Baldur's Gate - Retrospective

Myrthos

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Indian Noob is looking back to Baldur's Gate in a retrospective article about the game.

It’s hard to talk about the history of computer role playing games without paying tribute to Baldur’s Gate. I could go on and on about how it revolutionized the facet of rpgs, but where’s the fun in that? So before I begin my weekly rambling, let’s go back and witness the conception of Baldur’s Gate.

Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk once had this brilliant idea while they were having lunch last century. “Why don’t we form a game developing studio?” And that was pretty much it. Medicine became more of a hobby for them. The now legendary Canadian studio Bioware was thus formed. See guys? All it takes is one random idea…more or less….mostly more. They formed the company in 1995 and had been going a long time. It was pretty much five years of operating Bioware before people who knew they were. They ended up sending out their first game Shattered Steel to ten publishers. Of those publishers, only one is still in business- EA. Baldur’s Gate was originally called Battleground Infinity; it was going to be an MMO about a pantheon of different mythologies. BG was one of the first games that was a Windows direct application. If memory serves me right, DirectX 3 was like crazy advanced at the time.

Publisher Interplay held the Dungeons and Dragons license, so what they provided was converting the engine to Dungeons and Dragons instead. The top-down camera of BG was inspired by Richard Garriott’s Ultima games. Wasteland was a major influence on Baldur’s Gate, particularly its design philosophy of having more than one possible method to achieve each goal. The development of BG began when role playing games were dead in Norh America. In Dr. Zeschuk’s words; “People would kind of scoff when you said you were making one.” Contrary to popular publisher advice, Bioware was ready to invest time and money developing rpgs. The concept of Bioware’s 4 pillars (combat, exploration, progression, and story) was used first for BG. Among the 60 people on the team, no-one had ever made a videogame before. But they had passion and the love. Interplay’s motto was “by gamers, for gamers“. It was a publishing and distribution company run by a developer. Interplay CEO Brian Fargo helped immensely during the production of BG. Dr Muzyka believes that the game was successful because of the collaboration with Interplay.​
More information.
 
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Nice to see the article you wrote make itself to RPG watch :) Sadly my EE has been buggier than usual while attempting to do another playthrough to get more info to add to the article.
 
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BG was the right game at the right time. It filled a huge vacuum.
 
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Just going off the blurb in the quote, I haven't read the full article, it seems a little inaccurate. Unless I'm mistaken, the original use of the infinity engine was supposed to be used for an RTS, not an MMO. Also, it's a little disingenuous to claim that BG had multiple ways to solve problems/quests. Don't get me wrong, I love BG but the only options are usually going to be the different ways to kill the bad guy.
 
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Nice to see the article you wrote make itself to RPG watch :) Sadly my EE has been buggier than usual while attempting to do another playthrough to get more info to add to the article.

Play the original please.
 
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Play the original please.

This article is based on the original release. Sadly I don't have the og game anymore and I believe it's been removed from gog as well
 
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Just going off the blurb in the quote, I haven't read the full article, it seems a little inaccurate. Unless I'm mistaken, the original use of the infinity engine was supposed to be used for an RTS, not an MMO. Also, it's a little disingenuous to claim that BG had multiple ways to solve problems/quests. Don't get me wrong, I love BG but the only options are usually going to be the different ways to kill the bad guy.

That information about the mmo is taken directly from an interview with Ray Muzyka done by RPS. The multiple paths aspects was in the design document, but it doesn't seem to be implemented in a way you'd expect in the final game.
 
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This article is based on the original release. Sadly I don't have the og game anymore and I believe it's been removed from gog as well

If you purchase EE from GoG, original version comes with it (email will be sent with purchase code for the original).
 
If you purchase EE from GoG, original version comes with it (email will be sent with purchase code for the original).

Corrected that part in the article. Thank you.
 
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I never played BG 1 and its expansion Tales of Sword Coast. I started rigth in to BG 2 and ToB, which I finished them both. I'll surely play the first one, someday....
 
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Absolutely loved it at the time. Many a happy late night creeping about in ruined temples and wizard's towers.

One of elements that I think was really strong was the sound design. Between the music and the environmental effects, I found it really transporting. When it started to get dark and the rain set in, it would make me want to put the fire on.
 
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Finished BG and TotSC multiple times.. there is just something about low level adventures.
Dorn's Deep?? That was a real dungeon.
Did not like the werewolf island so much.
Remember when Minsc went crazy and killed Edwin? Good times.
Met a dark elf named Drizzt D'Orden. Couldnt kill him the first time. Found another dark elf about to be burnt alive ... she joined us.
And Sarevok? Sarevok was too much... but you cant choose your family. Alas..
Would play again.

// The first forum I joined on old interplay boards. BIS forums. Then I found out about Fallout and Planescape Torment.. ,
 
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Finished BG and TotSC multiple times.. there is just something about low level adventures.
Dorn's Deep?? That was a real dungeon.

Dorn's Deep is from Icewind Dale. Were you thinking of Durlag's Tower? :)

That's still one of my favorite dungeons from any crpg.
 
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Dorn's Deep is from Icewind Dale. Were you thinking of Durlag's Tower? :)

That's still one of my favorite dungeons from any crpg.

Ah. Yes. You are correct. Durlag's Tower.
 
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