar with the game may be excited to see that the mod adds areas and gameplay in Gehenna, outside of Bhaal’s kingdom, as a lead-up to the fight at the Throne of Blood. The extra gameplay also has a novel feature — the new characters will be fully voice-acted by AI, with over 200 voiced lines of dialog.
If you’re new to modding, or have had some bad experiences with mod managers like the ones for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, don’t fret! The process for installing this mod seems very intuitive: for Windows systems it’s “simply double-click the archive and follow the instructions on screen.”
The Mod’s Creation
We were fortunate enough to chat with the main creator of the mod, morpheus562, who gave us some details about the process of its creation. Morpheus562 partnered with another prolific modder, Acifer, (known for their work on maps for Infinity Engine games) around October, and while originally the work was supposed to only entail one new map area, it ended up becoming a dozen.
This broadening of the project meant that they poured hundreds of hours into the mod in the span of five months! They really wanted to focus on Bhaal and do the villain justice, by using established lore to flesh him out in the game.
Morpheus562 said this about his inspiration for the mod:
“I look at some of my favorite games, and universally they have a moment where it’s time to do the last mission, and it is one last assault to get there. In Mass Effect 2, you do your suicide mission against the collectors, and in KotOR [Knights of the Old Republic] 1 and 2, you have your respective assaults against the enemy (star forge and malachor), NWN2 [Neverwinter Nights 2] into the shadow kings realm, etc. Throne of Bhaal just ended and you are at the final fight. I wanted to change that.”
What do you think? Are you as excited as us to play this epic ending to Baldur’s Gate 2? Do you think its use of AI voice acting is blasphemous or ingenious? Let us know in the comments!
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Kelson H.
Kelson is a spud head from out west. He is most happy when holding a milky tea with too much honey and playing a sprawling role playing game or reading a fantasy novel. His video game tastes vary but his main genres are looter shooters, RPGs, and real time strategy games.
