To anwser OP's question, I still play them yes. And they are indeed dated.
Mostly in terms of game design (but theyre old games so kinda understandable), visuals (old engine. Hard to flaw them for that) and the version of dnd theyre based on (also hard to flaw the devs for that. It was current when they made it). The former is found in the pretty linear story telling and fixed location for enemy placements. You often have multiple ways to fix problems (well sometimes, not always) but at the end of the day alot of the encounters always happen in the same manner. If you played the game onnce or twice though its hard not to prepare for the fights that you know are coming which can make them easier then they should be. Visuals is kinda hard to flaw them for speaking from the future. The enhanced editions also kind of fixed a part of that. Its pretty visually appealing now. On the subject of editon, we play 5e now and bg1 and 2 were based on 2nd ed (or version 2.5? Dont recall) which shows its age. Concepts like Thac0 are very dated and while not that super hard to grasp (the lower, the better) can be confusing for new players.
That said, it isent all bad. The pathing AI is in some areas better then more modern games (if you can believe that), the targetting AI is pretty top notch and will abuse any downside in your defenses that it can find. Mostly beause magic is INSANELY overpowered in this version of dnd. But still. The game reacts to your gameplan. Brought summons? If they have the spell, they will insant-gib those. Have defenses? They will quikly dispell those. The game doesent hold back at all! And it is infact this aspect of the game that I love so much. It is brutal! And the feeling and power you gain when you manage to beat the (often optional) boss fights is amazing. Even in the worst case youre still walking away with a metric ton of XP, some coin and if you are lucky some magical items. You rarely find yourself finding the encounters not rewarding.
What I loved about the game was:
-Interparty banter. People have personalities and some of them clash. Have some people in your party that hate eachother and they WILL start killing eachother. Some companions are couples, and you cant have 1 without the other. Can be a pain in the ass, but it fits. The bigger parties also kind of counteract the latter downside.
-Dialogue: the options player get in conversation are insane. And imho a staple for what rpg's should be. Sometimes it comes down to what you say to a person. Are you a dick? Are you kind? Are you mocking them? Are you taunting them? And at other times you can actively deflate an upcoming combat. Other times you can actually cause fighting to erupt instead. You can lie. You can be evasive. You can be straight to the point and blunt or you can as agressive as you want to be. In most cases you have choice in how you approach dialogue. You are allowed to ROLE PLAY your character! And I love it!
-Story. Although some parts of the story can be quite linear and obvious. At other times it is the complete opposite. Want to find the bandit camp? Unless you find the proper information (IIRC you have to keep your 1 lead alive to interrogate him and that can fail) you will only have a vague idea of where to look. And that enforces exploration and adventure!
-The world feels large and alive. Although alot of npc's have fixed locations. Come to the towns and you will find alot of them moving about. Even if theyre just moving around abit randomly it gives the feeling that you just arrived in a town where people do their own thing. They have their own things to worry about. Talk to random npc's and what they say will be reflected in their standing in life. If theyre a far,er theyre worried about crops and maybe the iron crisis but they wont comment on things they realisticly wouldnt. It all fits. Its immersive. Sometimes people will have offhand comments or gossip that are actual leads and other times its just that. Rumors and not actually important.
-Optional content. In BG1 the areas you NEED to be in to follow the story is like..... 1/5 of the map? All of the other areas are completly optional. Theres still stuff going around in those areas and npc companions you can easily miss in those areas as well. Realisticly you will be doing some adventuring sooner or later. Maybe because a companion has something to do. Minsc for example needs to go to the gnoll fortress. Which is completly tucked away in a corner somewhere. While you travel there you move through like 3-4 areas and find that most areas have something going on. And even the areas that dont got things like a xvart village or something.
-it felt like proper dnd. The devs had respect for the source material and it showed!
