Baldur’s Gate 2 is the most important game you shouldn’t play in 2023
Baldur’s Gate 3 is almost upon us, and naturally, this might make you wonder about Baldur’s Gate 2 and, to a lesser extent, the first Baldur’s Gate. After reading about these games on the internet (a mistake) you’ll probably come across phrases like “Baldur’s Gate 2 is the best RPG ever made” and you’ll think, Damn, maybe I should get in on that. I’m here to tell you no. You do not need to get in on that.
Do not misunderstand: Baldur’s Gate 2 lives up to its reputation. It’s an astonishingly dense and satisfying fantasy role-playing game and one of the first big games to make it feel like the player’s choices mattered and took place in the context of a sprawling, well-told story. That was cool when it was released in 2000, and it’s cool now. I’m just saying that you might not be aware of what you’re getting into — on a mechanical level — should you decide to play it 23 years later.
One of the funny things about Baldur’s Gate 2 is that, for many years, its reputation was so glowing that its origins became obscured. There was a solid decade when you could read hundreds of words on Baldur’s Gate 2 without ever learning something core to its identity: It was a Dungeons & Dragons game.
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More specifically, it was an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons2nd edition game, which means it was built to replicate an experience that, frankly, should serve as punishment for most misdemeanor offenses and a few felonies. It is hardcore, a game that expects you to understand the high-level statistics and probability parsing it is doing behind the scenes in order to navigate its many tricky encounters.
Unlike many liberal arts majors, I am not afraid of numbers. Math is fine. But no one should have to learn about THAC0, an abbreviation
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