I didn't expect to walk this far down memory lane. But two decades after last playing Baldur's Gate, I finished the game again.
Baldur's Gate is the granddaddy of many Western RPGs like Divinity, Pillars of Eternity, and Dragon Age. Released in 1998, its developer was BioWare. The company was founded by six men, including three doctors from the same medical school at University of Alberta.
Set in the Forgotten Realms and based on a Dungeons and Dragons ruleset, Baldur's Gate (or BG1) was my first digital experience of D&D.
BG1 is a true D&D romp: the thrill of adventuring with a party of diverse talents, freedom to decide what sort of person you'll be (and reaping the consequences), and the ever-nearness of death (because battles can go sideways pretty quickly). 
Just walking through
No quest/map trackers back then. Just you and your journal. The journal did record quests but not always where the quest giver was. You could mark locations on your area map, but I forgot to do that sometimes. Hence the need for Dudleyville.
Even on this recent playthrough, I would have wandered fruitlessly without Dudleyville and the Baldur's Gate Wiki to consult.
One common complaint about BG1 was that you were likely to spend most of the game wandering in the wilderness. It was a beautiful sort of wilderness—the great forested outdoors—but event-wise, there were tons of blank space. Many area maps had only 3 or 4 events, excluding random enemy spawns.
Some players actually liked the wandering. It was the lovely freedom of roaming free of concern. No sticky note reminders about the main quest hanging from the corner of your screen.
In any case, no one could complain that the climactic city of Baldur's Gate lacked events. Sprawled across seven whole maps, arriving at this urban mammoth made me feel like a country bumpkin staring slack-jawed at her first big city.
It's all about the people
The overarching story is about an orphan-turned-adventurer who discovers their disturbing parentage.
Main quests involve political-economic troubles, usually solved by you killing packs of monsters. Side quests range from rescuing a sorceress (actually, a mage; 'cos there's a big difference in D&D), to curing a chicken curse (50% chance of failure), to finding a boy's dog (because there must always be a lost pet!).
But party companions are the real life of the game. They can be good, neutral, or evil—in total, there are 9 moral alignments—and will quit your party if you aren't being good enough or evil enough.
Companions can also kill each other, literally, over moral differences. Which is why you're provided up to 25 recruitable companions in the original Baldur's Gate, plus 4 new companions in BG: Enhanced Edition. Unless you're playing on Easy difficulty or constantly saving, you're likely to lose a body or two. Permanently.
For my recent playthrough I didn't fancy internal bickering, so I avoided choosing evil-aligned companions. Being evil is much more entertaining and comes with over-the-top dialogue options. The goody-goodies are less interesting, and in fact more annoying, but I felt like being a goody-goody.
Also, I discovered that the character Dynaheir was voiced by now-legendary Jennifer Hale. Wouldn't have guessed!
Hello THAC0, my old friend
Baldur's Gate is full of mechanics that younger players might find quirky today. For example:
To cast spells, you first have to memorize them. This requires sleeping. If you sleep outdoors, you might get ambushed by a pack of kobolds or hobgoblins. Even if you don't get your sleep interrupted, you might still fail to memorize the spell. There are limited spell slots, and each slot provides merely one single use of a spell. Sleep will restore exhausted spells . . . unless you choose to forget them and make space for new spells. Did I hear you whisper "inconvenient"?
And how could I not forget the THAC0 system? "To Hit Armor Class 0" are dice numbers a character must roll to successfully hit their opponent. The opponent's "armor class" (how good the armor is) influences how hard it is roll the required numbers.
Revisiting this RPG after so long, it certainly feels old and little clunky. But it's still got plenty of life. A living artifact, not a dead relic.
I ended up pouring 40-45 hours into the game, finishing nearly all sidequests (minus the expansion called Tales of the Sword Coast). Of those hours, unfortunately, too many were spent opening boxes and chests that only proved to be empty.
I had no memory of the story's ending, so its abruptness surprised me. Siege of Dragonspear picks up the tale and fills the gap between BG1 and BG2. I've never played it but I'm more keen to move on to BG2 and see how it holds up to memory.
As a kid, I used to replay early parts of BG1 with different protagonists. I won't do that this time. Baldur's Gate 2 awaits, and it's said to be the superior game. Even now, BG2 is still regarded as one of the best Western RPGs of all time.
Pleasant walk down memory lane
Looking back on these 40+ hours, I enjoyed the nostalgia. But if I hadn't grown up on the BG series, I'm not sure how enjoyable it would be for me in 2022. It actually still looks pretty. But it's a tough game on Normal difficulty and not beginner-friendly by current standards.
I played on Easy difficulty, which is perfect for just enjoying the story. On Easy mode and Story mode (which is like Easy, except party members never die), you mow down enemies like they're naught but bugs. I only ever died during fights against basilisks and that one battle before the final boss.
The final boss himself went down quickly. I don't know if it's because I was playing on Easy, or because I had every party member drink a cocktails of potions beforehand (Heroism, Invulnerability, Magic Blocking, Frost Giant Strength, Fire Resistance).
No matter which difficulty mode you choose, it's prudent to save often. And you can save at any time in BG1, except during combat and dialogue.
Nintendo Switch version? Highly recommended
I loved that playing on the Switch meant quick saving and loading times. The Switch is both more powerful and way more convenient than my laptop. Which is why I've had BG on PC for years and never played it, while I finished the game within a few months of buying it for the Switch.
For a big RPG, Baldur's Gate is easy to pick and put down. I could play for 15 minutes and feel I got something out of it, even if it was simply walking around and turning a map's blank canvas into a painting.
The Switch port is simply excellent. I never thought a CRPG like this would work well with handheld controls, but it does. Sure, some controls are tedious, like inventory management, looting, and selecting actions. But other things work quickly and smoothly, like moving the party, selecting members, targeting objects, and navigating menus.
Finishing Baldur's Gate speaks to how much the Switch has changed my gaming habits. I don't enjoy gaming on the PC or PS4 as I used to. The Switch takes less time to boot up. I can lounge on the couch or change rooms quickly. I can play in between the day's activities.
Many thanks, Beamdog, for remaking these classics and bringing them to the Nintendo Switch!