Baldur's Gate Page 2 Hey, its ME! The first thing you get to do when you start the game is create your alter-ego. All the standard RPG options are included here ... which I have to say, makes it a bit hard on people who haven't played D&D. The manual is a big help though, but still, I think they put in too many options, I started the game over 3 times after playing for a while and then suddenly noticing I had picked the wrong sort of character. When creating a character you first have to decide your gender (male or female), which doesn't affect anything about the game, then you get to select a picture to go with your character, or you can import your own. After these 2 decisions, you get to the hard part... First up is your race, you have 6 options here: Human, Elf, Half Elf, Gnome, Halfling and Dwarf. Each has its different abilities, for example: the Elves have Infravision, which makes them capable of seeing in the dark. Then you can choose your class. There are 3 main groups here, each with their subgroups: "The Warriors" (fighter, ranger or paladin). A Man (or Woman) who lives by his (or her) knowledge of weapons and could be described as a "I've got a big sword and you're ugly" kinda person. Then there are the "Magic" users (clerics, druids and mages). They, as their name suggests, life or die depending on their knowlegde of magic (read fireballs, magic missles, but also defensive magic like magic shield and healing). Then last but not least you have the "Rogues" (thief or bard). The thief has lots of cool options, he can pick locks (comes in handy A LOT) and he has backstabbing ability, he can go into stealth mode (in other words, sneak up to someone) and stab the enemy from the back doing 2, 3 or even 4 times as much damage !   Last thing there is to say about classes is that you can combine them, for example you can be a fighter/mage, this has its bad sides though, namely: you can't cast spells when wearing armor. Next thing to decide is your alignment. You have 9 options here: good, neutral and evil, each with 3 subgroups (for example lawful good, neutral good and chaotic good). This is maybe the hardest decision for the non-RPG-players since you have to behave in the game like the alignment you have. For example if you are chaotic, you must have the attitude "I don't really care what other people do". And if you then go help every poor soul in the game, it doesn't really fit with your alignment and you'll be punished. Also note that very different alignments in your party (evil and good characters), don't really get along all that great. Now up come the abilities of your character (strength, intelligence, etc), A fighter for example will need a lot of strength, so this part is fairly easy. You also can choose some skills for your character. For example you can select an axe as the weapon you can handle the best and then you do more damage with that weapon. The thief can choose if he's good at lockpicking or stealth and so on. At this point the mage can select which spells he already knows when the game starts (he gets to learn more later in the game though). In the end you can select the colors your character uses on his (or her) outfit and the name of your player. Now you're really ready to enter the realm of Baldur's Gate. You're not alone ... No, you heard correctly, you got buddies :) You do not go adventuring alone (where did you get such a selfish idea ?), you can make a party. People who you meet in the game might want to join you on your quest. A party consists out of maximum 6 characters, ofwhich one is you (you're the only character you can't throw out of the party). So for example you have 3 fighters, 2 mages and 1 thief. In combat you would position the fighters in the front, the mages in the back using the fighters as a sort of living shield (wizards have very few hitpoints=life) so they can safely cast their spells, and you would use the thief to go into stealth-mode so he can backstab the enemy. There is one problem though, the alignment of your characters. If for example you all are of good alignment except the thief and the reputation of the party is high, the thief will be unhappy because he's surrounded by a bunch of good fools. So you'd better have about the same alignment in the party. Next Page Up Previous Page If you want to review your favorite game, or if you work with a computer game company and want your products reviewing, mail info@playdevil.com. All contributions are welcome. Any problems and/or suggestions are always appreciated on webmaster@playdevil.com Nothing of this entire Site, animation & logo's included, may be reproduced, stored, saved, transmitted, in any form or means, electronic, written or otherwise without the prior permission of PlayDevil. Other Logos & Names are Copyrighted Material of its respectful owners. All Rights Reserved. PlayDevil Productions © 199/8-199/9 "rip your own stuff"