THE MISSING BALDUR’S GATES

“I’m actually glad we didn’t really get the chance to make Baldur’s Gate III, as I think what was planned, The Black Hound, had little to do with the franchise,” says Chris Avellone when we ask him about Black Isle’s proposed third game in the famous RPG series. “While the Baldur’s Gate series kept the player protagonist in the forefront,” the designer continues, “Baldur’s Gate III took a step backward and made the antagonist’s woes more important to the storyline, which I think ends up reducing the player agency. That said, there was some great art and level design ideas in it, I just didn’t care much for the premise or the companion ideas.” The third game, as perhaps befitted the circuitous ending to Throne Of Bhaal, would include none of the characters that had helped make the series so famous, and was unceremoniously cancelled when Interplay’s deal with Wizards Of The Coast abruptly ended. Bioware itself was undeterred, and another major franchise was born from the ashes. “I’m a Dungeons & Dragons fan,” recalls James Ohlen,

“so I said we can’t just give up on it. So we did our own version, Dragon Age: Origins, which was essentially just Baldur’s Gate on console.”

But Baldur’s Gate III isn’t the only abandoned game in the series. With Bioware busy on Tales Of

The Sword Coast and the Baldur’s Gate sequel, British developer Runecraft, already involved with publisher Interplay, was contracted to produce a Playstation port of Baldur’s Gate. With changes to the engine and gameplay made, including a smooth-scrolling display (as opposed to the PC game’s push scroll), the game was almost completed before issues at Interplay – it had been in financial difficulty, despite the success of Baldur’s Gate – led to a takeover by French publisher Titus. Playstation Baldur’s Gate, among many other projects, was brusquely dropped from development, as the focus remained solely on the sequel that would seek to dramatically improve every aspect of the original hit.