Hey so I bought the enhanced edition off steam during the summer sale and I'm having a lot of trouble getting into it.

I started a second character who's a dwarven defender. I'm familiar with Dnd a bit from playing pathfinder so I can muddle through the 1d4 stuff and have now figured out that you want a LOW number for AC.

My trouble is that my characters keep dying. I guess you're supposed to reload every time this happens because of the high gold cost to revive them. I'm just not seeing how that is fun, especially when there's about a 50% chance it'll happen every battle.

Should I just not care if they die? I seem to run across a new party member every few feet. My bard died and I was just like well...there was a ranger I just passed. I guess I'll take him afterall.

So yeah, am I missing something? I heard it gets a bit easier after a few levels. I'm running out of potions so maybe I should go back a town and buy some more of those...I don't know.

What do you guys find fun about the game because I'm wondering if maybe I should just move on.

Extra info: In my party right now I have 3 warriors, a druid, a mage, and a rogue. I try to keep the 3 warriors in front and almost everyone has a range weapon right now. My druid is the only one with a heal right now and is kinda useless other than that. I gave her throwing knives.

Baldur's Gate is hard. Properly so. I remember playing it when I was 13 or so and continually getting smashed. I never finished it but I remember gradually improving.

You need to make sure that each encounter you are pausing and managing each movement and decision carefully. This is a game where if you get turned to stone, you have been turned to stone. If you die and don't have the right spell or potion, that's it.

I still remember loving the hell out of it, it rewards patience and smart play. That makes it fun. Also, at the time, I loved the dialogue options and the feel of the world - I hadn't experienced anything else like it before.

Old games are hard to go back to, since newer games can be picked up and played by anyone. That's why people regard Dark Souls as a hard game, when in reality it's about as hard as a game made before 2000.

Just keep going, man. You'll enjoy it more if you take your time. Newer games give you instant gratification with the pull of the right trigger, old games take much longer and demand more of you as a player.

Just because something is easy to slip into doesn't mean that it can't become hard.

These kinds of games require some perspective to really appreciate and enjoy. They dump you into the middle of them without much explanation, and you're left to figure things out. This is the worst way to introduce players to a game, but it's the way it was done back then. Not to mention the weird isometric viewing angle and the way that combat looks like a clusterfuck to a newbie. You have to stick with these games for a few hours.

I must note that a large part of why people like old Bioware RPG's is the writing. If you're not enjoying what is being said, well... you might want to re-think playing old RPG's like this. I still say stick with it for a few more hours, though.

I've only played a few hours of Baldur's Gate 2 but I'm not sure if I want to play more. It didn't really seem like something that I really want to stick with, especially since it likely follows the same fucking Bioware formula that Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect did. In which case I'll just play Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect again.

It's not so much that games now are so much easier, it's that the checkpoint and autosave systems of modern games allow you get right back in and try again. I probably died more in 30 hours of the Witcher 2 than I have in 30 hours of Dark Souls (I am playing it right now), the only difference is that every time you die in Dark Souls it costs you time and resources, where as in The Witcher 2 I could just load my last save and try again immediately.

Play a Halo or Call of Duty game on the highest difficulty, they are definitely difficult, the only difference between these and older shooters is that you start right where you died and get to give it another try right away.

I feel like this common sentiment that new games are so much easier than older games is a bit of a fallacy. Sure, there are plenty of games that just downright easy, but in many other cases it is the frustrating death penalties (like having to enter a password every time you die) that are being removed, not necessarily the challenge.

Just remember to take things slow. Sounds like you're already aware of how easy it is to get killed by a few bad rolls in early level DnD, so just keep that it mind. Make frequent use of the pause button. There's a reason why a lot of people who played these kinds of games back in the day are pausers in the more modern versions even when its not required. Whether or not you care about characters dying is up to you. You can reload each time you lose someone if that's really how you want to play, or you can just roll with it until later on when revives become more feasible. Ultimately, Baldurs Gate is no walk in the park in terms of difficulty. It gets easier, but if you don't enjoy playing the game in a slow methodical way then it might not be the game for you.

Early game D & D breaks a lot of people. Rest a lot and eventually you'll get more powerful and it'll get better.

@believer258: old Bioware games remind me of how good a writer Gaider was. He's a shadow of his former self and is more concerned with relationships than a fun and interesti g story. A damn shame...

Thanks guys. I'll try it out again this weekend.

BG2 is the better game by far - much better plot, better companions and more focussed characters, but the crucial thing is you start at level 7, which means that you're not completely fucked like you are in BG1.

I love BG1 and have finished it many times, but trying to be a Rogue or Mage at early levels is an exercise in constant saving because you and your party members will just get oneshotted.

It's worth playing, but if you find it really frustrating maybe cheat and give yourself a couple of levels of experience. Might take the edge off, and it certainly won't make the game super easy or anything.

If you come across desert sandworms, stay the hell away, unless you want to turn to stone (which means instant death).

I've only played non-enhanced versions of the game so I can't give any specific recommendations for how to play, as I'm not sure exactly what it has changed. But, understanding the mechanics of Baldur's Gate is key to winning. A spell or two at the right time, or proper preparation before an encounter, can be the difference between an impossible battle and an easy victory. Early game D&D is brutal because of how a character's HP is calculated, so a little luck will be necessary in the beginning. Don't be afraid to lower the difficulty or retreat and restock on supplies if necessary.

After you've found your groove in BG1, you can look forward to the wonderfulness of Baldur's Gate 2 and its expansion(s?). They're both fun games, but BG2 takes what was good about BG1 and improves upon it. Also, on PC, the non-enhanced versions of BG1/BG2 have plenty of mods to customize the game to your liking.

Also what Rick_Fingers said about cheating is true. The mechanics (as well as the quirks of the game engine) will take some getting used to, so easing yourself into it is understandable.

Good luck on your journeys.

I actually played it again this year, so I'm somewhat equipped to help. First off, the first Baldur's Gate is a slow, rather methodical burn. You need to have a pretty decent understanding of 2nd ed AD&D and the quirks the engine itself (i.e. cheesing the hell out of it), and you need to get yourself to around level 3 before you even think about going into the Nashkel Mines, which is to say you sort of have to wander around empty-ish wilderness areas doing miscellaneous quests for a couple of hours. If nothing else, take heart that the game becomes a lot more manageable for newcomers past that point.

Later Bioware and Infinity Engine games are a bit less aimless, but I still really like Baldur's Gate and its D&D adventuring funtimes. I'm not going to pretend it's for everyone, and Baldur's Gate II is a significantly better game in a lot of ways, but if you liked Dragon Age Origins you'll probably like BG.