One of the best games ever

Probably the best RPG ever, entertaining and challenging with a great story line without overdoing the combat aspects which some later RPG's tended to do.

I have played this game first long before BG1 and before my Steam account, so I have more to review about this one.

This game holds up very well despite being over 25 years old. The paint-style visuals still look pretty good these days, especially this EE version, the musics are awesome giving so much atmosphere to the varied game environments, and the UI serves it’s purpose with the icons and the hotkeys. The real-time system might be quite a hazzle with so many individual party members to control at the same time. Luckily you can always pause the game any time and you can also define the party AI.

As a RPG game, this game is not so open-ended nor does offer interactions with the game world, like climbing or smashing barrels. The game is too often about fighting over and over again, and the situations cannot be solved in different and in flexible ways, unlike in Fallout 1 and 2. And apparently stats like the alignments and charisma have no real impact to the dialogue choices. Luckily the combat is more versatile and tactical with lots of spells, enemy types, class abilities, equipments and items like wands, potions and such.

One of the things I really dislike is the obsolete AD&D system with the ridiculous weapon and armor restrictions. The D&D terms like THAC0, Sawing Throws, Hit Dice and AC won’t tell anything to those who are not familiar with the D&D rules. It’s funny that a small halfling can wear the same suit of armor as a big half-orc considering the weapon and armor restrictions. There are too many weapon proficiencies to choose from in the character creation, and not all of them are worthy. So a warrior can wield a longsword masterfully but a shortsword is too difficult to him. And I don't like how the actions are so binary, like door bashing or lock picking and such.

The real star of the game, besides the well-written story and the villain, are the followers with their dialogues, backstories, personalities and their side-quests. They are not just mute pack-mules,you actually start to care of them, and you can even have romances with some of them. The tons of NPCs with their dialogues make the game world more lively and believable. And not to mention the villain of the story with so much build-up, his motives and the personal connection to the player. And of course, there are nostalgia value and the multiplay.