Computer RPGs

Baldur's Gate 1 can be kind of rough. It was a different time. The encounter design is not good. The companions have very little dialogue. It's much more exploration-oriented instead of story and character driven. It strives to fulfill that classic fantasy of travelling around the magic forests and whatnot, doing some dungeon crawling and finding some loot. I'd say it's still worth playing if you have decent tolerance for retro games, but I personally rarely feel the urge to replay it. It does set up the story for the sequel, but you could conceivably skip it. It actually sets up more for the Throne of Bhaal expansion than BG2 itself.

BG2 remains one of my all time favourites and I have replayed it several times.

One suggestion I will float for when you do get around to BG2: it's still sort of old school. Some characters hate eachother, and will eventually fight to the death. Characters will also just leave the group if your reputation gets too far away from their alignment. I personally tend to disable both of these features via the Tweaks Anthology. Reputation is a nightmare to manage in vanilla if you're trying to be anything but a goody-two-shoes, and some of the best banter is between characters who hate each other. I get the intention behind the design, but I think it's a better experience to just pick whoever you feel is interesting for your party and not worry about it.