Baldur’s Gate 4 in 1 Boxset

5 Comments

1. Charles P. Frederick says:

   August 16, 2010 at 5:15 pm

   First off, any person who has played a bunch of computer games will tell you this: The amount of fun you have in a game, after say the first day of playing it, is totally irrelevant to the game’s graphics. The BG collection is a good example.

   I too think it is better than the Neverwinter series, for one main reason:

   BG and especially BGII are extremely open and non-linear. Yes, of course the game has limits, but there are so many optional areas, quests, characters, and items, and more importantly, so many decisions you have to make in each play-through that open some doors and close others, that you can play this game probably ten times in a row and still discover fun new things.

   Even concepts which seem like game-universe “laws” can be surpassed once you gain enough skill as a player. I’m not talking about cheating. For example, you might think the Cowled Wizards are impossible to resist when they arrest you, right? Nope, not for a creative tactician. Or, you might think that it’s impossible to beat the game using just three, two, or even one single character. But it’s actually very possible–just more intellectually challenging and rewarding. Most do that with a fighter/mage or fighter/thief, though, to get the maximum number of abilities. But you couldn’t do it with a single, lonely armor-less kensai fighter, right? Think again…

   The great thing about these “implied” challenges, in addition to every other normal challenge in the game, is that even though they are ridiculously difficult, you still don’t need a cheat sheet to do them, because since the game contains hundreds of items, spells, and abilities, (access to all of which have a sort of “open this door and shut that one” style) there are still a million different ways to complete even the most difficult challenges.

   This is why the Baldur’s Gate games are huge fun the first time, for the above-average (not great) story, and even more the second and third, to explore all the variations and possibilities within that story.

   Finally, a note for new players:
   
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   The only complaint I would have is that in order to play a Fighter character, you can’t just choose one weapon specialization and go with it–you have to have advance knowledge of what weapons exist in order not to be stuck with crappy weapons during critical endgame duels.

   If you are about to buy this game, let me tell you a few things that will save the need for the cheapening feeling of using a game guide or deciding to reboot your character halfway through:

   -The one and only great 2-handed sword can only be used by Thieves and Paladins, though it comes early in the game. It is by far the best weapon in the game
   
   -There is a good mix of low-to-mid level longswords, but few great ones
   
   -There is only one good bastard sword and it comes late in the game
   
   -There is only one good battle axe, and it is great, but it comes late in the game
   
   -There are a good mix of low-to-high level Halberd weapons
   
   -More attacks per round *usually* nets you more total damage than a higher damage per hit weapon, because all the different weapon types do not have a wide spread of damage ranges. I.E, most of the damage you do at a high level does not come from your weapon.
   
   -Some liches can only be hit by +4 or higher weapons.
   
   -NEVER be a sorcerer for your first playthrough…you will inevitably choose spells that sound good on paper but fall flat in practice…be a wizard instead, you will get more (real-life) experience that way.

   That’s it–all the rest you can figure out yourself, with a little patience and experimentation. Happy adventuring!
   Rating: 5 / 5
2. David Mincemoyer says:

   August 16, 2010 at 5:21 pm

   One of the all time great CRPG’s. Having 4 dvd’s instead of 11 (i think) total CD’s is awesome.

   Just as a warning to a collector type, it does not come with a hard copy of any of the instruction books. There are PDF versions on the various DVD’s.
   Rating: 5 / 5
3. M. Diaz says:

   August 16, 2010 at 6:31 pm

   So you want to try out some of bio ware’s older games? Here is a secret. These games are better than the recent Neverwinter series. “What?” you say, “How could you.” Well it’s true. Sure it has AD&D version 2 which is an older ruleset than the Neverwinter series has, but you won’t care. I’ll assume you don’t need great graphics to enjoy a game. Why would you even consider buying a game from the late 90′s if you cared about graphics right? So I’ll say the graphics were great for it’s time and now I will leave the graphics alone. So how is this game so good? The answer is open ended gameplay, great combat system, and a great quest system. Exploration is another great thing about this game. To fully explore every part of the world will take you a long time, and you will find many fun little battles along the way. You can stray off from the main quest to explore the wilderness if you want, and pretty much it is part of what makes this game so great. The game has simpler combat and character customization than NWN, but it is not a negative factor. Simplicity is not always a bad thing. In truth the combat isn’t really simple, it is just simpler than NWN. So should you buy? Yeah. Baldur’s Gate is a wonderful adventure and baldur’s gate 2 is even better. It’s time to go back in time.
   Rating: 5 / 5
4. Frodofriend says:

   August 16, 2010 at 7:28 pm

   The Baldur’s Gate boxed set is a lot of role-playing for the money. I am not all the way through it yet, but estimate the full play-through time at 100 hours+. As a long-time D&D buff, I find the logic-puzzles and combat encounters entertaining and challenging. I recommend the set.
   Rating: 4 / 5
5. The Transcendent One says:

   August 16, 2010 at 7:29 pm

   First off let me just say that I have played all of the games included in this package except the first expansion.(Tales of Sword Coast) And I loved every minute of my adventures. I noticed some people talked about the graphics of the game as being bad when compared to Neverwinter Nights. The Infinity engine (Which all of the Baldurs Gate games use) is a 2d isometric engine and neverwinter nights has a 3d engine BUT, personal preference here, for an isometric top down scrolling game I enjoy the artistic quality of the 2d engine better… Its not 3d but for some reason I think its cooler; maybe its nastalgia but I think that because the 3d perception is done through 2d bitmaps painted to give the allusion of 3d and not texturised 3d models, it gives it more of a classy feel. I only feel this way about top down scroller style games; of course. I think the 3d models used today in games such as neverwinter nights and age of empires 3 for example (cotrasted with Baldurs Gate/BG2 and Age of Empires 2 respectively) feel more “chessy”. The older 2d games have more personality and feel realer in a way even though they are dated and 2d. But that’s just me. Oh, the only thing is that if you are going to play these games, I recommend playing them on a CRT monitor at like a 1024×768 resolution (I think BG2 supports 1024.768, BG1 only supports 800×600 or 640×480 but CRT’s scale really well). Or play it on a an LCD with a lower native resolution then what most models have today. Let me just say that playing these games on new high res LCD monitors basically ruins them. The bitmaps, which can’t be rendered at higher resolutions natively, just don’t scale good enough to do them justice.
   Rating: 5 / 5