"You must gather your party before venturing forth"
Having heard so much good about this game, I was kinda let down by my expectations. It is a cool game, but, unfortunately, while I had a bit of fun, I was also deeply frustrated and mildly bored while playing.
The worst aspect of this game by far is the exploration. Not only your characters walk at a snail's pace, many maps are terribly big and mostly empty. It got to the point I’d Alt+Tab from the game after giving a walking command because it takes that long for you to reach anywhere. The game also doesn’t let you select a location that is obscured by fog of war, so you’ll have to keep slowly moving the camera and clicking to reveal the fog of war.
The pathfinding is also horrendous. Your characters constantly keep getting stuck on each other or on the map. They'll frequently choose the most illogical paths to where you're commanding them.
The fact that some places are infested with traps and only the Thief class can detect and disarm traps is also a bummer, considering how much it limits your party. It is also super boring, having to slowly walk through a dungeon in hopes that the dice roll lets you detect a trap that might not even be there. Honestly, it was faster to just save every 5 steps and just load once a trap is triggered.
The second-worst aspect is the combat. As of any game like this one - where the most important part isn’t your skill, or your knowledge or even your items and levels - the most important thing is your luck. And this game has lots and lots of enemy encounters that revolve around hoping the enemy doesn’t one-shot you immediately. It becomes a save scum fest.
The best strategy in this game is to use the "Horror" spell and make the enemies flee in terror. This can work both ways, so if the enemy uses it first, too bad, you'll have to reload. This and other types of effects also have insane durations, lasting 1 to 3 minutes, making them extremely powerful when you use them and extremely frustrating when used against you.
This, for a Classic Role Playing Game, doesn’t boast many options for role play and the story isn’t that interesting or engaging. Many options in this game boil down to “Yes, I’m a saint” or “No, I’m rude”. And the NPCs even shame you if you’re rude to them. At least, the game does allow you to kill pretty much anyone.
The companions in this game are nice. There is a wide variety and each one of them have their alignment, so you have to consider which of the most align with your play style and if they’ll get along with each other. Unfortunately, managing companions is a bore or straight up frustrating. There is no easy way of exchanging between companions. If you want to try out a new companion, the other one could either stand still where he was let go or move to a specific location… that is still tedious to come back too if you want that companion back.
Overall, Baldur’s Gate 1 is 100% a classic, and, when it was released, I’m sure it was indeed an exceedingly excellent game. But, It has been more than 20 years and this game has aged quite poorly, especially compared to modern CPRGs. I would give this game 2.5/5, but its saving grace is the Story Difficulty. It straight up allows you to beat the game without having to look for loot or level up. Unfortunately, the story and role play aren’t worth it on their own.
Having heard so much good about this game, I was kinda let down by my expectations. It is a cool game, but, unfortunately, while I had a bit of fun, I was also deeply frustrated and mildly bored while playing.
The worst aspect of this game by far is the exploration. Not only your characters walk at a snail's pace, many maps are terribly big and mostly empty. It got to the point I’d Alt+Tab from the game after giving a walking command because it takes that long for you to reach anywhere. The game also doesn’t let you select a location that is obscured by fog of war, so you’ll have to keep slowly moving the camera and clicking to reveal the fog of war.
The pathfinding is also horrendous. Your characters constantly keep getting stuck on each other or on the map. They'll frequently choose the most illogical paths to where you're commanding them.
The fact that some places are infested with traps and only the Thief class can detect and disarm traps is also a bummer, considering how much it limits your party. It is also super boring, having to slowly walk through a dungeon in hopes that the dice roll lets you detect a trap that might not even be there. Honestly, it was faster to just save every 5 steps and just load once a trap is triggered.
The second-worst aspect is the combat. As of any game like this one - where the most important part isn’t your skill, or your knowledge or even your items and levels - the most important thing is your luck. And this game has lots and lots of enemy encounters that revolve around hoping the enemy doesn’t one-shot you immediately. It becomes a save scum fest.
The best strategy in this game is to use the "Horror" spell and make the enemies flee in terror. This can work both ways, so if the enemy uses it first, too bad, you'll have to reload. This and other types of effects also have insane durations, lasting 1 to 3 minutes, making them extremely powerful when you use them and extremely frustrating when used against you.
This, for a Classic Role Playing Game, doesn’t boast many options for role play and the story isn’t that interesting or engaging. Many options in this game boil down to “Yes, I’m a saint” or “No, I’m rude”. And the NPCs even shame you if you’re rude to them. At least, the game does allow you to kill pretty much anyone.
The companions in this game are nice. There is a wide variety and each one of them have their alignment, so you have to consider which of the most align with your play style and if they’ll get along with each other. Unfortunately, managing companions is a bore or straight up frustrating. There is no easy way of exchanging between companions. If you want to try out a new companion, the other one could either stand still where he was let go or move to a specific location… that is still tedious to come back too if you want that companion back.
Overall, Baldur’s Gate 1 is 100% a classic, and, when it was released, I’m sure it was indeed an exceedingly excellent game. But, It has been more than 20 years and this game has aged quite poorly, especially compared to modern CPRGs. I would give this game 2.5/5, but its saving grace is the Story Difficulty. It straight up allows you to beat the game without having to look for loot or level up. Unfortunately, the story and role play aren’t worth it on their own.