Greatest Gaming Engine Ever?
Is Bioware’s Infinity Engine, the workhorse behind the epic Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale RPG series the best gaming engine the world has ever known?
Reading an ancient back issue of PC Gamer (December 2002, the Doom 3 issue), I stumbled upon Steve Klett’s Alternative Lives Column, in which he declares Infinity to be “the greatest game engine in the history of the PC.”
Of course, he wrote that a few years back, but his points are still undoubtedly valid. Read on.
He states:
“[Infinity] has given PC gamers more entertainment (and more entertainment value) than any other, and that includes any 3D first-person engine. In both quantity and quality of gameplay hours provided, I don’t think any game engine can touch Infinity’s contribution.”
That coming from a guy who says he enjoys both first-person shooter and RPG genres.
I’ve more or less spent hundreds — nay, thousands — of hours playing all the major genres, but I’m biased towards role-playing, so I’m inclined to agree with Klett’s bold proclamation. No doubt there will be gamers who’ll (vehemently) disagree, especially Unreal/Quake/Doom fans. Who says those games weren’t damn beautiful? They were, especially Doom 3. John Carmack is a genius, I tell you.
But the amazing depth that the Infinity engine posseses is simply a dream come true for both die-hard and garden variety pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons fans. The three games and one expansion pack I’ve played which run on Infinity — Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn, BG2 Expansion: Throne of Bhaal, Icewind Dale, and Icewind Dale II — were not by any means flashy, but they were revolutionary.
New game engines have arrived since the last use of Infinity (which was in Icewind Dale II), such as Bioware’s own Aurora Engine used in Neverwinter Nights. But still, this pretty recent Gamespot article written by Matthew Rorie praises the timeless Infinity engine. “RPG engines just don’t get any better than the Infinity engine,” he writes. “…the Infinity games were perhaps the perfect marriage of form and functionality when it comes to computer RPGs.”
As an aside, I’m currently addicted to Rome: Total War. Damn, I have never seen gaming goodness such as this. Epic real-time battles, deep Civ-like campaign, gorgeous graphics, astounding music. If I’m starting to sound like I’m advertising the game, don’t worry — I am. I utterly love it. (Gamespot Review)
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November 3rd, 2005 at 3:59 am
as an aside too: i remember your baldur’s gate game review waaaaaay back.
what, no starcraft bit? ^_~
November 3rd, 2005 at 4:06 am
whaaat? i wrote a game review for BG2?!
oh, third year HS. and i thought i had never written a game review before.
November 3rd, 2005 at 10:24 am
Ei there…
Hmmm, I never played that game but I have tried Ice Wind Dale II… Yeah the engine is good but I didn’t like IWD2 graphics much haha. It seems I always look for eye candies first.
November 3rd, 2005 at 12:32 pm
amen brother! the aurora toolset may be a modder’s dream compared to the infinity engine, but bg1&2, torment (and fallout) made rpg’s relevant again ^_^
November 3rd, 2005 at 6:49 pm
to fleeb: unfortunately, when iwd2 came out Infinity was well behind in terms of the visuals department. but hey, no one can disagree how well it simulated the paper-and-pen system of Dungeons and Dragons
to jorge: indeed! especially BG2 and its expansion. They were, and still remains, the cream of the crop of 2D RPG gaming. Temple of Elemental Evil, even with its nifty graphics, doesn’t even compare to BG.
November 4th, 2005 at 6:54 pm
i have to agree; even if temple was a classic scenario of the pen and paper games, it didn’t translate well. cant wait for nwn2 tho
November 8th, 2005 at 8:38 am
This is opinion nothing more. What makes a great engine? The fact that it has been used by great games? … or the fact that it is technically great? Although I loved BG, BG2, IWD 1&2, I’d have to disagree that it is the “greatest” engine ever. It is an RPG engine, and thus it’s use was limited to RPGs. The article did not take into account the Quake 2 engine which would later be used in great games such as Half Life. It was versatile, very technical, used in many many games, and wasn’t confined to FPS games. The BG and IWD series were great series, but it doesn’t make the engine great. Certainly not as great as the Quake 2 engine.
November 13th, 2005 at 3:30 pm
to jorge: when will bioware stop creating good games? hehe..
to vern: you’re right — ours is an opinion, nothing more. you’ve got valid points for the Quake 2 engine, and it certainly is one of best engines we’ve ever seen. but is it the best? open to debate, as the case is with Infinity.
i believe it boils down to which engine’s traits a gamer pays attention to. you have yours with Quake 2, we have ours with Infinity. The engine per se is technically great, and not just used by great games. It’s the first of its kind to accurately simulate the complex pen-and-paper d20 system, and it can handle the graphics which make it the “perfect marriage of form and functionality”. it might not be the greatest for some, but it’s still one of the greats.
in the end, thanks for the insight, friend. a little conflict of opinions doesn’t hurt anybody
June 1st, 2006 at 7:52 pm
I think I’d have to agree with the Infinity Engine being the best - although if anyone remembers the game Abuse, that certainly seems like the most flexible (2D) engine I’ve ever seen!
You know what I think would make it even greater though? If BioWare licensed it out (for free, unless you sell your eventual game). I think it we’d see some great things appear from such a decision.
June 1st, 2006 at 11:56 pm
[...] It’s gaming news and opinions galore again as the 15th Carnival of Gamers gets underway at Kim Pallister’s blog. Yours truly is one of the carnival’s participants (just search for “Crimson Crux”); I chipped in the Greatest Gaming Engine Ever? entry from this blog. [...]
June 2nd, 2006 at 12:04 am
Davet, that would be great indeed. A spectacular game engine let loose upon the thousands of creative minds in the industry? A dream come true, especially for RPG fanatics. Unfortunately, Father Time seems to have caught up with the Infinity Engine, especially in the graphics department. But who knows if Bioware’s tweaking it for a renaissance? Ah, die-hards like me do have fanciful dreams…
July 15th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
[...] Remember our entry on Inon Zur, the man behind the astounding music of Lineage 2? Spending some time on his website, I was pleasantly surprised that he did some of the music for several of history’s greatest role-playing games, Baldurs Gate 2 and Icewind Dale 2. He kind of reminds me of Jeff Van Dyck, a favorite game music composer of mine. [...]