Baldur's Gate 001

Let's Play Baldur's Gate [Music: Main theme] Baldur's Gate 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. That's saying a lot, because these days I'm so jaded that a game worth loving is hard to find. La-Mulana is probably the closest other game to give me that feeling, and more recently, Monster Sanctuary. But I'll talk about those another day. I first played BG2 in high school. As a student, I was book-smart, terminally shy, and totally uninterested in relationships and all the related drama going on around me. Which made me not exactly outcast, per se, but not exactly welcome by any social group. The other "smart" girls were too preppy and fake for me to talk to, and the few friends I did have never shared my class schedule so I was usually alone during lunch and break periods. As a result, I turned to books, primarily fantasy fiction. Around this time I discovered Xanth, Discworld, Dragonlance, and Forgotten Realms. Forgotten Realms is the relevant one: BG2 takes place there. If you've heard of Drizzt Do'Urden (or seen people name themselves after him online) or Elminster, they're from Forgotten Realms. Surprisingly enough, I never did read the Drizzt books back then. Maybe my local library didn't carry them. But I digress. BG2 is a Dungeons and Dragons based game full of fun and vibrant characters in a unique fantasy setting, so of course I ate it up. At the time, I'd mainly played Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy and other PS1-era RPGs. Those games didn't have voice acting at the time. So when BG2 came along with voiced scenes and characters, well, I was hooked. And not only that, you could customize your character and even play as a girl! You might be wondering why I keep specifying "BG2." Simply put, that's the game in the series I started with. I didn't know it was a direct sequel and you were expected to play the first game. That might've contributed to why I liked it, though--it was a puzzle understanding what was going on. The good thing is, in the start of BG2 your player character is trapped in an unknown dungeon, they don't really know what's going on either. So it was like we were learning together. Anyway, I love this game so much, y'all. The thing is, not many people I know have played it. And, despite the "Enhanced Editions" being made, the game is not exactly accessible. Frankly, it's dated, and the game has a glaring problem. The combat sucks. Okay, that's not being fair. In a word, it's just plain hard. The key to winning is knowing ahead of time what you'll need for the battle, and being prepared. Basically, you need to get your ass handed to you, and reload the game and, with the knowledge of what went down, try again. And again, and again... Or just get lucky with dice rolls. I hope that doesn't sound like Dark Souls. (What it really means: you need to pre-emptively cast Fireball about where you know the enemies are going to be before they aggro you. Sometimes two or three fireballs if you have more than one mage in the party.) You learn to cheese it. The game is pause-based. Think early Dragon Age where you had to stop every 10 seconds to reposition your rogue for a backstab or tell the mage to heal you. In fact, this is the battle system that inspired Dragon Age's, for better or worse (mostly worse). It's not enjoyable for the average person, and I can't imagine inflicting it on any of my friends. Well, I take that back, I did try. But multiplayer in a pause-based RPG is not exactly... it's just not good. So! instead I'll play the game (including the first one, heavy sigh, which I don't love at all), and you get to watch, and hopefully you too can experience some of what this series has to offer. For the record, I am playing Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition via the Beamdog client, since that's the platform it was locked to when the EE version came out, and of course I bought it day one! It'll also be my first time doing Siege of Dragonspear, since that's all new for the EE editions. I'm also playing via a mod that combines all the games into one game client (called Enhanced Edition Trilogy, or EET). And using a few other mods, which I'll go into detail in the next post. The game's splash screen starts off strong with a quote from a renown nihilist. [Movie: Baldur's Gate (intro)] Here's the original opening video, featuring some creepy death knight guy and awesome sound direction. The way it segues into the title screen at the end reminds me of BioShock. Except blood instead of seawater. Of importance is what the death knight said before killing that sad sack: "I will be the last. And you will go first." I suppose that means he's an aspiring mass murderer. Since I really wanted my best friend Soma to experience this game, I'll make the character based on what he played in our short-lived multiplayer attempt. Somaliendiel was an elf archer in Mabinogi (aspiring machine gun elf!) so we'll make him. When we make a new game, it'll load the character creator. It's a classic AD&D system, with dice rolls. Let's just keep clicking until we get a good roll. (Imagine the Benny hill theme playing to my rapid clicks!) This is about the best we can get. I made him a Ranger with the Archer kit, to best make him a machine gun elf. [Movie: Prologue Intro] The prologue intro isn't a cutscene, just scrolling text with voiceover. I copied the text here: Nestled atop the cliffs that rise from the Sword Coast, the citadel of Candlekeep houses the finest and most comprehensive collection of writings on the face of Faerûn. It is an imposing fortress, kept in strict isolation from the intrigues that occasionally plague the rest of the Forgotten Realms. It is secluded, highly regimented, and it is home. Within these hallowed halls of knowledge, your story begins. You have spent most of your twenty years of life within this keep's austere walls, under the tutelage of the sage Gorion. Acting as your father, he has raised you on a thousand tales of heroes and monsters, lovers and infidels, battles and tragedies. However, one story was always left untold: that of your true heritage. You have been told that you are an orphan, but your past is largely unknown. Lately, Gorion has been growing distant from you, as if some grave matter weighs heavily on his heart. You have asked about his concerns as gently as possible, but your queries have been in vain. Your sole comfort is the knowledge that he is a wise man, and you know he will tell you when the time is right. Nonetheless, his silence is troubling, and you cannot help but feel that something is terribly wrong... Today, Gorion has appeared more agitated than ever, and now he has uncharacteristically interrupted your chores in the middle of the day. Imparting hurried instructions for you to equip yourself for travel, he has handed you what gold he can spare, but given no clue as to why. Nevertheless, you now stand before the Candlekeep Inn, ready to purchase what you need for an unplanned and unexpected journey. Soma is a sheltered young orphan elf who lived among a bunch of monks all his life. Candlekeep, in Forgotten Realms lore, is a bastion of knowledge that is tightly protected. In fact, you can only visit the place if you pay 10,000 gold or contribute something new to its stores of knowledge, like a rare book. The only reason we've been allowed to grow up here is because Gorion, a great mage, adopted us. And the game drops us off right here. [Music: Candlekeep] We're 'supposed' to enter this inn and buy supplies. So, being from 1998, this game was not meant to be played in 1080p. Everything looks so tiny on my monitor! Even more so when I take screenshots for this let's play. It turns out, you can't change the game's resolution, but you can zoom in, and change the font size, so I'll try to work out something hopefully visible. The innkeeper references what I mentioned earlier, the Candlekeep entrance fee. For the record, the highlighted dialogue option in a screenshot will be the one I choose. Winthrop: Haw! Just having a bit o' fun with ye, my friend. Them monks may be walking about with poles in their nethers, but you know you are always welcome here in my sight. Gorion did well by you, he did. So, is there anything I can do for ya? Some drinks, a room to sleep, or anything to buy? I kinda spaced out and didn't buy anything from him like I should have. We're an archer, after all, we should at least have a bow!

Also in the inn is this wizard who gives us Fetch Quest #1. I won't ask why someone has to examine an Identify scroll. They're quite common. Fun fact! If we were evil and killed this wizard, he's worth a whopping 2700 exp. For reference, the wolves outside town are worth a measly 30 or so. A lot of Hardcore/Iron Man runs start with people murdering him to get a leg up. We can talk to other NPCs in the inn, mostly for flavor text.

Nobleman: I MIGHT very well be anyone, but I AM Christian of Waterdeep. Likely you would not know my family name or history, and this suits me well and good. These trips to Candlekeep are a bit of an extravagance on my part, and while I neither use illicit substances nor consort with "hired" company, I spend quite enough here that I should not like it common knowledge. To this end, I should appreciate it if you would forgo your odd little attempt at introductions and leave me to my thoughts.

Christian? In my fantasy world? Next you'll tell me Jesus walked the Realms and Satan's real.

Noblewoman: Colorful? Dear, perhaps we should dress a little more plainly to fit in? Nobleman: It's worth a try my dear, although our clothes may only be the half of it. They certainly couldn't react any worse than they have. I thank you for the suggestion, Somaliendiel, and for putting it tactfully. Good eve to you. I'm not sure how he knew our name. It is something to note that most commoner NPC character models will wear drab brown and gray clothes, but nobles wear vibrant colors. With that, we're done with the inn for now. Here's the map of the area. Candlekeep is the big keep in the middle, with two rings of walls around it. We're within the green box. We'll make a clockwise circuit around this outer area, and hit up all these marked areas.

Hello Fetch Quest #2.

By the way, all over Candlekeep you'll see these green-robed monks. They are tutorial NPCs that will break the 4th wall in explaining gameplay mechanics to you.

Please tell me about leveling up, brother. Conveniently, just a little further to the right, this guy knows exactly where the book is. If you're playing this game on PC, pressing/holding Tab on the keyboard will highlight interactable objects. So we press Tab to see the hay highlighted in blue. Then click it to open the loot menu.

Left is what the interactable object contains, and right is our inventory, plus our carry limit. Soma is a stronk boi, that carry limit is quite nice, as we'll see in the future. That red diamond is a new feature for the Enhanced Edition, I think it's an autoloot function so you can pick everything up at once.

By the way, you can also store items in containers--by clicking them from our inventory it'll move over to the container's inventory. However, this can be dangerous in case we can't get back to the container again. Sometimes the whole map gets reloaded (usually between story chapters) and the container's entire inventory is reset, losing the items it held. Nothing to worry about at the moment as we have literally zero items in our inventory until we pick up this book. Tab also highlighted a door in purple. We can enter this building. And are immediately accosted by this guy. Shank: Who I am is unimportant, but who YOU are is very much so. I apologize for this dirty bit of business, but I must seek your death. A pity, I know, but it would seem your head is worth an exceptional amount to me. I kill you myself and I need not share credit with anyone.

Combat! It did not go well for him, he didn't get a hit in. As for loot, he dropped only the dagger he attacked us with. For now, the quarterstaff does more damage so we'll stick with that. What's wrong is that you're seeing things, since I didn't get hurt at all. Ahem. This monk is scripted to come talk to us after that encounter. Honestly, this blatant lie was too funny not to tell. Hopefully by the time they find Shank's body we'll be well on our way. Further along is a shrine to Oghma, the Lord of Knowledge, patron deity of intellectuals, and, according to the Forgotten Realms wiki, bards. There's not much we can do here. The priest doesn't even give any flavor text. A bit of an oversight if you ask me. The shrine looks pretty cool though so I had to include it. Going south now, we find the official combat tutorial. Another oversight, it seems Gorion never offered us any combat training. I suppose they had to give us a reason to be only level 1.

Jondalar: During our fight, I'm going to spring a little surprise on you. Remember, you can press the SPACE BAR at any time and pause the game. This will give you time to think, especially once my little surprise comes up. Are you ready now? Good! A little more 4th wall breakage, haha. SPACE BAR IS YOUR FRIEND.

The "surprise" is that it's 2 vs 1. Jon's archer buddy starts taking pot-shots at us. Fortunately this is a tutorial, and we don't actually take any damage. I believe the battle ends once you get a hit in on either Jon or the archer. By the way, characters equipped with ranged weapons receive a penalty when they are attacked by melee (i.e. they die fast to melee), so you should get up close and personal with them. So, once Soma gets a bow we'll have to be careful to keep him out of harm's way. There's a lengthy follow up party control tutorial, but we'll skip that. Our focus will be the story, though I'll complain about combat as the situation rises.

A whole room full of rats. Humorously, there are 2 cats in the room who do absolutely nothing. Reevor: Ah yes, kill them like the rats that they are! A glorious battle unlike any this world has ever seen... Here's 5 gold pieces. Don't spend it all in one place.

Further south is the party combat tutorial. He gets unhappy when you decline. Gatewarden: Aye, ye be as ye've always been, then. Worse than tryin' to talk sense to Ulraunt himself. Now there be duties that need attendin' to and I'll not suffer a brat like ye any longer. I looked it up--Ulraunt is a crotchety old wizard who lives in the keep who acts like the boss. It's pretty neat that refusing the tutorial gives us this flavor text. Let's go inside the funkhouse. I mean bunkhouse. (I chose option 1). Carbos: I'll make it my business if'n I please. Just thought I'd have me a look at you for myself, before I puts a blade down your gullet! Someone seems to think you're trouble, so I'm gonna use your head for a ticket out o' the gutter! I'm just a little street trash hood they say, but I'll show 'em! This time he actually got a hit in. Look how slow the combat is. 20 seconds of exchanging misses before he died. The chance to hit at level 1 is a joke. But also, apparently the game will show attack animations that aren't legit attacks. Like, fake animations. It has to do with how "rounds" and real time passes in D&D, so that the combat doesn't look like nothing is happening when waiting for the current round to end.

As we leave the bunkhouse, another monk comes for us. I meant to choose the second option, but it works out since his response is quite informative. He doesn't even try to console us: Karan: It's not this place, child. It's you they're after. Gorion is waiting on the steps to the central library and wants you to go to him as soon as you have bought what you need at the Inn. Oh, Somaliendiel, I have been your tutor for so many years and only in this moment have I come to doubt that my teachings have been enough. Go to Gorion, child. It is safe for you here no longer. These assassins are after Soma in particular. But we're just an orphan... Aren't we?

Next to the bunkhouse is the barracks and inside... another fetch quest. Aww, I'd rather have another assassin. Fuller: Errands? Yeah, actually. I need a quarrel of crossbow bolts. If you could get some off Winthrop at the inn, I'll reimburse you... Oh, very well, there'll be a few coins in it for you too, so you can stop giving me that look. If we go north of the barracks, we'll have done a full loop around the keep and be back at the inn. This time we'll buy some bolts from Winthrop. Winthrop: My hotel's as clean as an elven arse. One thing that took me forever to learn when I played this game is that the shops have tabs. See the bed icon? The icons next to it are tabs for different services. The food/bed tab is for renting a room, the one we have selected is buy/sell, and the third one is to buy drinks. You can get drunk and it gives you a debuff status effect. Since she's by the inn, might as well give her that book. She gave us a Lynx Eye Gem. This game has a ton of little gem items that you can sell for money. Honestly, they may be lore-friendly but they take up inventory space in a way that makes them a poor design decision. The devs made a gem bag in BG2 to help hold them, but that doesn't help as much as they'd think. The fact he's implying an antidote potion can cure hangovers is pretty funny, but also the fact they're just using antidote potions on anything that looks sick is hilarious. I thought the inhabitants of Candlekeep would be a little more educated, but apparently I thought wrong. A hobgoblin, you say? That IS Soma's racial enemy. It turns out, the dagger is magical but unidentified (as indicated by the faint blue around it), meaning we can't tell what kind of enchantment is on it. And we don't have an identify scroll, not that Soma could use one since he isn't a mage. It'll have to be a mystery for now. I decide to give Soma dual daggers for now, since Rangers have an innate bonus to dual wielding. And I never did buy him a bow. In this crate we find Hull's sword and the hangover cure/antidote potion. Hey, he name-dropped Baldur's Gate. If you didn't know, that's the name of a city in the Forgotten Realms. I wonder if we'll go there at some point... :P There is a building in the far bottom right of Candlekeep. The door isn't visible due to the isometric view, but you can go inside if you mouse over where the door should be. It's a little medical facility with a priest who gives us a free potion. There's nothing else to do here so I really wonder why it exists. "Stick with me and you'll drink a bunch of antidote potions." After that we head into the inner gardens. I wanted to post a full view screenshot to show part of the big keep. Also this guy in red makes a beeline for us. Tethtoril: Firebead has sent you to me, hasn't he? Very well, return this scroll to him, but then you must hurry and speak with Gorion. He is waiting for you on the steps of the central library. I assure you, child, it is a matter of greatest urgency. So back to the inn we go, again. He casts Protection from Evil on us. Which makes us glow for exactly 1 minute. Back to the inner cloister, there are these monks that chant over each other. It's a fun effect the devs made by having each of them say their spoken line at random intervals. Give it a listen. [Video: Monks' Chants]. They're chanting about an event in Forgotten Realms history known as the Time of Troubles. It was a cataclysmic event in which the gods fell and were forced to walk the world among humans. Maybe Jesus did walk the Realms. Conflict and war followed, and many gods died by each others' hands. Including, as they mention, the Lord of Murder. Alaundo was a seer who foresaw this all happening. By the way, the end of the Time of Troubles happened, oh, maybe 20 or so years ago. As we meet people making terrible decisions as they struggle to survive, it's partly because humanity/elfkind/gnomedom etc. as a whole is still trying to recover from this event. Anyway, let's continue around the keep. I like the fountain animation! At the front of the keep, this girl in purple talks to us. Imoen: Oh, I know. Old stick-in-the-mud that he is, all worried about nothing, I'm sure. Better go now, 'cause you've got a long ways to travel... Not... not that I would know, especially since I didn't peek at old Mr. G's private letters. No, sir. Better go now, bye-bye. It isn't exactly clear, but Imoen is about Soma's age and also grew up in Candlekeep. But she's not "Gorion's ward" like Soma is, so I've no idea how she's been allowed to stick around. Finally! The man, the myth, the legend... Fun fact, Gorion is voiced by Jim Cummings, man of a million voices. I love how one of the options is to tell him Candlekeep is a fortress, what could harm us? Besides, you know, those two different assassins just minutes ago. And we're thrown into a cutscene. Please watch since I won't be screenshotting its events. [Movie: End of Prologue] That's the end of the prologue. A very short-lived father & foster son adventure. Of course, the mystery now is, who were they, and why do they want us?