Is Baldur's Gate still worth playing after 10 years? Yes, with a few caveats.

• Graphics: The graphics of Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast are extremely dated at this point. It was designed back when 640x480 VGA was all that could reliably be relied on, so it uses a lot of dithering. This was the age of Windows95 and people still played games from the DOS prompt. The bigger issue for me was that all quest text was presented as a dirty white on top of a dirty grey background. Which probably looked okay back in the days of CRTs, but looks absolutely horrid on a LCD screen.
  
  However, this also means that it is very light on system requirements and will run on pretty much anything made in the past decade. I've heard rumors that you can get it to run in WINE under Linux as well. Some people put it on old laptops to play on lunch breaks.
  
  I still think, at a minimum, that you'll want to install EasyTutu (see my previous hints/notes). That will get you 800x600 and a better color scheme, along with the UI/spells/mechanics of Baldur's Gate II. It's also possible that you could lay the widescreen mod on top of EasyTutu to get something a bit larger.



• Disk space: Baldur's Gate is about 2GB and Baldur's Gate II is about 2.5GB (with both expansions). If you install EasyTutu and have it remove the original BG1 folder, you're left with BG2 at 2.5GB and a BaldursGateTutu folder that is about 4.6GB. So you'll need 7.1GB free to play the game, and up to 10GB during the install.



• Audio: In comparison to the graphics (which is all hand-drawn, animated sprites), the audio tracks are still quite good. The actor voices aren't bad, the audio effects are decent, and the music is appreciated (except for the tavern music). Check out some gameplay videos on YouTube for an example of the audio.



• Combat: Combat in BG1/BG2 is a learned art. To start with, you're dealing with the AD&D 2nd edition rule set - which is very nasty at low levels when a single bad dice roll can kill you. Low-level characters are extremely weak, and BG1/BG2 does no scaling of enemies. So if you run across a powerful enemy at level 1, with no party to back you up, you may not even see what killed you.
  
  To put it simply: This is not a hack-n-slash.
  
  You will need to adjust the auto-pause settings (on weapon unuseable, on hit, on near-death, on-death, on enemy death) or stop the action with the [spacebar] so that you can issue new orders to your characters. I suggest ordering your party in a way that you can quickly select subsets of the party to issue orders. Knowing how to use formations and what the quick-select keys are will reduce the frustration as well.
  
  As in most games, focus-fire where you take down one enemy, then switch to a new one is the best tactic after using AoE (area of effect) spells. An enemy that is near-death does as much damage as an enemy that is at full-health. Have your ranged characters (using missile weapons or thrown weapons) focus on a single target while your heavy fighters/tanks keep them busy. When that enemy dies, the game will pause (if you have it set to), and you can select those characters and point them at a new target.
  
  Of course, you could try not pausing the game at all during combat and try treating it like an RTS. But you'd have to be very good, very quick and more likely to lose characters to bad dice rolls. Pausing during combat to reassess and issue new orders is the way to win.



• Frustration: Early on, things are going to be extremely frustrating until you get your party members to level 2 or 3. Your weapons are going to break periodically, your characters will have few, if any, magical items and you'll constantly be running back to town to sell.
  
  If you can get past that hump and get your party members up to level 3 or 4, things suddenly become much easier. You'll be handle just about any reachable areas in Chapter Two that are within a zone or two of Beregost / Nashkel / Friendly Arms Inn. Various named enemies will still give you trouble and ogre berserkers will be difficult, but things like ankhegs will become XP fodder. In fact, if you're mowing down packs of gibberlings, xvarts, skeletons and gnolls, then it's past time to head to Nashkel mines and start Chapter Three.



• Pacing: Baldur's Gate is one of the early 100+ hour games. I've been playing it for a few hours each day for the past week (XFire isn't tracking my time, sadly) and my party of adventurers is between level 4 and 5. Most people agree that you'll spend at least 40 hours (if you know exactly what to do) and 200 hours on a single game in BG1. I don't know whether that is just BG1 time, or if that includes BG2.
  
  The early pacing, however, is a bit horrid. It seems like you're running from everything all the time, can't find a place to earn some gold or XP, and are spending a lot of time traveling or having to rest after every battle.
  
  This does get better once your party gets to level 3. At that point, battles are decided more with ranged weapons and steel on steel then relying on magic. Your healers will be able to memorize 3-4 Cure Light Wounds and your fighters will have better AC so that they avoid damage. You can easily take on multiple encounters before you run out of healing spells and your fighters are too banged up to risk more encounters. Staying out in the wilds for days/weeks at a time becomes an option, until you run low on ammo/potions or your bags are full of gems/jewelry.



• Save Early, Save Often: Save after a battle, save before you leave an area, save after you enter a new area, save before you leave town, save, save save. The more save slots that you use, the better. Because you will reach a point where you've put the party into an untenable position and it's just not possible to escape alive and with most of the party intact. Or you'll get bitten by the infamous "Beregost Bug" that corrupts your game and you'll have to fall back on an older save.



• Replay: Initially, you're likely going to see the game as slow and unrewarding. I blame most of that on the AD&D 2nd edition rules. But I think after a few nights of play (5-10 hours worth) and getting your party past level 2 or 3, you'll start to see the story that is hidden behind the dated graphics and interface.
  
  If you're a party-oriented player, who likes having multiple NPCs to boss around (as in most RPGs) and those NPCs sometimes bicker or fight, then I think you'll greatly enjoy Baldur's Gate. And you'll probably replay it a few times with different party combations.
  
  On the other hand, if you're more of a solo player, having to deal with party politics, managing up to 5 other characters, etc. is probably going to be a bit off-putting. You'd likely be better served by other titles that are more hack-n-slash. You'll probably play through it once, then maybe a second time to see different areas.
  
  I tend to fall into column B, but now that I've learned the short-cut keys and how to use formations to quickly move around, dealing with the extra party members is somewhat rewarding.



• Pricing: You can buy the 4-in-1 boxset from Amazon for $17.50 right now. You'll need to download the patches (see my earlier posts).