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Version used for review: 8.6.

When a mod adds enough content into Baldur’s Gate to rival an entire expansion, I’m naturally skeptical — the game’s tone and style are sacred to me; I prefer them largely untouched. Shades of the Sword Coast, however, not only rivals an official expansion in size, but also in quality.

Shades of the Sword Coast is a large mod that seeks to deepen the proverbial lake of Baldur’s Gate without making it wider. It does this largely by adding many sub-areas into the game. New dungeons, rooms, and caves litter the world, so the surface feels unchanged even as the world gains a wealth of new content.

Ulcaster School is an intriguing location that always ends up disappointing to me, but Shades adds a lower level to the dungeon that finally explores its history as an actual school. This small but impactful addition is a good example of the main throughline of the mod, that which gives it its name: shades. Echoes of the past haunt the Sword Coast, whether its skeletal pirates searching for their sons’ bones, the restless spirits of three soldiers who never completed their final mission, or a resurfaced murder case that was shelved years ago.

The first new pieces of content a player is likely to encounter are at the Friendly Arm Inn: several new quests are on offer, and all of them feel true to the tone of the game. Having played with these elements, their absence now makes the Friendly Arm feel emptier.

One of them introduces a new basement to the inn. Yes, it’s a classic ‘rats in the basement’ quest, but it left a very strong impression with me. Venturing into the remains of the Bhaal temple beneath the inn aligns beautifully with the saga’s themes of lurking darkness.

The atmosphere of the quest is also notable. On the inn’s main floor, you have the jovial music. Down one level, that music is muffled behind dungeon ambience. As you descend further, the tavern music disappears entirely. It’s genuinely eerie and changes the whole tone.

After a mini-dungeon and a puzzle under Mutamin’s Garden, you can retrieve a wardstone that will allow you at any time to travel to ‘My Very Own Hideout’ — a pocket plane of sorts. Here, you can store items and rest. It’s one of the few elements to Shades that I think goes too far.

My Very Own Hideout is a cute addition to the game, but it negatively impacts the difficulty if you can travel there and rest at any point. However, it’s a handy inventory system that avoids resorting to a Bag of Holding. Shades introduces so many new items, so it’s nice to have somewhere on hand to store them that feels earned.

Elsewhere in the dungeon where this wardstone is found, there is a tree that leeches off of your experience points and grants you rewards. It’s up to you if you want to go ahead with it, but there’s also a strong roleplaying reason not to.

There are a few new quests in the city of Baldur’s Gate itself, as well, which I very much enjoyed. There’s one that actually requires you to leave the city to complete, which is surprisingly rare in both vanilla and modded quests. Shades patches holes that didn’t necessarily need to be patched, but I’m not complaining about it. For the most part, it feels airtight.

Many of the interactions in Baldur’s Gate feel like they come from a laid-back tabletop game, albeit one that the players become far too invested in. The dialogue is quite witty and unserious at times, though in a way that remains consistent with the world and the events occurring within it. As a low-level adventurer, you’re often treated as something of a nuisance, and the new encounters in Shades of the Sword Coast that try to replicate this tone do so fantastically.

South of the Gnoll Stronghold, there’s an entirely new, organically crafted area added just for a single encounter. When you arrive at this spooky, whisper-haunted mountain, you might expect a fight, but instead you get asked to help some skeletal spirits get glammed up so they can look good for eternity. It’s a memorable moment, perfectly true to Baldur’s Gate’s spirit.

Not everything added by the mod involves quests and new locations, though. There are some additions that are as simple as a single conversation that gives the player an opportunity to roleplay, or new random encounters that range from considerably funny, to cute, to sad. There are also new items. A LOT of new items.

I know that overloading the game with new equipment is often a turn-off for players, and I’m usually in that camp. However, I feel like their inclusion is warranted for the sheer amount of extra adventuring this mod has you doing. For the most part, they’re uncommon-level items — stuff you’ll enjoy for a short time and then sell eventually. There are more powerful items though, and they’re granted to you late in the game, and often at considerable cost to more than just your gold.

Items that grant bonuses to specific races or classes can be found quite often, and there’s a good chance that you simply won’t have a use for them. It adds a little replay value to the game, which is always a good thing.

One might worry that this results in an influx of gold for the player to hoard. While there are a few new stores that’ll warrant your attention, the largest hit to your wallet will be Taerom’s smithy via a few new craftable items. Most of the item fragments are located in the new sub-areas or are used to make previously uninteresting areas more engaging — the Xvart village, for example. You can take Ursa the Cave Bear’s fur and give it to Taerom, who will craft you a very mediocre leather armor that you can cast arcane spells in. Is it useful? Kind of…? Do I love it regardless of how useful it is? Yes. It’s perfect.

The most expensive item you can get Taerom to craft is a mace, which has three components and will set you back 14,000 gp. The best part is that it’s not at all worth that gold, but it’s incredibly satisfying to pay for it after having found all the pieces. It may be a powerful weapon, but it’s nothing extraordinary. The story of how you obtained it, on the other hand, is worth a lot more.

It’s this attention to detail that really sells Shades of the Sword Coast for me. Even something as silly as paying Taerom for mediocre armor feels deliberate and true to the game’s spirit. All of these additions, small and large, come together to make the Sword Coast feel richer without feeling unfamiliar. The mod never forgets what makes Baldur’s Gate special while still delivering on its own themes, and for that, I love it.

Shades feels like a true expansion to Baldur’s Gate, and I can’t sing its praises enough. If you wish the empty areas of the game had a little more to offer, or if you just want something fresh, I wholeheartedly recommend this mod.

Thanks for reading.