Go For The Eyes Boo, Go For The Eyes! (Baldur's Gate (PC))

Member Name: Guile176

Product:	Baldur's Gate (PC)
Date:	24/04/03 (2069 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amazing gameplay, Story

Disadvantages: Annoying disk swapping

To be honest, I haven't really been into PC games at all over the
years. Sure I loved games like Tie Fighter and Chaos Gate, but the PC
just couldn't excite me like a console did. It wasn't really until
about 2 years back, when I bought Red Alert 2 and Diablo 2, that the PC drew
my interest for gaming. Those 2 games drew me in to a realm of
gaming, that I had been missing out on for years. Since then, my interest
in PC gaming has peaked, and im beginning to play many great games I
had missed out on in the past. One of those titles is an RPG by the
name of Baldurs's Gate.

The first time I saw Baldurs's Gate was about 3 years back, when I was at my
friends house. Every time i'd go over, he'd be playing it. He used to
tell me how it was one of the best game he ever played. It looked
pretty cool and all, but it still really didn't interest me much. I
was going to wait for the console version on it on the Dreamcast.
Unfortunately, that game never materialized, and two summers I finally
broke down, and bought the PC version. Damn, I should have bought this
game sooner.

In case your not familiar, Baldurs's Gate is an official Dungeons
and Dragons game. Yep, the same Dungeons and Dragons countless people
have been playing with pen and paper for years. Now, I cant say i've
had much experience with the old pen and paper version, but from what
I understand, this is the best representation of D & D in a game yet.


You first start out Baldurs's Gate by making your character. You can
choose a male or female, choose a chara
cter portrait, race, roll
dice for stats, choose your alignment, choose weapon proficiencies,
and finally choose a character class. Classes are all strait from D
& D as well. Here you get your usual assortment of classes, including
fighters, paladins, mages, clerics and thieves. You can also go duel
class as well. My personal favorite is the paladin class. Paladins
are superior at hand to hand combat, can use pretty much any weapon
or armor and can also gain cleric spells as well. A good thief is
also a must in any party. You'll find their Hide in Shadows, lock
picking and trap disarming extremely useful.

Once you start the game, you begin in a small town called Candlekeep.
Candlekeep is mainly a training area. In it, you'll find a
number of robed men, which will give you tips and advice of playing
the game. There is also a training area to get yourself accustomed
to team combat, as well a few side quest. Once you meet up with your
characters stepfather and leave town, then the real action begins and
the massive story begins to unfold. Your character has some kind of
importance, and for some reason many are trying to kill him. In your
journeys you'll not only discover who you are but many other secrets
as well. I wont go anymore into the story then that. Its been a long
time since i've played an RPG where I cared about the storyline this
much, so I wont ruin it for anyone.

Baldurs's Gate is a very open ended game. You are given a very good
sense of freedom in everything, unlike anything i've ever seen in an
RPG. Think sort of like t
he freedom of games like Might and Magic,
except much better implemented. The story in Baldur's Gate just
seems to flow along with the games openness in a way I cant really
describe. You really have to play through it, to see what I mean.

Every new town or area, has their own unique quest or challenges.
Some may affect your characters in positive or negative ways. For
example, you may run across a guy in a town who thinks your someone
else. He may offer you an item. Take the item and play along and you
will gain the item. Be honest with the guy, and you may earn a
reputation bonus and some experience. Other instances have you with
people asking you to assist them in killing a foe, or retrieving a
lost item for them. What you do is entirely up to you. Just be
careful though, as some bad choices may cost you a few reputation
points. And unless your character is evil, then a bad rep is something
you don't want.

Party gathering is entirely up to you. In your travels you'll meet
many faces. Some offer to join you while others need to be talked to
in the right way. Also, unlike most PC RPGs i've played, these
characters have personality. My favorite 2 are the thief Imoen and
the ranger Minsc. Imoen has this irritating, yet likable flair to
her. Just make sure you save before you try stealing something with
her. Get caught, and the guards may come rushing in. Minsc on the
other hand, is a very colorful character indeed. He has a pet hamster
named Boo, which he believes is from outer space. Wacky stuff, but all
set in a serious believable tone. r>
Combat itself is very well done. Its all based in real time and is
pretty frustrating until you get used to it. For the most part,
you'll find yourself using your thief's Hide in Shadows ability to
scout out an area. If you should happen to find some enemies, its
best to try and lure out as few as possible and then gang up on
them. Some of these enemies can be pretty tough, and will kill you in
a single hit if your not careful. Make sure you save as often as
possible. Another bit of advice on the combat is to frequently pause
it so you can have time to direct your characters. This will make
combat much easier.

Also, another thing to keep in mind if your not familiar with
Dungeons and Dragons is the magic. Unlike most RPGs, you don't have
spell points or learn new spells as you advance levels. Instead you
must memorize spells and use spell scroll. Using a spell scroll will
write the spell to your Priest Scroll or Mage Book. Once its
memorize you can equip it by setting it in an open spell slot. As
magic users advance levels they will be able to use more lower level
spells and gain the ability to use higher level spells. Another
thing is that once you use up your set spells you must have your
party rest to gain them back. It all sounds a little confusing if
you never played an RPG with this system but you get used to it.

Another thing which may bother those who have lived off console RPGs,
is the leveling up. Characters in Baldurs's Gate have an experience
cap, and can only reach up to level 7. I believe you can go up to 2

levels higher, with the "Tales of the Sword Coast" expansion. The 7th
level max may sound a little low but its not really. Level gaining
is much more drastic then most games with level 100 max. By the time
your at level 7, you'll be extremely powerful. Still though, you need
to be careful in combat as a well placed critical hit by a strong
foe, can still kill you.

Baldurs's Gate also features an online multiplayer mode. For the
life of me I have no clue how to work it. My lack of online
experience with games, really shows here. From what I understand
though, its pretty much the same as the solo experience with the
exception you control only your character. If anyone could help me
with getting an online game set up the right way in this please
leave comment or mail me.

My one and only serious complaint about the game, is the disk
swapping. The game consist of 5 disk, which must constantly be
swapped when you enter new areas or return to old ones. Still though
since the rest of the game is so damn good, I can overlook this.





Graphics 9: Incredible. You'll see no 3D gimmicks here. Baldurs's
Gate is pure 2D goodness. The environments are all viewed via and
overhead perspective, and look exceptionally detail. You'll see birds
flying around, The weather will change from clear skies to rainy,
day will eventually become night. Characters are also very well done.
They animate fairly well but occasionally become a little choppy at
times. Nothing that really takes away from the game though.

Another
feature I like is how you can change the colors of your
characters at anytime. New weapons and armor can change the look of
your character as well which I think is very cool. I hate it when in
games I buy a new piece of armor or weapon and my character looks no
different then they did before I equipped it.


Sound 10: The sound is nothing short of spectacular. The music has
an epic movie sounding feel to it, that fits the action perfectly.
Sound effects are very sharp and clear.

My favorite part of the sound however, is the character voices. They
all perfectly acted and add so much personality to each of them.
Characters also carry out conversations while walking as well. Not
much variety in these those and they tend to repeat a little too
much. Again my favorites are Imoen and Minsc. Click on Imoen and she
may say something like "Whatcha Want" or "Hmmp, Your a queer fellow."
Tell her to attack and she may say something like "I've done had
enough of this." She's just too cool. As for Minsc I just love it
when you direct him to attack and he shouts "Go for the eyes Boo! Go
for the eyes." These voices are just too cool.


Control 9: The control, like most PC games is all point and click. Select
your character either by clicking on them or their portrait and
simply click where you want them to go. You can also drag the cursor
to make a box to select a group of characters. Spells are used
simply by clicking the spell box on the bottom bar and selecting the
spell. You'll definitely want to pause the action before u
sing magic
though. My one gripe however is that like 10% of the time you set up
a magic you it seems to cancel out and you have to go set it again.
Its nothing major but enough to annoy me abit.


Overall, I would highly recommend Baldurs's Gate to anyone that's
into Dungeons and Dragons or RPGs. If your a console freak that
refuses to play anything but Final Fantasy type games then you may
not care much for this. Still though I urge anyone who ever remotely
likes RPGs to at least try this. Baldurs's Gate is indeed not only
one of the best RPGs of all time, but one of the greatest games ever.
Its simply that good and shouldn't be missed. You can pick this up
for around $20 or less now so there's really no excuse not to try
it.