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.