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Cyberpunk 2077 sequel director cites Baldur's Gate 2 as his biggest inspiration, with 'five or six' playthroughs totaling 1,500 hours under his belt

Pawel Sasko, game director at CD Projekt Red, claims that Baldur's Gate 2 has influenced his career and that he has played it for over 1,500 hours.

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While Baldur's Gate 3 still lives rent-free in the forefront of players' minds, the director behind Cyberpunk 2 - Cyberpunk 2078, or whatever the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel ends up being called - can't stop thinking about and playing Baldur's Gate 2.

When asked about his most-played game of all time in an interview clip with PC Gamer, CD Projekt Red game director Pawel Sasko cites Baldur's Gate 2 as the RPG that kickstarted his interest in development since he's finished the game to completion about "five or six times altogether from scratch with multiple characters, multiple ways."

"I love Baldur's Gate 1 and 2," Sasko says. "It was the game that really made me want to get into game dev and really make my own games." Sasko goes on to do some mental maths, calculating that if "one playthrough was like 300 hours" and he did "like five or six altogether," then his overall playtime would probably surpass a whopping 1,500 hours. 

How Long To Beat - the website that estimates, y'know, how long it takes to beat a game - guesses that an average Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition playthrough could take anywhere from 45 hours, if you're just focusing on main story stuff, to 150 hours for a completionist run. Sasko's estimated playtime doubles the average player's completionist route, so I guess he really, really takes his time clicking around.

Details on the Cyberpunk sequel are still relatively light, but we do know that the project is retaining most of the first game's senior developers to "preserve" the RPG's DNA. Baldur's Gate 2 will probably also have some invisible influences on Cyberpunk 2, but for those of you who like your RPGs of the isometric, fantasy variety, D&D owner Hasbro says it's already taking the next steps to move toward a Baldur's Gate 4.

In other news, Baldur’s Gate 3 has hit its lowest-ever price thanks to Steam Summer Sale in case you needed another reason to play last year’s best RPG.