Can you turn a Strategy Gamer in a week?

CHENNAI: No. But read on for the longer answer. This week, I attempted Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition in anticipation of Baldur’s Gate 3, which is currently in Early Access. BG2:EE contains the expansion pack called the ‘Throne of Bhaal’, in addition to ‘Shadows of Amn’. It adapts the Dungeon’s & Dragons Rules to real-time combat gameplay. If the above sentences were a mouthful, you will not become strategy gamer even after a month.

Day 1: My friend and I spend a good half hour deciding characters and balancing out the skill advantages that they offered. This elaborate task involves us creating characters with distinct moral compasses, colours and voices, weapon-wielding skills, and most importantly – punny names. The efforts are lost, when they all die within the first 10 minutes of gameplay, struck by what looked like electric bats. I don’t even save the character files to use them again. Was Day 1 a wasted attempt?

Day 2: Determined to reap the benefits of the money spent on BG2, I decide to give the story mode an attempt. The story mode meant that my characters would not be killed by creatures that can be swatted. Character building is faster today. I play as Quoelf the Elf, who wields a katana, and immediately forges a friendship with other fantastical creatures. We explore the dungeons, defeat our enemies, and have meaningful conversations with new people.

The possibilities expand. Decisions need to be made. Clay Golems await my command. Despite the loud combat, and music dipped in intrigue, I get sleepy with all the reading. While it isn’t easy to control the allies without a controls tutorial, the story seems to be progressing with relative ease. I will watch tutorials tomorrow. But I seem to be good at this so far.

Day 3: Fresh and early in the morning, I was ready to lead Quoelf and her allies deeper into the mysterious adventures that Bhaal held. Unfortunately, my manual saves did not manifest into load files. This second mishap warranted a rage quit. A more patient reviewer would have attempted the Black Pits adventure before writing their opinions. They might even know the meaning of Baldur. Is it a place? A person?

My verdict is that a person needs to be born a strategy gamer. Personally, I do not see the benefit of reading hours of the fantastical storyline when I cannot record it on Goodreads. If you would like to try (and fail), you now have the luck of buying BG2:EE at half the price for the PC version on the Steam store.

Anusha Ganapathi  @quaffle_waffle
(This economics graduate spends her leisure time preparing for the zombie apocalypse)