Baldur's Gate Review
Spoiler-free, if you haven't yet finished the game!
My love of the Forgotten Realms is old news.
Used to buy the books, in the early Nineties, at a pound at time from the stall on Norwich Market. I collected the box sets, played NeverWinter Nights on the PC (think there was a door I could never get past), and both prior Baldur’s Gate games on the PS2. I played NeverWinter all over lockdown, filling my afternoons with the endless fun of its (rather repetitive) quests. And I’ve talked about the film before.
Which brings us to Baldur’s Gate.
Honestly, after all the hype, I struggled at bit at the beginning. But, fuelled by the lore and by my own need for RPG discovery, I stuck with it and fell swiftly in love. It’s laden with familiar legends, with gorgeous artwork, with wonderful and fun encounters, with plenty of classic monsters (love the owlbear), and with great cut scenes (like the mimic, and what an entrance). Plus, it’s very self-aware. It knows its audience and has a definite sense of humour.
Combat-wise, it’s very different to the (albeit faster) ‘mashing x’ style of something like Diablo, or to the classic punch’n’kick combos of the usual fighting games. Instead, it recreates the tabletop D&D system, and pretty flawlessly. It scores definite points for attacks and spells reacting with the environment (look out for things exploding and for electrified water) and it provides some fabulous visuals as to what those little painted figures on your hex-map really do. Likewise, the classic d20 system was in use for the various skill checks, though a little more narrative guidance with these would have been helpful, as it’s sometimes quite difficult to tell which the critical (no pun) ones really are, so you don’t shoot yourself in the foot.
Three things that really stood out, though, and that brought the game to life:
One: the story. It’s so easy for a fantasy game (like NeverWinter) to just be endless repeats of ‘kill six of these, collect eight of those’, round and round and round. This one has a complex, multi-layered forward-driving narrative, with each NPC having a fold-in quest of their own, plus plenty of sides to make sure you explore the areas and rack up those XP. It’s absolutely true to the mythology (duh) and a lovely thing to explore. Plus, you can really role-play your character, picking the dialogue options to steer their choices and personality, and the game will support those choices, whatever Alignment they may be.
Two: the NPCs. Not only strong and interesting characters (and messed up/off-the-wall enough to be exactly the kind of things we’d make up), but with a cast of voice actors that knocked it right out of the dungeon. Neil Newbon’s Award for Astarion (one of a pile that the game won last month) was righteously well-earned, but the characters are all so alive, believable and responsive They deserve nothing but praise (the end scenes nearly broke my heart). We know from our own gaming, from Critical Role and from all those Zoom sessions over lockdown, how magical voice acting can be, how much fun, and how it can really bring a character to life, both for the player/actor and for everyone else. It was wonderful to see (hear) it being done so well.
(As for the possible romances, well, I’m not commenting. Suffice to say they’re fuelling fandom writers and artists everywhere, and what’s wrong with bringing a little brightness to our hellscape reality? I drew the line at shagging bears, having my characters run around naked, and/or dressing them up in some of the more, ah, creative campfire outfits, but an awful lot of people had an awful lot of fun. And what was I saying about the game knowing its audience?)
Anyway, three: it wasn’t out for money. No DLCs, no in-game currency, no two-tier systems, no subscriptions, no constantly trying to screw over the player to buy the thing (one of the reasons I stopped playing NeverWinter, as it just got too shameless to stomach). This was a proper, old-skool, plug-it-and-play game. And maybe it’s my age talking, but that had a magic all of its own.
Not sure I have a criticism (only that I struggled with the maps, but that’s probably just me. as I struggled with them in Skyrim). All in all, it felt like the ultimate Fighting Fantasy CYOA game, and thank the Gods you can still save your progress/keep your finger in the page, because otherwise, my Druidic butt would have been thorough kicked.
But, I got there. I beat the big bad. No spoilers, but my character made their choices to do <redacted> rather than <redacted> at the end, which (of course) means I’ll have to play it through again, just to find out the alternatives.
And that’s its greatest magic: it’s not over. So many other games, when you reach the end, you find there’s nothing more to do (just go down the Diablo dungeons, over and over again). This one still has variations on its theme, and always more to offer.
Like the Realms themselves, to forever keep drawing you back.
Reading; Just starting Pete McLean’s Priest of Crowns. Looking forward to finishing the series, as it’s been ‘Peaky Blinders with swords’ excellent.
Watching: Scott Pilgrim on Netflix, which takes an interesting side-step from the contents of the GNs, though the artwork is very true to style. If you’re not watching it, it’s very good.
Playing: HOW THE FUCK DO I FOLLOW THAT????
(Yes, I will absolutely start it again, but I need my brain to cool down first!)