Polygon ran a piece this month making the case that Baldur’s Gate 3 is great, but it still is not the best Baldur’s Gate game ever made. That title, the argument goes, belongs to Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn and its Throne of Bhaal expansion. Irenicus is a better villain than anything in Larian’s game. The companions write like people who have known each other for years. The Infinity Engine’s pause-and-plan combat rewards a kind of party management that turn-based fights never quite ask for.
Once a player finishes Shadows of Amn, or replays it and remembers why it mattered, the question that follows is what else scratches the same itch. This list covers seven Baldur’s Gate 2 alternatives for Windows, macOS, and Linux, ranked by how closely each one matches the companion writing, the tactical depth, and the moral weight that made the original hold up for more than two decades.
| App | Best for | Genre depth | Starting price | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire | Overall successor | Real-time-with-pause, full party | $49.99 | Ship-to-ship naval combat and faction-driven Deadfire archipelago |
| Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous | Rules-heavy crunch | Turn-based or RTwP, Pathfinder 1e ruleset | $49.99 | Mythic path system that reshapes the whole back half of the game |
| Divinity: Original Sin 2 | Systemic combat | Turn-based, elemental interactions | $44.99 | Environmental combos that chain fire, water, and electricity |
| Tyranny | Short, focused playthrough | Real-time-with-pause, conquest already won | $29.99 | Playing on the side that already won the war |
| Torment: Tides of Numenera | Story over combat | Turn-based when it happens, mostly narrative | $44.99 | Legacy system that tracks the philosophical weight of your choices |
| Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition | Modules and co-op | Real-time D&D 3rd Edition | $19.99 | Two decades of community-made modules and persistent worlds |
| Solasta: Crown of the Magister | Faithful 5e rules | Turn-based, tactical verticality | $39.99 | Line-of-sight and height rules pulled straight from the tabletop |
Why fans still ask for Baldur's Gate 2 alternatives
Shadows of Amn set a bar for companion writing that most CRPGs still measure themselves against. Jaheira’s grief, Viconia’s defensiveness, Edwin’s contempt for everyone in the party, all of it holds up because BioWare wrote characters who argue with each other and change their minds over forty hours, not because a marketing team called them deep. Baldur’s Gate 3 has strong companions too, but it tells their stories through cinematic camera work and full voice acting rather than the dense reactive dialogue trees that defined the Infinity Engine games.
The combat systems differ in a way that matters to a lot of returning players. BG2 runs on Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition rules through real-time-with-pause combat: the game keeps running until a player hits space, queues up commands for the whole party, then unpauses and watches the plan unfold. BG3 switched to strict turn-based combat built on D&D 5th Edition. Both systems work, but they reward different instincts. RTwP asks a player to plan for chaos. Turn-based asks a player to solve a puzzle one unit at a time.
The moral texture is another sticking point. Irenicus is not evil for the sake of spectacle. His plan makes sense from his perspective, and the game lets a player sympathize with him even while fighting him. That kind of gray, patient villain writing is rarer than it should be, and it is the first thing this list looked for in every alternative.
The alternatives
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is Obsidian’s own attempt at a spiritual successor to the Infinity Engine games, and it is the closest thing on this list to BG2’s structure: a full party, real-time-with-pause combat, and a main quest built around chasing a god across an archipelago instead of a city under siege. The writing carries real philosophical weight, particularly around faith and colonization in the Deadfire islands, and companions argue with each other in ways that recall Jaheira and Edwin’s constant friction.
Where it falls short: the naval combat and ship management add a layer that some players find slows the pacing between story beats, and the game’s tone is drier than BG2’s, with fewer moments of dark humor.
Pricing: $49.99 on Steam, with deep discounts during seasonal sales that regularly bring it under $15.
Migrating from BG2: the RTwP combat maps almost directly, so muscle memory for pausing, queuing commands, and managing formations transfers with no adjustment. The main gap is the class system, which swaps D&D’s rigid classes for a more flexible multiclass build system that takes a session or two to learn.
Download: https://store.steampowered.com/app/560130/
Bottom line: the strongest overall pick for anyone who wants Shadows of Amn’s structure and stakes without replaying Shadows of Amn.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous leans harder into rules crunch than anything else here. Owlcat built it on the Pathfinder 1st Edition ruleset, a system with more build options and stacking modifiers than D&D 2nd Edition ever had, and the mythic path system lets a player become an angel, a demon, a lich, or a dragon partway through, reshaping companions’ reactions for the rest of the campaign.
Where it falls short: the sheer number of stats, feats, and buffs on screen during a fight can overwhelm anyone coming from BG2’s comparatively simple 2nd Edition math, and the game offers turn-based combat as an option specifically because the default real-time mode gets chaotic in large fights.
Pricing: $49.99 on Steam, often discounted alongside its Enhanced Edition content pack.
Migrating from BG2: players who liked min-maxing their party in the Infinity Engine’s spell-and-scroll economy will feel at home, though the jump from six classes to dozens of archetypes is a real learning curve.
Download: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1184370/
Bottom line: pick this one if BG2’s spellcasting and item management felt too thin and a deeper ruleset sounds like a feature, not a chore.
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is Larian’s own pre-BG3 masterwork, and it explains a lot about what Baldur’s Gate 3 borrowed from its own studio. Turn-based combat built around elemental interactions, an exceptional dungeon master mode for running custom campaigns, and four-player co-op make it the most systemically rich game on this list.
Where it falls short: companion writing is looser and more comedic than BG2’s, trading Jaheira-style gravity for a party dynamic that leans into absurdist humor more often than earned drama.
Pricing: $44.99 on Steam, frequently discounted below $10 during major sales.
Migrating from BG2: the jump from real-time-with-pause to full turn-based combat is the biggest adjustment on this list, but the elemental combo system rewards the same kind of pre-fight planning BG2 players already do with scrolls and potions.
Download: https://store.steampowered.com/app/435150/
Bottom line: the pick for players who want BG2’s party-based depth wrapped in a lighter, funnier tone and don’t mind trading RTwP for turn-based tactics.
Tyranny
Tyranny flips the usual CRPG premise: the evil empire already won the war before the game starts, and the player works as one of its enforcers. Obsidian built a shorter, sharper campaign around that idea, and the writing carries the same morally gray weight that made Irenicus compelling, just compressed into a fifteen-to-twenty-hour runtime instead of BG2’s sprawling forty-plus hours.
Where it falls short: the shorter length means less room for the kind of slow-burn companion arcs BG2 is known for, and the game’s Conquest mode, which lets a player fast-forward through the setup, skips content some players would rather experience firsthand.
Pricing: $29.99 on Steam, the cheapest full-priced pick on this list.
Migrating from BG2: the real-time-with-pause combat and reactive dialogue system feel immediately familiar, and the faction-reputation mechanics extend the kind of choice-and-consequence design BG2 only hinted at.
Download: https://store.steampowered.com/app/362960/
Bottom line: the right pick for anyone who loved BG2’s moral gray areas but wants a weekend-length campaign instead of a summer-long one.
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Torment: Tides of Numenera is the spiritual sibling of Planescape: Torment, released the same era as BG2 and built by many of the same writers. It trades D&D’s swords and spells for the Numenera setting’s far-future weirdness, but the core idea, that words and choices matter more than sword swings, carries over directly. Combat is rare and mostly optional, which sets it apart from every other entry on this list.
Where it falls short: players who came to BG2 for tactical party combat will find very little of it here, since most conflicts resolve through dialogue and skill checks instead of fights.
Pricing: $44.99 on Steam, regularly discounted to under $10.
Migrating from BG2: the Legacy system, which tracks the long-term philosophical consequences of choices, is the clearest descendant of the reactivity BG2 pioneered, though the shift from combat-heavy to dialogue-heavy design is significant.
Download: https://store.steampowered.com/app/272270/
Bottom line: the pick for players who valued BG2’s writing and choices more than its combat, and who don’t mind a game that barely fights back.
Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition
Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition runs on BioWare’s Aurora Engine, the direct successor to the Infinity Engine that powered BG2, and it shares the same D&D 3rd Edition roots as Baldur’s Gate II’s later expansions. Two decades of community-built modules and persistent multiplayer worlds mean there is more free content for this game than for almost anything else on this list.
Where it falls short: the official campaigns are noticeably weaker than BG2’s, with flatter companions and a combat camera that shows its age even after the Enhanced Edition’s visual pass.
Pricing: $19.99 on Steam, the cheapest entry point on this list by a wide margin.
Migrating from BG2: the jump from 2nd Edition to 3rd Edition rules is straightforward, and the persistent-world servers offer the kind of long-term party play that BG2’s single campaign never supported.
Download: https://store.steampowered.com/app/704450/
Bottom line: worth it for the modding community and multiplayer servers alone, but skip the official campaign if BG2’s writing is what a player is chasing.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister
Solasta: Crown of the Magister is the most faithful adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition rules on PC, built by a small team that clearly cared more about getting the tabletop math right than about cinematic presentation. Line-of-sight, height advantage, and verticality all function close to how they do at a physical table, which makes it the most different entry on this list from BG2’s real-time flow.
Where it falls short: the story and companions are thin compared to every other pick here, and the visuals lack the polish of bigger-budget alternatives.
Pricing: $39.99 on Steam, often bundled with its Lost Valley expansion during sales.
Migrating from BG2: the switch from real-time-with-pause to strict turn-based tactics is the biggest mechanical shift on this list, and D&D 2nd Edition veterans will need a session to adjust to 5th Edition’s simplified spell slots and advantage system.
Download: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1096530/
Bottom line: the pick for tactics-first players who care more about rules-accurate combat than about the kind of character writing that made BG2 famous.
How to choose
Pick Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire for the closest overall match to BG2’s structure, tone, and party dynamics. Pick Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous if the 2nd Edition ruleset always felt too simple and a deeper character build system sounds appealing. Pick Divinity: Original Sin 2 for the strongest combat systems and a lighter tone, especially with three friends in co-op. Pick Tyranny if a forty-hour campaign is more than the schedule allows right now. Pick Torment: Tides of Numenera for writing over combat, and skip it entirely if tactical fights are the draw. Pick Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition for the modding scene and persistent multiplayer, not the official campaign. Pick Solasta: Crown of the Magister for the most rules-accurate 5th Edition combat available on PC.
Stay on Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition, or start a fresh Throne of Bhaal run, if the itch is specifically for the Forgotten Realms and Irenicus’s story rather than a new setting. None of these seven replace that specific plot. They replace the feeling of playing through it for the first time.
FAQ
Is Pillars of Eternity II better than Baldur's Gate 2?
Better is subjective, but Deadfire matches BG2’s real-time-with-pause combat and party-based structure more closely than any other modern CRPG. Its writing is more philosophical and less character-driven than BG2’s, so players chasing Irenicus-level villain writing may still prefer the original.
Can I import my Baldur's Gate 2 character or save into these games?
No. None of these seven games support importing a BG2 character or save file. Each one uses its own character creation system and campaign, so a new playthrough starts from scratch regardless of which alternative a player picks.
What is the cheapest Baldur's Gate 2 alternative?
Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition, at $19.99, is the cheapest full game on this list. Tyranny follows at $29.99 and offers a shorter, more tightly written campaign for a similar budget.
Which alternative is closest to Baldur's Gate 2's combat system?
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire and Tyranny both use real-time-with-pause combat, the same system BG2 runs on. Divinity: Original Sin 2, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, and Solasta: Crown of the Magister use turn-based combat instead, which changes the pacing of every fight.
Do any of these run on Linux?
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Tyranny, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition all ship native Linux builds on Steam. Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Solasta: Crown of the Magister run through Steam Play’s Proton compatibility layer on Linux.
Is Baldur's Gate 3 a good alternative to Baldur's Gate 2?
It depends on what a player wants from BG2. BG3 shares the Forgotten Realms setting and some returning characters, but it switched to turn-based combat and 5th Edition rules, and its companion writing is delivered through full voice acting and cinematics rather than the dense text-based dialogue trees BG2 used.
