Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First, you have to ask yourself: why is a game from a few years ago STILL getting 5-star reviews -- a bunch in just the past couple months?!? And second: how could a 2-D game (like the Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 series) possibly hold up against 3-D games like Neverwinter Nights? Well, it's because of gameplay. It's remarkable. You start out by waking up on a slab, in a cemetary. You have no memory, but you've got a lot of wordy tattoos all over your body, and a very talkative floating skull to fill you in. As you progress, you'll meet up with many other characters who can join your group (or not), including a strange living computer called a Modron, and a bizarre man engulfed in flames. But what really makes the game stand out is how open-ended it is. It's like Morrowind in that respect. You can do anything, go anywhere, fight or talk, do some quests and ignore others. Your character can find "masters" who will teach your character to fight, become a magician, or a thief. You can even switch back and forth. But even better than that is the dialogue, which is NOT forced or pre-programmed to lead you one way each time. The dialogues that each character speaks can take into account your experience, your intelligence, how attactive you are, where you are in the game, etc. One of the most amazing discoveries for me went like this. Playing the game the first time, I had a fairly average character who was very strong. Some of the dialogue with Ravel, about two-thirds into the game, was just stunning. The plot twists threw me for a loop. But then I played again with a wimpy but incredibly smart character. I was stunned to see my character pulling out plot details from the characters almost as soon as they joined the group. By the time I got to Ravel, I was a completely different character and had completely different conversations with her. And the end! It can change! It's pretty great ending(s) too, so I won't even mention what happens. If anything is a disappointment, it is that the opening cemetary is pretty dark -- work through it and get out as soon as you can. If you can find a save-game online that at least gets you down onto the first floor of the cemetary, maybe do that. Once you are in town, the game just blossoms into something incredible. My only sadness is that the game did well when it was launched, but not stellar. I'd like to thank their marketing department for the hideous box cover for probably killing quite a few sales. Because of this, I've lost hope for there ever being a sequel or even a game with a similar style. I'm very sad to see that, even after a few years, this game still has no rival.