A few summers ago, I spent a lot of time immersing myself in Baldur's Gate II (Shadows Of Amn), and found the experience to be one of a kind. I was unable to go a whole day without at least 6 hours of that game, and even then I would spend time thinking of strategies for combat and what have you. In short, I was thoroughly addicted. It remains the only game I've replayed immediately after finishing it the first time!

Last year when I came across the original, I was however surprisingly apathetic about buying it. Perhaps I was burnt out because I'd played its sequel for so long, or perhaps I felt that it was somehow inferior. Perhaps also it was because the intrigue of the story would be lost on me, because I had already played the sequel and so knew the outcome of the first game. Whatever it was, in the end I did buy it after all.

And now, for a week or so I've been rivalling the gaming experience I had with its sequel. Which makes me think that the Baldur's Gate saga must be the greatest saga ever! Well, perhaps that's a little extreme, but both the games (excluding the expansions) in the saga are quite simply, remarkable. In my narrow-minded opinion, it's the RPG saga.

In case you don't know what Baldur's Gate is, it's an RPG that's set in the Forgetten Realms world of D&D. Unlike demi RPGs like Diablo, there is an amazing amount of depth to the game. Since it's based on D&D rules, there are a few aspects of it that take a while to get used to. For instance, there is no notion of mana, but to cast a spell you must "memorize" it first (which involves resting). Sounds tedious, but it just needs a little getting used to. The game has tons of magical weapons of equipment, not to mention some fantastic spells, which make (most) combat very interesting, with a lot of options. And of course there's the role-playing aspect of it, where you can decide what kind of character you play (good, neutral, evil).