Baldur's Gate was the first great daptation of the classic tabletop, role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons that reinvigorated the hardcore role-playing genre for the PC.

It offers six separate races and eight core character classes, from which the player can create a completely original character. The game world is beautifully designed in the best 2d renders of its time, and players are free to explore this wonderful game environment in any way they see fit, all against the backdrop of a thoughtfully conceived and versatile plot written by the genre's finest at Bioware.

Your adventures begin as a young orphan living with your stepfather within the safe and scholarly confines of Candlekeep on the Sword Coast. It is an idyllic life until you are forced to leave the place in order to ensure the safety of everyone within. Your stepfather is killed on the night of your journey, and it becomes clear that you are intended to be next. You, as the young protagonist, then set out to discover your true identity, which your stepfather kept from you, and your ultimate destiny.

During the adventures, you recruit a number of personable allies, battle foes, delve into dungeons, trek across wilderness, solve mysteries, and complete a plethora of epic quests that are seamlessly sown into the fabric of the overall plot. The story line unfolds in response to your choices to reveal your character's true identity as well as the nature and motive of your enemies.

Baldur's Gate is the epitome of the classic role-playing experience. It won several awards in 1998 for being the Role-Playing Game of the Year, and as such, it sets itself as the standard by which all such games will be judged. Games like Planescape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic all take inspiration from the masterpiece that is Baldur's Gate.