CMV: Baldur's Gate is a really shit game
So, Baldur's Gate! A classic computer CRPG. It introduced the world to active combat, a staple of MMO's. It brought the beloved Dungeons and Dragons role playing game to your computer screen. Any CRPG fan will recommend you this game.
I fucking hate this game a lot and here's why:
COMBAT
I have nothing against turn based or active combat. Nor do I have any particular complaints to be made against Baldur's Gate's combat. It's a perfect replication of ADnD's combat systems, complete with equipment, classes, spells, and everything you loved from 2e.
No, the real problem with Baldur's Gate's combat is the abundance of it.
Every single problem throughout all of Baldur's Gate leads back to its obsession with combat. The creators of ADnD knew that too much combat meant a boring session: the game would get stale. They intentionally made attacking unreliable, so players would either use spells intelligently, or would seek an alternate solution to problems, or would creatively defeat their enemy before the fight even began. In other words, they encouraged creativity. Later editions would make attacking more consistent, moving the impetus of creativity on to the DM, but that's another discussion.
In Baldur's Gate, there's only ONE path to be taken with combat. Well, 2, but really one. You click on your enemy and hope that you hit your enemy before they hit you. Or you use a spell to asplode them. Your only real choice is to nuke the shit out of your enemy, with no way to cleverly circumvent or protect against them.
The developers didn't even bother to make encounters interesting. Like, when you get to the bottom of the Nashkel mines, you meet Mulaney. You can try and bullshit him to get some stuff, but he attacks you anyway. You can cast silence on him, but he just magically screams through it. No matter what you do, he will always call in a big group of skeletons and kobolds.
And the only thing to do is just hack at them. Once Mulaney falls, you wait for your characters to get lucky and kill all the other enemies. Mulaney himself just casts Hold Person and then whacks at you the whole time. That's boring! There's no strategy to be made here aside from basic spells and attacking!
This focus on combat also disadvantages a LOT of classes. Thieves have become the equivalent of a Pokémon HM slave, and bless you if you try to actually PLAY as one. If you want to play as a Fighter or Mage, this is certainly the game for you, but otherwise, you'd best look elsewhere.
WRITING
Early on, in the Candlekeep area, you might encounter a man who asks your identity. He then attacks you. Ah! you might think, a random event! Then the same thing happens in the same area.
There are no less than ten of these encounters throughout the whole game. They all play out EXACTLY the same. You always know the MOMENT you see them that they're going to attack you. They always ask who you are. You're always given the option of lying. It NEVER, NEVER, NEVER WORKS.
This design philosophy is reflected in the entire game. Alternate paths, alternate solutions, are rare. You'll always follow pretty much the same path every single time you play.
Is that what DnD is about? Is DnD about pottering from one place to another, accomplishing little aside from monotonous combat? Making your character as min-maxed as possible, hoping to survive the constant bullshit the devs throw at you? Never being creative, or going away from the path the devs set you on?
Fuck this game. I haven't even gotten into the real heart of the issues with the game, the obnoxious companions, the constant overpowering enemies in early areas, the unbearable voice lines.
God, I hope BGII is as much of an improvement as they say it is.
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