This is as close to a literal port of
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons that you can find in the gaming universe. The experience awards are accurate, the races and classes are accurate, the rolls to hit are accurate, and alignment matters. I don’t know how they did it, but it’s like pencil and paper RPGing without all the bickering. I must admit, I can sit for hours and just piddle with
Baldur’s Gate, not even bothering to advance the plot, just toying with all the options that
AD&D gives you; tons of spells, tons of weapons, tons of classes, tons of characters in your party at once. If you like variety, then this game is definitely your bag. If not, you can just limit yourself to the crazy things that you do. Just remember that if you don’t act like you should (good characters shouldn’t go around slaughtering innocents, mind you), you can have penalties as your alignment changes. Never has it been so... realistic is the closest word that I can come up with.
And then there’s the story. Epic in length, involving all your favorite major players from the Forgotten Realms setting; this game has story in spades. Mostly non-linear, stacked with a gazillion side quests gameplay at that. Mmm.
