BEYOND INFINITY

Despite its importance to RPG history, Infinity’s reign as both an engine and a style of game didn’t last very long. Fast forward to now, though, and it still lives on. As said, Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity tries to replicate it using modern technology. Former BioWare member Trent Oster, however, is still using the creaky old thing directly, originally in the form of Enhanced Editions of Baldur’s Gate 1, 2 and Icewind Dale, and then in the form of a brand new adventure called Siege of Dragonspear, which takes place between the two Baldur’s Gate games. Dragonspear had a mixed response, for both good reasons and a few honestly very silly ones, but was a decent enough interquel on its own merits. It remains to be seen if the company will ever embark on the full Baldur’s Gate III project that it’s long talked of doing. If it does though, it’ll be an original story rather than The Black Hound.

As for the rest of the industry, with the exception of a few indies, time has very much moved on. Since Baldur’s Gate, RPGs have gone from a struggling genre to the home of some of the best AAA releases in the world, and a genre that it’s cool to play… even if the transition to the mainstream has robbed it of much of what made it popular in the first place.