Baldur's gate 1 - Safe in Beregost (music)

[runewarrior0]

This game played a huge part in my childhood, hearing this music really is something special to me.

[Gilbroyen]

This really does sum up my teenage years, really sad I know, but yeah. This game was one of the most important stepping stones for my love of fantasy.

[Flavkupe]

Good ta meet a fine sod such as yerself

[destinysbane]

best game soundtrck ever, even bg2 didnt quite break this mold...

[HandsomeDynamite]

Glad ta meet ya friend.

[xxJarlaxle]

This song remind's me my childhood....ahh...Now i want play this game! Where the hell is the CD!?

[nycoshouse]

@xxJarlaxle listen to this : 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' Original Soundtrack - 11 Hommlet

[butthead6886]

this shit takes me back to the good days. everything was good wen i was playin thisgame. gwahh so classic.

i actually only listen to this song now after i indulge in a Large dose of opiates. it still doesnt compare to drug free nostalgia

rip baldurs gate. i loveyou

[whitzbdg]

the best game

[solomonkain]

beautiful music, but not just this piece, I'm talking about the entire soundtrack to both games, simply stunning.

[mkreisel]

BG1 still runs on 64 bit Vista without any modifications and problems, but BG2 won't even install.

[zarakhast]

Why did the BG2 manual give you the names, races and classes of ALL the NPCs who could join your party ? That was a disappointment to me : I don't want to be told all the wonders I might meet. I really don't understand that strange change from BG1. In the manual for BG1 you were never given anything more than a hint.

BG2 was a GREAT game but the manual gave too much away - what a disappointing start. What an unbelievably stupid decision. Great game but struth - terrible idea !

[mrchuckmorris]

And yeah, that was so annoying how the manuel gave it all away for you! I think they did that so players who had, say, Edwin in their party in BG1 wouldn't whine and cry when they couldn't find him in the sequel. Losers...

Well, at least it didn't give away EVERY old character... the ones with cameos such as Garrick, Tiax, Xzar and Montaron were, I think, pretty expertly placed, although I would've liked to be able to recruit them. But where were my favorites Kivan, Xan, and Adjantis?? :-(

[mrchuckmorris]

Sorry, I meant "manual." And "Ajantis."

[zarakhast]

@mrchuckmorris I was only nitpicking, of course : I absolutely loved BG2. However, those were some of my first impressions. Why reveal the whole cast and where you are likely to find most of them ? Part of any great adventure is not knowing what's coming. A strange decision by the makers imo.

I've always used both Xan and Ajantis. Ajantis was always great as my number 2 fighter and doubled up as a healer. Xan's hopelessness is hilarious.

[IsilionNELE]

@mrchuckmorris ajantis was in BG2 too. he was part of the group of paladins you kill when you enter windspear hill. if you have keldorn with you he will recognize ajantis

[mrchuckmorris]

@IsilionNELE well yeah, I knew Ajantis *appears* in the game (as well as Xan, who's only in the tutorial), but my complaint was that you didn't get to use either of them as an NPC without some kind of mod.

[Runazarag]

heh you have point

luckly i have no manual in my BG compilation

[zarakhast]

It didn't matter ultimately because BG2 turned out to be as good as BG1 and in some ways better than it. But it would have been even better if Black Isle/Bioware hadn't decided to change the map. And BG1 also had more NPCs - and you weren't told in the manual where you might find them either. That's supposed to be a surprise isn't it ? Great games. I'm just nitpicking.

[zarakhast]

* NPCs who could join your party * (=22 (?) in BG1 and only 16 (?) in BG2 (?)) Apologies if I've got that wrong.

[mrchuckmorris]

Yeah, BG1 was so revolutionary in that you could literally walk off any side of any map and have 3 more totally different unnamed maps, each full of its own adventures and characters. I was so disappointed to find that this was not the case in BG2... but at least its fewer areas were filled to the brim with days and days of stuff to do and discover.

One other thing I did like about BG2 more, though, was how the number of monsters was proportional to your characters' levels.

[mrchuckmorris]

Actually no, I take that last part back... to an extent. The non-proportional monster system in BG1 at least encouraged you to travel around and get experienced enough to tackle the dungeons after running through the Nashkel Mines and getting shot to death by kobold commandos. I remember getting stuck there for months (hey, it was my first computer game ever as a 5th grader), then finally discovering the joy of venturing into the unknown to build my strength and enjoy the masterpiece.

[zarakhast]

It was a great thing to be INTRODUCED, by stages and very intelligently, to how to play the game : how to wield weapons and spells etc. - and yet be allowed the freedom to go wrong. BG1 was so well written.

[mrchuckmorris]

Indeed, it was such a grandiose and insanely detailed world and story, with everything intertwining in the most awesome ways, that it proves to me the fact that video games are the evolution of the modern story. It's so epic it can't be made into a movie or written into a book, because the protagonists, their journeys, and the story altogether is however you make it. BG2 seemed to me like a movie you played. BG1 was like a world you lived.

[zarakhast]

I love both games but I remember being disappointed with BG2 for a long time after I'd started playing it - precisely because it had dispensed with what I used to call the "wilderness" (i.e. the optional) areas, where you could go off and have an adventure and not be forced to follow the plot. I still stand by that opinion now.

[zarakhast]

Linearity vs. "freedom".

Both BG1 and BG2 were story-driven and therefore "linear". But BG1 had a map with areas which weren't "necessary" to the main plot. I personally preferred the map in BG1. But many people complained that they were getting lost. I got lost quite a few times but it never bothered me ! In BG2 and the rest of the IE games this kind of map was discarded. This was a mistake imo. There were sections of BG2 where I felt like I was being forced along a predetermined path.

[gaxxag]

This music reminds me of trying to get past that wizard you encounter the first time entering the Friendly Arm In. Trying to survive a 5th level caster's magic missile as a 1st level wizard just to get inside was a challenge like nothing before or since in gaming :P

[HandsomeDynamite]

Such a great game...I think I'll play through it again. I can't get tired of it. I even love the stone-themed menu.

[derekaitken]

The start of this song makes me feel like i've been transported to the realms hahaha

[FennorVirastar]

The first 5 seconds of this music are enough for feeling like you would be in the game again

[Agent1W]

@FennorVirastar "Ho there, wanderer! Stay thy course a moment to indulge an old man..."

[Nhordmyr]

@Agent1W Sounds familiar to: Hello my friend, stay a while and listen

[Agent1W]

@Nhordmyr Well, Deckard Cain actually puts it in plain English lol! :)

[DeatgMagnet]

@Nhordmyr But BG was before D2 :P

[Nhordmyr]

@DeatgMagnet I don't doubt that.

[KnightOneDark]

@FennorVirastar Wow! You were right, and I haven't played this game in over a decade. Was there similar music in the PS2 BG?

[ChingXyooj]

@KnightOneDark you mean dark alliance? nop, even with the name "baldur's gate" on it, the story didn't not sync in with the original pc games because its made by a different company, thus different composer.

[KnightOneDark]

@ChingXyooj Then I must remember the original. Crazy.

[Ltxtx]

indeed a great game :< all the 6 disc lying on my shelf *tear*

[plamata]

Yeah, mine too :) Such a priceless item, this box is.

[Littleboazfly]

Memoris*.*<33333

[xxAtlantianKnightxx]

I can't forget my first tavern fight in this town.... <3

[robertpausch1979]

whats special about BG1 is, that one starts really weak. even a simple wolf could kill you there with lvl 1 or 2 or a simple archer with one shot. thats what made me being aware of enemies and having fear and stuff! thats THE game!

[lolallanamn]

Not just the vurnability. The music and epic story, its everything combined. very good game and i will allways remember it, even when im old and senile ;)

[Ecnomic]

This game and its music could create the best feeling i've ever experienced in games...... only a few could be compared to that....but....not really ;)

[MordorTheModmaker]

amen

[mrchuckmorris]

Yeah, this game started you off feeling so totally exposed and fearful, yet the music was always there to inspire you to explore. You really *do* appreciate the first safety you can find in Beregost, more than any game I can think of.

[zarakhast]

It had the right balance all the way through. You could gain yourself a BIT of an advantage by going off to fight in the wilderness - though never in areas which you weren't supposed to access yet - but the game never became unbalanced. One of the (trifling) criticisms I have against BG2 is that it denied the player this freedom, which BG1 did allow. Owing, imo, to the developers' stupidly listening to irrelevant criticisms of BG1. That's nitpicking though : the BGs were almost perfect.