Baldur’s Gate 1 is a Masterpiece

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster… when you gaze long into the abyss the abyss also gazes into you…

Friedrich Nietzsche

Even in the face of all the massive games we’ve been getting in 2023, Baldur’s Gate 3 stands as the clear frontrunner for Game of the Year. Only a few months after its full release and it’s become one of the most beloved and highly regarded PC games of all time. It’s so good that I keep it on my PC just to occasionally go in and mess around with it, it’s so much fun!

But it begs the question: what about the originals? How do Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 stand up all these years later? Are they still the the greatest RPGs ever made? Or has their newest successor rendered them irrelevant?

Let’s find out, shall we? Welcome, one and all, to Baldur’s Gate 1!

The game begins with a rather gruesome opening cutscene. A terrified knight is pursued by a hulking brute to the top of a castle. The monster takes the knight by the throat and lifts him into the air. “I will be the last,” the brute declares in a deep, rumbling voice. “And you will go first.” The knight pounds the beast’s arm uselessly, begging for his life. But all in vain. His dead body is flung to the earth below, and we’re treated to the title screen: Baldur’s Gate.

Unfortunately, right off the bat, we’ve got an issue. See, the Enhanced Edition replaced all the original CG cutscenes with motion comic animations. They don’t look bad, but they lose so much of the charm and personality of the original. Sure, the original CG looks dated, but it does so much to communicate the tone of the game and set up the story. I ended up modding in the original cutscenes to recreate that original experience, it is that good!

While on the main menu, I’d encourage you to sit back a moment and appreciate the music. Baldur’s Gate has a phenomenal soundtrack. It’s classic 90s fantasy at its absolute best. From the booming main menu theme to the exhilarating battle themes to the quiet and calm map music, every track elevates your adventure to an even greater level.

Next is the most important step of the game: character creation. Choose your portrait, then customize your race and class. This may seem stressful, but don’t worry about it too much; every single build is completely viable. Though some routes are definitely easier than others. For this playthrough, I’ll be going with a simple human mage, named on a whim as Jernabus.

By the way, if you wanted, you could customize your entire party. Sure, you’ll lose out on the game’s fantastic companions. But if you want to play it entirely your way, you can!

With your character created, the Dungeon Master sets the stage. You grew up in the secluded walls of Candlekeep under the tutelage of your foster father, the great sage Gorian, along with your friend, the not-so-great thief Imoen. But those peaceful days are at an end; Gorian needs you to prepare for a journey, though for what reason, he won’t say.

Candlekeep is an entirely hands-off tutorial. It drops you right into it and lets you learn all the skills you’ll need in one small contained setting. Talk to the sages for specifics on each class’s abilities. Take some quests and find some missing items, rest at the inn or browse the shop, train with the guards, what you do is up to you.

But I wouldn’t call it safe. Head to the south, and you’ll be met with a stranger to the keep. No matter what you say to him, he’ll attack you. An assassin? After you? Why?

Also, you can straight-up just leave on your own and completely skip this tutorial. Which I did on accident my first playthrough. Like a toddler wandering into a dragon’s gaping maw.

Once you’re prepared, you – and hopefully Gorian – leave Candlekeep behind. But you don’t get too far before you’re attacked. The towering brute from the opening cutscene is here, and you’re next on his list of victims-to-be. Gorian orders you to run, staying to fight so you escape. But even he and his powerful magics are no match for your pursuers. You can do nothing but run and watch helplessly as your guardian is brutally murdered.

The stage and the stakes are set. So begins your adventure into the Sword Coast.

And it is your adventure. You can go pretty much wherever you want whenever you want, regardless of your level. You might get slaughtered, but the option is still there. If you’re familiar with where things are, you can make yourself super overpowered super quickly. If you don’t, you could end up dead in the spider’s woods or settling into a zombie’s belly.

The game presents all kinds of stories and hooks for you everywhere you go. NPCs will run up to you and ask for help. If you buy drinks at the bar, the bartender will tell you the rumors milling around the area. Every single map screen in the game is densely packed with events to find and monsters to slay. Whether you heed the calls or ignore them is entirely up to you.

For example: to the south, an iron mine is having a crisis that is affecting the whole Sword Coast. You can go deal with it, solving the problem and progressing the main story, meeting new companions and enemies along the way. Or you could completely ignore it, skip all of that and go straight to Baldur’s Gate. But if you do, you’ll have to live with the consequences: worse loot due to a lack of good iron, a lonely friendless adventure, and no equipment to tackle the greater challenges ahead.

Baldur’s Gate is run by a harsh but fair Dungeon Master. You can do almost whatever you want. But then you’ve got to live with the consequences. It’s the kinda game to smirk and ask, “Are you sure?” whenever you wanna do something stupid.

On the road outside Candlekeep, Imoen caught up and joined my party. Thank god, too; Imoen is a thief, meaning she has the ability to disarm traps and pick locks. These abilities are essential to success in Baldur’s Gate. Traps are brutal and they are everywhere. Having a party member dedicated to deactivating them is a must. Just like that, I was as invested in Imoen as if she and Jernabus truly were the best of friends, and she became a mainstay in my party from start to end.

It wasn’t just Imoen. On that same screen, I partied up with the shady duo of Montaron and Xzar. They’re probably criminals, but the more the merrier! With my new companions by my side, Jernabus set off down the road, confident he could handle whatever may lay ahead. But we didn’t get far before being attacked.

Wolves. Two of them. A weak enemy. Barely worth my time. With but one wave of my staff, I would blast them away with magic missiles and-

I died instantly.

Baldur’s Gate is a brutal game. You can’t just rush in and overwhelm your enemy with numbers. Planning and strategy are king here. Luring enemies into traps, buffing your party with magic, blasting enemies off-screen with lightning or fireballs, these are just a few of the tactics you could use to succeed. Every battle is akin to a puzzle; how you solve it is entirely up to you.

After a few levels, I discovered just how necessary playing as a mage had turned out to be. Offensive spells were powerful, sure. But nowhere near as strong as debuff spells. Sleep, Hold Person, Slow, and spells like that can render entire groups of enemies completely helpless. Jernabus sent more enemies to their bedtime than he ever threw fireballs.

But beware: enemies are playing by the same rules you are. If you get hit by just about anything that restricts mobility, that’s it. You’re dead.

Beginner’s tip: the quick save key is Q and the quick load key is L. You’ll be using them a lot in your first playthrough. Don’t feel ashamed.

Having overcome the easiest enemy in the game with only two deaths, Jernabus headed to the Friendly Arm Inn to recruit Gorian’s old friends, husband and wife Harpers Khalid and Jaheira. Mostly because I ran with Jaheira in BG3 and I wanted someone familiar by my side. But this quickly escalated beyond what I could have anticipated. As it turns out, the lawful good Khalid does not get along with the shady pair of Montaron and Xzar. So much so that they broke into a fight on the road. Before I could even blink, I had to pick a side and help kill two potential party members as to not lose all four. In the end, I picked Khalid and Jaheira, and we left my would-be criminal companions rotting on the road.

This was the first of many existential crises Jernabus would go through. As I trudged along, I couldn’t help but wonder: what would it have been like if I chose the other two? Just how much differently would the game have turned out? What kind of person would I have become? What kind of person am I right now? And just who are these people I’m traveling with?

This is what makes companion characters so interesting in Baldur’s Gate. They all have their own stories, relationships, and beliefs separate from your own. If you do something they don’t like, they’ll storm off and leave you behind or even attack you! Your party is dynamic, alive, and oh so interesting!

After that disaster, my four remaining party members were exhausted and weak. It was time to rest and bring the first day of the adventure to a close. But upon hitting the rest button and making camp, a strange dream comes to Jernabus. He stands before Candlekeep, the gates barred to him. Above, he can see the light in his old window blink out. Gorian’s voice speaks. “You cannot go back this way, child. You must go on.” The shade of his foster father beckons him to the dark forest, urging his quest forward.

But there is another path there, just in the corner of his eye. Smooth. Obvious. It almost seems to tug him towards it. Yet you walk towards the dark, unclear path. A whisper follows him, a voice twisted by evil and malice, familiar yet not. “You will learn.”

Something evil stirs within the player character. Will you reject it? Or will you embrace it?

I’ll spare you the remaining details of Jernabus and his adventures. Partly because I don’t want to spoil anything more for new players. Mostly because it would take way too long. I’ve barely recounted an hour of the game and we’ve been here for… quite a bit.

The story of Baldur’s Gate 1 is phenomenal. It’s a grim tale of murder, loss, and figuring out who you are, perfectly balanced by well-rounded characters and classic D&D tabletop shenanigans. It’s a genuine adventure from beginning to end. This game doesn’t just want you to play it, it wants you to enjoy it!

Every corner is brimming with personality. You can find grave stones marked with goofy messages from the developers. Every entry of your journal is written by your character, injecting life into a simple quest tracker. Your party members will speak to you, mocking or encouraging you every time you click on their portraits. You can tell a guard you come from, and I quote, “The mystical land of frolicking naked nymphs, where your every desire is granted by bald blubbering bugbears. Hee! Hee!”

There’s a ton of adventure to be had even in one playthrough. The Enhanced Edition comes packaged with the original expansion: ‘Adventures of the Sword Coast’, including more areas, companions, items, spells, quests, and the combat-oriented Black Pits mode. It’s even got a retroactively added expansion, the Siege of Dragonkeep, which adds another twenty to thirty hours of content and bridges the narrative gap between Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2.

Which I’ll talk about on its own one day. Namely because it’s hugely different from the base game. And… I kinda haven’t finished it yet.

The best part is: there’s even more beyond that! See, you can export your character from Baldur’s Gate 1 into Baldur’s Gate 2 and continue right into the equally incredible sequel! The amount of foresight and planning on Bioware’s part is insane! That shows a level of care, passion, and player-first design you don’t often see in games anymore!

If none of this managed to convince you, then perhaps my closing remarks might. If you enjoy RPGs even a little, then I’d highly recommend you check out Baldur’s Gate 1. It still stands to the test of time in almost every respect. Whether you’re playing to experience the story or just to mess around with a friend in co-op, it’s still a ton of fun. It’s a true masterpiece in every sense of the word.

Just remember the wise words of Boo: “Go for the eyes!”