Baldur's Gate is a monumental tribute to the grand-daddy of all role-playing games (RPGs) - Dungeons and Dragons (D&D).
It is the most faithful presentation of an RPG modelled after D&D I have seen. Combine this with a great story line, and Baldur's Gate has the potential to be the best RPG of the year.
The story, which is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign from Advanced D&D, is quite complex, and is slowly revealed in the course of the game. It is punctuated by countless mini-quests that add a lot of flavour to the game.
It is a long game. Some people have taken about 100 hours to finish it and Interplay has just announced the development of an add-on pack that promises at least another 20 hours of play.
You play the leader in the party and pick up party members as the game progresses. You can choose to drop party members or ask them to rejoin at any time. Character generation follows the pen-and-paper version of D&D more closely than a +2 dagger can shave.
The 'professions' that you can choose from include Fighters, Wizards, Clerics, multi-classed or even dual-classed characters.
Races include all the classic D&D races of Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, Hobbits, and so on, complete with their individual advantages and limitations. The characters who join your party are well drawn and each one has a splash of personality that adds to the game.