Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

"Another Solid Title from Black Isle"

Ever see a really bad sequel ? Or even worse , a sequel to a sequel ? (Halloween 3) The PC gaming industry is the exact anti-thesis of the Movie Industry . They can take a successful game ... and improve it by simply sprinkling on some extra toppings or making a few new flavors . This is basically what Black Isle did with Baldurs Gate 2 . Anyways , onto the review

Audio : 10/10 . Here is where the game really shines . Just about everyone you engage conversation with has a voice over for most of their dialogue . The voice-overs don't get annoying , but are used for different characters . For example , many dwarfs will use the same voice-over . Fortunately these characters are minor townsfolk ... so it is not a big deal . The battle audio is awesome . Whether slashing with a sword , hacking with an axe , or just clubbing with a mace , the weapons hitting a monsters flesh come to life . Black Isle did an excellent job with the Audio in this game .

Gameplay: 8/10 . The character creation is pretty standard in BGII , with a couple perks . Choose a race , then choose a class . You can choose a basic class such as a fighter , mage , thief , or cleric . Or you can choose a multi-class which combines some of the abilities of the two classes with an exp penalty. In example , a fighter-mage would have some mage skills and some fighter skills but never be more powerful than a fighter in melee or a mage with magic . Heres where it gets interesting . Each basic class has sub-classes , that are like the basic class in many ways but have abilities that are unique as well .The fighter has sub-classes that also have sub-classes . Confused ? Well lets say I pick a fighter . Then i pick a ranger . I can play the game now as just a basic ranger , or I can further develop him with another set of sub-classes . I can choose a Stalker , Beastmaster , or Archer , each having its own strengths and weakness' . After that you allocate points into your stats , put points into weapon skills , and choose your characters alignment with society . Whether you want to be good , evil , or neutral or somewhere in between two of the three . You then choose your characters voice from a set of voices , his face , clothing and skin color .Now that you have your character , you can choose to dual-class him . By dual-classing you stop gaining exp for your current class and instead gain exp for a new class . You carry over the skills and abilities of your previous class , but also the disadvantages . This can be quite powerful and imho is better then multi-classes .Thats the character creation system in BG2 . Now , you dont fight alone like in diablo or something . Other characters join your quest for different reasons . The total people you have in your party is 6 . Each one of them you can customize the AI to control them from a list of different things . For Example , your thief can automatically always try to hide in shadows and backstab monsters . Or , you can set him to automatically detect traps and avoid combat al together . The best way I think is too control them each manually . You can pause the game an do thier actions while paused and they will do them upon unpausing . This is so if the battle gets too fast you can keep up with it effectively . In BG2 you gain most of your money and exp from doing quests . These quests are reported in your journal which is updated when you complete a certain portion of the quest . The Quests are pretty good in BG2 . They contribute to the story behind some of the townsfolk , and almost always involve combat and dungeon raiding . However , they can get pretty boring since most of them are lumped together into one chapter of the game .

Story:6/10 . The story in this game revolves around your characters involvement with a powerful wizard Irenicus . You get wrapped up in many different plots in the town which are more interesting imho then the main plot . I find it a cliche , but some people found the plot interesting .

Replay ability: 7/10 . This game could offer a lot the second time around . You can play a new class , explore the different plot twists only available to your class , and do quests and get loot you forgot the first run around . However , since you control many other characters/classes during the game you get many of the same expierences as if you chose that class as your main character .

Entertainment: 9/10 . Nothing much to say here . This game is as addicting as it is fun .

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/27/01, Updated 06/27/01