You’ll have to save often and go back to your save points every time you die-a relic of a much less forgiving era in role-playing games. That makes your initial skirmishes with bandits, rogue wizards, and assassins surprisingly frustrating.
The difficulty and balance of the combat are due to the second-edition Dungeons and Dragons rules the game is built on: The classes, attacks, weapons, and such all draw from that world. I can’t tell you how many times I cursed because a hobgoblin took out my crazed mage, making me restart the entire encounter. Even with the ability to pause combat, move items around, and plan your party’s attacks, your fortunes can change in seconds. You’ll rush out of Candlekeep feeling pretty confident, only to see your untimely end at the hands of a kobold or bear within mere minutes of setting out. The game is still brutally challenging, though, even with a long (and remarkably poorly integrated) tutorial. This is partly due to my familiarity with BioWare games in retrospect, it’s easy to see how certain combat elements evolved into the features I so enjoyed in Dragon Age: Origins, a later BioWare title.ĭespite some clunky interface issues and my larger complaint about the difficulty, Baldur’s Gate may be worth playing for its writing alone. In fact, as someone who missed the game the first time around, I was surprised to discover how many of the combat elements, character interactions, and key gameplay features I appreciated.