Reviews from

in the past


I sure do love gathering my party and venturing forth just to be fireballed off screen.

Damn this game holds a special place in my heart. It hasn't aged well at all, but I still find time to play it several times a year.
Playing this before the second was released felt like a revelation in gaming, and the possibilities felt endless. Although the second game improves on everything in almost every way, the first is the one I keep coming back to. It's in my top 5 of all time for a reason!

For me, this game always felt like an extremely long prologue to one of my all-time favorite games (BG2). I love the exploration and sound design, the maps look beautiful and some characters have stayed with me my whole life (even if most of them remain rather superficial). The game absolutely has its flaws (quest design, story isn't mega deep, dungeon design) but I love it dearly and will hopefully play through it many more times :)

It's click to travel and the combat is real time with pause so the combat's bad. I appreciate it, but I'm good.

I grew up with Baldur's Gate 2, but the first one never captured me. With a bunch of mods to expand the characters, round out some of the rough edges (good god were traps handled horribly), add some more variety to classes and itemization, and generally fix bugs, the game is completely alright. It'll never be a favorite of mine, but I do appreciate it these days.


1.5☆ - Can't say much other than it's not really my thing, maybe I'll come back and try harder to learn the game to finish it, but it's pretty overwhelming how much you need to think about and it's easy to forget things.

The Infinity Engine games are the only ones I can best describe as "functional." They work, they don't do anything egregiously bad, but they are oh so boring.

Way back in the summer of 2001 I had a goofy blueberry colored iMac and a lot of time on my hands. A perfect time to play through this gigantic RPG.

Fast forward more than 20 years and I've picked this game up on an iPad, Steam, and even console - and I still love it in all of its clunky glory.

I love this game, the writing is super cute and fun, it was always the part that I liked the most, talking with random npcs and having fun with the stupid stuff they say. On the other hand, the real-time with pause combat was never my favorite thing. I'd rather have the turn-based combat from Fallout. I'm also a hoarder, and this game has tons and tons of spell scrolls and items, so half of my time is always with inventory management.

Классическая классика партийных рпг

admito que a minha intenção quando comecei a jogar baldur's gate era puramente vinda de interesse histórico: eu queria observar de perto o jogo que deu nova vida ao gênero crpg, junto de fallout 1, lançado no ano anterior. eu pensei que ia jogar o comecinho, fazer graça das regras nonsense da segunda edição de dnd e parar logo em seguida. tenho que dar esse mérito pro jogo: ele me grudou de uma forma que eu não esperava. a exploração é engajante, as quests são interessantes e a atmosfera é muito cativante. eu nunca tinha jogado um jogo da bioware antes mas sinto que eu tenho que pelo menos checar algum outro depois desse. mas baldur's gate me agarrou forte, e o fato de que eu posso usar minha bela party na sequência e em siege of dragonspear me deixa bem feliz.

me surpreendeu um pouco o quanto que a história desse jogo tem um viés político bem específico: o uso de xenofobia e panico moral para que uma figura militarista ganhe poder enquanto tenta personificar o mito do "grande homem" que todo protótipo direita-facistóide tenta se escorar é algo que se mantém relevante mesmo 25 anos depois desse jogo ter lançado, e se fosse lançado hoje em dia ou seria recebido pelos adeptos de gamergate como siege of dragonspear foi ou com o cope mais puro já visto na história.

falando em dragonspear eu dei uma cinta de trocar o sexo pro khalid e depois dela ter virado uma garota trans ela ficou insanamente mais forte. claramente não foi coincidência é isso que aconteceu comigo

I think a lot of people have that game from childhood. The one that we immersed ourselves in without really understanding it, stumbling around in the dark but still so enthralled that we weren’t ready to give up. We threw ourselves at the same things over and over again, weathering down the barrier between us and story, experience, and understanding, until only a sharp bond remained - one strong enough that after all this time, it still cleaves through years and cuts to the marrow of childhood fascination. That game for me is Baldur’s Gate.


Sitting in a sea of game materials - a pc game box designed like an ancient tome, a map of the sword coast, a manual that might as well have been written in a different language - I remember installing the game for the first time, and even that seemed like an epic adventure. It’s silly, but an installation that spanned over five discs and several hours was an event. I could not take my eyes away from the drawings on the screen while I sat and stared at the loading bar slowly journeying its way across the bottom of the screen.

I had always wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons, but there was no one to play with. My step-dad had told me stories of his campaigns, epic and funny stories of exploration and fighting grand battles. I remember one in particular was about a wizard who stopped an entire army in their tracks by stopping a catapult through simply holding up his hand and casting a spell. The boulder smashed against the wall of force that he had conjured, but to the opposing army, it just looked like this wizened old man smashed a boulder with the heel of his hand, so they fled. I wanted so badly to partake in stories like this, and Baldur’s Gate was my first chance.

With this wizard in my mind, I rolled up a Mage without understanding how the stats worked, and ventured forth from Candlekeep only to be killed almost instantly. I honestly can’t remember what I died to anymore, but I know that rather than being upset, I just kept making characters. I didn’t really understand the rules. I read the manual, but couldn’t quite figure out everything it was telling me, so I just put it aside and kept playing.

The Sword Coast had swallowed me up and I could not escape. Around every corner was a new adventure - an artist who just wanted to finish his final masterpiece, a troupe of silly monsters that offered me an autograph, a chance encounter with one of the heroes from a book series I loved, a cranky wizard in his tower, and more. I didn’t even care or know what was going on with the main story. I just kept playing because I wanted to experience more of the world and the characters within.

I had been offered freedom in a video game that I had not known at the time, and I think that freedom and richness still holds up today. It’s why I’ve kept playing these games now for over 25 years. Eventually, I did figure out the mechanics. I did learn the story beats. I did save the Sword Coast. There was no definitive moment, but rather just a gradual deepening of understanding over time, which I think is primarily what makes this series so special to me. My progress mirrored the protagonist. At level 1 leaving Candlekeep, they have no idea of what is going on. They are fragile and disoriented, but piece by piece they begin to understand and grow in strength, and by the end of it (and the saga at large) they are ready to take on any challenge thrown at them.

Baldur’s Gate was truly an amazing adventure for me, and remains that way after all this time. I think this is its biggest strength and triumph as a saga. It manages to weave together small vignettes of stories that are rich and interesting through a large overarching plot, allowing every moment to feel grounded and important while still servicing a grand narrative that leads from childishly fleeing in the night out of terror to challenging nations, powerful sorcerers, terrible dragons, and even gods themselves. Humanity and character expression remain the forefront of the writing in Baldur’s Gate regardless of the stakes, which makes these games timeless, and continues to make me fall in love all over again each time I play. I hear those first words, “Nestled atop the cliffs that rise from the Sword Coast, the citadel of Candlekeep," and I'm 10 years old again, ready to begin my adventure.

The new generation will proclaim that this game is dated and boring because it doesn't let you 'Romance' a menagerie of different fetishes, the new generation will proclaim that this game is dated and boring because it's a relic of its time with goofy ass real-time DnD combat, but real money hustlers will recognize that the game is about instilling the value of grinding and rising. Sarevok and your PC are in a race to see who can go harder, move smarter, think wiser, stack more, talk less (or better).

Hard to dislike. It wears its heart on its sleeve, and even if it is a dorky sleeve sewn by a grandmother, can you really hate on that?

After what felt like an hour's worth of tutorials, I walked over to the second town, where a lady teleported into the inn, put my entire party to sleep, and killed me. What?

girl you are trippin 🤣🤣🤣 if yuo are in baldur's gate 1 tutorial area from baldut's gate 1 it means the machine elve s played you!

bro why everyone say this game is game of year man it so boring?

thought I'd pick this up after liking BG3 so much. Then I remembered 1998 computer games are tough as nails 😅 still trying to figure out the game play as my party ganged up on me and killed me when I added a character I didn't know was evil to the group. (honestly the one thing keeping me going is that the voice I picked for my character sounds like a bad Ringo Star impression lol)

I know it's a classic, but man, it really hasn't aged well imo

I put on the ring that makes you dumb within 25 minutes and it was cursed and unequipable. I don't mind though, not really, the game itself is not cursed and very much unequipable.

Game of games tbh. Could play for years and will do with the sequel and expansions

"humble beginnings" is a description that fits both this game and its narrative. baldur's gate perfectly encapsulates the low-level D&D adventures into the video game format. its expansive areas give way to varied combat encounters, but leaves a lot of roleplay to be desired.

A blast of a game fueled by fun writing and an impressive engine. Just wish the game allowed for more role-playing through dialogue. That and more manageable combat mechanics. This one could've been turn-based for sure...

Oh, and the navigation system. Whether it was poor mapping or a funky algorithm, it's just plain hilarious.

Para la epoca genial, hoy dia AD&D es muy arcaico. Las encuentros no tienen la suficiente emocion cuando comparo a una experiencia moderna, lo que me lleva a abandonar


Deeply unpleasant play experience, maybe the story's neat idk

I feel like playing this game's successors ruined this one a little for me. It was enjoyable, but definitely just ok. Excited to try out the expansion and sequel.

Si lo retomo será la versión Enhanced de PC.

Baldur's Gate is, unfortunately, completely obsolete. For reasons other than sheer nostalgia or curiosity, it simply is no longer worth playing. I don't wish to be too harsh on it, as in its day it was the product of quality and purpose, but something must be said of "standing the test of time." Baldur's Gate is of a time when simply being able to play Dungeons and Dragons by oneself, on one's own schedule, with automated combat rolls and more audio-visual happenings than Orthanc or any of the other primordial D&D computerizations was an earth shifting novelty.

For a citizen from far beyond The Year Two Thousand and especially for one who has been lucky enough to actually play D&D consistently with a group that they like, Baldur's Gate is a complete and total slog. The hack and slash brand of tabletop roleplayer that it was made to service is one that has dwindled to virtually nothing, and wasn't exactly huge to begin with. Even for those who still hunt such solo simulations, there are better solutions than D&D, and there are better editions than AD&D. Most importantly, there are far, far better dungeon masters no matter your preferred system of play.

There are a great many things that a good DM will do to ensure a good experience for their group, and Baldur's Gate will do none of these. Baldur's Gate is perfectly happy to fill a dungeon with spiders that cast Web immediately, every single time they enter combat, and then make you sit there and wait until the full duration of the spell expires, even if all of the spiders have been dead for nearly a full minute. At the tabletop, any competent DM would either do something interesting with trapping the party in webs, or they would skip things ahead... because having everyone sit silently for a full minute in between encounters would be fucking annoying, and no one would like it.

It's not just that Baldur's Gate's DM is a cold robot who cares not for fun, it's that he's a pre-teen giga-nerd circa 1995. He assumes that you'll be utterly starstruck when faced with the canon-renowned Elminster: Greatest Wizard, and he thinks that you'll be on the floor in need of stitches when you first encounter his brilliant Noober. The joke is that Noober is annoying, you see. A noob, if you will. The DM will offer you endless fields of bog standard and disinteresting sidequests because he thinks that you are just as excited about the mere opportunity to play Dungeons and Dragons as he is. In its way, that's adorable. Unfortunately it renders most of the game no more than a time capsule... a window into a time where the fact that a computer could perform Dungeons and Dragons for you at all was thrilling enough. It no longer is.

Even if one conveniently ignores the bountiful pastures of subsequent CRPGs that offer more engaging narrative experiences, it is far, FAR more likely that one can now simply play D&D with actual human people. In your Baldur's Gate party, everyone simultaneously won't shut up and never says anything. In the end, from a modern perspective, Baldur's Gate feels like a bad session with a sophomoric DM and a truly lame batch of players, and that's a real shame, because the story does eventually reveal itself as something with great potential. Maybe the sequel can capitalize on it.