Baldur's Gate

 PC
User Score
8.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 909 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 805 out of 909
  2. Mixed: 68 out of 909
  3. Negative: 36 out of 909

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  1. doggystyle
    Aug 15, 2013
    7
    Much too hyped I think. It's an ok game for sure and back in the day I'm sure it was better, I just got to play this recently which is odd as I'm old for a gamer and have played D&D games since the 80s on computer. This has more or less all the downsides of Bioware games I can think of. Pretty much a hack'n slash rather than a role playing game.
  2. Shiki
    Mar 6, 2012
    5
    Bioware's debut to the world of cRPGs. It has strong points, like its story, which is the main reason why I gave the game a 5 instead of 2 or 3. It is a much weaker game than its sequel, for a lot of reasons. First, low level ad&d2 is really boring and lacking in variety. There isn't much to do besides equiping the bows and using the very few useful spells available. The party NPCs areBioware's debut to the world of cRPGs. It has strong points, like its story, which is the main reason why I gave the game a 5 instead of 2 or 3. It is a much weaker game than its sequel, for a lot of reasons. First, low level ad&d2 is really boring and lacking in variety. There isn't much to do besides equiping the bows and using the very few useful spells available. The party NPCs are lifeless and will almost never intervene during a conversation, being more or less mute for everything but their own side quest. Most of the side quests are weak in content and lack the depth you can find in BG2 where some of them won't even come to a true resolution until you literally stumble upon the "sequel" to that quest, like the one featuring the murderer of the Bridge District. The balance between exploration and access to content itself is lousy and there are too many nearly empty maps. And in the end, the only place worth talking about is the city of Baldur's Gate itself, the rest being terribly unmemorable, in contrast to Baldur's Gate 2 underdark, trademeet, athkatla (which is the main city hub and the starting point of the game, unlike BG-city in BG1 which you can only access later in the game), umar hills.. Mediocre but promising attempt at making a RPG, which ultimately led to the greater and much stronger sequel.… Expand
  3. KaienShiba
    May 31, 2015
    5
    Game would be great, except in reality whether intended to or not they almost force you to play certain, forget about playing classes, like mage, bard, druid, even kensai, the lack of bard armor and the cost of mage armor makes it impossible, instead of fixing those flaws like BW did in BG2, they made a few changes and left it as is. Dialogue still sucks, Jaheria's husband is still uselessGame would be great, except in reality whether intended to or not they almost force you to play certain, forget about playing classes, like mage, bard, druid, even kensai, the lack of bard armor and the cost of mage armor makes it impossible, instead of fixing those flaws like BW did in BG2, they made a few changes and left it as is. Dialogue still sucks, Jaheria's husband is still useless tool and the new characters are only good for cannon fodder, a monk with useless stats for a monk a wild mage is useless as a companion or kit.… Expand
  4. coquedepor
    Mar 19, 2020
    6
    Positives
    +Combat
    + Characters
    + Plot
    - Complexity

    Negatives
    - Long
    - Repetitive

Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Best PC Game of 1998
5
#5 Most Discussed PC Game of 1998
4
#4 Most Shared PC Game of 1998

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
91

Universal acclaim - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. Adrenaline Vault
    100
    Baldur's Gate is not a computer role-playing game...it is THE computer role-playing game.
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  2. Quandary
    100
    It's been a long haul, more than two months of solid game-play, but I have been absolutely engrossed by every minute! Very few games earn such an accolade from this reviewer.
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  3. Game Revolution
    100
    This is, without a doubt, the closest thing out there to actually getting together with a bunch of your friends on a Sunday afternoon, taking your characters into a dungeon, and using you own BOO to find out if that bottomless pit was actually bottomless.
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