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Mod author: Acifer

Version used for review: 1.5.

Dark Tidings is a small adventure that packs a lot into its 1-2 hour runtime, with charmingly written dialogue, interesting plot hooks, and beautifully put-together environments exclusive to this mod. The mod seems to do its best to stick to the style and pacing of the original game, while honing in on lore and worldbuilding that are largely canon to the Forgotten Realms.

Back in 1999, Tales of the Sword Coast did its best to introduce island adventuring into the Baldur’s Gate experience with the Isle of Balduran, an occasionally maligned quest that involves some awkward railroading and difficult battles. Dark Tidings’ own Irphong Island, where the mod is entirely set, seems to take everything that worked from that quest and stripped it of everything that didn’t.

Irphong Island is small, which allows for more thoughtful design in regards to the environment, which is on-brand for Baldur’s Gate II. It manages to impress with the density of content within the small island while not feeling overloaded — there are dark forces at work here, but this was also once a place with a practical purpose, and that much is evident from simply exploring.

You will be encouraged to explore Irphong by a mage named Thalass, a representative for the Council of Six. The magically lit lighthouse has gone out, and he’s looking for someone unwitting enough to mosey on over and solve the problem. Of course, he doesn’t mention the supposed curse on the island, nor the rumors of the giant dragon turtle under the island or the kraken that currently lives in its waters. Thalass is a smarmy politician through and through, and his business pitch serves as a perfect introduction to Dark Tidings. The interaction blends into the base game well, which is what I’m all about.

Of course, once you get to the island, the sailors that brought you there are immediately killed, and you have to fight off several sea trolls. Even the sailors that are killed off within two minutes of being introduced have lines that are unique enough that they feel as though they belong in the world. Dark Tidings is constantly trying to do more with less, which is an approach to design that isn’t easy to pull off.

Where it doesn’t accomplish this is with its numerous books and notes that you will have to read in order to gather what your next move should be in unraveling the puzzle-like mystery surrounding the island. Each important quest item that you have to read contains a goliath amount of text relative to what you actually need to know. Generally, this is fine — I would probably complain even more if these texts were totally devoid of flavour or personality — but there’s little thought into the readability of them, which becomes more painful each time you have to double-check what exactly the book said.

I can’t express enough how important formatting is for these sorts of things. They are well written, but you wouldn’t know it due to just how difficult it is to follow. It doesn’t help that I’m also critically attention deficit, but maybe that’s just a me problem.

Speaking of formatting, I was a little disappointed to see that, due to Dark Tidings being BG2 compatible alongside EE, it doesn’t make use of the special characters that the Enhanced Editions introduced. Am I just an em-dash enthusiast? Yes. Am I being far, far too pedantic about this? Also yes. I try not to complain about this too much, since mods that came out before the EE aren’t compatible with them, but Dark Tidings has less of an excuse. Also slightly off-putting were the item descriptions. The games generally use a standardised format for these things, but Dark Tidings kind of does its own thing, and it meshes a little bit with the clarity of what items do.

I really enjoy these items. They’re fun to use, and the rewards you gain from the quest are great for a mid-level party. I just don’t know what “like” Kuo-Toa and Sahuagin actually means. Are ALL aquatic creatures included in this? What actually counts as an aquatic creature? Also, unleashing a blast of water once per day isn’t an equipped ability — it’s a charge ability.

Considering the amount of lore research that went into the creation of this mod, I have to applaud the fact that it isn’t too heavy-handed with the majority of its exposition. The main antagonist of the mod is a lesser known evil being from Forgotten Realms lore, but there’s no great history lesson to be had here. It’s not needed, and it wouldn’t be particularly relevant or interesting anyway. All that matters is that there’s a cult on the island and, now that you’re here, they’re about to meet their end.

Yes, there’s a cult, and they’re largely operating out of a version of the island located in the Plane of Shadows, accessible by completing their ritual within the lighthouse’s base. Baldur’s Gate mods seem to really enjoy their ‘shadow versions’ of locations, don’t they? This alternate version of the island is even more visually striking than the actual island itself, though. It was a treat to walk through, though it suffers from a small issue in that it can be somewhat difficult to know where exactly what is walkable ground and what isn’t. The island itself suffers a little from this as well — in both cases, you may find yourself having to spam left-click over an area in order to find where to go. It wasn’t too serious to break my enjoyment, but it was noticeable enough. It’s certainly very pretty, though!

Despite the fact that this all sounds rather dangerous, Dark Tidings isn’t too much to handle early into Shadows of Amn. It’s clear that care was put into the combat encounters, and they’re challenging enough that even veterans of the game will have to take a moment and strategise. That is if you’re not coming at this at too high a level, since this mod is designed for a lower-mid level party. I played with a modestly equipped party of level 10, and it was a fun challenge. Each combat encounter broke up the puzzling and exploration in just the right spots, and I have to commend Dark Tidings for its pacing.

Things happening too fast or too slow can make or break the experience, and it’s a difficult thing to get right without a team of people saying things like “I feel like there should be an extra step before getting into the lighthouse,” or “I think one more small explorable area would help flesh out the island”. Dark Tidings hits a very nice balance with its exploration-based puzzles, its combat, and its dialogue. Everything that you accomplish feels like it takes an appropriate length of time and application of effort to do, so it all comes off as quite rewarding. It’s not necessary to do every little thing on the island, but you’ll probably find yourself wanting to anyway, just because of how rewarding the little things feel. It’s a great feeling to have in an RPG.

Dark Tidings is an excellent mod that I don’t think anyone who’s even remotely into the modding scene should overlook. It accomplishes much in its relatively modest playtime, and it’ll stay with you for a while after the fact. It’s not perfect, but considering the scope of the mod, I would say that it’s certainly more enjoyable than TotSC’s Isle of Balduran, which is a quest that I actually like a fair bit. Even I have to admit that Dark Tidings does the whole island side-quest thing better, though. I would not at all be surprised if it worms its way into my installations from now on.

Thanks for reading.