When comparing Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition vs The Banner Saga 2, the Slant community recommends Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition for most people. In the question“What are the best games on Steam with a rich story?” Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is ranked 50th while The Banner Saga 2 is ranked 53rd. The most important reason people chose Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition is:
Users can connect over LAN or TCP/IP for up to 6 player co-op.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Online and LAN co-op
Users can connect over LAN or TCP/IP for up to 6 player co-op.
Pro New NPCs to choose from
There are two or three new NPCs your PC encounters, and can add one or more to your adventuring party.
Pro Plays like original with more portraits available for PCs and the Black Pits arena combat module
Plays just like the original game with the same hidden treasures. When creating PCs, you have more available portraits to choose from. Black Pits Arena combat module is awesome, but gets really deadly in the later rounds.
Pro Helps you to learn the gameplay thoroughly
Tactical RPGs can be really intimidating, especially if you're just starting out. The tutorials often blaze forward, causing you to miss important mechanics. Luckily, Banner Saga 2 tries to alleviate this by adding a trainer NPC who will give you challenges. These involve performing various combat exercises, helping you to solidify your understanding of the game and even learn something new.
Pro Solid tactical combat
Even though Banner Saga 2’s turn-based combat system is fairly straightforward. You and your opponent take turns in moving and attacking with units on a tactical grid. Each unit has its strengths, weaknesses, and set of unique abilities that you need to consider.
For example, archers can attack from far away but they have low armor, so you can’t leave them out in the open. Another example are the Varl, very durable and strong melee units that occupy 4 tiles as opposed to 1. This makes it trickier to position them since more enemies can stand next to them and attack them.
This creates combat that is not too simple but still has enough variety and strategy involved to feel rewarding.
Pro Great hand drawn graphics
Banner Saga 2 environments, characters, and animations are all hand-drawn. This includes your caravan as it marches over a snowy hill, passing trees and houses in the distance. The various viking-esque soldiers, centaurs and other mythological creatures, swinging axes and thrusting spears on a worn out bridge. Even the very detailed character sprites as they discuss matters with extremely serious expressions. Everything just feels like you’re watching an animated movie, which is something almost never encountered in a game.
Cons
Con Modded original can offer better experience
Depending on if one want to go through the trouble, but modding the original game can offer a better experience over this enhanced edition.
Con HP damage based attacks cause one-dimensional tactics
A unit's current number of hit points equals the damage it will deal to an enemy. Because of this, the best strategy is always to hit all enemy units in a sequence, so they inflict as little damage as possible. Any other strategy is too risky and can backfire way too easily, limiting your creativity.
Con Incomplete story
To get a full and satisfying story, you’ll have to play the entire Banner Saga trilogy. Banner Saga 2 on its own feels like you’ve suddenly started reading a book from the middle. There are a lot of characters you know very little about, making it hard to understand their motivations. The on-going events are not explained fully. Even the ending is not a satisfying conclusion but just a setup for the next arc.