I view BG1, BG2:SoA & ToB as one long game and I highly recommend you play them in that order. It's a continuous story where you can import your character from BG1 into BG2 and continue where you left off stats & equipment wise (which is a really cool feature). I was around when these games first came out 20 years ago and heard how amazing they were, but didn't really play them back then. After playing them properly for the first time in 2024, I'm really sad I didn't give them a shot back then as I now know I would have loved them.

These are awesome games! Yes they have flaws and bugs and are over complicated in some instances....but the overall vibe, story, gameplay and fun factor are what make these some of the greatest games ever made. They very much hold up in 2025. This is also a great introduction to the world and rules of D&D (something I wasn't super familiar with beforehand). Learning the D&D mechanics are not essential to success, you can trial and error your way through most of the game...but figuring out how the THAC0 & AC systems work will really give you an edge and does become part of the fun.

I have not played BG3 yet, but I can only imagine after playing BG1 & 2 that I am primed for everything that game will have to offer. If you're even thinking about playing theses games...just do yourself a favor and just get them.

The good part is that Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 are two of the best rpgs of all time, the downside is that BG1 is basically a tutorial for BG2 and the 2nd Edition AD&D ruleset. Aside from that, it's age and it's refusal to adress some of its bugs is definitely a barrier of entry that onle fan patches and game reloads will save you. On top of that it is the slowest of the whole infinity engine catalogue, it doesn't have many levels and levelling up is going to be an event itself and by the endgame you should be around level 7.

Aside from that, everything else is really good. The updated graphics have a charm and appeal that I wish more games had nowadays, let the fans of 2D vs 3D rpgs fight among themselves deciding which is best and enjoy the game for the old-scholl charm that it has.

The music of the whole saga is a standout, the kind of stuff that you would put on your game D&D/Pathfinder campaigns with a good mix of ambience and orchestral, really recognizable and a good nostalgia fuel for anyone.

Being tied to 2nd AD&D the combat can see floaty and counterintuitive at first, knowing the system or checking the pdf manual that comes with the purchase helps quite a lot in this regard and will spare you many deaths. That said, these games aren't quite easy, is not a constant struggle but the encounters that just overwhelms you because of sheer numbers or a spell that use on you for the first time will make sure that you want a few saves on your back just in case you find yourself in front of a death encounter that you didn't deserve to die for it, specially here since you are going to play with a low-level party and you don't have yet the resources to fully prepare for many contingencies.

The story is good, not masterpiece but just enough to keep you going and making guesses about the grand mysterie until the final dungeon. There are a good amount of oportunities to define your character and make flavorful choices.

If you like old-school rpgs, want to play older editions of D&D or just like wrps in general and have some tollerance for some compatibility issues (it may or may not crash on you, but not to the point that it becomes a problem) then check it out, if not this one, check out the sequel, you don't need a lot to fill in gives a higher level party, has a very high level-cap, and it's story is quite better, also it let's you transfer characters from the 1st endgame to the 2nd.

Fun game from times past. Having a blast playing it again.

A more than solid improvement to the original game.

This and its sequel are my favorite fantasy story not written by Tolkien, The mechanics can be off putting to newcomers but are very engrossing once you get your head around them. I have loved it since I was 8 and I think I will return to it every few years for decades to come.

Explore, find gear, find guy who needs help dealing with another guy but bad, kill the guy, repeat
Game good, play game, need more...

*They made a sequel?!?*

Paid about $2 and have spent 26 hours so far figuring out the game, playing the tutorial (several times) and wandering around killing and looting anything and anyone I can find.
$ to hour ratio cannot be beaten!

Equipped a cursed armor piece and it turned me into a woman. 10/10

So, so good.

fun