Rating: 
Summary: Simply the best RPG in a long time
Review: I just want to raise the cumulative average towards the 5-star range! If you need to read more, scroll down and see what I mean.
Rating: 
Summary: mmmm....
Review: It's nice, but you have to earn ALOT of experience to go up just one level and the monster don't give you much. You don't get alot of money. You get alot of party memebers really fast, they're helpful but die really fast. It's okay.
Rating:
Summary: Very nice game
Review: Having played both AD&D online and tabletop, it was nice to see a game which actually followed AD & D rules while not sacrificing too much as far as believability of actions. I haven't finished the game yet, but it's held my attention for quite a long time. I rate the game rather highly. That said, here are my major thoughts on it: Pros: 1. Tons of "subplots" to follow. 2. Different conversational threads with NPCs do actually affect the outcome of encounters - no cheesy scenes where you get along with someone then they try to kill you anyway! 3. The game actually hints at the difficulty levels of some areas. For example, commoners make it clear you do not want to enter Nashkell mines alone at level 1. 4. Some customizability as far as appearance. 5. It's actually interesting. Cons: 1. If your computer isn't up to par for the DirectX tool, it crashes fairly often - once a half hour or so. 2. There are "hidden" items that are very difficult to find in several places, with no explanation for their presence. For example, a pearl and a very nice set of armor are secreted in a farm field. These things seem to exist so a limited group of people can powergame. 3. Very limited NPC conversation sets. 4. Multiplayer games are, basically, not supported.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely amazing and facinating!
Review: This is the best RGP I have ever played! It has so many pros that I simply connot list them all! First of all, the graphics are excellent! The landscape a breathtaking and the 3-d sound just overwhelm one's mind. The variaty of items, spells, monsters and NPCs are amazing. The game consists of tons of quests that are optional, but worth taking. They can well affect your party's reputation, and give quite a bit of experience too. The game's foes are anywhere from mysterious and powerful weyverns to bewitching dryads, nympths, and succubi(succubi in the expansion). The controls, I think, are perfect. For those of you with an IQ of a bench, who can't press SPACE and then give orders to your players "GO PLAY QUAKE! " I think that the fact that you can control your characters while in pause mode makes the game play much easier. Because you can give orders with out worrying about dying in the process. Then it perfectly copies AD&D rules and adds a realistic content. The game is not hack-and-slash but requires a bit of thinking aswell. Magic overwhelms the game. The spells are fascinating. But it is brought to reality as much as possible. For example if a Wizard is chanting a big spell a good knock on the head breakes it. And yes, all spell-casting creatures actually "weave" or "chant" spells before casting them! No other game that I've seen ever does that. Overall, the game is Grrrrrrreat! Fantasy and RPG fans "GO GET IT! "
Rating:
Summary: Simply put the best PC RPG ever!
Review: Thats right, the best ever. Well at least the best I've ever played. But before I gloss BG's upsides, I'll address its few downsides. First off, the cheats for this game make cheating hard to resist. If you know how to access the cheat menu, you can spawn any item in the game. WEAK! And trust me, it's hard not to create Drizit's Defender +5. Also, the ammount of Fed-Ex quests (go all the way accross the game world and bring me back a pair of boots kind of quests) make for a few mundane moments. But if you plan it out right, they shouldn't really set you off course. Now for the upsides to BG. The game uses all of the AD&D rules, which might scare off quite a few gamers, but unless you know AD&D rules, you won't notice any changes. The game engine is sweet, all of the spells look great and flow seemlessly into the action. You can import customized character appearances and sounds (oh yeah, there is very little voice scripting for each character) and also import and export your characters at will. The plot is enthraling at it worst, and the NPC's really spice up the experiance. All in all, the single best RPG I've ever played. Better than Diablo, oh yeah. As much as I love Diablo, where Diablo lacks, BG more than makes up for. Interplay, or more specificly, Black Isle & BioWare, have established themselves as the premier RPG studios in the business. (Don't ya wish Ultima IX was designed by them instead of EA) With the success of BG and the Fallout series (also amazing games) I won't hesitate to pick up any further titles designed by BioWare or Black Isle. With BG 2 coming out later this year, as well as Icewind Dale, which is out at the beginning of June, and the release of Neverwinter Nights, and with the recent announcement of Fallout: Tactics BOS, its going to be a big year of RPG's. And that doesn't even count Diablo II. To sum it all up, if you like RPG's, and you can't wait for either BG 2 or Diablo II, buy BG. Without a doubt my favorite game of all time, and not too many will argue that it is one of the greatest titles ever.
Rating:
Summary: best
Review: this title is a clasic. i bet you can play it after 10 years and its still fun
Rating:
Summary: Good for hardcore gamers and RPers
Review: One of the things that always made D&D annoying for me to play was that the GM could rarely be completely cold and fair in regards to die rolls. sometimes the GM would pick a favorite class or a favorite PC and they'd always come out better than others. Well, in Baldur's Gate the GM is the computer so everything is fair and impartial. On the singleplayer aspect the game is fun. You can be whatever type of person you want to be and do whatever you want. You can be a noble paladin ot a scoundrel thief... it's up to you. As you progress through the game you gain experience and abilities and learn more and more about why people are hunting you. On multiplayer it can be fun if you have the right group. The story is the same as it is in singleplayer except one member of your party is the main character while the rest of the group are backups. If you have a group with enough imagination you can have a game that lives up to any tabletop D&D game. In actual gameplay, a lot of what you do is travel from place to place and quest. Sometimes you encounter people who want to talk to you and sometimes you run into a pack of monsters to kill. The interface reminds me a bit of Diablo, but the games are not clones of each other, I assure you. Although the game is slightly buggy that cleared right up with a patch. I also like the ability to customize your character portraits and sounds, it makes the roleplaying aspect all the more real.
Rating:
Summary: Balder's Gate - fun and replay value
Review: The first time through Balder's Gate was great. The story arc, the sub-plots, the quests, all fantastic. But there were so many options to try, so I started from scratch. And you know, it's still fun. They have loaded this game with so many options and directions that you can go, it's simply amazing how much fun you can have even when you know about the uber-plot. The world is so rich, and what you can do is so varied, this game really rates the tops.
Rating:
Summary: This game rules! But it favors the fighter class!
Review: This game is a lot of fun. But it is easy to die in thebeginning (especially if your a magic user.) I also imported mycharacter many times before I was able to start kicking some butt. My adivce is to create a fighter, ranger, paladin, or a multi-class fighter/x (x meaning whatever floats your boat.) because you'll get a lot of cool stuff that you'll need. Stay away from dual class because it takes too long for them to develop. Also, a fighter class has the best chance for survival in the beginning and not many NPC's have good overall stats to be a killing machine that you'll need (and trust me, you will need it!) to survive. END
Rating:
Summary: Even when you hate it, you still love it
Review: I've been playing RPG's for quite a few years, and have played quite a few of the old AD&D titles but hadn't seen anything that really interested me since Ultima VII (VIII was a bit of a dog - I never finished). By the time I got bored about halfway through Eye of the Beholder III, I thought I'd had it with AD&D. But then I saw so much written about BG, and from the reviews, etc. I knew I would love it, so I rushed out and bought a new PC, and BG (bundled with TSC) was the first thing I loaded. Let me tell you, this is a serious GAME! Six CD's of it! You have to do some serious character generation and a lot of preparation before you get going. As stated by other reviewers, your characters die at the drop of a hat in the early parts - no wonder people resort to cheating when your characters start off so weak and so poor. I ended up doing a few early quests and importing my character (which imports with gained experience intact!), loaded up with as many arrows as I could carry and started again at Level 3. That meant Imoen was Level 4 when we met, and we could start kicking some butt. I still haven't finished (have finished Chapter 6 and off to Durlag's Tower next) but I'm still challenged. And for all those lamenting about the loss of turn-based combat - did they never find the PAUSE key (spacebar) which allows you to simulate it? The AI only really works with very weak opponents or to alert you to enemies while trekking through the beautifully rendered scenery. Luckily, I have a big enough hard disk to load the entire game, because the CD shuffle got really annoying very quickly. Looking at the (many) BG sites, it seems this game has obsessed people to the point where they have played it over and over with characters of different races, classes, alignments, etc. I will be glad when I get to the end, and even though I love it, I can't imagine why I'd want to play it again - after all, when you know how it ends, why bother. And there are so many other games to play. Already can't wait for BG2.
| 
