Developer Overhaul Games’ upcoming Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition refreshes the role-playing classic with crisper graphics resolutions, tweaked enemy difficulty, and boosts to longevity such as an increased level cap. Thanks to a weekend Tweet by Overhaul founder Trent Oster, another feature enters Gate’s repertoire: cross-platform cooperative multiplayer.
Gate’s intended platforms include the PC, Mac, iPad, and Android tablets. The game releases in September and is available for pre-purchase at $20.
“Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition will have co-op multiplayer and will work across platforms,” Oster wrote on Sunday. “iPad can play with Android, Mac, and PC. One happy gaming family.”
The original Baldur’s Gate, developed by BioWare and published by Interplay, released on the PC in November 1998 into an ailing RPG genre. Its successful usage of the pen-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons ruleset within a video game, coupled with inventive gameplay mechanics such as controlling party members individually instead of as a single unit, left an enduring legacy that sold over 2 million copies worldwide and became a permanent fixture of praise from RPG gamers. It produced many spinoffs and sequels utilizing the same setting, including Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, and Neverwinter Nights.