User Rating: 9.2 | Baldur's Gate PC
Baldurs Gate, well i'll admit when I first played BG1, I didn't gel with it. I loved the D&D universe, and remember the old old school games that TSR released like Eye Of The Beholder, but since those days, I'd gone on to a gaming diet of FF style japanese Rpgs that began with Shining Force on the Megadrive and went through to FF7 on the psone. The last PC rpg I was into was Ultima 7, and I was heavily playing UO. I remember playing BG1 at a friends, and not really getting into and dieing alot, and i didnt like the top down areas, id seen it only in a cave area though and hadnt noticed the attention to detail or the story. Later I got the chance to borrow it of another friend convinced to convert me. After several re attempts at character design and joining the game from the start (this folks is vital, just like any good movie or film, it needs a beginning, middle and end for a rpg to work). I really now rate the overall story in baldurs gate 1 above most of the greatest rpgs ever written. Visually, it was great for its time, but suffers by todays standards, and in a 3D world. Combat can be heavily frustrating when things arent going your way, and you will see a lot of reloading and repetition as you figure out how to tackle each situation the game throws at you, though often clever dialouge can save you entirley or make combat less likely to go against you. There are numerous sub things and by passes to do from the main story, even more so if you get the budget editions including sword coast doing the rounds in the UK.
