14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher Atari has announced that it is planning to launch two new collections of classic games that are based around the Dungeons & Dragons universe, including such names as Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment.
The aptly named Dungeons & Dragons Anthology: The Master Collection includes six games: Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II, from BioWare, IceWind Dale, IceWind Dale II and Planescape Torment from Black Isle and the notoriously difficult The Temple of Elemental Evil from Troika.
This package will cost players 20 dollars.
At the moment Euro prices or availability have not been announced.
The second bundle is called Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter Nights Complete and will cost players 30 dollars because it includes the BioWare made Neverwinter Nights and expansions and the Obsidian created Neverwinter Nights 2 and its extra content, alongside a new exclusive, limited edition map of the world of the games.
Gamers can pre-order the two bundles from shops both physical and virtual like Target, Amazon and GameStop.
All the games included in the bundles offer more than 30 hours of play time and there's enough variety, both in terms of characters and classes and in terms of potential side quests, to keep a player occupied for months.
The highlight of the bundles for me is that they allow a modern gamer, who has grown up with a different breed of role playing games, often relying very much on graphics and on complex mechanics, to experience some classic titles, which managed to create very deep worlds and characters despite using an isometric view and some pretty limited technology.
The Baldur's Gate series might just be the best game in the Atari bunch, because it manages to combine storytelling, gameplay and unique villains in very surprising ways where Planescape: Torment relies too much on its protagonist and on the world he explores.