Written 11.11.2010 - Uploaded 13.11.2010
Baldur's Gate Trilogy was one hell of a long project for me to play through. It's a fan-created mod that combines together both games in the Baldur's Gate series and the Throne of Bhaal expansion (hence, trilogy). The entire thing runs on the far superior Baldur's Gate II engine. I guess most people are familiar with the series, the name at least. Baldur's Gate is a legendary fantasy roleplaying series by BioWare (you know, the guys who keep pushing out awesome RPGs). It's based on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons second edition rules, in the Forgotten Realms setting. So it's basic fantasy to the core. This review covers both games, although technically my experience of Baldur's Gate I is not perfect because I was playing it with the newer engine. I have actually only played Baldur's Gate II before this playthrough of BGT so the first game and Bhaal were totally new to me.
BGT is one epic task to play. Both games in the series are long, especially if you are inclined to go through over 90 percent of all the sidequests. That's what I did. Seeing your character grow from level 1 weakling to level 40 or 50 demigod can only be highly satisfying especially because with AD&D 2nd edition rules you will really feel the difference. The whole process took me probably well over one hundred hours. In real time that translated to half a year. Those are just some numbers to think about while I cover rest of the subject. Oh and for the record, I did install some additional mods that affected my playthrough somewhat. Probably the most notable change was installing fan-written dialog packs to get more banter out of the NPCs in the game.
In the beginning of such a gigantic gaming experience lies great difficulty: creating a character. When you know you will be playing that one character for a really long time, options need to be weighed carefully. And options there are! All the races, classes and kits combined, the space of possibility expands to hundreds of combinations and too many of them are interesting. It is a big choice to make and something I would like to face more often. As I am still in exile from modern PC RPGs, I must rely on hearsay, but it tells me that the days of such character creation are pretty much over. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, I know the system and was armed with knowledge to create a character that would not make my life hell. I chose to play a lawful neutral monk and decided to roleplay that character as much as possible. Well, almost. I have a bad habit of optimizing things, so sometimes I just made choices that would lead to better rewards.
Storywise BGT actually does not have as much content as one might expect. Sure, the story is good, but there is not that much of it. Actually I feel storytelling in the game was at its best during the first game. It has a solid structure, whereas II kind of breaks down for a long time. Bhaal has a strong story again, as is fitting for the ending of an epic saga. I'm not big for dropping spoilers, so let's just say that if game mechanically the main character goes from a weak apprentice to a demigod, the story follows suit. While main story content is focused on the protagonist, there are a lot of side stories which are linked to non-player characters in the game. These are in fact often more entertaining than the main story as they involve characters you have deliberately chosen to be your companions. It also ensures that there is enough content for another playthrough or two. After playing the game with a goody good party and an evil party I think most paths have been covered. I have yet to do evil. But overall, I think the main story was a bit of a disappointment after playing Planescape: Torment (hardly a surprise though). Then again, character involvement was much better.
While there sure is a lot of (good) dialog to read, the magic of BGT does lie more in its game mechanics than anywhere else. Battles are fought in what looks like real-time. Actually the game just runs AD&D rounds constantly at the background so it is strictly turn-based on the inside. As we know, turn-based is a good thing. You're allowed to pause anytime to think and give orders. While the interface could be better, the pausing option helps a lot. The game itself is played from an isometric view, and is largely mouse-controlled with a good deal of keyboard shortcuts. The interface is not unlike a real-time strategy game, and it was quite innovative at the time it of Baldur's Gate I release. Most importantly, it works. Battles in BGT actually require tactics and most character abilities will be put to good use. I found BG I part to be especially difficult - this is mostly due to the fact that low level characters in AD&D are quite weak. Towards the end of Baldur's Gate II and Throne of Bhaal, the game does fall victim to the common option abundance problem, and becomes easier. Still, Throne of Bhaal puts up quite a fight.
Fighting against physical fighters is usually quite straight-forward. Things tend to get hairy when magic users, clerics, thieves and monsters with lots of immunities get involved. Mages in AD&D are really powerful. Especially on high levels (and that's why the game breaks there). A strong fighter can kill many things with a couple of hits, but mages can screw up your entire party with just one spell - if they have time to cast it. Clerics can do the same. Thieves can just sneak around your fighters and stab your spellcasters. Naturally, you as the player are attempting to do the same to your enemies. Finding proper tactics to a seemingly impossible fight is often delightful. Unless you are really really horribly under-leveled, there is almost always a way through - you just need to figure it out. Sure, there are a lot of not-so-epic encounters in the course of the trilogy, and sometimes they do get a bit boring but usually they go by rather quickly. Plus, there is always experience to be gained.
As I mentioned in the beginning, this game relies a lot on character development. Since AD&D is basically a dungeon crawling role-playing game, it excels in character development. That's what it takes to keep dungeon crawling interesting. Development in BGT has a lot of options. Starting with the choice of character discussed earlier. A lot of the classes are really different to play and their power goes up in different ways. Then there's the party as well, so instead of developing just one character you get to develop a combination of up to six. Coming up with a strong party composition helps, although it matters far less after getting through the Baldur's Gate I part. It is quite possible to make it through Baldur's Gate II with just one character. Could be possible for part I as well. Even though highly optimal development is not necessary, it still is highly addictive. Especially on the first play-through, when you don't know every magic item in the game. Finding something surprising that pushes development forward is rewarding.
BGT is strong in pretty much all fronts. To summarize the above: The game captures the spirit of your usual fantasy novels quite well with a huge cast of interesting characters to choose from. Every non-player character in the game has their own story, and they banter with each other as well. This makes them way more than just helpers with stats. Combat is usually tough enough so that good cooperation between party members is needed. Character advancement is highly interesting, especially if you consider the change of scale from the beginning to the end. The number of options for character creation also makes sure you'll want to play again. In part I especially, exploration has a large role as the world is quite huge with lots of open space areas. Most importantly, exploration is worth the trouble. There are always new challenges and rewards to be found. The game just has a lot of things to do.
Of course, there is the bad: Sure, the game has lots of interesting characters and they have quite huge amounts of dialog. Then again, the game is really long, and eventually they'll run out of things to say. The conversation was sometimes a bit buggy as well. NPCs might start to banter mid-combat and time stops while the chatting goes on. From what I've read, this is not supposed to happen but it most certainly did. Combat is tough, but the game has a bit too many tricks that can make it really easy, if abused. I chose to mainly ignore the abuse options - partly because I felt them to be unfair, partly because they are a bit fiddly. I don't like fiddly, especially in long games like this one. The game also breaks down on higher levels. My main character was 100% resistant to magic, really hard to hit and an even harder hitter. Exploration dies down after part I and II is more focused on various dungeons. Unfortunately, the game engine works much better in open areas.
BGT as an experience is highly dependent on how you choose to play it. Many of the flaws are ignorable. Some are even fixable by fan-created mods and smaller fixes. Like I said, I played with fan-written banter packs to get more dialog to the game. I felt they were really well written most of the time. Usually I wasn't able to tell for certain which piece of dialog was originally in the game and which was fan-created. I deliberately chose to play with fairly limited gameplay changes. The game's popularity makes sure that should you want to change the game more radically, the mods are most likely already available. One mod I might try next time around is one that makes the enemy AI better, resulting in more tactical combat. I just don't know when I'll have the time to play through this behemoth again. For anyone not familiar with the series yet: play it! Preferably with the BGT mod to get the whole experience.