One of Baldur's Gate 3's pioneering map modders is recreating the opening area of Baldur's Gate 2
Lotrich, a member of Baldur's Gate 3's nascent map modding community who has been uploading videos of their work to YouTube, has just provided a peek at their latest creation: An in-progress, but still very recognizable take on Waukeen's Promenade, one of the opening areas of Baldur's Gate 2.
The promenade is a bit bare at the moment, but its distinctive archways and amphitheater-like layout are immediately striking—Waukeen's Promenade always felt like someone turned a sports arena into an open-air market, fitting for the mercantile city of Athkatla. The circus tent where you can recruit companion Aerie is visible in the distance, and Lotrich includes a special treat toward the end of the video: A peek inside Ribald Barterman's Adventurer Mart, one of the best shops in the game.
This feels like one of the inevitable outputs of any modding community—once a game's map making tools are out, a countdown starts until someone recreates an area from an older video game with them—and our hobby is littered with well-intentioned efforts to recreate older RPGs in newer RPG engines. Mostly Fallout: New Vegas, how many schismatic New Vegas-in-Fallout 4 projects even are there at this point?
Indeed, The Baldur's Gate Reloaded mod team has been working on recreating the OG 'Gates in 2006's Neverwinter Nights 2 for so long, Neverwinter Nights 2 itself is now retro. The original has long been available at the Neverwinter Vault or Nexus, while BGR2 (covering Baldur's Gate 2) happily seems close to entering a beta testing phase, at least according to a Facebook post from the mod team in March.
Lotrich's Waukeen's Promenade map definitely seems more like part of the author's continued efforts to learn and acclimate to the still-fresh mapmaking tools—their YouTube channel includes a handful of other prototype maps—rather than a commitment to a full remake of Baldur's Gate 2. That's probably for the best—I like these small dose "what if" exercises, seeing an iconic area brought to life in a different art style and from a new perspective, but overall I'm with PC Gamer news writer Joshua Wolens: Why remake a game that's already good (and easily playable)? There are exceptions of course: I'm as excited for Skyblivion as everybody else.
For their part, Lotrich has switched to the Moonglasses Extended Toolkit from the original BG3 Toolkit Unlocked that kicked off the mapmaking craze—Moonglasses seems like a more intentional, long-term solution than the more ad hoc unlocker. Lotrich has also started a Patreon for anyone interested in supporting their specific projects.