RPGWatch - The Nostalgia Files: Baldur's Gate

For me personally, BG re-invigorated my love of RPGs. After not liking Ultima 8, there was quite a gap between it and Ultima 9 and the things I was seeing really made me question (ultimately correctly) if I was going to like U9. I'd already flamed out on MMORPGs after beta testing Ultima Online, so there just didn't seem to be much for me that I would like in the RPG space. It seemed the genre had moved on from my tastes.

I picked up BG just really to tide me over until U9 came out. I was in grad school at the time (plus working), so I figured even if it was bad, I didn't have much time to play anyway. Instead, I was sucked in like no game since Ultima V. I found myself coming home from work for lunch (5 minute drive), just to get half an hour or so more of gaming!

Aubrielle said:

Because they didn't catch hold of popular culture like BG did.

Click to expand...

In other words, not "generic high fantasy" enough .

I don't remember how many CDs came in the box or how long it took to install or the box art at all. What I do remember is a great story with an easily controlled camera, great controls and great combat mechanics. I really liked how every area was hand drawn and every spot had a planned purpose. The game was well balanced and even more importantly, it was fun.

Asdraguuhl said:

Fallout 1&2 were released between Diablo and BG. Why do you discard them as eligible choices for an RPG in that time period?

Click to expand...

I definitely do not discard them! They were excellent! But my keyword was mainstream. Fallout was very popular within its own realm, but you had to be a dedicated gamer to be excited about them. Even with game of the year awards and such, the average gamer coming in off the street had no idea what it was. Unfortunately they were the games that most people past over when you browsed through the software section, while Diablo and BG got the front window.

Caddy said:

I definitely do not discard them! They were excellent! But my keyword was mainstream. Fallout was very popular within its own realm, but you had to be a dedicated gamer to be excited about them. Even with game of the year awards and such, the average gamer coming in off the street had no idea what it was. Unfortunately they were the games that most people past over when you browsed through the software section, while Diablo and BG got the front window.

Click to expand...

OK, "mainstream" being the keyword here.

It is true that commercially speaking, BG was significantly more successful than the Fallouts.

Quite a nice opinion piece, I enjoyed the read and the responses generated.

My little quibble is that late 90s music was not white guitar rappers it was bland boy bands and girl bands who didn't play any instruments at all. White guitar rap wss a very popular trend in the early 1980s highlighting with bands such as madness and squeeze. I was generally irked by the little digs rather than the whole which was a nice read.

On the conclusion i'm not really sure if balders gate heralded a new wave of anything, i'm not aware of a massive choice of balders gate like games but rather as others keep bringing up both the fallout and diablo like experiences do seem to be quite peesistent in there existance since their creation

My2c

Baldur's Gate is something really special to me. It made me a gamer. It made me love RPG. Without BG, I wouldn't be here now. I don't think there will be another game that will have greater impact on me as BG did. Hell, I wouldn't be with my hubby if it wasn't for BG We met on xmas party and we sort of hit off by talking about BG and PS:T. I even lured him out to meet me for the third time using my copy of PS:T as a bait (haha) - I wouldn't have played PS:T if I didn't play BG

I still love BG and I think it is the only game I am playing after almost 15 years and I still see myself playing this game another 15 years down the track. I only wish there will be more game coming out that may have big impact of new generation gamers (and hopefully, older generations like us!)

EDIT: I was talking about BG2 more specifically, but overall I will give credit for BG1 too since without BG2, there would have been BG2

For me the best late '90s game was Fallout 1.

And IMHO BG 2 is an overall much better game than BG 1.

The greater impact on the game scene had later NWN 1 with his countless great mods.

PS:
Diablo is NOT fun, it is a caricature of an RPG, a travesty.

HiddenX said:

For me the best late '90s game was Fallout 1.

And IMHO BG 2 is an overall much better game than BG 1.

The greater impact on the game scene had later NWN 1 with his countless great mods.

PS:
Diablo is NOT fun, it is a caricature of an RPG, a travesty.

Click to expand...

Fun is relative. Diablo was bringing roguelikes to the masses... Prettier but not as deep. I certainly enjoyed it, but mostly to fill in time. Multiplayer was especially fun.

And BG2 was MUCH better, but there would be no BG2 without BG. Or arguably NWN or Dragon Age or even Mass Effect, The Witcher, Torment, Pillars, etc...

Cutely written, but if BG was eye-opening to Gen-Y's it was a nod to what Gen-X loved with their favourite game. And being cool to be a nerd was established with the Internet as GenX'ers traded their McJobs for .Com jobs. I should know, I was square before it was hip (as I told my the drunk former preppy girl at my high school reunion who claimed to be a nerd).

For me this was a blast from the past - a nod to all things RPG and CRPG (Ultima they stated was an influence and so was JA). Yours is an interesting viewpoint.

This is no slow, methodical dungeon hack

Click to expand...

This is what I disagreed with. BG was a turn off for me initially because the characters were slogging so bad. Later Bio would make a tweek for it I found out. I also found all the technicals of the game tedious. There was a lot of right clicking searching to do one thing, and I was never sure what to do.

It wasn't until IWD did I really enjoy the IE games and looked back on BG. I liked it but thought there was too much going on. There was a main plot that was interesting but all the side stuff was distructing and you felt like you were missing out if you didn't play it. Did I replay it? No.

--

Aubrielle, you mentioned the zero fanfare this game got. Do you remember the RPG that was getting all the fanfare? Ultima 9! This time they were going to do it right, after that mess that was Ultima Online.

Lucky Day said:

Aubrielle, you mentioned the zero fanfare this game got.

Click to expand...

Really? Cause I thought I said, "Instead, Baldur's Gate released to massive acclaim". Maybe I misunderstood you. Sorry if I did...

And I meant that it wasn't a dungeon hack in the same way that Dungeon Master was. ^.^ The tile-by-tile, pull a lever, open a gate, step on a tile, evil spikey traps kind of dungeon hack. You know what I mean.

lackblogger said:

My little quibble is that late 90s music was not white guitar rappers it was bland boy bands and girl bands who didn't play any instruments at all. White guitar rap wss a very popular trend in the early 1980s highlighting with bands such as madness and squeeze. I was generally irked by the little digs rather than the whole which was a nice read.

Click to expand...

You must have been one of the guys with pagers. And you must not remember this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J9ayHYClw8

Still, though. I'm delighted you enjoyed it, and whatever response it got from you, good or bad, I'm just happy it reached you.

Nice write up. Really enjoyed reading it. Definitely made me nostalgic for BG and other RPG's of the era. Mission accomplished!

Between you and Couch, the Watch has been an entertaining place to be.

Thanks to both of you.

Cheers.

Dean said:

Nice write up. Really enjoyed reading it. Definitely made me nostalgic for BG and other RPG's of the era. Mission accomplished!

Between you and Couch, the Watch has been an entertaining place to be.

Thanks to both of you.

Cheers.

Click to expand...

And you have made it a more positive, friendly place with your commentary and encouragement! Thank you so much!

Huh? What? Lol? No i've never worn a pager i'bve never worked in insurance I've never been to a county fair and I've never heard of kid rock, lol. I investigated kid rock and he's a republican supporting guy who married pamela anderson... ok ok ok i get why you feel the need to take every opportunity to sideswipe him.

I guess that was my point, i just couldn't relate to your personal 1998 and i sem ro have now becone involved in your personal axe-to-grinds instead of just reading about an rpg. I now have kid rock in my memory banks, thanks for that, lol

From what i can tell on wiki and the like is that the original bg hasn't aged well, it even comes 4th out of five on your own poll of infinity games, but it inspired bioware to create some really great game engines which other devs would use to make more interesting games. In this regard bg is indeed the grand daddy of the modern era in that it was the game that first advertised the bioware engine possibilities, no mean feat and certainly an important historical event, but I'm not entirely convinced about the ehole singular saviour angel as even planescape torment was being made before bg had even been released, for example and although pst had lower sales it certainly left behind a greater cultural heritage than bg

My3c

Please excuse embarrasing typos, i'm on a mobile and i'm not very mobile savvy

Hahaaa. And therein lies the lesson - I personally think that sometimes we can't understand RPG's in a vacuum…sometimes we need cultural context to remember them properly. And I said in the beginning, "come back in time with me.". Not all Tardis rides are pleasant, unfortunately.

And if it makes you feel any better, I've had pieces of that song running through my head for days. It's not pleasant, either.

Baldur's Gate is one of the "Opus crpgs" that I've never been able to finish. The primary reason is that I don't like AD&D much past level eight. The game was built for low level parties and in the early days of AD&D only NPC's were above that level. The secondary reason is that I prefer games that allow me to set the pace and explore at my leisure. BG doesn't excel in either area. I still play it once every three or four years though, as I love the first parts of the game, where it is just me and Imoen. I also play where I make a MP game and roll the whole party except for Imoen.

If someone ask me, what i remember from my gaming life, i will say "you must gather your party before venturing forth"

Am I the only one who found the first Baldur's Gate quite boring ?

Gorath said:

Am I the only one who found the first Baldur's Gate quite boring ?

Click to expand...

It was indeed pretty cliche and formulaic (as was the second installment w/ the added benefits of David Warner and party banter). But, going off memory, this was an age of Doom II, Hexen, Jedi Knight, and other first person games wanting to push the limits of emerging 3D graphics. I think a big part of BG's success lied in how different it was from these contemporaries - it wasn't just another FPS with new weapons/mechanics.

Also, the fact that it was based in the Forgotten Realms and being released on the heels of RA Salvatore's Legacy of the Drow series had some small part to do with it as well.