Why do you love Baldurs Gate?

rogueace

This question is just to here to help excite you all, as we count down to EE, personally I love the immersion it gives you, in my head I play the game out like a book, but as such when the party get hammered and die, I have to bend my head and think of a way they some how survived and then reload the save game.

Quartz

It plays very well. 2nd edition AD&D rules are fantastic. The isometric view is great. I've always been a fan of pre-rendered graphics. The plot is just awesome and super compelling. I like trying different configurations of parties, and different PCs all the time.

Zafiro

For Baldur's Gate loves you back.

raywind

Because i have played it around 50times or more and still seem to find something new in it.

Anduine

I love the storyline, the return to AD&D 2.0, the immersion, and the feel of playing a real game and that I'm actually doing something and making a difference in the game. Not like today's games where you just play capture the flag for the gloury of your faction, and your enemies just respawn with infinite lives.

You have the power to change the world. You get items that have significance. The music is a thing of wonder. I love Baldur's Gate, and I will be continuing to play it on-and-off until I die.

shawne

Great story, entertaining characters, large and diverse game world...

Permidion_Stark

When I first played I couldn't believe that they had managed to make a computer game that actually felt like playing D&D. And it looks great. I think the wilderness areas in particular are beautifully done. I enjoy walking through them with the birds singing or hearing the waves breaking on the shore (even though I know that there are carrion crawlers and sirines just around the corner, both of which can spoil a pleasant walk in the country)

elminster

It was the first RPG I ever remember playing. It offered many different class options, and the few hours I got to play the games on the computer each day I cherished as a kid. So it was a game that for me provided memorable adventures, different options for gameplay, and a long enough time for playthough that you wouldn't get bored of it easily if you only got to play it at best a few hours a day.

Today I play it because Dragon age sucked (I've not tried two though I hear even worse things), Skyrim was very immersive but its quests and ending were terrible, and basically other than the Witcher I've been unimpressed with the RPG genre. Especially the successor games to the BG series (including IWD2 which I hated despite liking IWD1 a lot).

pablo200783

First my rpg game and the best, BG have good story, playability, long play time, give many solutions and ways for play. I was never bored play on BG.

Gaara

FREEEEEEEEEEDDDDOOOMMMMMM
-that s why

Dannen6272

It was the first RPG that really grabbed me. I remember people praising Final Fantasy 7, but I just can't stand JRPGs, so I thought I'd try BG. IMO no other game to date has matched the BG series in terms of the eligance of the controls and interface, the faithful rendition of DnD, the tactical style of combat allowed by the isometric view, not to mention the great story and shear amount of content, and all the great mods that have come out over the years. This is the pinnacle of the western RPG, and to top it all off the story and characters remain good throughout and the ending of the game is plenty satisfying.

I'll admit, I had hoped to retire BG with one of the new RPG series that Bioware and others have made. DA:O was good, DA2 was crap so that series wasn't going to work. ME and ME2 were amazing, then ME3 came along and was such a rushed mess with the worst ending I've ever seen that I couldn't use that series. The Witcher and Witcher 2 are both excellent, but I don't really see the replay value quite the same as BG. Skyrim annoys me because of the terrible combat, bad physics, and the fact that nothing you do seems to have any impact on the world or anyone in it (you become the archmage and no one seems to notice, for example). Also, I would have liked another KOTOR game, I actually thought the first 2 were pretty good, but instead we got an MMO.

The short version is, no other game series has managed to match the simple elegance of the BG series, and the way things seem to be going I'm starting to wonder if they ever will.

Gaara

+ I remember when I was a kid (19 now) & I used to watch my older brother play BG (god I got pissed when dialogs came on XD -didnt know english that well) , one of my favorite childhood memories ... by the time I first started playing I ve already seen it thro 6 or 7 times ... ah brings out nostalgia

elminster

@Dannen6572 ugh you mentioned becoming archmage in Skyrim. That quest line was the biggest disappointment to me next to the main one. The fact that no one noticed that I was archmage was surprising, but considering Windhelm was like "whatever" to me being a dark elf I paid it no heed

selous_scout

If you immerse yourself in the world of the game(s); use some imagination; follow what happens in your minds eye, and, make every step of the journey slow and considered it becomes the ultimate role playing experience. An infinitely rewarding, beautifully realised universe. Aptly named is the Infinity Engine.

The beautiful artwork, excellent music and voice acting, accomplished writing, sublime ruleset and vast length of the game(s) dont hurt either.

Kerozevok

I dislike Baldur's Gate, because since I discovered this damned game, the other games seem to me unattractive. I hate Baldur's Gate !!

O_Bruce

Baldur's Gate is just very fun. That what matters for hedonistic gamer like me.

immagikman

Because.

Cheesebelly

Because - you're a junkie that went out of an expensive library only to see your foster father be slayed by a giant armored guy, to then discover that some bounty hunters are after you, and that the iron on the coastline is getting tainted by a guy who's the insubordinate of a messenger of a guy who's the leader of the bandits and happens to be the puppet of a guy that works on a hidden iron source which is of course the puppet of a guy that leads a BRANCH of a big bad company, who has a foster son that happens to be your (godly) brother that want's to kill you and that killed your very own foster father and kills his OWN foster father if you decided not to kill him as he wants to take power over the city of Baldur's Gate to get into a bloody war against Amn to then become the new lord of Murder, who happens to be his, yours and IMOEN's father.

Good enough?

NWN_babaYaga

It was such an experience i never had before with a RPG. It came close to my monkey island feeling i had back on the amiga;)

Kholdstare

It was the first RPG to make me think about strategy. I LOVE the world-class voice acting talent for the characters that are also written to be incredibly believable in the scope of their universe. I love how you basically get a tour of the Swords Coast and several other places. Also, Haer'Dalis is dead sexy. Just sayin'.

mch202

What not to love??? :-0


For me, Mainly the Atmosphere that I have never encountered in any other game. The wilderness exploration along with awesome music, towns, taverns, middle age style - all of this properties got me hooked.

And of course - replayability. I dont know how many games have the replayability of Baldurs Gate, most of the games once I finish them I uninstall and never touch them again.

StrangeCat

when I played it BG 12 years ago I remember having two evil characters in my game that would argue with my good characters. One of them would Yell "and the River Runs Red" in battle, that was way cool! I loved the arguing. I loved it when we finally drew swords in that arguing and the evil guys died. It really was a prelude to BG2 in terms of characterization and story telling. Not sure if I really loved the game though. I only played it once. BG2 with Throne of Bhall I played with full mod customization and everything 4 times.

Tr_ond

Everything, the looks, the sound, the feeling of exploring a big vibrantly alive world
where choices matter and actions have consequences.
Nervously poking around all of every map to find encounters of every description while
being entertained by well written companions.
It`s easy to feel the love that went into making this fantastic game.

ajwz

I love it because I love roleplaying in fantasy worlds, I love strategic planning, and for me roleplaying is more enjoyable on a computer than in real life because combat and statistics are all calculated instantly and unerringly behind the scenes, and you do not have to look to a DM who wll inevitably unconciously adhere to behaviors and tropes that the strategist in me will try to pick up on and exploit.

ShapiroKeatsDarkMage

Because it feels like an actual Role Playing Game unlike some mainstream games. Cough,Final Fantasy, cough.

StrangeCat

ShapiroKeatsDarkMage said:

Because it feels like an actual Role Playing Game unlike some mainstream games. Cough,Final Fantasy, cough.

That's a retarded statement. That would create pages and pages of arguments....I won't go there^_-

Munin

Great distraction at a particularly tough time in my life. I may owe my sanity, whatever is left of it anyway, to this game. I might not even still be here without this game. It will always be special to me.

Tr_ond

@Munin Then let`s hope they keep making them I would not have leveled out of my teens without cRPG`s and the novels that came with them.

wissenschaft

I love BG because it doesn't hold your hand. Its easy once you know what your doing but when your a newbie its really hard. It doesn't hold your hand at all and that great because I was as bewildered as I imagine my character would be in game. Encountering a new monster was always scary and more so when you start at pitiful lvl 1.

Metal_Hurlant

Having played 2nd ED in the early 90s, Baldurs Gate was the first time I was able to visualise and recreate what I always imagined in PnP. It was if the developers had pulled what was in my mind and put it in a computer game. But the dev's didn't stop there.

They were able to take what was in my mind and added stunning visuals, gameplay mechanics with spells, voice overs, sound, humour, memorable characters, exploration, and different combinations of how to complete quests, or gave you the option to not complete side quests at all.

The game didn't hold your hand and force you to follow each door, waypoint, quest (eg. Diablo 3) but you could do nearly any quest in any order you wanted. You could stick to the main story line or decide to go off and do something else. You also had good and evil options as well. I believe it's one of those games that will be a milestone in gaming history.

Sed

@StrangeCat
You most likely had Xzar and Montaron and then picked up Khalid and Jaheira, who usually end up fighting ;-)

It's Xzar who shouts "Let the rivers run red!"