Game Daze #5: "Baldur's Gate" Final Entry

by Joshua Packard, Fullness of Happy

I have occasionally been playing Baldur's Gate but this time cheating using a Save Game editor called "Gatekeeper".  It allows editing of stats and other attributes of characters in your party in the game.  At first, I just edited my characters hitpoints, or life, so that I could actually get into fights without getting killed everytime.  Eventually, though, I came across some enemies who had the ability to kill with one hit, and I realized I needed to edit my Saving throw stats so that I would not die from these attacks.  I also gave my characters the best weapons they could carry.  I have now reached a point where even with all this cheating, there is still an enemy I cannot defeat, and I have apparently edited my characters such that the game crashes when I engage in a certain battle.  I have officially decided that I am quitting this game for good, and will now give some final remarks on what I think of the game in general.

This game is far too difficult to anyone who is not very skilled at strategy and computer roleplaying games.  Even with cheating I still could not defeat a fairly early boss enemy in the game.  If you are a roleplaying game fanatic, you don't need me to tell you about this game.  You probably have already beaten it.  The story is immersive, but if you can't get into fights without dying, you can't progress in the story.  I ultimately cannot recommend this game to any one who is not  a hardcore computer RPG fanatic.  It is far too difficult and frustrating, and even when I tried cheating so that I could continue in the game and progress through the plot, it still was too difficult, and then the game started crashing.  So if you can find a way to cheat and get through the game, go ahead and try it.  In the end, I cannot recommend you spend your money or your time on this game, unless you are prepared to die a lot, and get frustrated, and are hardcore in this type of game.  The only way I would play a game like this again would be if there were a simple cheat which did not allow any of your characters to die, essentially a "God mode" or invulnerability cheat.

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