DavesGaming

Technically not its own game, Siege of Dragonspear (SoD) is an expansion or DLC for BG1. Just to confuse matters, it was the last professionally developed expansion for the whole saga and fits in between BG1 and BG2 when played in order.

It manages to be plenty controversial too, and drew a lot of negative publicity when it was released in 2016. No doubt, it adds a sort of “woke” element to things. But as in most such things its easy enough to ignore if its not your thing.
I think the bigger issue for many players is just that it is not a very well written story. And it features a “villain” that is not selfishly twisted and evil. It makes it hard to care too much about the too linear story-line. You are railroaded into fighting a foe you likely don’t care too much about. I do think its unfortunate the writers tried to get too clever for their own good, and really I find the villain unlikable and stupid even in spite of intention. Someone was maybe trying too hard to make the big baddie too sympathetic, and they fell on their face doing it.

Which is all particularly unfortunate because the game also does a number of things extremely well, and I honestly enjoy it every time I play through. It starts right where the original game leaves off, with the party in Baldur’s Gate. Pretty early on, the player needs to rebuild a party on the fly for a new peril that’s emerged. I think this is one of the more fun elements of the game, the need to work with lesser resources to prepare for, what will prove to be, a pretty tough final battle. And whatever the story shortcomings may be, I think the gameplay from a character/party perspective is terrific. All of the later elements of character design are in use here, with characters having a good amount of reaction and banter with each other as the game proceeds. There are several new characters (and a few old favorites) to choose from.

SoD does several things very well. For starters, as the last developed Infinity Engine Game it has the sharpest and most colorful graphics. It is noticeably great looking. They also do a number of things related to scale, large crowds of people and huge battles against armies, that I think would have broken the program back in the late ’90s. Here there are several battles that are the biggest of the entire series. I love this. It almost feels more like wargaming at times.
On a similar note there are a number of very mixed encounters, with more different types of creatures. This is maybe less shocking, its more like Icewind Dale in this regard. But it combines nicely with the scope.
Many opponents in all these fights do a better job of using their resources; if an opponent has a Potion of Healing, they are likely to use it if you don’t kill them fast! This is all just better AI, but its good to see.
The last big improvement I’d mention is the number of designed encounters that play out as if they are “random” meetings. In original BG1 in particular, it is often easy to tell when you’re just bumping into a random encounter. But SoD is clever about placing such things where you don’t expect, like traveling between areas, and yet still having a story in the “chance” encounter.
All of this is just to say, this is clearly the most modern element of the whole saga. And the designers made good use of all the tricks and advancements that had been made over the years.

Ultimately this is a fairly short adventure. It maybe explains some things, like the gathering of characters heading into BG2, but I think that was not a greatly needed element. A certain BG2 villain is a recurring character in SoD. Another thing that was probably not needed, but I enjoyed hearing the best voice actor of the series display his villainy one last time (David Warner was brilliant and distinct in this sort of role).
The ending is a bit of a gut punch, your character is framed for a crime and railroaded out of town. This would not have been my preferred way of moving on to the next game, and its not like we needed a reason to hate Jon more! But in case you forget, Irenicus is a BAD guy!

There isn’t as much to say about the install. SoD has always been done to the EE format.
This is technically all the same game as BG1, so mods are all the same. But the “Tweaks” and “Voices” mods are the only ones still relevant to this part of the game.
I do also have two mods; “Road to Discovery” and “Boareskyr Bridge” that add content to the player character’s whole saga story.