Baldur's Gate

Baldur’s Gate is a role-playing video game that was 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 and Planescape: Torment. The game’s story focuses on a player-made character who travels across the Sword Coast alongside a party of companions. The game received critical acclaim and was credited for revitalizing computer role-playing games. An expansion pack was released titled Tales of the Sword Coast, as was a sequel, Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn. An enhanced version of the Infinity Engine was later created as part of Beamdog’s remake Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, the first new release in the franchise in nearly nine years. The original Baldur’s Gate continues to be referenced as a point of inspiration in many modern role-playing games, and is often cited as one of the best video games ever made. In 2023, Larian Studios released the third installment, Baldur’s Gate 3.

Gameplay

Players conduct the game from a top-down isometric third-person perspective, creating a character who travels across pre-rendered locations, taking on quests, recruiting companions to aid them, and combating enemies, while working towards completing the game’s main story. A user interface allows a player to move characters and give them actions to undertake, review information on on-going quests and the statistics of characters in their party, manage their inventories, and organize the formation of the party, though the screen does not need to be centered on the characters being controlled and can be moved around with the mouse and keyboard, the latter capable of accessing various player options through keyboard shortcuts. All of the gameplay mechanics were coded to conform to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition role-playing rules, with the game automatically computing rule intricacies, including tracking statistics and dice rolling. Although the game is conducted in real-time, some elements of the rule set were modified to allow it to feature a pausable real-time mode. This allows players to pause at any time and prepare what actions a character would do, including the ability to set the game to automatically pause at preset points in combat. For each new playthrough the player can either create a new character, or import one they exported from a previous playthrough. A new character requires the player to determine what their name, gender, race, class, and alignment are, and what ability scores and weapon proficiencies they have. New characters can be multi-class, but must adhere to the restrictions that come from this, in accordance to the 2nd edition rules; for example, a character who is both a cleric and a fighter, may only use weapons of the former class. The game’s main story is divided up into eight parts, featuring a prologue and seven chapters. Each section requires the player to complete a specific task in order to continue. Some areas of the map are not accessible until the player has advanced to a specific chapter. A player may have up to five companions travelling with them in their party, with the player free to decide whom to recruit or dismiss from the party. The main UI consists of three action bars surrounding the main screen. The first bar consists of a map, journal, character records, their inventories, spellbooks and a clock. The second bar consists of a portrait of each character in the party, their HP, order, and any effects they are experiencing. The third bar provides specific actions per the number of characters being controlled: if a single character is selected, the player has the ability to switch between the weapons the character is wielding, use spells or items, or utilize a character’s or piece of equipment’s special abilities. If more than one character is selected, the bar displays options to allow them to converse with or attack non-player characters, stop what is being done, or change their formation. The inventory system allows each character to equip items categorized as: weapons, ammunition, armor, helmets, necklaces, rings, belts, cloaks, feet, or usable. The number of items a character can both equip and carry is affected by their weight limit, which is determined by their Strength ability score; going over this limit will encumber the character causing them to move slowly or prevent them moving altogether until they remove items from their inventory. The system also indicates what equipment a character may not use as defined by their class. This mechanic also determines how many weapon slots they have available; by default, all character have two weapon slots, with an off-hand slot for shields. Some classes allow characters additional weapon slots. Characters may equip three stacks of ammo for ranged weapons (bows, crossbows and slings), and use three different types of usable items (potions, scrolls and wands). Conversation can be initiated by players selecting a member of the party and clicking on a friendly or neutral NPC. Some conversations are initiated automatically when characters come close to them. Certain NPCs offer services the player can utilize, including buying and selling items and identifying enchanted items. Other useful places include inns where the party can rest in safety to recover lost hit points and memorize spells, as well as temples where characters can pay for healing services, such as resurrecting a dead party member. Other features that affect gameplay include:

• The ability to customize their character after creation, albeit with some restrictions.
• The ability to change the primary and minor colors used by each character.
• The ability to switch the game’s AI on or off, and change what script a character uses.
• Most locations are hidden when first visited but are revealed as the character moves around them. A fog of war effect hides explored areas when the player’s characters move away from them.
• A reputation system that tracks the moral actions of the PC and affects how they are perceived, changing if they resolve a problem or commit a crime in the view of witnesses. Higher reputations cause shops to decrease prices, while lower reputations cause shops to increase prices. Lower reputations may also lead to the character being attacked when in town. Companions are also affected by reputation, with evil companions leaving the party, even attacking it, if it is high, and good and neutral companions leaving when it is low. Some side quests also require a minimum reputation to begin. Certain NPCs may also react negatively or positively depending on their alignment and the player’s reputation.
• The ability to keep track of in-game time through the changes in lighting and the activity that is occurring. Characters become fatigued after spending a full in-game day, especially after travelling long distances between world map locations, and must rest to recover, either in an inn or camping out in the countryside/within a dungeon.
• Characters can be ambushed when camping out or travelling long distances between world map locations.
• Players can play either in single-player mode, or in multiplayer mode. The latter allows up to six players to work together online with their own created characters.

Plot

Setting

Baldur’s Gate takes place in the world of Ed Greenwood’s Forgotten Realms setting, during the year of 1368DR in the midst of an iron shortage, where items made with iron inexplicably rot and break. Focusing upon the western shoreline of Faerûn, the game is set within a stretch of the region known as the Sword Coast, which contains a multitude of ecologies and terrains, including mountains, forests, plains, cities, and ruins, with the story encompassing both the city of Baldur’s Gate, the largest and most affluent city in the region, and the lands south of it, including the Cloud Peaks, the Wood of Sharp Teeth, the Cloakwood forest, the town of Beregost and the village of Nashkel, and the fortress citadel of Candlekeep. In addition to the region, a variety of organisations from the Forgotten Realms setting feature as part of the game’s main story, including the Zhentarim, the Red Wizards of Thay, the Iron Throne, the Flaming Fist, the Chill, the Black Talons, and the Harpers.

Characters

Baldur’s Gate includes around 25 player companions that can join with the player character. A number of the unplayable characters who also appear include several who are canon to the official Forgotten Realms campaign setting, including Drizzt Do’Urden and Elminster.

Story

The player character is the young and orphaned Ward of the mage Gorion. The two live in the ancient library fortress of Candlekeep. The Ward is instructed by Gorion to prepare to leave the citadel during the night with no explanation. That night, a mysterious armoured figure and his cohorts ambush the pair and order Gorion to hand over the Ward. Gorion refuses, and dies in the ensuing battle, while urging his Ward to escape. The next morning, the Ward encounters Imoen, a childhood friend and fellow orphan from Candlekeep, who had followed them in secret. With Candlekeep no longer accessible to them without Gorion’s influence to circumvent its admission fee, and the city of Baldur’s Gate closed off to outsiders due to bandit raids, the Ward resolves to investigate the cause of the region’s Iron Crisis. Travelling to the mines of Nashkel, the main source of the region’s iron, the Ward’s party discovers that the mine’s ore is being contaminated by a group of kobolds led by a half-orc, and that they and the bandits plaguing the region are being controlled by an organization known as the Iron Throne, a merchant outfit operating out of Baldur’s Gate. After sabotaging a mine operated by the Iron Throne in the Cloakwood that would presumably give them total control over the region’s iron, the Ward’s party travels to the newly reopened Baldur’s Gate. Invading the Throne’s headquarters, the group learns that proof of the organization’s involvement with the Iron Crisis was taken by one of the regional leaders when they and the rest of the leadership were headed to Candlekeep for an important meeting. Revealing their findings to Duke Eltan, the leader of the Flaming Fist, the group receive a rare and valuable book, which would allow them access into Candlekeep, in order to spy on the meeting. During their investigations in the citadel’s library, the Ward discovers a prophecy written by the ancient seer Alaundo, foretelling how the offspring created during the Time of Troubles by the dead god Bhaal, the Lord of Murder, will sow chaos until only one remains to become the new Lord of Murder. The Ward finds a letter from Gorion revealing that the Ward is among the offspring of Bhaal, known as Bhaalspawn. During their stay at Candlekeep, the Ward’s party is imprisoned for the murders of the Iron Throne leaders, regardless of whether or not they did so, until they can be transported to Baldur’s Gate to be executed. Tethoril, a prominent keeper in Candlekeep, visits the party and reveals that a suspicious character the party met earlier, Koveras, is really the foster son of one of the now dead Iron Throne leaders. His name is Sarevok and is the one responsible for Gorion’s murder and wishes to kill the Ward as well. Believing the Ward to be innocent, Tethoril transports the party into the catacombs beneath the fortress, where the party battle their way through doppelgängers, taking on the forms of people the Ward knew in Candlekeep. Returning to Baldur’s Gate, the Ward’s party find themselves accused of causing the Iron Crisis on the orders of the Kingdom of Amn, assassinating one of the city’s Grand Dukes, and poisoning Duke Eltan. Forced to stay hidden from the Flaming Fist, the party discovers that the Iron Throne orchestrated the Iron Crisis to gain control of iron through their mine in the Cloakwood, while using doppelgängers to weaken other merchant outfits, ensuring that they would have a monopoly on iron. With tensions rising between Baldur’s Gate and Amn, the organization hoped to sell the stockpiled iron to the city at exorbitant prices. Afterwards, they aimed to de-escalate tensions between Baldur’s Gate and Amn. The party discovers that Sarevok, having discovered that he was a Bhaalspawn, hoped to fuel distrust between Baldur’s Gate and Amn by making each think the other was responsible for creating the crisis, and cause them to go to war. Sarevok believed that the resulting carnage would be enough to allow him to become the new Lord of Murder. Due to the Ward’s similar background, he hired assassins to kill them. Sarevok remained loyal to his father until the Iron Throne’s meeting in Candlekeep threatened his plans, which led Sarevok to eliminate him and the other regional leaders of the Iron Throne, before taking over the outfit and transferring their stores of iron to the city in order to be seen as a savior. He was also responsible for the poisoning of Duke Eltan and the assassination of one of the four Grand Dukes. The Ward’s party gain entry to the Ducal Palace, where the coronation of Sarevok as a Grand Duke of Baldur’s Gate would be held, and present evidence of his schemes. Exposed, Sarevok flees into an ancient underground ruin beneath Baldur’s Gate, with the Ward and the party chasing after him. The Ward confronts Sarevok within an ancient temple to Bhaal, and defeats him, saving the Sword Coast and ending their brother’s schemes. In the final ending cinematic, Sarevok’s tainted soul departs his body and travels deep underground to a large circular chamber of alcoves, and destroys a statue of himself contained in one of the alcoves, whereupon it is revealed that the other alcoves each contain a statue of a Bhaalspawn that exists in Faerûn.

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