Baldur's Gate (series)

Baldur's Gate is the name of a series of role-playing video games for PC. The games take their name from a fictional city in which some of the action of both takes place. Said city would be in the Forgotten Realms, located north of the Chiontar River, south of Waterdeep and north of Amn.

The games, both the first installment from 1998 along with its sequel published in the year 2000, are considered by a large part of the industry and fans of video games as one of the best role-playing games of all time.

Games

The Baldur's Gate game series comprises the role-playing games Baldur's Gate, its expansion Tales of the Sword Coast, and the sequel Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and its expansion Throne of Bhaal. These games are set in the fantasy universe of TSR's Forgotten Realms (based on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons), a board game classic. They were developed by the company BioWare.

The Baldur's Gate are characterized by the breadth of their story and the number of side adventures present. The player creates a character that is joined by others the player controls in like manner, until a team of six adventurers is completed. The rules conform to a slightly modified edition of the AD&D Second Edition rules, and allow the use of all available races and classes, as well as hundreds of magic spells.

Synopsis

• Baldur's Gate: The player gets into the role of an orphan raised in the village of Candelero (Candelkeep) together with her friend Imoen for the wise magician Gorion. In 1369 hp strange things begin to occur in the region, known as Costa de la Espada (Sword Coast): iron production is stopped, the goods already manufactured are undone, and even inside the safe walls of Candelero there are mercenaries behind the life of the player. Gorion orders to collect some basic equipment and go to a safe place, but in the middle of the trip the player and the old magician are ambushed. The fight ends with Gorion's death and the game begins. Knowing people you interact with will help you move on. With more companions, you must discover the secret of iron scarcity.

• Baldur's Gate II: Months after the events of the first delivery, the protagonist wakes trapped in a cage. He has been there for a while, captive at the hands of the magician Jon Irenicus, who has been doing a series of resistance experiments on him and are about to come to an end. Suddenly there is an opportunity to escape from the cage and the dungeon, but as she exits into the city of Athkatla, Imoen, the childhood friend, is captured by magicians and taken to the Prison of the Sorcerer (Spellhold), a detention centre for magic users. Now the protagonist must find out who he is and what Jon Irenicus wants, in addition to freeing his friend Imoen.

• Baldur's Gate II:Throne of Bhaal: After defeating Jon Irenicus, the protagonist will be wrapped in an exciting plot in which his brothers will be confronted by the throne of his father the god of Bhaal murder. The adventure has several possible endings depending on the decisions you are making, the protagonist may become the new god of the murder.

Technical details

All games in the series use BioWare's Infinity graphics engine. This engine offers a world in isometric perspective, consisting of pre-designed backgrounds that occupy most of the five and four compact discs that occupy the first and second installments of the game, respectively.

System Requirements

• Baldur's Gate and its expansion need at least one Pentium to 166 MHz, Direct X 5.0, 16 MB of RAM, 300 MB of free hard disk space, and a 2 MB graphics card.

Recommended: Pentium 200 MHz, 32 MB RAM, 600 MB free hard disk space, and a 4 MB graphics card.

• Baldur's Gate II and its expansion require at least a Pentium II to 233 MHz, Direct X 7.0, 32 MB of RAM, 800 MB of free hard disk space and a 4 MB graphics card.

Recommended: Pentium II 266 MHz, and 64 MB of RAM.

Multiplayer mode

Multiplayer mode can be performed between 2 to 6 players, via TCP/IP, Modem, IPX or Serial, in addition to existing external servers such as GameSpy and GameRanger.

Reception and impact

Both games and their expansions were wildly popular, with Baldur's Gate setting a BioWare sales record of 2 million copies sold. Much of the game's success is due to the original combat system, consisting of a mix of real time (like the classic Diablo) and turn-based strategy. The huge impact of the game earned it credit with revitalizing the genre on PC.

In 1999, Baldur's Gate won the 1998 Origins Award for Best Role Playing Game, and in 2000 Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast won the 1999^{[citation required]}. For its part, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn received several awards in 2000, including Best RPG of the Year from Gamespy, IGN, and Gamespot, as well as Best Game of the Year. by Eurogamer and Gamespot readers. Baldur's Gate and its sequel have also been included in lists of the best video games in history in various specialized press sites.