I... agree with the general thesis, but feel that at least a meagre recognition of what it did right would not be out of order.
Baldur's Gate has merits, it just outclassed by its sequel. It's an iffy place to start if you want to get into Infinity Engine game.
I don't know, "has its merits" and a 5/10 doesn't quite gel. To me, 5/10 is something like Fable: The Lost Chapters, which I would have a hard time recommending to anyone past its 2nd to 6th hour (i.e. minus the shitty tutorial before and truly horrendous storyline after).
Then again, I haven't yet played it, so maybe it is on the same level. I think the archaic 400-word limit on here is the biggest problem for such reviews, as you don't really have enough space to go in-depth and/or be balanced. I've been spending a lot of time on rpgmaker.net and they have a 300 word minimum over there, which is a much better way of doing things.
I would argue that BG 1 and BG 2 are from two different eras of RP Gs, despite the short amount of time between them. BG 1 feels more like a throwback to the Goldbox RP Gs. It's a simple game, with a minimalist plot (which I mean as a reflection of the way the plot is presented entirely through scrolls. The story itself is actually one of my favourites from any RPG - if only it were told better), very little NPC interaction, and an emphasis on combat and exploration.
I privately like to think of BG 1 as being the Bilbo game, as it does feel like butter scraped over too much bread. I think that had they reduced the amount of wilderness areas by say 25%, and put the content in the remaining locations, the game would have been much better. As you said, it ends up feeling "all chaff and little wheat."
However, at the same time, that sort of thing was fairly common in the RPG tradition BG was drawing upon. In a way, BG 1 felt a bit like a Might and Magic game played from an isometric perspective.
BG 2, however, was the vanguard of a new sort of RPG. It seems to me that it drew a lot more influence from Fallout and Final Fantasy, and sought to kind of blend everything together - a blend that I would say has gone on to influence almost every RPG made since.
So I agree that BG 2 is a significantly better game than BG 1, but that's not to say BG 1 is a bad game, and also there's a context in which BG 1 could be seen as better than BG 2 (though in that context IWD would probably be seen as better than BG 1, but whatever).
Also, while I objectively think BG 2 is the better game, I end up subjectively enjoying BG 1 just as much, if not moreso. Something about low level adventures, and skittering around the Sword Coast hoping your little 6 HP Mage doesn't get one-shotted by a bandit arrow.
Something about low level adventures, and skittering around the Sword Coast hoping your little 6 HP Mage doesn't get one-shotted by a bandit arrow.
I certainly get that appeal. Having that said that, The Age of Decadence is, improbably, nearing release, and it's about to have a very good go at claiming that low-level niche for itself.
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Baldur's Gate: A meager experience stretched thin and a prologue to a better game.
When people say they love Baldur's Gate they actually mean Baldur's Gate 2. Baldur's Gate 2 is an RPG masterpiece that is still fun to play 15 years on. Baldur's Gate, on the other hand, is an unfocused learning exercise that straddles the line between engaging and boring, a 3 out of 5 if you will.
The plot of Baldur's Gate is that you're a hapless ward who's cast into a fantasy wilderness, and you must uncover a political conspiracy that unleashes assassins on your arse at every turn. The inner workings of the story are quite interesting although most of it is relayed through letters and books and towards the end, huge clumsy info-dumps. You can choose from a huge number of allies to join you, but beneath their skin-deep personalities they're intended as little more than expendable meat-shields
The combat is based on the 2e D&D ruleset, a self-contradictory and needlessly obtuse system that'll you just have to live with but it's not that complicated. It's easy to get burnt out playing the game as the enemies aren't too diverse, the only real challenge are Mages, and it can be really fucking annoying getting ambushed while resting. You're best weapon is the Quicksave key.
The underlying problem with Baldur's Gate is that its world is too big for the sparse content it has. It's all chaff and little wheat. You can traverse every square-inch of the Sword Coast, and all you'll find is some useless knob who tells a corny joke. Every wilderness area looks the same and there are too many maze dungeons which are a bitch to navigate. There are over a hundred sidequests and they're all bare-bones Fedex jobs which seldom feel rewarding.
If you're going to play this game then get the Enhanced Edition or install mods to remove many of the initial annoyances. Also use a save editor if a quest breaks or your stats suck. Consult a walkthrough if you don't feel like hiking blindly through the woods in search of a lost pair of boots.
Baldur's Gate is only worth finishing once but playing it gave me a greater appreciation for the sequel. Bioware learned from the first game's faults and this guided them into making Baldur's Gate 2 the memorable, hand-crafted RPG epic oozing with charm and filled with adventure that it is today.