Yes, I purchased them all ^_^

And also, I have never played any of them, except for Baldur's Gate 2, which I enjoyed. I sadly never finished Baldur's Gate 2 though.


Kind of leaning towards either Tempe of Elemental Evil, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate 1, or Planescape Torment. Or if you can recommend a better one, let me know...

I will check back later for recommendations! Thank you in advance.

Well, that depends on whether or not you know the D&D ruleset or not. If not, start with Planescape. It's combat is simplified and you don't start out having to manage an entire party. If you're already accustomed to the D&D ruleset, well... any of them would be fine :). Depends on whether you want a pure dungeon crawl (ToEE, Icewind Dale), an engaging story/interesting world (Planescape), or equal bits of both (Baldur's Gate II)

hah...i've never played D&D with friends. So no, I am not familiar with the ruleset. But I have played countless RPGs, and even RPGs that some say use the same ruleset as D&D. But I could not tell you which games those are. I just know I've never had any problems learning an RPG.

Well then, like I said... if you want a really meaty game with a good story, tons of stuff to do and see, and deep combat, go with Baldur's Gate II. It's sort of the all-around good game. The others focus on specific things, and some do those things better (Planescape has a much better story, for instance). Just be warned that for BGII there IS a learning curve.

Only PC D&D game i ever got into and enjoyed was 'Baldurs Gate' amazing music and gameplay

From my own personal experience, I say Baldurs Gate 1. It was my first ever exposure to D&D or it's games. It's more primitive then the others, but it gives what I consider the most authentic D&D experience. You build a level 1 character with no restrictions, and then thrown out into the open. Aside from one shop to get basic equipment, you are on your own. Every other D&D game holds your hand more, or starts you at a higher level. Some say BG1's too hard, I say it's really what D&D is about. Those first few levels are murderously difficult.

But from starting, it's entirely up to you where to go. Do you want to risk picking up Ajantis the NPC when he's in a nearby area that can murder level one characters? Do you follow the main quest? Or do you just wander and see the sights?

Edit: But if you want the somewhat easier, more forgiving game get BG2. Or if you want the better story at (IMO) the expense of gameplay then get Torment. There really isn't a bad selection of the five core D&D games on this sale.

PS:T is the best hands down. You can either play the best first and be a bit let down by the rest (which are fine games) or start with one of the weaker entries, like TOEE (install Circle of Eight mod for a lot better game) and proceed to the better ones.

NWN is usually best to save for last, since there's so much user generated content out there, you can just play the best user modules for a few weeks after you're done with the rest:)

One thing I've not seen mention is that there are two pretty different rulesets in these games. The Baldurs games, Icewind Dale 1 and Planescape (or forms thereof) both use the 2ed rules, whilst Icewind Dale 2, Neverwinter Nights and ToEE use 3.X rules. You may that after the (as a dicer roller whos career rose, peaked and died entirely in 2ed I found disorienting and confusion) freedom of 3.Xed multiclassing the strict limits in 2ed a little constraining.

That said I'd agree with most of the sentiment here. I struggle to get into baldurs gate in 2001 when I bought a box.. but in 2006 after replaying the gold box games I bought a box with the baldurs/icewind dale and nwn in it.. This time I choose to start with icewind dale 2 because it allows you to create all the party, weaker storyline but good for getting to know the games. I did not have planescape.. its a long novel but since you can't die its a bit kinder, it does have a fairly modified version of the rules though. I still found baldurs gate 1 a bit of a struggle it was a fair bit cruder.. but you can update it to use the baldurs gate 2 engine (which I only discovered when I came here for planescape). Unfortunately since I've been buying so many games here my plan to play through with those mods active (I am evil cleric, I am evil cleric) hasn't happened yet so I can't say how much that helps.

So to summarise my thoughts.

1. Play Planescape: Torment for an introduction to the game style and sort of the rules plus a good read.
2. Play Icewind Dale for a better look at the rules and more classes
3. Play the Baldurs Gates game with knowledge of the rules and enjoy the story.

4. Play the 3ed games with neverwinter last.

Both icewind dale 2 and toee are pretty combat heavy. As someone has already said there is an amazing amount of user created modules for Neverwinter that can keep you playing that for a long time.