Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal

"A scathing review....."

Throne of Bhaal was a highly anticipated expansion to Shadows of Amn. It is an entwined expansion that adds levels and items to the original game. Although initially I thought this would be a great expansion, I was led down a very different path....

The Throne of Bhaal story starts out just after you have sent Jon Irenicus to his final death. You start in the forest of Suldenessalar, and the intro tells of chilling tales. Other Bhaalspawn have begun terrorizing the valley of Tethyr, raising armies and battling in a strive for ultimate domination. Queen Ellisime suggests you talk to the spirits in the forest, and they unfold your quest from there.

The graphics involved in this game may be better than the original. I especially thought the monsters were very well done, as there were many new monsters presented. Very detailed, crisp, and realisitic. Part of the problem with the graphics though, is the terrible framerate associated with this. I believe most of the problem is the engine limitation, the Infinity Engine, provides. It's very unfortunate because a lot of the game has stutters and slow action, which makes battle difficult.

Bioware also added in a feature called the Automated Speed Adjustment. This will turn off certain features of the game if the game starts running very slow. Good idea but, the problem is, it never really helps the situation. It still struggles to maintain a constant flow through the game.

But I suppose I should get to the part that lowered the score to a three. This is because the game gets INCREDIBLY boring after the first city or so. There is the common theme of kill monsters, go over here, kill gigantic huge monsters that can kill you in one hit, go over here, etc. The game really became very one dimensional, as every corner was just another battle.

''But isn't this an RPG?'', you say. ''Isn't there supposed to be killing?''. Yes, but they go overboard at this. There are many battles in which the screen is literally filled with monsters. This contributes to poor framerate and very high frustration on the part of the gamer. And the monsters just get near impossible. I really enjoyed the dragons in the first one, because they were fairly rare. But in Throne of Bhaal, well, it just is way too much...

As far as the plot, it is really not that great. It's you versus a number of powerful Bhaalspawn children. That's pretty much it. It really drones on, with many dialogues saying pretty much the same thing.

Like many, I am anxiously awaiting the release of Neverwinter Nights. I think the time and effort will be much more substantial in that game than this one. It's a pretty poor, sloppy, and especially boring game. I wouldn't recommend it. But that's just my humble opinion...

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 10/26/01, Updated 10/26/01