It kind of is but also not really. It's similar that it's a game in an intriguing fantasy setting which you can explore at your own pace.
But Baldur's Gate was Bioware and Bioware games are extremely narrative-heavy and linear. You kinda choose what order to do some things in, but what you do is pretty much set in stone from the start (with the illusion of 'moral' choice).
The modern version of
that is Bioware's
Dragon Age. Which is ideal because it's the exact same story as Baldurs Gate (and all Bioware games, actually) so it'll bring back memories! (I'm trying to be objective but I can't stand Bioware games. Bioware want to tell you a story and they want you to have only
a bare minimum of interaction so that you can't ruin their story for them. I find them very restrictive and tedious (with the exception of Mass Effect (just the first one) which was
alright.)
Bethesda games on the other hand... ahh Bethesda games. They're simulations, really. They simulate a fantasy world and then ... let you do whatever you want. The massively overwhelming proportion of your experience of the game will be emergent. And will also diverge
massively from anyone else's experience.
There are very many quests to do, from one off errands to full plotlines. But you choose what you want to do and how you want to do it. You're free to go anywhere in the world right from the start.
I started playing with a friend, chatting about what we were doing and stuff. And within 5 minutes (after the intro) we'd gone in totally different directions and were experiencing totally different things. He ended up at some village and ended up recovering some ancient Daedric artifact and then getting drawn into the affairs of a nearby city (he's now hunted by one of the city's factions and he's not entirely sure why). I stumbled on a farmhouse which turned out to sit on top of a bandit's den with a system of caves underneath and, at the very end, a treasure room. And I spent the subsequent 3 days (3 real-life-days) just exploring the country, visiting each of the cities, trying to get a feel for the politics before I get too involved.
So...
quote:
So, has the RPG genre moved on massively from then? I remember character creation, exploring, fighting, fiddling with inventories, sleeping in inns, collecting swords, choices between good and evil, hamsters and using magic.
Yes and no. Bioware are still making the same game but others have moved on. Must stop bashing Bioware. I actually won a copy of Dragon Age: Origins and I
still felt ripped-off. Ok, I will stop.
All that stuff is in Skyrim (aside from the hamster (and the horrible, trite, overly sententious, stodgy, overwrought, mannered Bioware writing (I just can't stop))). And so much more! If you like being thrown into a simulated world and deciding what
you want to do (and then getting massively distracted from that to the point where 3 days later you remember that you intended to do it) then you'll like Skyrim.