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I was a geek, and I admit it. I played them all. Gamma World, AD&D, Traveler, Lords of Creation, Call of Cthulu - you name it. I fondly remember playing pencil and paper RPGs, with my trusty many-sided die and my geek buddies. We weren't fashionable, but we had fun. But like any other group of friends, we went on our separate ways to University or College and our group was lost. As computers advanced, people began to realize what was popular on paper would play almost as well on a computer - for some, even better, considering all the rules and dice rolling were handled for them. TSR licensed a number of products, from the great (OK, well, the first two at least) Eye of the Beholder series, to the less memorable Dragon Strike that let you fly a dragon as in the Dragonlance books.

The games were entertaining, but were all somewhat limited in scope. It always seemed that free games like NetHack and Moria offered a longer and more detailed adventure. But what's this all about eh? The guys at Bioware have clued into something. What if you put out an AD&D engine that would take plug in modules? Ship it with a starter game. Make it 5 cds long. Have large well-done maps and a twisting plot with plenty to do on the side. Make the engine fairly simple but still attractive so it runs on lower end machines. Almost sounds like they're doing everything that Ultima:Ascension promises to leave behind, doesn't it? (Do I sound apprehensive about the next Ultima at all?)

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons done right! It's all the classic 2nd edition rules and, better yet, handled by your CPU rather than by the DM checking a manual every 5 minutes. What do you get? The settings are the familiar Forgotten Realms, more specifically the Sword Coast, centered on Baldur's Gate. Seems like your once stable life in Candlekeep is about to come to an end. Your mentor and foster father Gorion has decided that it would best to leave the keep - only things go awry. The story takes you from there. As the main plot unravels, you'll be involved a number of other smaller sub plots that you can choose to follow, fleshing out the story, or to ignore.

Based on your explorations of the smaller plots, you'll gather party members of various classes, races and alignments that will come and go based on your actions. The evil will not be to thrilled to travel with a renowned goody two shoes. And the good will not suffer the indignities of traveling with scum who murder for sport either. Of course, when my drow cleric decided to leave the party midway through the final battle, it was more than a little irritating. Familiar monsters are included - kobolds, hobgoblins and even some of the rarer ones like ankhegs and flesh golems are worked into the story, and quite well too. A good number of your favorite items are included too - be they helpful, like a ring of free action, or a hindrance, like the cursed sword of berserking +3.

Ever read an AD&D book? Good chance you'll run into a character you know, be it Drizzt, Elminster or Cadderly. Feeling brave or stupid? Take a shot at Drizzt. Just be careful, he's a walking death machine. If wandering the countryside alone isn't your thing, you can use Gamespy to find some people to play with. Just remember that you want to play with people that you'd play regular AD&D with. Having someone named "KeWlDuDe" in your party cursing anything that moves kind of spoils the game.

Bioware has made some important decisions that you'll want to know about, though, like the experience cap. The most experience any character can earn is 89,000. That's total, not 89,000 per class on a multi class character or a dual class. It does irk me to some extent, although it was done with the best of intentions. If characters were allowed to advance to 18th level in the first game, then add-ons would be almost pointless, as you would walk right through them. With the cap, the designers can allow you to get a taste of the game, and still be sure that when you start in on the add-on, that you'll be challenged. Purists may notice some small things missing, dual wield rangers being a glaring one. Hopefully add-ons will see that implemented. Already a mission pack is planned for spring, and preliminary work is rumored to be under way on the sequel.

The game is immense, contained on 5 CDs, each packed with more than enough to keep you busy for days on end. Even if you were to burn quickly through the main plot, there is still incredible replay value. Side quests are everywhere, from towns to the wilderness. It seems that every map has its own thing to do, and some will require some tricky use of planned combat. It only gets better when you consider that now that the engine is out, they can distribute modules for it.

Controls are simple and easy to master. Between the mouse and the keyboard, it's easy to get your minions doing what you want when you want. Use of the space bar to pause combat and issue commands is invaluable-learn to use this right away.

The art is amazing! The backgrounds are gorgeous, and the animations for the characters are detailed. Spells fly with convincing effect and dungeons are well lit with moody ambience. Even those without a 3D accelerator can play, and the more 2D video RAM, the merrier. You can play in 16, 24 and 32 bit color depths, all at a resolution of 640x480. Even on my Pentium 233 laptop, the game was playable, if tweaked a little. There's a plethora of character art, and player made art can augment that. Even now, you can download packs of art that use classic AD&D image - or something a little more modern, like say Ash from the Evil Dead movies. Rendered cinematics are okay, but not quite up to the quality of, say, Diablo or Starcraft.

Music is interesting, and the sounds vary depending on your environment. You'll hear dripping water in dank dungeons and chirping crickets as you hunt spiders in the Cloakwood forest. Much like the player art, the sounds your characters emit throughout the game can be imported from player made sound schemes. Nothing like slaughtering the goblin hordes while Bruce Campbell cries out "Come get some!" Listening carefully to some of the default sounds can provide a few laughs, such as the classic Street Fighter 2 cry of "Hadoken" while casting spells.

The player can install anywhere from 300 MB to the massive 2.5 GB maximum install. The install is quite customizable, allowing you to pick and choose what gets copied to the hard drive. A little hard on the drive space, but well worth the real estate.

Once again the pendulum swings back and RPG fans rejoice. With quality offerings like Fallout, Fallout 2 and Baldur's Gate leading the way, the RPG is back in vogue - and profitable as well. We can only hope that the people who gave us classic RPGs, like Origin's Ultima series and New World Computing's Might and Magic series, see that a well done RPG need not play like Quake or Tomb Raider to succeed. Looking pretty is nice, playing well is another thing entirely - and something that Baldur's Gate does quite handily.