Baldur's Gate (series)

Baldur's Gate is a franchise of action role-playing games released under the Dungeons & Dragons Video Game Licenses. It is set in the fictional campaign setting of Forgotten Realms and takes place in its fictional continent of Faerûn. It takes place mostly in the Western Heartlands, but has also been extended to take place in Amn and Tethyr. The franchise spans two series, the Bhaalspawn Saga and the Dark Alliance Series.

The Bhaalspawn Saga Series were developed by Canadian game developer Bioware for Personal Computer. They use the Infinity Engine, the same engine that would power Planescape: Torment and the Icewind Dale series. The games largely follow Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Editition rules, but eschew the turn-based system for pausable realtime gameplay. The first game and its expansion are set exclusively in the Western Heartlands, whereas its second game and its expansion are set exclusively in Amn and Tethyr. The series was critically praised and, (along with Diablo), is credited with revitalizing the CRPG genre.

The console-exclusive Dark Alliance Series features a more action-heavy hack and slash approach with purely real-time mechanics. Unlike the Bhaalspawn Saga Series, both games released in the Dark Alliance Series take place in the Western Heartlands only and explores many areas not explored in the Bhaalspawn Saga Series.

A third series was planned and was set to take place in the Dalelands, this was supposed to be the Black Hound series. It was scheduled to be released exclusively on the PC and was supposed to be a hack and slash video game with pausable realtime. It would have used the same gameplay as in the Bhaalspawn Saga Series but the story would not have been connected at all. It was set to be the first game in a fantastic new trilogy that was canceled when Interplay forfeited the Dungeons & Dragons PC License fully to Atari. ^[1]

Overview

The Baldur's Gate series brought many technical advancements over computer-based role-playing games of the past. BioWare's Infinity Engine offers a pre-rendered isometric worldview, with sprite-based characters. Baldur's Gate was also the third computer game ever to make use of the Lua scripting language. The engine was also used for Planescape: Torment and the Icewind Dale series.

The games are based on a real-time modification of the second edition AD&D (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) ruleset. The player's party can have up to six members, either created by the player according to the AD&D rules or NPCs recruited by the protagonist from the game world. Numerous side quests and plot twists are associated with particular NPCs and can be activated if they are found in the player's party. Through extensive, context-dependent dialogue, many characters inside and outside the player's party are fleshed out and given an added level of complexity.

In 1999, Baldur's Gate won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Computer Game of 1998, and in 2000, Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast won Best Roleplaying Computer Game of 1999. Baldur's Gate has also been often compared to Diablo (an action RPG), perhaps for similarities in dungeon-crawling and the isometric view, but is much more story driven with less hack and slash.

Games

Bhaalspawn saga

Baldur's Gate

The first game in the series introduces the player character as a powerless orphan raised in the monastery of Candlekeep, south of Baldur's Gate and north of the kingdom of Amn. The main character searches for the killer of his or her foster father, Gorion, and becomes involved with the region's iron crisis which causes metal to crumble, all while battling to stay alive.

An expansion pack for Baldur's Gate, Tales of the Sword Coast did not add anything to the primary storyline, but presented the protagonist with more areas to explore along the Sword Coast, more powerful enemies, more spells, better equipment, and allows the player character to reach higher levels of experience. It also made some general changes to gameplay and altered the original game's final battle.

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

The main character is captured by Jon Irenicus and must escape into the city of Athkatla, the capital of Amn. Here the protagonist faces several different ways to figure out the reason behind the capture as he or she journeys through the region of Amn and the Underdark. The game presents a number of innovations over the first Baldur's Gate game, including further specialization of character classes, better graphics and higher power levels. It also allowed for more interaction with the game's joinable NPCs, including friendships, romances, and your own party members' interactions with one another.

Throne of Bhaal is an expansion pack for Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, and includes both an expansion of the original game -such as new areas to explore- as well as a conclusion to the Bhaalspawn story arc started in the first Baldur's Gate game.

Dark Alliance series

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance

The action RPG Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was developed by Snowblind Studios and others, and released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2 console, and later Xbox and GameCube video game consoles. The game takes place in the city of Baldur's Gate and surrounding area and is set in the Forgotten Realms setting, with a ruleset derived from the 3rd edition Dungeon and Dragons ruleset; the plot is unrelated to previous PC games. The console RPG's used perspective correct overhead third person view, and hack and slash dungeon crawl style gameplay. A Gameboy Advance version was released in 2004, with reduced graphics quality using an 2.5D isometric type perspective. All versions were very well received.

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II

A sequel, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II was developed by Black Isle Studios and released in 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox; the game used the same gameplay style as the original, and was also positively reviewed. The gameplay style was expanded to make the game more like an RPG, the ability to craft weapons, armour and amulets was added, Baldur's Gate became a hub city with the addition of a world map and being able to travel back to areas, making the game open world and many more side-quests were added as well as the ability to level up one's class.

Future

A third game in the series was cancelled when Black Isle Studios was closed in 2004 by parent company Interplay Entertainment Corp.

Unfinished Games

Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound

Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound (code named Jefferson and FR6) was mentioned in early 2001 as a new game in the Baldur's Gate series to be made by Black Isle Studios using a completely new 3D engine.^[2]

The Black Hound was originally going to be a departure from the high-powered epic of the Bhaalspawn saga to a low-key, roleplaying plot. With protagonists progressing to around level four at the end of BIS' typically enormous campaign and a hard cap at level eight, gameplay was refocussed to a flat and wide adventure emphasizing quests over combat. In fact, the game was only titled "Baldur's Gate" due to Interplay having lost the general D&D license to Atari, but still retaining the right to make "Baldur's Gate" and "Icewind Dale" branded D&D games (the same reason as for BGDA's title.)^[2] The game was not going to be connected to the previous Baldur's Gate series in any way and would start a new series, the Black Hound series. Like Bioshock Infinite it would have been a sequel in terms of gameplay and not story, it would continue some parts of the Icewind Dale II story though.

The game was announced in 2002 and was said to have used the 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons ruleset, the gameplay of the previous Baldur's Gate games would have been updated to fit the ruleset. Many new gameplay features were also going to be added to fit the 3rd Edition Ruleset better, elements from the Dark Alliance series would have also been borrowed. The game used the Jefferson Engine which featured 3D effects such as casting dynamic shadows. The game was 75% finished before it was canceled. Its cancellation happened due to Interplay losing the right to publish Baldur's Gate games on the PC yet retaining the Baldur's Gate name for consoles, the result of this was Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II.

The game appeared to be canceled in 2003, just before its engine was re-purposed for Black Isle's ill-fated Van Buren Fallout 3 project. Subsequently, Josh Sawyer, one of the designers of the canceled game, resumed development of The Black Hound as a module for Neverwinter Nights 2.^[2] As of 2009, this remains a side project for Sawyer, who works at Obsidian Entertainment.^[3]

However, in April of 2004 IGN released information that a Baldur's Gate III was in the works at that time, no longer to be developed by Black Isle and published by Interplay, but to be published by Atari.^[4]

As revealed in an interview with Winterwind Productions, Black Hound developer Damien Foletto revealed the story and setting of the game, which would have been in the Dalelands. The player character would have been resting at his campsite when a lady chasing a Black Hound crashes in, she kills the hound which dies on the player's lap. Accusing the player of being in league with the dog, she is about to kill the player as well, but the Riders of Archendale arrive and scare her off and question the player. After a brief inquisition, the local magistrates tell the player not to wander far because they may have more questions. And so begins the players quest to find out who the mad cleric was, what this has to do with him/her, why a black spirit hound now follows him/her around, and why can't people just leave the player character alone and do things for themselves.^[5]

In the January 2008 issue of PC Gamer UK, the editor claims that he knows that Baldur's Gate III is indeed being worked on - this has further been reiterated in the January 2009 edition.

On December 2, 2008, Atari stated in a press conference that the Baldur's Gate series (among others) would be revisited after 2009.^[6]

On February 7, 2010, in an interview about Mass Effect 2, IGN asked Ray Muzyka of BioWare about the future of Baldur's Gate, noting the sighting of Boo in the Citadel souvenir shop. He replied, 'Hey, that's just a space hamster. Boo's brother. And again, you'll have to talk to Atari about that, they've got the license.'^[7]

Novels

Philip Athans, editor of the Forgotten Realms novel line, wrote the first two novels in the Baldur's Gate trilogy of novels: Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, both based on the storylines of the computer game series. The novels follow the bare basics of the original stories, but eschew several of the games' numerous subplots and include only a few of the NPCs. The Bhaalspawn main character is named Abdel Adrian in the novels. The third, and final, novel - Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal - was authored by Drew Karpyshyn. The novelizations are considered to be the canon in the Forgotten Realms universe.

• Athans, Philip (June 1999). Baldur's Gate : A Novelization. Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 978-0786915255. 

• Athans, Philip (September 2000). Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 978-0786915699. 

• Karpyshyn, Drew (September 2001). Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. Wizards of the Coast. ISBN 978-0786919857. 

References

External links

• BioWare website