Baldur's Gate: Is it worth a try?

[Pink Gregory]

Baldur's Gate is an isometric RPG with as someone eloquently stated "a combination of fantasy cliches put together to resemble something like a plot". I hated its writing with a passion ("Oh fair maiden, of course I shall rescue thou"), but I have to admit that it has a lot of exploration and freedom. It's pretty much an epic fantasy quest which you might hate or love.

It's a classic and as such worth playing, but honestly, if anything I'd rather recommend Planescape Torment. It's unconventional, has lots of dialogue and great story.

To be fair, when that dialogue does come up, it's tongue-in-cheek. In fact, it doesn't really play the fantasy tropes it does feature all that straight, at least in the writing.

Also, if you were planning on it, I've heard that the original (available on GOG.com) and a few resolution/fixes/missing content mods is about equivalent to the enhanced edition, and for a little cheaper.

 

[Silverbeard]

EDIT: Do you need to play BG1 for the story or can you just go straight into BG2 without playing it?

Yes, one can go straight for BG 2 without BG 1. Nothing significant in BG 1 is ever really referenced in BG 2 and the sole take away one gets from BG 1 is an understanding of the party members in BG 2, several of which are repeats from BG 1.

 

[Silverbeard]

To tell the truth, I know almost nothing about this game. I don't know anything about the plot, characters, combat system or anything else.
The only thing I do know, is that it is a fantasy game, a setting which I don't really like. Although, I liked Dragon Age.

So, help me out. Could you please tell me anything about it's story, gameplay, or maybe your opinions about this game?
And please mention if it's worth a buy.

Thank you.

Baldur's Gate is a very unique game; unique for its time and still unique today. Be ready for a brick wall of difficulty, though. Gameplay is not very tough in its own right but the interface is very clunky and very much in need of trimming, although it gets better in BG 2.
My advice would be to skip BG 1 and go directly to BG 2, which is the better of the two titles. One does not need much knowledge from BG 1 to get through BG 2.

 

[william12123]

I do recommend. On of the most sprawling RPG adventures I have ever played. Planescape torment is excellent too.

 

[Yojoo]

EDIT: Do you need to play BG1 for the story or can you just go straight into BG2 without playing it?

Yes, one can go straight for BG 2 without BG 1. Nothing significant in BG 1 is ever really referenced in BG 2 and the sole take away one gets from BG 1 is an understanding of the party members in BG 2, several of which are repeats from BG 1.

Well, except for the driving force behind the entire saga being the major plot of BG1, the events of which inform on everyone's reaction to you for the remainder of the story.

 

[romxxii]

I just got the complete Baldur's 1 and 2 from GOG's recent summer sale, and went through the trouble of modding/updating everything to get it up to my very modern specs. Still felt clunky though, and I went straight back to playing Arcanum. I love that buggy little game a lot more.

 

[Fat Hippo]

No.

I know I'm probably a loner in this regard, but I can't stand Baldur's Gate. It has the same failure modes as D&D that I specifically hate: easy permadeath, shitty performance at low levels so you get killed a lot, and balls-expensive resurrection. You can perma-lose party members easily. On top of that, you have the bitchy problem that if your main character dies, so does everyone else, something I like to call the Persona 3 problem. (This is stupid as a mechanic, I don't care how well your story justifies it.) Also, the open world setup means it's easy to wander into places where your low level will get you instantly killed, so it's just adding insult to injury by offering a big world and then punishing you for going around it. Everyone has absurdly low HP when you start -- I mean single-digits HP -- and I never liked that about D&D.

Basically...if you don't like D&D mechanics, you will hate Baldur's Gate mechanics.

Objectively, I agree with just about everything you said, but goddammit, I just love this game too much. Probably has something to do with me first playing it when I was 8, and even today, despite all these issues, I still find it a blast, as long as you're in the right mindset. Which mostly mean letting go of the idea of doing some kind of "iron man" run. If someone dies, just reload the game. It ain't worth the hassle, and you're right, low-level D&D is random as all hell anyway. Even a perfect plan is just one kobold arrow away from a dead wizard. And don't have any qualms about certain kinds of cheesing. So basically:

- Save a lot
- Don't hesitate to reload if something goes wrong
- Abuse ranged weapons, because a party of level 1 characters sure as fuck can't take down an ogre, even if the game wants you to.
- Look up where you can find the wizard's ring. It's OP as fuck, but it makes wizards not terrible for the first few levels, another infuriating trait of AD&D.
- Also, don't forget to set max HP when leveling up. A permanent punishment based on a dice roll when leveling up is utterly retarded.

 

[Silverbeard]

EDIT: Do you need to play BG1 for the story or can you just go straight into BG2 without playing it?

Yes, one can go straight for BG 2 without BG 1. Nothing significant in BG 1 is ever really referenced in BG 2 and the sole take away one gets from BG 1 is an understanding of the party members in BG 2, several of which are repeats from BG 1.

Well, except for the driving force behind the entire saga being the major plot of BG1, the events of which inform on everyone's reaction to you for the remainder of the story.

What was the plot of BG 1?
SPOILERS BELOW. AVOID, DEAR READER, IF YOU INTEND TO PLAY BALDUR'S GATE 1 OR 2. (I have not been around here long enough to know how to turn text white or spoiler it and I would welcome any advice regarding that).
COMMENCE SPOILERS

All I remember about BG 1 was that the player was a descendant of a dead god and was marked for death by another descendant of that same god. The player would rather not die and thus had to slot the other one first. There was no mention of Irenicus, no mention that there were significantly more descendants than anyone realized, no mention of what killing the descendants would do and no mention of the avatar and its manifestation.
I do not think anyone even seriously referenced the players status as a descendant until Throne of Bhaal until after the avatar manifests.

CONCLUDE SPOILERS

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I played co-op in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II. The plot doesn't make much sense. Not that we tried to make much sense of it, but whatever, it's an incoherent collection of quests. Diablo was more fun by comparison, for what that's worth.