Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

"Without A Doubt, Baldur's Gate II Is One Of the Greatest RPGs of All Time, In Any of the RPG Genres"

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn to this day, remains one of my favorite games and one of the best told games I've ever played. Plus it has one of the best lead villains of all time.


Game Play:
Baldur's Gate's combat is power by the excellent Dungeons & Dragons rule set which in my book remains one of the best playing combat rule sets of any RPG. As one would expect from Bioware you have an almost insane amount of dialog options that let you play out all most any type of character. Along with that you have the standard DnD Classes along with class "kits" that you can select that have different perks and downsides. Such as the Swash-Buckler, which provides a more direct combat thief. There are a few kits per major class so you'll have quite a selection to fit your play style. My personal favorites Still remain the Kensai and Monk.

BGII also has more then its fair share of loot which comes it all shapes and sizes, including the ever so wonderful Bag of Holding for all of my fellow pack-rats out there. Also all of the games items have their own bits of history you can read about them whenever you examine them. This adds a great level of personality to the items that most games do not have.

As one would expect BGII is fairly open-ended (without feeling like the slapped together mess that Fallout was...) with the only exception being around the middle of the game where you are shuffled along on a pretty linear path, with it opening up again after that.


Audio:
Your standard fantasy sound effects here. The real audio treat is the game's superb voice acting. I honestly cannot find anything bad to say about it(Well.... One bad thing about it.... There is not enough of it!!!). The actors are skilled and the direction is top-notch. Plus you can't miss all of the wonderful and silly quotes of Minsc(and his hamster, Boo)and the talking sword Lilarcor, add just the right amount of great humor to an otherwise serious game.


Graphics:
Pre-rendered 3D back grounds and character sprites are BGII's chosen graphic medium. While very dated by todays standards, they're still a joy to look at for me. everything from the beautiful city(and ugly slums)of Amn, to the underdark. I love it all. The upside to the game engine is that BGII will run well on all but the most ancient of systems.


In short: Get BGII and play it until your brain tries to escape out your ear.
It is not something to be missed.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/26/07

Game Release: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (US, 09/24/00)