Summary
A deeply compelling adventure from the northlands of Canada
The Good
I came across Baldur's Gate during my second Christmas break from university. I just moseyed on down to the local London Drugs and browsed their game selection. Lo and behold this fascinating box soon drew my attention. The Forgotten Realms tag really caught my eye, since that line of fantasy novels helped tremendously to get me through age 12-15 relatively happily. Well, turns out this fascinating box doled out some of the finest adventure I've had since first got hooked on video games in about 1983.
There's a good dozen NPCs that have rich personalities and backgrounds, the loot is one of the more compelling reasons to keep playing, and the battles can be quite engrossing at times. Spellcasting is fun and flashy, weaponry and combat skills can be deployed strategically to help you see through the day, and exploring the hinterlands of Faerun is a sublime delight.
Baldur's Gate still stands in my mind as one of the greatest computer games ever created, and certainly the only outstanding RPG released over the past decade.
The Bad
Battles can get tedious, but that's why you want to get your characters as powerful as possible, so you can mow through the gutter trash expediently.
As of 2008 the graphics are perhaps a touch rudimentary to our sensibilities, but it's all hand-drawn 2D stuff, so it's very easy on the eyes, perhaps even verging on beautiful. That said, I suppose that the lack of 3D perspective can be a bit limiting at times. But this is hardly a fair criticism of a game released when N64 and its crude polygons was the console experience of the day.
The Bottom Line
A wonderful adventure tale that you are given the leading role in. The main plot is anything but open-ended, but this is a necessary limitation in this style of game. Great escapist fantasy, somewhat dated a decade on, but for my money some of the best times I've had on a computer were playing Baldur's Gate.
