Is Baldur's Gate worth playing?

[Lumpy]

I played it a bit, up to Nashkel, failing to find anything good about it.
I've seen the game praised for replacing boring, mindless hack&slashing with plenty of dialogue. However, they forgot to mention that the dialogue is also boring and mindless. Having visited 4 towns so far, I haven't found one interesting character. Party members are a dime a dozen, all equally uninteresting. You can't even talk to them while you have them in your party. Hell, even the zombies in PST were more interesting than these guys.
The quests I've got so far all follow the same template: "<creature> stole my <item> <coordinate> of <town>. Kill them and bring back the <item> for reward." Some are also deliciously stupid: a gnome tells you that ogres stole his short sword, and that he wants it back. Then he steals money every time you talk to him. There's not way to confront him about it, however, in your journal it says that you feel that, if you brought him the item, he would give you the money back.
I'm not far into the story, but if its quality is anything like that of the dialogues, it probably sucks.
Will it get better later on? Does it really deserve #7 in the Codex top 10?

 

[KreideBein]

I was never able to get into BG1. Almost the entire game goes as you described it. It's only good as a real time+pause D&D combat simulator, though it's surpassed in that role by the Icewind Dale games. BG2 was a lot better in my opinion, as the characters were more interesting and better developed (still nowhere near the level of PST), the combat was better (more spells and more interesting enemies), and there was more variety in things to do.

 

[Jack_Deth]

I finally got around to playing and beating it a year ago, I had like you played to Nashkell and did the mine thing the first time through when I bought it originally (day after Christmas, 98). Surprisingly I felt the second half of the game was better than the first, at least in terms of story. Combat stayed just okay, make sure to use your pause button.

Baldur's Gate 2 is the better game for sure, more to do, don't really have to approach the main quest for quite a while if you don't want to. If you have Baldur's Gate 2, I would recommend BGTutu, you play Baldur's Gate 1 with the Baldur's Gate 2 updated Infinity Engine. -- http://www.pocketplane.net/tutu

Slightly overrated games in my opinion when compared to Black Isle's in-house titles but still playable.

 

[bylam]

It was pretty good for the time, considering that there hadn't been a decent DnD game since Darksun.

Torment took BG1 and made a better story.
Icewind Dale took BG1 and improved the combat.

Of all the Infinity Engine games BG1 is surely the poorest, but it did lay the foundation for other, better games.

 

[Atrokkus]

Never tried BG1, and never watned to.


Now BG2 is just one hell of a game, I enjoyed it so much that sometimes I get sudden notions to play it again, though I understand that there's nothing for me to play as I pretty much explored all the nooks and cranies. The story is great, the side-stories are pretty fun too, the characters are well fleshed out. Sure, it's more of an adventure game than a true RPG, but that doesn't make it worse, it's just a different kind of game, very much unlike Fallout, but a gem in its own right. That's what really matters, after all. The graphic style is absolutely wonderful, too -- while ToEE captured the mechanics of DnD, BG2 brought you the mood and feel of the setting.

The only gripe is that PC models (sprites, that is) are somewhat lame, especially in comparison with the unique ones like Irenicus's, which are gorgeous even by today's stanards. The backgrounds (terrain, architecture) are the best I've ever seen in a 2D game, clearly superiour to all other games of its age (only very recently has 3D ingame graphics risen to a level that can outshine the old prerendered backdrops).

 

[Ladonna]

Baldurs gate 1 was actually fairly decent in its day.

You need to go back in time and see what was available at that stage. Fallout had been out for a year or so, it was great and the only game I rushed out to buy on the first day since Ultima 6.

There had been many great games before it that made it look like trash, but RPG's in general were virtually dead until Fallout came out. Baldurs gate was a half decent addition to a small interlude of decent RPG games that largely died after Arcanum finished the run. More importantly, and in a bad way (Not for Bio), it also interested many non RPG fans into trying it out. Welcome to the future....

After Arcanum, the best to be had were hybrid games that built nothing on the premise that Fallout/BG/Arcanum had brought to role playing, and now we live in the tunnel vision cutscene age.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

I agree with Metalix about BG2, while not exactly the pinnacle of RPG Games, it is a great game in its own right.

What I love about BG 2 is how it feels really completed, detailed and massive. Something which has become really rare these days, in times of 12 month development cicles, buggy releases, and the general lack of detail in games.

BG1, I can only say I enjoyed it back in the day. However
a) This was before I even heard of games like Fallout, Planescape or even older classics like Ultima 7.
b) It is a long time ago that I played the game, and I was rather young, so there's a good chance my positive resentements to the game a caused by nostalgia to a big deal.
I thought about firing it up again, but I think I may be hugely dissapointed with it this time, so I rather keep it in good memory.

 

[RK47]

It's a great game for that time, but doesn't age well due to simplistic quests n combat.

 

[Oarfish]

There are some things about BG1 that beat BG2, mainly the fact it takes place at a lower level, which makes D&D combat more interesting. Some spell effects are better modelled too, like summons without caps, making conjuring actually useful.

 

[LCJr.]

I couldn't get into it either.

 

[Atrokkus]

There are some things about BG1 that beat BG2, mainly the fact it takes place at a lower level, which makes D&D combat more interesting

Yeah, like Icewind Dale 1 which combat was great for the same reason.
I really hate it when people sniff at low caps. The progression is the key, not the cap. In IWD2, for instance, level and spell progression wasn't much fun at later stages of the game because you already had most of the juicy spells, while in IWD1 I rembmer salivating lavishly on the Malavon's Rage spell, which wasn't really high-level (6 or 7 i forgot) but was still out of reach for me as my char level was too low. You kinda wanted to get it , and once I got at least one level farther down the road it was SOOO good and I was feeling so powerful, much more so than in NWN1 hotu where spawning time stops was the triflest thing.
That's what's all the "magic being rare and hard" talk is all about, and the low-cap DND CRPGs kind of succeeded in capturing this feel.

But I digress.

 

[EvilManagedCare]

If you keep in mind its shortcomings and take it for what it was, it's enjoyable. I think what helped propel it to the status it got was because it was the first D & D CRPG to come out in a long time. I loved the graphics and 3rd person perspective. At its release the graphics were among the best out there. I still love the hand rendered backgrounds. At the time this game had exactly what I wanted: D&D rules and 3 rd person.

What got very tiresome were the constant respawns, and the sudden treachery of what seemed like every quest giver. You know: "Thanks for returning the item, now you all must die!!11111"

If nothing else, play it so you can transfer your character to BG2.

 

[Kraszu]

I enjoyed BG, it is not as combat heavy as IWD, plot/dialogue is decent at least. City have some better quest, not only fed ex. I also like low level D&D games more then high level.

 

[no]

Along with BG1tutu you should also download Sword Coast Stratagems, which fixes lots of issues with boring encounters, poor combat AI and some other things caused by bad design.

 

[Atrokkus]

Oh, and the strongholds. NWN2 also has it now, but BG2's were better in a way that they were class-specific -- that kinda compensated the lack in thorough economic/sim aspect or whatnot. Besides, not all strongholds needed that aspect in the first place (take druid's grove for example)

 

[Cthulhugoat]

Don't forget Baldurdash. I'm not sure if it works with BGTutu.

BG is good, nothing special, but good. Hardcore cu-, er, gamers will tell you the game is shit.

 

[Texas Red]

Oh, and the strongholds. NWN2 also has it now, but BG2's were better in a way that they were class-specific -- that kinda compensated the lack in thorough economic/sim aspect or whatnot. Besides, not all strongholds needed that aspect in the first place (take druid's grove for example)

The strongholds of BG 2 are rather pointless. A few minor quests and a bit of ridiculously easy for any level combat. Some strongholds are far better than others as well. I *love* the way Biowhore gave druids no attention.

 

[cutterjohn]

Yep. I pre-ordered BG1, picked up tales of the sword coast as soon as it came out, biught the mac version. I never could force myself to finish it though. I'd always quit right after getting to Nashkel.

I just found BG1 and ALL of the other infinity engine games to be extremely overrated even compared to what elese was available back then.

That said, I still haven't finished the OC for either NWN1 or 2 yet, as I've been travelling and generally procrastinating as neither one of those really are thrilling me either... Bland story for NWN1, and a crap load of execution/design problems with NWN2, mainly the extreme number of gratuitous cutscenes, and the ultra shit camera.

Looking back on IE games, I'd have to say that with many of them it was a combination of poor stories and that AWFUL RT w/pause combat system. I don't care for the RT combat systems in Aurora Engine(and later) games either.

 

[denizsi]

BG is enjoyable but it has no fucking place in the top 10 for me. It has some kind of appeal despite the obvious cheesy shallowness. Playing the game for a second or third time is torturous due to boring and stupendous quests and the subtle different outcomes you may gain aren't all that interesting. However, I must admit that I was quite thrilled when it first came out and during my first ~5 hours.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

The game gets better in the second half.

BUT I very much recommend to install LEGENDS OF THE SWORD COAST right from the beginning, because it adds a lot of value to the game, especially Durlac's Tower which is in fact the best dungeon I've seen in a CRPG. Wonderful tragic story interwoven in a challenging, trap-infested, puzzle-heavy gameplay. I really, really love it.

LOTSC also makes the game more difficult in the end, which adds to the satisfaction after the final.

As has been stated before: You should install BGTutu for better overview in combat with higher resolution.

 

[Volourn]

BG is DEAD.

 

[flabbyjack]

BG1 is dated. BG2 is improves the gameplay drastically via UI, dialogue, and content.

Definitely don't miss out on Planescape, it feels more like an interactive novel than a game.

 

[Cthulhugoat]

LEGENDS OF THE SWORD COAST

Wasn't it Tales of the Sword Coast?

 

[Sir_Brennus]

LEGENDS OF THE SWORD COAST

Wasn't it Tales of the Sword Coast?

Yes, it was.

I just made the direct translation from German:

"Legenden der Schwertküste"

 

[denizsi]

Yup, Tales of the.. Brennus is right by the way, the game is better in second half and the expansion brings in some variety (despite the overpowered items).

BG is DEAD.

OH SHIT NO!