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Baldur's Gate (video game)

Baldur's GateDeveloper(s)BioWareBlack Isle StudiosPublisher(s)Interplay EntertainmentProducer(s)Ray MuzykaDesigner(s)James OhlenProgrammer(s)Scott GreigArtist(s)John GallagherWriter(s)Lukas KristjansonComposer(s)Michael HoenigSeriesBaldur's GateEngineInfinity EnginePlatform(s)Microsoft Windows, Mac OSReleaseDecember 21, 1998Genre(s)Role-playingMode(s)Single-player, multiplayer
Baldur's Gate is a fantasy role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published in 1998 by Interplay Entertainment. It is the first game in the Baldur's Gate series and takes place in the Forgotten Realms, a high fantasy campaign setting, using a modified version of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) 2nd edition rules. It was the first game to use the Infinity Engine for its graphics, with Interplay using the engine for other Forgotten Realms-licensed games, including the Icewind Dale series, and Planescape: Torment. The game's story focuses on a player-made character who finds themselves travelling across the Sword Coast alongside a party of companions.

The game received critical acclaim following its release and was credited for revitalizing computer role-playing games. An expansion pack entitled Tales of the Sword Coast was released, as was a sequel entitled Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, which later received its own expansion called Throne of Bhaal. An enhanced version of the Infinity Engine was later created as part of Beamdog's remake, entitled Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, the first new release in the franchise in nearly nine years.

Plot
Setting
Baldur's Gate takes place in the fictional world of Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms setting, during the year of 1368DR in the midst of an apparent iron shortage, where items made with iron inexplicably rot and break. Focusing upon the western shoreline of Faer�n, the game is set within a stretch of the region known as the Sword Coast, which contains a multitude of ecologies and terrains, including mountains, forests, plains, cities, and ruins, with the story encompassing both the city of Baldur's Gate, the largest and most affluent city in the region, and the lands south of it, including the Cloud Peaks, the Wood of Sharp Teeth, the Cloakwood forest, the town of Beregost and the village of Nashkel, and the fortress citadel of Candlekeep. In addition to the region, a variety of organisations from the Forgotten Realms setting also feature as part of the game's main story, including the Zhentarim, the Red Wizards of Thay, The Iron Throne, the Flaming Fist, The Chill, The Black Talons, and the Harpers.

Characters
Baldur's Gate includes around 25 player companions that can join with the PC. A number of the characters who appear include several who are canon to the official Forgotten Realms campaign setting, including Drizzt Do'Urden and Elminster.

Story
The player character is the young and orphaned ward of the mage Gorion. The two live in the ancient library fortress of Candlekeep. Abruptly, the Ward is instructed by Gorion to prepare to leave the citadel during the night with no explanation. That night, a mysterious armoured figure and his cohorts ambush the pair and order Gorion to hand over the Ward. Gorion refuses, and dies in the ensuing battle, while urging his Ward to escape. The next morning, the Ward encounters Imoen, a childhood friend and fellow orphan from Candlekeep, who had followed them in secret. With Candlekeep no longer accessible to them without Gorion's influence to circumvent its admission fee, and the city of Baldur's Gate currently closed off to outsiders due to bandit raids, the Ward resolves to investigate the cause of the region's Iron Crisis.

Travelling to the mines of Nashkel, the main source of the region's iron, the Ward's party discovers that the mine's ore is being contaminated by a group of kobolds led by a half-orc, and that they and the bandits plaguing the region are being controlled by an organization known as the Iron Throne, a merchant outfit operating out of Baldur's Gate. After sabotaging a mine operated by the Iron Throne in the Cloakwood that would presumably give them total control over the region's iron, the Ward's party travels to the newly reopened Baldur's Gate. Invading the Throne's headquarters, the group learns that proof of the organization's involvement with the Iron Crisis was taken by one of the regional leaders when they and the rest of the leadership headed to Candlekeep for an important meeting. Revealing their findings to Duke Eltan, the leader of the Flaming Fist, the group receive a rare and valuable book, which would allow them access into Candlekeep, in order to spy on the meeting. During their investigations in the citadel's library, the Ward discovers a prophecy written by the ancient seer Alaundo, foretelling how the offspring created during the Time of Troubles by the dead god Bhaal, the Lord of Murder, will sow chaos until only one remains to become the new Lord of Murder. The Ward then finds a letter from Gorion revealing that the Ward is among the offspring of Bhaal, known as Bhaalspawn. During their stay at Candlekeep, the Ward's party is imprisoned for the murders of the Iron Throne leaders, regardless of whether or not they did so, until they can be transported to Baldur's Gate to be executed. Tethoril, a prominent keeper in Candlekeep, visits the party and reveals that a suspicious character the party met earlier, Koveras, is really the foster son of one of the now dead Iron Throne leaders. His name is Sarevok, the one responsible for Gorion's murder, and who also wishes to kill the Ward.

Believing the Ward to be innocent, Tethoril transports the party into the catacombs beneath the fortress, where the party battle their way through doppelg�ngers taking on the forms of people the Ward knew in Candlekeep. Returning to Baldur's Gate, the Ward's party find themselves accused of causing the Iron Crisis on the orders of the Kingdom of Amn, assassinating one of the city's Grand Dukes, and poisoning Duke Eltan. Forced to stay hidden from the Flaming Fist, the party discovers that the Iron Throne orchestrated the Iron Crisis to gain control of iron through their mine in the Cloakwood, while using doppelg�ngers to weaken other merchant outfits, ensuring that they would have a monopoly on iron. With tensions rising between Baldur's Gate and Amn, the organization hoped to sell the stockpiled iron to the city at exorbitant prices. Afterward, they aimed to de-escalate tensions between Baldur's Gate and Amn.

The party also discovers that Sarevok, having discovered that he was a Bhaalspawn, hoped to fuel distrust between Baldur's Gate and Amn by making each think the other was responsible for creating the crisis, and cause them to go to war. Sarevok believed that the resulting carnage would be enough to allow him to become the new Lord of Murder. Due to the Ward's similar background, he hired assassins to kill them. Sarevok remained loyal to his father until the Iron Throne's meeting in Candlekeep threatened his plans, which led Sarevok to eliminate him and the other regional leaders of the Iron Throne before taking over the outfit and transferring their stores of iron to the city in order to be seen as a savior. He was also responsible for the poisoning of Duke Eltan and the assassination of one of the four Grand Dukes.

The Ward's party gain entry to the Ducal Palace, where the coronation of Sarevok as a Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate would be held, and present evidence of his schemes. Exposed, Sarevok flees into an ancient underground ruin beneath Baldur's Gate, with the Ward and the party following after. The Ward confronts Sarevok within an ancient temple to Bhaal, and defeats him, saving the Sword Coast and ending their brother's schemes. In the final ending cinematic, Sarevok's tainted soul departs his body and travels deep underground to a large circular chamber of alcoves, and destroys a statue of himself contained in one of the alcoves, whereupon it is revealed that the other alcoves each contain a statue of a Bhaalspawn that exists in Faer�n.

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