Baldur's Gate

1998

role-playing (rpg)
fantasy
open world
single player
co-operative

The story

Baldur's Gate is a fantasy role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published in 1998 by Interplay Entertainment. It is the first game in the Baldur's Gate series and takes place in the Forgotten Realms, a high fantasy campaign setting, using a modified version of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) 2nd edition rules. It was the first game to use the Infinity Engine for its graphics, with Interplay using the engine for other Forgotten Realms-licensed games, including the Icewind Dale series, as well as other licensed D&D campaign worlds such as Planescape: Torment. The game's story focuses on players controlling a protagonist of their own creation who finds themselves travelling across the Sword Coast alongside a party of companions, to unravel the mystery surrounding a sudden iron crisis affecting the region and attempting to discover the culprits behind it, all while uncovering dark secrets about their origins and dealing with attempts on their life.

What it’s like

Painted pre-rendered backdrops in lush, saturated greens and deep forest blues, with characters drawn as small sprites that step through torchlit dungeons, misty coastal roads and dim taverns viewed from an angled overhead perspective. The look is storybook-dense and a little austere, and the soundtrack leans on orchestral fantasy swells that drop out into ambient room tones when you stop to read. Its pace is deliberate and talky: long stretches of exploration and dialogue interrupted by turn-based-feeling combat pauses where you can stop time to issue orders, so it rewards patience over reflexes. Its tone is earnest, wry and quietly melancholy, the feel of a well-worn campaign told around a table, with companions whose loyalties and grudges slowly surface as the road lengthens. Violence is present throughout as stylised fantasy combat, with monsters, undead and the occasional grisly death, but nothing lingers and there is no sexual content. Best suited to players who want a cozy-but-dangerous weekend commitment, lovers of party banter and tabletop-flavoured world-building, and anyone who enjoys sitting with a long, unhurried adventure over several evenings.

More games like Baldur's Gate

Closest in mood, pacing and theme. Tell us why you loved Baldur's Gateand we’ll explain which ones fit you.