Is Baldur's Gate boring?

[Sergeant Politeness]

After seeing how both Baldur's Gate are praised as some of the best RPGs and compared to games like Planescape: Torment and Fallout, i tried them. I buyed the first one and the second one and installed a few essentials mods, including BGT.

The start seemed promiising, with the assassins and everything but after visiting the first big town (I don't remember the name), I'm kin of bored. The whole place seems more like what you would find in an MMO or a hack and slash than in a RPG.

What I mean is that all NPCs seems to be there just to give the players unoriginal quests (go kill the bandit/go find my boots) or sell him something. There isn't a lot of dialogues and long conversations seems non-existant. There is also very limited interaction with companions.

As for the combat system, I won't really talk about it since I'm not used to Dungeons and Dragons and it is still better than Planescape's one. There also seems to be a lot of possibilities so it doesn't seem too bad.

Like I said, I'm just at chapter 3 but what I've seen doesn't really make me want to play the game. Will this get better later or is the whole game combat oriented with few dialogues?

 

[Gizmojunk]

Will this get better later or is the whole game combat oriented with few dialogues?

Define "Better". This could help tailor the answer.

*I once had a friend I'd given a big-box Fallout to as a birthday gift. He called me on the phone and exclaimed that his PC was blue! Then he asked if he could pick up stuff and change his appearance. I figured the game was lost on him.

Do you have Tales of the Sword Coast installed?

 

[Sergeant Politeness]

Will this get better later or is the whole game combat oriented with few dialogues?

Define "Better". This could help tailor the answer.

*I once had a friend I'd given a big-box Fallout to as a birthday gift. He called me on the phone and exclaimed that his PC was blue! Then he asked if he could pick up stuff and change his appearance. I figured the game was lost on him.

Do you have Tales of the Sword Coast installed?

I do have it, although I have no idea what it actually does.

What I mean is that the quests seems like fillers to me right now. I'm used to Fallout and Planescape's quests, the ind of quest that is mostly about interaction with NPCs and combats sometimes, so the fact that quests in Baldur's Gate seems to be fetch quests and that there is not much interaction with NPCs which seems to not have any personality seems boring to me. I'm wondering if the game eventually focuses more on this aspect later.

I guess the game simply isn't for me, or that I haven't given it a fair chance yet.

 

[Buxbaum666]

The answer is yes, for some people. It's frustrating, really. I've tried it several times over the years but I always decided to stop lest I die of boredom. I even installed BG2 with all the recommended fan-patches. This is a really tedious process that literally takes hours to do so I ended up spending more time installing it than actually playing it. I think installing all of the stuff took about five hours and I stopped playing after one. And then it sat there on my hard drive, waiting to be played again. But no. After a few years I decided to free up some disk space and finally deleted the whole thing.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

*I once had a friend I'd given a big-box Fallout to as a birthday gift. He called me on the phone and exclaimed that his PC was blue! Then he asked if he could pick up stuff and change his appearance. I figured the game was lost on him.

Heh, whenever I keep reading PC my first thought is "Personal Computer", so I was already thinking "His Personal Computer turned blue? You mean the blue screen?". Then I realized my mistake and that PC meant Player Character.

As for the OP's question, I have tried Baldur's Gate but I honestly could not get into it as it was just so plain boring. I liked in Planescape Torment how unusual the setting was despite it being a fantasy game and not sci fi. It was so far from the stereotypical fantasy stuff that it barely suffered any of its tropes.

 

[Gizmojunk]

I really liked Baldur's Gate, and I also liked it for what it was... A [then] modern derivative of the SSI Gold Box games. Baldur's Gate 2 is one of the best RPG's I've yet played.

The BG series has a rather neat Fallout easter egg, that spans all the games and expansion packs; very unusual.

Do you have Tales of the Sword Coast installed?

I do have it, although I have no idea what it actually does.

Tales From the Sword Coast adds additional locations to the map, and [IIRC] it adds to the gameplay a bit; but I don't really recall how exactly. I'm fairly sure that it did come with game patches for the base game, as well as its own content.

 

[PlanHex]

BG1 is boring as shit and not worth playing really. BG2 is a lot better, but dunno that I would put it up alongside the likes of Fallout and PS:T as some other people do.
Would recommend that you just find some cliff-notes for what happened in BG1's story and then play BG2.
Can also recommend that you install the fixpacks and maybe "cheats" like infinite stacking on ammo/pots etc. Removes (or at least tones down) some tedium in the game like dealing with ammo belts and such.

 

[Kilus]

Well like kinda. BG1 is kinda like bad. It gets better towards the end, particularly when you enter the city of Baldur's Gate. But yeah the game is kinda really boring when it comes to dialogue and stuff. Engine great, combat fun, dialogue often non-existent or lacklustre.

BG2 is like just a big improvement. The higher level combat is more fun and varied. Quests are much better with more steps and dialogue. Characters are more fleshed out. Bioware learnt a lot lessons while making BG1 and in BG2 they take full advantage of those lessons. It is still a game that focuses on Adventuring and whacking monsters with your sword and spells but the adventures are just more fun and realised.

 

[aenemic]

First time I played Baldur's Gate it was the most amazing game I had ever played. I had barely played any pc rpg's before that, Fallout 2 being the only exception I can think of. Fallout 2 was pretty much my favorite game, but I had played it to death and Baldur's Gate was a breath of fresh air. If I had played it now for the first time with all the other games I've played, I'm not sure I can say I would have loved it.

But what I did love about it back then was the music, the humor and the exploration. It wasn't so much about complex npc's, deep story and intriguing character customization. The setting as a whole was just, well magical for lack of a better word. I think it's one of those game you had to be there for when it happened.

 

[valcik]

Boring? No way! Despite its flaws, I do love this beautiful game passionately!
As for BG2 - whilst I do agree with Kilus' point of view and I can see those improvements in BG2, I was put off by forced cut-scenes, overblown romances appearing inaptly, less freedom of exploration, and frequent scripted events. This all kills replay value greatly for me and makes it much more boring than the first game actually.

 

[AskWazzup]

The first one you play for the main story and the D&D rules. It's certainly dry compared to BG2, but i still love it because it has the best ruleset in gaming - D&D! There are a few good side quets though and you should still play it through for BG2, and to better learn the D&D rules.

Damn it, i wish there were more D&D games, the setting and the rules are just so god damn rich comapred to other games. I love that word - D&D, and i will say it again - D&D!

 

[mobucks]

I got tired of BG1 after about 40 hours. It just isn't the same as BG2, which I regard as an excellent game.

Low level characters are just not as much fun to play. Having said that, I probably will install BGtutu again sometime in the future, and play it to completion, if only to play BGII again.

 

[Cistern Logic]

It took me a very long time to get bored with it. Now I have the whole series and want to install the hi-res trilogy mod but I can't get Baldur's Gate II to install on Win 7!

 

[Sergeant Politeness]

Thanks for all your answers. I might give the game another chance one day but I'm redoing the Mass Effect Trilogy right now, which is insanely better to me.

 

[TorontoReign]

Baldur's Gate was boring to me because I'm not a huge fan of the fantasy setting. I owe it to myself as a RPG fan to play through it one day despite that. The problem is I didn't get to play it very much when it first came out. I have it sitting on my hard drive much like *Buxbum mentioned.

*intentional

 

[UniversalWolf]

I remember once I was playing Neverwinter Nights, and I thought, "Well, this is okay."

Then right after that I went back and replayed Baldur's Gate, and I thought, "This is so much better than Neverwinter Nights."

Then right after that I went back and replayed Fallout, and I thought, "This is so much better than Baldur's Gate."

 

[IrradiatedGarlic]

The first one you play for the main story and the D&D rules. It's certainly dry compared to BG2, but i still love it because it has the best ruleset in gaming - D&D! There are a few good side quets though and you should still play it through for BG2, and to better learn the D&D rules.

Damn it, i wish there were more D&D games, the setting and the rules are just so god damn rich comapred to other games. I love that word - D&D, and i will say it again - D&D!

That's both a pro and a con. On one hand, AD&D was an impressive system, on the other hand, it was hardly the most intuitive. I feel like THAC0 can throw some people off since it's different from most systems now. From a pure rules viewpoint, AD&D was pretty wicked cool and creative. The classes alone were extremely imbalanced, hooray for overpowered casters, but it had whacky optional rules like Fighters becoming lords and basically turning into a castle and realm strategy game, the whole Druidic council, and the tables upon tables.

But I digress. I've played a bit of BG, BGII, and Icewind Dale and they are all fun for what they are. If you're going into it looking for Fallout or PS:T, you'll be sorely disappointed. The games have much more complicated combat mechanics and generally more interesting fights but the goal is more of an adventuring tabletop experience rather than PS:T, which was all about the writing and choices. Fallout is somewhere between the two and Icewind Dale is all about combat (it's a hack and slash). And yes, D&D does become more interesting as you become higher level and have access to a broader spell list, which BG follows.

I remember once I was playing Neverwinter Nights, and I thought, "Well, this is okay."

Then right after that I went back and replayed Baldur's Gate, and I thought, "This is so much better than Neverwinter Nights."

Then right after that I went back and replayed Fallout, and I thought, "This is so much better than Baldur's Gate."

Neverwinter Nights was all about the online play where you really could emulate the tabletop experience, though not perfectly. The single-player campaign was duller than a hammer.

 

[AskWazzup]

That's both a pro and a con. On one hand, AD&D was an impressive system, on the other hand, it was hardly the most intuitive. I feel like THAC0 can throw some people off since it's different from most systems now. From a pure rules viewpoint, AD&D was pretty wicked cool and creative. The classes alone were extremely imbalanced, hooray for overpowered casters, but it had whacky optional rules like Fighters becoming lords and basically turning into a castle and realm strategy game, the whole Druidic council, and the tables upon tables.

That's one of the things i liked about BG 1 and 2, is that some combat situations were like a puzzles, because there is no linear relationship between classes, so fighting a beholder, a mage, a dragon, a golem, a bunch of fighters war a very different experiance that also depended on you party configuration. And i even liked overpowered casters, because it really felt like you're fighting someone very powerful and.... very chopable, if i got in close eonough with my wizard slayer .

 

[ninjacapo]

baldurs gate is really fun as a co-op. one of the first ps2 games i played with my dad. nothing beats the tag-team dungeon crawl

 

[Kilus]

You are talking about Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance which is not the same as Baldur's Gate.