It can only help that the Baldur's Gate storylines are entrenched in the Forgotten Realms D&D background which had been around for a decade or two beforehand. A serious attempt at doing justice to an existing wealth of fiction and lore probably yields better results than a ham-fisted attempt to inject some token fantasy elements and lore into an RPG a month before release.
Regarding your game over comment, you might be interested to read about an old CRPG called Planescape Torment which is more heavily story-driven than usual. The premise is that you're the immortal protagonist known as the "Nameless One" (with the catch that you suffer partial amnesia every time you die) and you're attempting to find and assemble the pieces of your past and reclaim your mortality. It's unconventional in that dying not only doesn't result in game over (it's quite hard to get game over actually) but it actually helps in some cases as it can spark various memories from your past. And it's fairly thought-provoking when you encounter past incarnations of yourself with completely different personas, as well as people and potential companions who have had dealings with them. Effectively, others hold you responsible for all actions of all your incarnations, even if you have no memory of them.
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