Baldur's Gate
Rating:  -
A lot of fun for RPG players. The graphics are a little dated, but that doesn't really detract from the total story of the game. In fact, story is the key point of the game and it has a lot of it, enough to keep any player busy for hours. Overall its a lot of fun, especially on older computers which can run more modern games, but with games like Baldur's Gate who needs modern games anyway...
Rating:  -
Baldur's Gate has the personal distinction of being the very first computer game I owned, and at the time it was simply amazing. It's aged fairly well in the six years since then, and I still play it sometimes. Of course, it can't compete with recent games in terms of graphics and sound...but what true RPG gamer cares about those more than story and character, eh? In these areas BG is still among the best, seven years after its release. I would recommend it for fans of Dungeons and Dragons and fantasy in general, though if all you're looking for is 3-D wonderment, you may want to try something newer.
Gameplay: Very good. The interface is smooth and easy to learn. The game is from 1999, so the graphics are of course not very "advanced" by today's standards, but they are beautiful nonetheless, each map area having been painstakingly painted in 2-D. The sound is good, especially the environmental background sounds (rain, snow, wind, wildlife, the chattering of city crowds, etc.), which really make you feel as if you're "in" the game, especially when wearing headphones. The voice acting is mainly limited to NPC dialogue, dream sequences, and chapter introductions, and while it's very good, it gets a little repetitive after a while (I quickly got tired of hearing "wife's been gettin' prickly on me arse" and the like whenever I'd speak to random people in the towns, for instance).
The interpersonal relationships between party members are one of the game's best features; they will bicker, banter, flirt, and occasionally brawl with one another. How you act in the game, and which particular NPCs you have in your party will affect how other NPCs react to you. I will say though, that you can't really play the game as an evil character, regardless of which alignment you select during character creation; you're more or less forced to take a good, "heroic" route through the game, and acting too evil will eventually make it impossible for you to finish the game. Overall, however, BG is very fun to play. There are a myriad of subquests to keep your interest up, and the main storyline, though somewhat linear, is engaging and always leaves you wondering what will happen next.
There are some things I didn't like about the gameplay. The AI of party members leaves a lot to be desired, for example: either the AI is turned on and the party members will attack enemies immediately on sight (which is quite a hassle when your characters are invisible or hiding in shadows), or it's turned off and you have to do everything manually. I found the "custom" AI scripts available to be next to useless and pathfinding (especially in dungeon areas) was oftentimes terrible. The wilderness areas between towns were another sticking point. I know that random encounters out in the wild are one of core elements of most role-playing, but after the fifth or sixth time I had a level 1 party get wiped out by gibberlings in the first or second wilderness area, I got very frustrated. The experience cap was also something I'd rather not have seen.
Technical Issues: Some. I've had two separate copies of BG installed, both on my old Compaq, running on a 350 MHz processor with 32 MB of RAM (later upgraded to 96 MB). The first install went smoothly. The second, over a year later, did not, and required four separate attempts before it was successful. I was unable to install the game to my second physical hard drive, and had to use the first drive (older, slower, and smaller). After installation, the game would sometimes crash for no apparent reason, especially when several magic spells were being cast simultaneously onscreen. When my party was fighting more than about five enemies at once, the game would occasionally slow to an absolute crawl and the animation became choppy and jerky; if this lasted for more than a few minutes, the game was almost certain to crash. This happened even after I installed an additional 64 MB of RAM (and I note that it's never happened with Baldur's Gate II, which is installed on the very same system), but it was an inconsistent problem. There were also a few instances of the game crashing at key points in the story (such as the beginning of the final battle), forcing a restart. Though these issues did not prevent me from enjoying the game, they were annoying enough for me to rate it 3 out of 5 stars overall.
All in all, Baldur's Gate is an excellent game. The story is deep and involving, the party system is a joy to explore, and the sound and graphics (though outdated by today's standards) are wonderful for a game that was released in 1999. If not for the minor gameplay issues and annoying technical problems, it would rate a 5 out of 5.
Rating:  -
I bought BG about 6 or 7 years ago, I loved it. Now (2006) I started again playing... even if the graphics isn't as good as the later games, it's still an incredible game, and I believe it's even better than BG2 and all those other ones like Icewind Dale or Neverwinter Nights...
Baldur's Gate (1 & 2) have a LONG Gameplay (I read it was about 400 hours) but you will never get tired of them!
I can assure you that, if you like fantasy, D&D and stuff like that, you must have this game; and even if you don't REALLY LOVE fantasy, you will like it.
By the way, it works fine on Window$ XP without having to use comatibility...
Enjoy!!!
Rating: -
If you like RPGs this is a great game. It's dialogue heavy and there are a lot of choices to make. It really immerses you. The combat is pretty fun; pause-and-play style. It's the characters and the story that really makes me like this series.
Rating: -
I unearthed this gem among my collection of old games after a recent move, and I promply popped it in to play out of nostalgia after experiencing a string of disappointing RPG's on the PC. 2 Weeks later I emerged to write the review this wonderful game deserves.
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. If you are looking for a unique and seamless fantasy setting then you have found it. This is a beautiful 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. You DO NOT have to be a Dungeons of Dragons fanatic to pick up this game and enjoy adventuring. It really is quite a masterpiece by itself.
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.
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.
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.
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