Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

"Falls down where it counts"

Balder's Gate 2 for a windows PC, a game that was hyped to the heavens, billed as being a game that would remake the RPG world and provide YOU the consumer with weeks of non-stop action in an engrossing world.

WELL that was the hype, but heres the game...

Overview:
On the surface Balder's Gate 2 would appear to be a very balanced fun game that you could really get into. The graphics are fluid and very detailed, the vast array of weapons and items, skills and spells seems to ensure that the game will go the distance. However, dive a little deeper and you'll find out that you were very very wrong....

Graphics:
Well, i'll start on a strong point. The graphics in this game are great. When you walk you actually move the distance your legs stride adding realism to the game in general. You can watch with joy as your characters send well animated fireballs at the well rendered foes. Shadows change with different light levels, for example cast a very bright spell or summon a fire elemental and it has the same effect as having a lit torch in a hall way would in real life. Yes, due to the attention to detail the graphics here the high point of this game.

Gameplay:
Sadly this game is all rainbow and no pot of gold. From the second you start a new game you are suddenly hit by a HUGE brick wall. Yes, my friends, you are dropped in the deep end, big time. Character creation is something that you, as a new player, are going to have redo again and again and again....unless of course you happen to have played the first Balders gate but even then there are more classes and more kits and more races, meaning that you are going to be nothing but confused. For example I had played Balders Gate 1 for a few weeks, I thought I knew what I was doing when it came to making a new character. hang on a min, what's this Half Orc? Would he make a good beserker or a better barbarian? What about a monk, are they better then the three different types of thieves? To make matters worse there are no pre-generated characters for you to play the game through with on your first try, so you are going to have to get it right first time round or be hurting bad when it comes to playing the game. Right so you've made your character, the human fighter as basic as it can be and your ready to leap into an utterly convincing RPG world right? Wrong. Again you are dropped in the deep end starting the game with a relatively large (for a beginner) complex filled to the brim with bad guys. To make matters worse unless you set the scripts which can be another 'is thief aggressive better then thief defensive for my thief with this bow but only this armour etc....'' your people will stand around like lemons, yes that's right they will stand there and take the pain unless you tell them to do something. Picture this you learn from your mistakes and set up the scripts so that your warriors will automatically rush into combat and start sending foes packing. But what's this? They have a mage who's casting spells left right and centre, clearly he should be taken out first so you select your merry band of men (or at least parts of it) to go after this mage and three steps down the line they turn around and go after the same people they were just fighting. ARG! you have to set up the special scripts so that when there's a mage they go and attack the mage rather then the weakling Goblins or whatever. So you do that, now they are ignoring the weakling goblins whenever they show up alone. Note to self: shave head before playing to avoid pain of pulling it all out.

Sound:
Another high point of the game save for hearing your fellow band members saying the same stupid lines over and over everytime you select them. 'Swords not words!'' Yes, it's good the first 20 times you hear it, and yes you'll be switching off that function in the opinions menu. The music is great, adds to the atmosphere nicely. The Sound of battle is also good as are the sound of spells. The voice acting on certain characters could be better but some of them had me in stitches (the first hundred times I heard it of course). Yes, over all the sound is a good thing.

Story:
Well, as far as RPG stories go, Balder's Gate 2 does not fair badly. It suffers from a couple of plot holes but has the usual twists that are as predictable as night and day. However I do feel that the story line is given a good depth by the NPC's actually talking to your character and responding depending on what you say. This helps to make the men of your merry band more like people and less like cardboard with stats. In that respect the team behind Balder's Gate 2 have helped to make the world more real and engrossing.

Replayablitiy:
The game does get better over time to be honest. once you have learned how to make a good character and how to step up the scripts for your team correctly so that your band of merry men become a finely tuned killing machine (especially in multiplayer where you can make a complete custom party and not have to worry about the story line since you know it anyway) the game can give a range of very limited pleasure. Certainly if you managed to enjoy it first time round and would like to see how the game plays from a different characters point of view it can be worth playing it again. If you feel hardcore enough you can always play the game with ONE character. So overall if you can stand the bad controls this game does have something to make you come back again and again.

To buy or to rent?:
Don't bother renting, you will need to play this game for a LONG time before you get any real joy from it.

Overall score:
graphics 8
gameplay 3
sound 7
replayability 7
overall score: would have been a six if the controls were not so awful, so i give it a 5 out of ten.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 01/14/02, Updated 01/14/02