First and second games important?

[Mongrel Games]

So I was looking at this game and was wondering if I should bother playing the older games in the series or if it is unnecessary to enjoy this game fully. Should I go back and play the old ones or just jump in

[Ogami]

Not really. There are a few characters from the first two games that make a cameo appearance but the plot is not related to the previous games and it set at another time.

[Volvith]

It's pretty much standalone.
Some background lore knowledge of D&D would help though.

[Sombrero]

Originally posted by Francis:

So I was looking at this game and was wondering if I should bother playing the older games in the series or if it is unnecessary to enjoy this game fully. Should I go back and play the old ones or just jump in:conf:

There's a few Youtube channels that do agreat job at recapping the story of both games (shorter or longer versions depending on what you are looking for).

It's recommend watching these, maybe not forcing yourself to play the games necessarily if you are not into them.

It seems there's decent ties to the older games but you shouldn't be lost without knowing about their story either.

[Sombrero]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Not really. There are a few characters from the first two games that make a cameo appearance but the plot is not related to the previous games and it set at another time.

Reviewers have mentionned without spoiling that there's some pretty decent connections with the two first games. And even without knowing that just looking at the trailer material and who the "3 evil baddies" are it's pretty obvious that the old story will have some ripple effects again.

[WhyNotEatCats]

The originals are borderline unplayable by todays standards. Thankfully, you don’t need to play them to get what’s going on. Pretty much everyone from the older games must be dead by the time this starts

[Morgian]

No. If you want to play them, that is fine. But it won't help with BG 3, which is set 100 years later and with new protagonists and adversaries.

[✙205🍉🐆→]

First and second games are important as a cultural value of computer rpgs

[Astral Projection]

Worth grabbing the BG 1&2 Enhanced Editions.

If you can get past the older graphics they are quite well done pieces of gaming history.

[cool skill]

No. This is a marketing sequel. It only has vague ties to the original games for the sole purpose of being referred to as a 'sequel'.

The setting takes place in Forgotten Realms. Which has many publications and stories for that setting. The original Baldur's Gate game just decided to name the game after the large port city for the game. Even a spin-off was released that was not party based, but a single-player action rpg. They didn't call it a sequel or try to act like a sequel. It had different game play and a different unrelated story that is mainly related by setting. Same goes for BG 3. It is not even a valid sequel. It is different gameplay with different story.

[Kyutaru]

You'll notice a lot of references to the original games if you played them. Minsc and Jaheira as returning characters being the most obvious of them. But you'll also see other references, like the Dark Urge being identical to what happened to Gorion's ward, and Bhaal getting his own storyline in the game where you become his champion as the Slayer, just like in Baldur's Gate 1 and 2.

[Jaggid Edje]

Definitely worth playing BG 1 & 2 Enhanced editions, if you can get them on sale. Totally worth it.

But not at all important for playing and enjoying BG3; just worth it because they are 2 very enjoyable games to play. There are references to BG1 and BG2 scattered through even the earliest part of BG3, but nothing that's particularly relevent to understanding what is going on.

[Clovis Sangrail]

BG1 and BG2 are not necessary to enjoy BG3, but they are fun and they are also cheap.

And BG1 only requires 4.9 gigs of disk space and does not require an SSD,