Baldur's Gate

The Good
Baldur's Gate nailed one thing perfectly: the atmosphere of the game world. There's just so much to see and do as you trek across the wilds of Faerun, and there are dozens of quaint little inns to visit across an assortment of villages and towns. Every NPC that will join your team has a neat little backstory, and they will complain if your virtuous behaviour or lack thereof conflicts with their morals.

Every yard of every zone you can travel in seems hand-painted, and some corners of the world are so cozy you almost wish you could crawl inside the game world. Many an inn had that effect on me, as the glow of the roaring fire lit the common room while a bard played a lively melody, and Dwarvish ale flowed liberally from the taps.

One of my favorite features in Baldur's Gate are the hand-drawn character portraits. Some of your female companions are just plain hot, and I find myself gravitating towards an all-girl party just for that reason. But, many of the male characters are stalwart foot soldiers, so there's still plenty of room for them too.

Plotting is done with a light touch, as you're never required to do anything in particular to advance the plot, until you are good and ready to do so. Which is nice, because open-world design has got the be the peak experience of gaming. You can travel the land wherever your heart desires, and you will come across all sorts of strange beasts and commoners in need of protection from such creatures.

Leveling is a slow affair, which makes it all the more rewarding when you finally do hit level two, which could take a few days. The assortment of classes you can choose from is excellent, and every character feels unique in the abilities and proficiencies.

The Bad
However, the bread and butter of gameplay, combat, can be rather tedious at times. Unless you spend a great deal of effort leveling up your characters well ahead of where you need to be, each battle spells potential ruin for your party.

A critical hit to a character may bring them under -9 hit points, causing them to explode in a shower of giblets. That character can never be restored. This is avoided by putting the game difficulty down a notch where death in this manner cannot occur.

If you try and sleep in the wild, half the time you will be ambushed, and as likely as not one of your mages will be targeted, killed in one hit, forcing your to re-load.

Re-loading wouldn't be such a chore but for a minor issue. Whenever you do so, the music restarts from the beginning, which may become wearying to your ears very quickly.

Essentially, all this forces you to be extremely careful, never letting your weaker characters get jumped, and healing anyone who takes so much as a scratch of damage. This really interrupts the flow of the game, and if you aren't completely won over by the good aspects of Baldur's Gate, you may be turned off entirely.

However, there is another approach that is slightly less harrowing. If you are willing to admit when you are outmatched, you can simply forgo exploring an area until you are really ready. There will always be an abundance of areas that are fairly straightforward for whatever level you happen to be.

The Bottom Line
Baldur's Gate stands as a landmark achievement in video gaming, and remains one of the strongest role-playing titles ever released on the PC. It made its mark just as 2D game environments were on their last legs, and as a result its hand-drawn style is as much an artistic achievement as a technical triumph, thanks to the quality of visual elements, as well as the lush orchestral score.

The Good
It had a fantastic story, and it kept away from the hack-and-slash reputation that D&D games always seem to fall into. A lot of attention was put into the D&D rules.

Graphics and sound were well thought-out and they seemed to make sense (in BG2 the graphics were a little more distracting, although technically better - very odd). Overall they added to the game.

Very well balanced, and fairly easy to use. Keyboard shortcuts were customizable (by default they were actually confusing).

It was nice to pick up part members along the way - each with their own story and goals.

You could technically play evil characters, though it was difficult.

The Bad
Technically speaking, the game is only 640x480. It's sub-par for the era of game, but the details were done so well, you won't notice too much.

Every time you came to the end of a section, you KNEW there was a mage there. And he always had spells that were going to make life difficult. I actually grew to hate this.

While the story was fairly linear, it wasn't inherently obvious what was the next step, and sometimes you'd get off on a side quest, only to get off on another side quest, only to find another, only to find... .

The Bottom Line
Overall this is a fantastic game. It's well worth the going-price (I picked it up for $20) for any D&D fans out there. For non-D&D fans, if you want to see what D&D is all about, pick up this game. It's the best representation I know if in recent times.

The Good
I have been meaning to write a review about Baldur's Gate for 5 years now. Upon finishing it for the first time nearly 5 years ago, I sat back and vowed to someday put my praise of this gem onto paper. Sadly, I never got around to actually doing it. That is until 3 weeks ago, I scoured my bin of oldies and there it was ominously staring back at me. Moving junk aside I held the gargantuan, worn and weird smelling 5 disc case cheaply taped together by yours truly in my hands. Nostalgia swept over me and I realized that it has been 5 years since I have played this game. 3 weeks later I emerged foul smelling and was beginning to lose my eyesight. Let me tell you my friends, I enjoyed this beautiful masterpiece so much, I decided to keep my vow. And then I promptly bought Shadows of Amn (the sequel), but that is another tale...

The Actual Review...

The game is set in Faerun, of the Dungeons and Dragons fame. Don't worry though you will not need to know basically anything about Faerun at first to enjoy the land and it's people, which is why this game is so wonderful. Once you are in the game and playing you will not feel out of place at all. This is a beautiful fantasy world teeming with life and unique characters and once you finish Baldur's Gate I know you will read up more on this "Faerun." It is that immersive.

Soundwise, this game was a breakthrough in video game entertainment. Bioware outdid itself with its ambient environmental effects. Enter a forest area and you can hear birds and natural wildlife along with trees swaying and wind blowing. When rain comes, it comes with excellent audio. I'm telling you, crank up your fancy speakers and listen! You will become immersed. The towns are constantly alive with sounds of commotion and people shouting. Masterful. The combat sounds such as spell effects and weapons hitting flesh along with the music is commendable as well.

You all play CRPG's for the story right? Even as a couple of Diablo fanboys scamper out I'm going to tell you that the Baldur's Gate saga is one of the great storytelling achievements not just in videogames but literature as well. Call me crazy but I enjoyed the story that much! Oh and don't read the crap novels based on this game the author did it no justice. Baldur's Gate follows the player character as he/she sets out from his warm, cozy lifestyle in the fortress-library of Candlekeep and takes off into the unforgiving land of Faerun. This comes on the heels of your foster father Gorion's urgent warnings. You are sent out into the world fresh for adventure, and there are many twists and turns along the way including one at the start, which will hook you for the rest of the game. Even in Candlekeep things aren't what they seem and without spoiling anything I can tell you that the story blossoms as you advance. You will never feel like saying "What the hell am I actually doing here?"

The gameplay is simple and intuitive. Party navigation is a breeze, and over 15 NPC's can be recruited into your party of 6 as you progress and their unique "banter" amongst themselves really never leaves you bored with your party. Combat is simple and the weapons are fun. Character development is one of the richest ever found in an CRPG. As for all this anger about the rules of D&D and how they "suck" in a CRPG, I can safely say that you should not worry one bit if you are looking for a rich roleplaying experience. I never bothered with 2nd edition 3rd edition and all that crap, the rules are fine and everything is calculated "behind-the-scenes" for you so it never takes away from the experience. Everything is seamlessly done and for a person looking to immerse themselves in a wonderful world the rules should never come up and detract from your game.

With a lot of areas to cover and hundreds of quests and mini quests (I'm not kidding) you are looking at least 30 hours of gameplay, 20 if you "powergame" and rush through. That's real value for the 10$ max you're paying. By the way you may not find this in bargain bins anymore so you might have to look up a local auction site or order it online but even then the money you spend is well spent.

The Bad
Graphically the old game is showing its age, I must admit. The 640x480 resolution and low-bit sprites are all here, but strangely enough it did not detract from the overall experience one bit. For all you "What are you crazy, 640x480? This ain't the stone age!" people who might pass up on this game because the graphics are dated, do no despair! There is a great mod/upgrade for Baldur's Gate called BGtutu which converts the engine to the newer Baldur's Gate II engine, with dramatic effect.

The Bottom Line
There's no reason to doubt me and countless other gamers out there that consider this the Holy Grail of CRPG's, there is a reason for that. The reason is that Baldur's Gate is one of those special games that you will be proud to own and look back on it in another 20 years as the "genre-reviving","genre-breaking" masterpiece that it truly is.

There's not much left to say, except that if you are a person that is reading this review right now, in front of your computer, and searching for that different RPG, that is not just hack and slash then end your search my friend. You have found your gem and it is called Baldur's Gate. Give it a go, and when you're done and well on your way to installing it's sequel do what I did and recommend it to someone.

Peace!