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The epitome of the PC RPG renaissance. Baldur's Gate draws upon the the Forgotten Realms D&D setting, an accurate interpretation of AD&D 2E rules, and presents its game world with a painterly look that only the most skilled 2D artists could produce. BioWare's trademark of giving each NPC a detailed backstory, personality, and plenty of extremely well-written dialog and banter starts here, and it's a joy to converse and listen. The world is quite large in typical RPG style, but atypically, not one foot of it is wasted on filler. Every area is dense with quests, secrets, characters, strange beasts, and hidden treasures, all of them feeling quite in place in the game world, and its semi-open design allows access to most of them, with nothing to compel plot progress except your survival. Speaking of which, Baldur's Gate is a low level campaign, and is deadly early on. You are cast out into the wilderness early on, pursued by bounty hunters for reasons beyond your understanding, and at character level 1 even wild animals pose a severe threat. Leveling up, though never grindy, is slow, but each level gained is felt in a big way. Still, you will never reach a point where you feel powerful or even secure. That's what the sequel is for, in which can import your BG1 character to continue the adventure.
GOG is the only storefront that offers the original game, and only as a bundle with the much lamented "Enhanced Edition." See You're playing it wrong wrong for more details.
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