When comparing Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition vs The Banner Saga 2, the Slant community recommends Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition for most people. In the question“What are the best games on Steam with a rich story?” Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition is ranked 24th while The Banner Saga 2 is ranked 53rd. The most important reason people chose Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition is:
A mage a monk and a half orc are the three new playable characters in the game which also have expanded stories over the original characters.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Three new playable characters
A mage a monk and a half orc are the three new playable characters in the game which also have expanded stories over the original characters.
Pro Enhanced resolution support with new zoom ability
The enhanced edition now supports any resolution one may have on their PC as well as has a new addition of being able to zoom in and out, making it much easier to see what is going on in the game.
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 Stuck with the Infinity Engine
Old system driving the combat is dated and obtuse.
Horrible pathfinding.
Con New missions are buggy
Bugs do appear in the new missions which can easily be solved by reloading the game, but still is quite an annoyance to do so.
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.