Imbued with new confidence (and a little buzzed off the ale), I gather up the party. This time, we will win the day, or die trying -- again. Victory will bring me one step closer to figuring out just what in the hell is happening here in Amn. Welcome to Baldur's Gate II, a fantasy world that is more vast, more rich in color and characters, and more dangerous than that you traveled in Baldur's Gate and its add-on, Tales of the Sword Coast. If you're a BG vet (and there are hundreds of thousands of you out there), this is one sequel that won't let you down. With better artwork (800 by 600 resolution in 32-bit color is supported, as well as nearly twice any many frames of animation for character models), a completely new and more involved story, 100 new spells (for a total of 300), new character classes and weapon proficiencies, scores of new monsters to waste, and literally hundreds of non-player characters to interact with, BG II is far more than a rehash of the original.
If you actually missed the original, you'll draw no penalty for starting with this game. BG II's characters will fill you in on the important story details from BG as you play. (Vets will benefit from being able to skip over flashback conversations.) From the all-important character creation screen you must chose all the proper ingredients for your hero. You start the saga alone, and other characters will join along the way - you can travel with up to six characters at time. Make no mistake, however: you are the leader, and it's important to take your time selecting your character's attributes before jumping into the game. If you can't wait, there are some pre-created characters you can select as well - but what fun is that?
There's one new race to play as, the Half-Orc, which makes a fine choice for prospective warriors out there - plus there are a few surprises in store for AD&D fans interested in the Drow and the Underdark. The three new character classes are Sorcerer, Monk, and Barbarian. These join the already impressive list of classes from the original, including Bard, Mage, Paladin, Ranger, and Druid. The biggest advantage to the new game is that your character begins play somewhere between 5th and 7th experience level, giving him a fighting chance of survival out of the gate.
Because it's a 100-plus hour game (probably 200 hours if you try to complete each and every quest), it's obviously important for you to be comfortable with your character. You're going to be with him for a while! And, if you wish, you can create and control all six of the characters in your party by playing through the game in multiplayer mode. (The multiplayer mode also allows you to play through the game with five other people, over LAN or Internet.)
Better still, if you liked the character with which you beat BG and Tales of the Sword Coast, you can import that character into BG II (and you'll be able to import that character from BG II into Bioware's next RPG, Neverwinter Nights). For balancing reasons, you won't have all of your goodies from BG - such as your Defender +5. (Sorry, folks. I know it hurts.) There are 16 NPCs who can join your party. As you complete or start certain quests, you may need to boot someone to make room for a new member (note: always have a thief in the party!). Once an NPC joins up with you, you can control them in battle and alter their attributes to your liking as they gain experience. (Heck, you can even alter the portraits, scripts, and AI of all the characters in the game if you want. Ever wanted to battle trolls alongside Pauly Shore?)
I'm not going to spend much time on the story, as it has many twists and surprises that would be all too easy to spoil. It's more epic in scope (there are at least a hundred sub-quests) and it will involve you much more than the original did - the choices you make have much more impact on the story than before. It picks up a short time after you bested that bad boy Sarevok in Baldur's Gate, and you learned the truth about your ancestry. You find yourself imprisoned in a dungeon, tormented by an unknown captor. From there you must escape and hook up with other members of your old party - Imoen, Jahiera, and Minsc.
There are so many quests that by Chapter 2 [of 6?-rob], I was really beginning to think there were too many. I didn't know what to do or where to go next! (This was mostly my own fault, as I just can't say no to a good quest.) And most quests have several branches to them, as opposed to BG where many were very short "go there and fetch this" (or "FedEx") variety. Thankfully, the game subtly pushes you in the right direction via NPC prompts. Take my advice; say no to a couple of the non-critical quests early on, and try to take them on one or two at time. It'll make your progress less confusing.
Your early play will mostly be in the capital city of Athkatla. From there you'll go to the farthest reaches of the land, which include the city of Trademeet, the Umar Hills, Temple Ruins, the cities of the Underdark, and the Astral plane. The environments are sufficiently varied to those you traversed in the original, and you can travel instantaneously to each new area, instead of having to walk to and fro.
Vital locations are marked nice and bright for you on the map when you enter a city or city section. In Baldur's Gate, you had to explore each city fully to find taverns, markets, temples, and such. This time around you can also annotate the map yourself, marking the location of locked chests to return to, for example. The journal is also much improved, with tabs for current and completed quests (sorted by chapter, and name or date), a tab for automatic journal entries, and a tab for your own entries, making it an invaluable tool.
As with BG, combat is based on the 2nd Edition AD&D rules and occurs in real-time. You can pause the action at any time by hitting the spacebar, or you can chose to have the action pause automatically each time one of character's turn in combat is ended. You can also turn off the party AI to make it more like a traditional turn-based game as well. BG II really deserves major kudos for being very highly configurable, and thus able to suit a wide range of playing styles and preferences. Heck, you can even alter the combat difficulty on the fly!
Okay, so all these words so far and not one of complaint? Well, that's because there really isn't much that's worth complaining about. BG II is a bigger version of the original, with lots of subtle improvements. Its main fault may be that it's too much like the original in look and feel, but that's like damning The Return of the Jedi for being too much like Star Wars.
There are a handful of minor irritations (Ewoks, if you will). Some are new, others carry-overs. For example, you still get that highly repetitive and immensely irritating "You must gather your party before venturing forth" message every time you exit an area. Character path-finding is less than ideal in confined or cluttered areas (that said, the path-finding is improved compared to Baldur's Gate).
Additionally, there's some really poor timing in conversations with various party members. For example, immediately after one prolonged, sweat-inducing battle in which one character was killed, Aerie decides to tell Jaheira that her hair looks very pretty. D'oh!
None of these blemishes are big enough to bring down a fantastic Black Isle offering. Baldur's Gate II may not have the "wow" factor of the original, it's a better game in many respects and a must-have in any estimation.
GameFaqs Review: Dungeons and Dragons can be regarded as the first fathers of RPG. Although to gamers of the new generation, the idea of rolling dice and exploring dungeons created by another player (known as the Dungeon Master DM) may seem primitive, it is however this style of gameplay that constitutes the base of most RPGs, even of today.
Thus it is no surprise that many PC games were produced using the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D) rules, whilst adding visual and audio effects which can further immerse the player. However, most of the early products in the early 90's fell short of expectations, mainly due to the poor graphics standard and abundance of text. A pity since some of those games were really good, if players were only willing to find out by spending time with them.
However, all is about to change. RPG fans are about to embark on a journey that is so great, so vast, so grand, that over 200 hours of time can be spent trying to uncover the next secret in Baldur's Gate 2 (BG2) - Shadows of Amn.
Overall (10) - definitely!
The game is truly an epic and if made into film, it definitely must form a series as the storyteller is way too ambitious with the scene that he/she is trying to create. Not that it is a bad thing though. BG2 is really excellent!
Let me now attempt to share some of my experiences of the game:
Graphics (8) - The visual effects are good, but not the best of today's standard. Perhaps there are more to what I have seen, as due to hardware limitations, I was not able to utilize all the features available. There is support for 3D acceleration (for a variety of cards) but even without one, the graphics are beautiful. The game can run in both 640 x 480 or 800 x 600, the latter obviously being of better quality. As to the actual screens, the characters have animations, such as when attacking opponents, each will have different attacking styles (eg slashing, stabbing). The characters, when putting on different armor and weapons, will change their appearances as well. Spell effects are colorful and varied, but overall nothing special. It is not that the graphics of this game are bad but rather that recent games have placed a lot of emphasis on getting the visuals right and BG2 has, it seems, chosen to dedicate more time to perfecting the overall experience. Basically, for this game, you get the usual fare of movies, animations, and intro and ending sequences.
Music & Sound (10) - The music is brilliant!!! I have yet played a game where the music is so good that the perfect atmosphere is created. When you travel, the music makes you feel like you are going on a grand journey. When you fight, the music makes you feel like you are fighting a final confrontation for your empire. It is impossible to explain how good it is. It is like the Matrix - you have got to hear it for yourself. The sounds are there, fighting clashes to peasants talking in the background, and is satisfactory. The voice acting is generally done well, even though some of the characters may sound a bit exaggerated at times.
Gameplay (9) - As mentioned above, BG2 uses AD&D rules as a framework. Thus you can expect to see familiar terminology and phrases such as saving throw, critical hit etc. The characters are also defined by AD&D stats like Strength and Wisdom. Even though this means that a well - established game system has already been provided, it also means that users who are have not been exposed to AD&D might have to spend some time familiarizing themselves with the system. Other than this, the control mechanics are the usual - hot keys, mouse and keyboard combination, point and click for movement etc The only problem I have with the game mechanics is that it is sometimes difficult to guide the characters around. Even the advanced AI technology of today is not sufficient to prevent my fighters continuous walking into walls instead of around them!
Addictiveness (10) - This game will steal your life. Once you get into the game, there is no leaving it. There are many quests for you to partake on and millions of items to collect. Note that the quests are not independent branches, but rather subplots that players should dedicate time to finishing - as doing so will not only bring about experience points and treasure, but one will also get a better understanding of the overall plot, which I think is the best part of this game.
Story(10) - I regard the storyline as being the most important part of an RPG. And BG2 has a great story. It is so big and deep that one will struggle to uncover everything. The history is there and so are the conspiracies. One can look for friendship and romance. Twists to the tale are everywhere. What more can one ask for when BG2 already gives you an epic? Basically the game follows from BG1 where the main character (which you create through a long, involving process), who is the son of an evil God, must learn to understand his/her powers, whilst teaming up with other characters to uncover the evil plot beset by a certain mage known as Jon Irenicus. However, the real evil at hand is far greater and hidden. I think I have yet to understand everything about BG2!
Finally, after all that I have said, I must warn the reader that BG2 is not a game for everyone. It takes a lot of time figuring out battle strategies and in general, deciding on what to do next. There is a fair amount of detail to consider, and the game can be confusing at times. However, for all RPG fans out there and players who would like to try out one of the best games of all time, Shadows of Amn is waiting for you!
Cheats
Always make a backup copy before making any changes. Open up the file Baldur.ini with any text editor. Under the heading:
[Program Options] Type: Debug Mode=1
Start the game, and during gameplay, press Ctrl + Space to bring up the console. Now type any of the following:
CLUAConsole:SetCurrentXP(amount) - XP for selected character or group, cap is 2950000
CLUAConsole:AddGold(amount) - Gold
CLUAConsole:ExploreArea() - Reveal Map
CLUAConsole:CreateItem("id") - Create Any Item in the Game
CLUAConsole:CreateItem("id",amount) - Create Any Item 'amount' number of times
CLUAConsole:CreateCreature("monster") - Summon a Monster (monster list below)
Also, press the following during gameplay:
Ctrl + Shift + 8 = Max Stats
Ctrl + R = Heal a Character
Ctrl + J = Jump to Mouse Cursor Location
Ctrl + T = Heal Party
Ctrl + Y = Kill Person or Monster Cursor is on
Ctrl + 1 = Change Armor Class of Selected Character
Ctrl + 6 and 7 = Change the Model of Selected Character
Monster List
id - monster
wyvern01 - Wyvern
ogre01 - Ogre
uddrow27 - Drow Warrior
behgau01 - Gauth Beholder
beheld01 - Elder Orb Beholder
dragred - Red Dragon
dragblac - Black Dragon
dragsil - Silver Dragon
lich01 - Lich
trogi01 - Giant Troll
vammat01 - Mature Vampire
icmin01 - Minotaur
skelwa01 - Skeleton Warrior
icbone01 - Bone Golem
ghogr01 - Greater Ghoul
troluo01 - Splitter Troll
mumgre01 - Greater Mummy
golsto01 - Stone Golem
mistho01 - Mist Horror
hldemi - Demi Lich
orc05 - Orog Warrior
icsalcol - Blue Salamander
gendji01 - Djinni
mindfl01 - Mind Flayer
Item List
Click Here