Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

"One of the best computer RPGs ever made..."

For those who like RPG in Dungeon and Dragon style will just go mad with this game. The story is amazing and rich, the graphics just show that you don´t need to have 3D Graphics to have an awesome atmosphere. The sound effects are alright but a little repetitive, in other hand musics are quite epics.

Story - The story will continue the saga of the already classic Baldur´s Gate where you are the son of the God of murder and together with a party of 5 members (maximum) you have to protect your immortality from an evil mage. This history sounds simple at a first sight but it will lead you to a large number of sub-quests which help to improve the RPG experience. The main story takes you to a linear way but the side-quests can make you feel deeper involved with the environment of Dungeons and Dragons. As you keep playing you will realize the different personalities of the characters and you can even have romance through the game.

Graphics - An awesome job. I´m very upset with this thing that all the games now have to be made on 3D engine and you have to buy a very expensive 3D Video Board to play it...
Baldur´s Gate II shows a different way with some nice graphics without any 3D resource. Each character has its own nice skin and as you change weapons and armors you will notice the changes. The cities and dungeons are very well done with some good textures and the dungeons aren´t repetitive. The spell effects are simple but effective. They don´t flood the screen but are nice to see.

Sounds and Music - The sounds are nice but a little repetitive which is also explained by the length of the game. One great feature is that you are able to import your own sound sets for your character so you can get your character with the voice of Darth Vader for instance which is very fun.
The musics are nice, and fits very well with the game style, but after some hours of straight gameplay it will get a little boring.

Controls - The controls are well done considering the complexity of the game. The menus aren´t obvious and that will endurance a little at the beginning but after you get used to it, everything is going to flow smoothly. The battles are not the main point in the game but they are very strategic and not action style so it may take a while to win some tough battles, in other hand this is one of the qualities of the game because it does not remember Icewind Dale where you face just a dungeon after another....

Replayability - Extremely high. Because on each game your main character can be developed in very different ways and personalities and you can follow like the evil path or the good path and you can also have romances with different characters. Remember that creating different teams will give new interactions because the NPCs have different personalities and have kind of a mind of themselves.

For those who like the style just run to buy a copy of the game!!!! It´s money well spent!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/31/02, Updated 01/31/02