This game is really fun if you have friends to play it with, and drops down a full star point as a solo experience.
In terms of theme, it's below average early 2000's fantasy. The character designs are sexualized in a way that's more insulting than titillating, or they're just ugly bread-fed knife eared nerds. The plot exists and if it's engaging to you, then you're a happier person than I am. For the time that it was released, I think that they did a decent job in terms of bringing these characters into a 3d world. They just didn't have great direction. I also can't remember any of the music in the game.
This game felt incomplete or rushed in some places. The lack of sidequests in the second area was conspicuous, and a lot of the hacking and slashing takes place in long hallways without much to interact with outside of an occasional switch or trap.
What saves it is that as a co-op game, it rules. In many ways, it feels like it was built for co-op and single player felt like a mandatory inclusion. Weight restrictions feel awful in single player, but sharing an inventory between two people feels much better. Class design/balance isn't great on its own. For example, a solo playthrough with the archer class is awful because your character doesn't have enough speed, even with feats/upgrades to kite any enemy in the game. But, if you have someone else standing in front of you, you can sit there and turret down a mook without having to chug potions. Even just having someone to talk to during the huge, relatively empty hallways makes going through this 10 hour game feel its length, and not double.
This is an unnecessary addition to the Baldur's Gate "canon", but if you've played Gauntlet: Dark Legacy for the billionth time and are restricted to one of the many consoles this game was ported to, it's still a fun time.
In terms of theme, it's below average early 2000's fantasy. The character designs are sexualized in a way that's more insulting than titillating, or they're just ugly bread-fed knife eared nerds. The plot exists and if it's engaging to you, then you're a happier person than I am. For the time that it was released, I think that they did a decent job in terms of bringing these characters into a 3d world. They just didn't have great direction. I also can't remember any of the music in the game.
This game felt incomplete or rushed in some places. The lack of sidequests in the second area was conspicuous, and a lot of the hacking and slashing takes place in long hallways without much to interact with outside of an occasional switch or trap.
What saves it is that as a co-op game, it rules. In many ways, it feels like it was built for co-op and single player felt like a mandatory inclusion. Weight restrictions feel awful in single player, but sharing an inventory between two people feels much better. Class design/balance isn't great on its own. For example, a solo playthrough with the archer class is awful because your character doesn't have enough speed, even with feats/upgrades to kite any enemy in the game. But, if you have someone else standing in front of you, you can sit there and turret down a mook without having to chug potions. Even just having someone to talk to during the huge, relatively empty hallways makes going through this 10 hour game feel its length, and not double.
This is an unnecessary addition to the Baldur's Gate "canon", but if you've played Gauntlet: Dark Legacy for the billionth time and are restricted to one of the many consoles this game was ported to, it's still a fun time.