This is an open world game with a combat similar to Diablo, but with some differences (being able to pause and lock on target). It is open world, quest driven with interactivity on objects and npcs. Not compare it to Baldur's Gate because environments and quest designs are clearly better in this game, it actually takes elements of Ultima 7, you have to think and search for clues to resolve quests, exploration is satisfying etc. There are some problems that were never resolved, quests that will break not because you actualy choose to fail them but some events are not triggered in the expected order and remain unresolved. Some skills are broken or not work well, etc. But beside these problems the game is one of the best rpgs.
I never played it at its time so I am not able to appreciate this game, it is dated and does not stand out at all, I have not played the sequel yet but I do not see reasons to recommend BG1. There are a lot of quality of life problems that make you loose a lot of time so the overall experience is tedious, even if this is an enhanced edition. Character development is not enjoyable unless you like the d&d system. The pace of leveling is very slow for a 40 hours videogame and progression choices are few. Story is OK. Political conspirations, the secret origin of your protagonist, etc. I do not know how many narrative choices you can actually make. The best feature of the game are the companions, many of them are charismatic, even though they may have few dialogue lines and quotes in comparison to newer AAA titles. Even though you have huge wild areas, exploration is very poor, almost nonexistent in comparison to other rpgs, so don't use time in this. There are somewhat hidden companions and books that increase your stats, but better see where to obtain them in a guide and just follow the quest. In gameplay was a novelty for its time the real time with pause feature, but here you could only command one action at each pause and not a queue of actions like more modern and more polished games. You can go fast during easy fights, but you will have to pause too frequently at more difficult ones. This gameplay style does not suit well here with d&d features. Being able to switch between real time and turn based like MM6 should have been a much better option. I feel a problem with the relation of implicit rounds and walking speed, I feel that walking speed is very fast in comparison to casting times. This is a ratio, because general gameplay speed can be changed while editing an archive (not in in-game options, even if this enhanced edition should have allowed it), i strongly suggest to change framerate from 30 to 45 because in general gameplay is too slow.
This is the best first person perspective melee combat game, it is an improvement since Dark Messiah, Condemned and Elder Scrolls, so the last games feel dated in comparison to Elderborn. You can feel the "weight" of your weapons, enemies are responsive to your attacks, for example two handed hammer will throw away them with a strong hit. This is not an rpg, much less an immersive sim, this is just a short action adventure game. Hence, you have to use some weapons in certain situations. You can use your favourite in most of the game, but you will have to switch to others for some enemies and bosses.
I like this game very much, especially because you have variety of weapons (with variety of ammo for weapons) and powers (plasmids) for combat, many of them useful for an aggressive combat style which I prefer. The level design is really good, I like that you have a map and the exploration searching for secrets is interesting. The game is a FPS with RPG elements, you collect ammo, medkits, money for buying ammo and medkits etc., and materials to create ammo and some tonics. There are machines for buying or crafting that you can hack for lower prices with a pipe puzzle minigame (you can also hack robots to make them allies). You have limitations for carrying money, each type of ammo and materials, in some type of ammo it feels that the carrying capacity is very limited. You upgrade weapons, and also the damage to some enemies (when you take photographs of them). You use plasmids as active powers to shoot at enemies or sometimes use in environment. You have tonics for passive abilities. To acquire or upgrade them you require adam, which is limited (you never acquire everything). And you have to make decisions based on this resource limitation. The problems are the following: the game frequently closes, and the worst is that i have to configure my personal key-bindings again every times it crashes. I heard in the remastered version it also happens and in Bioshock 2 is maybe worse. Hence, you have to save really frequently. Other problems is that is somewhat difficult to order plasmids for your keybinds, so I had to reorder them in sequence every time I upgrade one. The only problem of the shooting gameplay is that it feels somewhat slow. You move slow, you recharge or change type of ammo very slow, the enemies die slow (especially the normal enemies in the last levels, even though with all the upgrades). And they also kill you slow (except for rossies who hit very hard). So, I normally took photographs when they were attacking me with no problem.
