In the past couple of years, the role–playing genre has seen the rebirth of its glory days, and Interplay, with its stable of third–party and in–house developers (including Bioware and Black Isle Studios), stands firmly at the forefront of the RPG craze. The venerable Dungeons and Dragons license hasn’t had it this good since the days of the Gold Box Series, and quite frankly, even those classics couldn’t hold a candle to the likes of "Planescape: Torment" (the best AD&D game ever made) and Black Isle’s latest sure–fire hit "Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn." The developers had quite a task on their hands between staying true to the second Edition AD&D rule set, while also concentrating on creating an enjoyable playing experience. Black Isle not only manages to pull it off, they also manage to create one of the best RPG’s of all time!
I won’t delve into the plot too much as it would spoil the ending of the original Baldur’s Gate, which some folks may still be playing. However, those of you that are familiar with the first BG’s ending, the action picks up pretty much where things left off in the original. You’ll quickly be reunited with old friends Jaheria, Imoen, and Minsc (complete with Boo the Space Hamster) as you battle your way through a game that with all its main quests and sub–quests could easily could take up 60 hours of your life — of course, you’ll love every minute of it!
BG2 has so accurately digitized the AD&D rule set that at times things can seem a bit overwhelming. Choosing a character class out of the 40 choices (when you include all major classes and their separate character kits) is one of the toughest choices you’ll make — many of the options sound quite "tasty," and it’s difficult to finally come to a final decision. You’ll also be bombarded with over 200 spells to choose from as well as a mountain of treasures and magic items with which to equip your hero. And you’d better be mindful of the spells and items you enter battle with because combat in BG2 is far from just a mindless click–fest. You’ll actually have to use quite a bit of gray matter when encountering enemies in the game, as the battles have a strong tactical flavor to them that other RPG series such as Might & Magic and Diablo lack. Going into a fight in BG2 blindly flailing away at the enemy is a sure way to wind up dead – especially against beasties such as creepy beholders, frustrating demi–liches (get ready to re–load), and nasty mind flayers.
BG2’s storyline is a very good one, and while it doesn’t rival the brilliant backstory of Planescape: Torment, BG2 nicely holds its own in the plot department. Intra–party dialog is used much more than it was in the original, and the dialog amongst party members fleshes out the story and gives the game a "Final Fantasy–esque" feel to character development. The quests are plentiful, and you’ll most likely wind up with more on your plate than you can handle — a fact that your fellow comrades will remind you of when you don’t get around to catering their individual agendas. Fortunately, you can be a little quicker about responding to your friends’ needs in BG2, as movement between areas is A LOT faster here than in the original. No more spending 15 minutes crossing a dead patch of woods... now, all you do is click on the area you wish to travel to and (nothing up my sleeve) PRESTO, there you are! Another improvement over the original is the ability to play in resolutions higher than 640x480, therefore giving yourself a wider view of the game environment. While the differences in game mechanics between BG1 and BG2 are minor, they do make quite an impact in terms of the game’s playability.
Is there anything bad to say about Baldur’s Gate II? Well... not really. Some of the encounters were a bit on the difficult side, but a simple in–game switch of difficulty settings got me past the more frustrating battles. With BG2, Black Isle has captured the AD&D setting better than anyone before and have developed the best AD&D–to–computer conversion ever to grace the computer screen. If Interplay and its developers keep the quality of their games at such a high level, we may have to get the Department of Justice involved!
"The role–playing game environment has just been substantially enhanced, thanks to the latest offering from Interplay — Baldur’s Gate II — a true, GRAND GAME AWARD winner!"
