Rating: 
Summary: The mother of all computer RPGs
Review: The Baldur's Gate franchise is the most popular single-player RPG series out there for good reasons, even though it's been a few years since its release. While more recent Black Isle games, notably Icewind Dale II, have vastly improved graphics and interface and others like Neverwinter Nights have changed the playing field entirely, BGII stands out for its tremendous scope and exceptional depth. BGII's complexity, intertwining subplots and host of myriad characters are enough to constitute a novel, one which you get to shape and play out instead of merely reading. To me that's the essence of RPG that few others have been able to capture. Reinforcing this feeling, at many points in the game you must make decisions that have far-reaching consequences. Furthermore, you can also complete many quests using the good or evil approach. You may decide how to proceed based on whether you want to be good or evil; there are non-player characters (NPCs) of both alignments ready to assist you. BGII's strongest asset is its quests. While some quests are short and easily completed, most are substantial, highly interesting, and many engender their own sub-quests. For instance, one quest requires you to infiltrate a thieves guild suspected of treason; to gain their trust, you must finish several tasks for them; after you gather evidence of their treason, you're asked to go back and eliminate the guild leader; if you're successful, you then have the option of becoming the new leader and manage your own guild. It's possible to finish the game doing only the minimum handful of quests, but you'd be missing a big part of the game. Similarly, it's almost impossible to complete all quests in one run, because the quests you get depend on the decisions you make. For instance, you can side either with the thieves' guild or the rival vampires' guild, each of which comes with its own storyline and quests. Most of the quests are initiated at the beginning of the game in Athkatla. Subsequently, quests become smaller and more linear. Characters are tightly intertwined with quests. Since you start off with only one player, you should add additional characters to your party. Characters range from elven cleric/wizard to human ranger/stalker. Some are carry-overs from BG1. Some are found only if you accept certain quests, and some come with their own quests. You can interact with virtually any character in the game. Each character has his/her own history, alignment, and personality. From time to time, characters in your party will initiate dialogues with you and with one another, most with some amount of actual voice dialogue. Some interactions are quite funny; I've chuckled many times with Minsc and Jan in my party. One feature that I suspect to be very popular is romance with characters in your party. If you meet certain conditions, a male player can romance with one of three female NPCs and a female player can romance with one male NPC. Romance are simply additional dialogues that you go through during lulls between battles. They don't add significantly to the plot, but they're an extra dimension that adults may appreciate. A new feature in BGII is the "stronghold". The stronghold you get depends on your class. For instance, the fighter stronghold is a keep outside of Athkatla, while the thieves stronghold is a guild headquarter in the Docks district. Strongholds are gained after you complete a certain quest; they generate gold for your coffers and come with their own mini-quests at intervals. They're not essential to the story, but they add immensely to the illusion of role-playing. Another great new feature is familiars, small pet-like creatures that follow you and obey your orders. There are many tricks you can do with familiars, but mostly they're just cool to have. If you haven't played BG1, the premise is that you're the illegitimate child of Bhaal, the God of Murder. After you defeated your nemesis at the end of BG1, your party was ambushed and taken prisoner. You wake up in a dark dungeon and find yourself tortured and apparently experimented upon by an unknown wizard. The game begins as the dungeon are invaded by hooded assailants and you are released. Now you must fight your way out of the dungeons and discover the identity of your captor and thwart his nefarious plan. You will explore the vast city Athkatla as well as travel to many exotic destinations such as an extra-planar prison, an underwater Sahuagin city, the Underdark, the elven city Suldanessellar, even the Nine Hells! There are innumerable dungeons and ruins along the way for your to explore. If any game is able to truly capture the dungeon exploring feel of D&D, this is it! You'll encounter a virtual encyclopedic list of monsters, including golems, vampires, liches, beholders, mind-flayers, werewolves, demons, and dragons. Some are immensely powerful and require much tactical planning on your part. Mastering spells and understanding their effects and limitations are a must. This is a hard task as there are 300 spells of all types in the game. Enemy spellcasters have powerful magical protections that make them virtually invincible. However, every protection spell has some form of counter. To successfully attack them, you must use the appropriate counter-spells to weaken their defense. Game play is fast and furious. Battles are not as large as those in IWD2 and are more oriented toward magical duelling, which is equally if not more fun. The sprite graphics and animations are unspectacular by modern standards, but they are no longer noticeable once you become immersed in the game. Background graphics is gorgeous eye-candy, however, particularly the Sahuagin city, the Underdark, and Suldanessellar. The soundtrack and voice-over work are superb. BGII has very high-replay value thanks to its breadth and richness. If you like RPG games, this one is a must-have.
Rating:
Summary: Truly brilliant
Review: Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn (henceforth BGII) is a truly brilliant game. Few other computer roll playing games can compare to the immersiveness offered in the world that Bioware has magnificently created. The only one that comes close was Betrayal at Krondor, 7 or 8 years old by now. Baldurs Gate I pretty much rejuvenated a soporific genre that was running low on ideas. BGII has built on the foundation of BGI, and the results are impressive. BGII does everything important right. It makes good use of the AD&D license with monsters, places, and objects familiar from those that played the pen & paper version. One of BGII's main bonuses is that it incorporates some new 3rd AD&D rules, specifically in character creation. Whereas before you were the familiar basic fighter/wizard/thief there are slews of new options. Each of the old classes, such as Fighters, have been given "kits" which are basically subclasses. So instead of being a guy or gal with a sword, now you can be a Mageslayer. This class has great bonuses when attacking magic wielders. On the minus side, they can't use a lot of magical items, including healing potions - which can make the game much tougher. Its a great balancing act, and makes playing the game much more immersive. As you play to your strengths and find ways around your weaknesses it creates much more of a dilemma and challenge. There are also three new classes: monks, barbarians, and sorcerers. All of which I could continue on about in depth... The characters you come across in the game world are fabulous as well. Other characters that join your group will have their own personal axes to grind. They often need your help and agree to join only if you do indeed help them out. If you dont keep your word, they will easily walk out on you. Also, if you try and mix good and evil characters in your group, they will have words with each other and may even fight to the death! Such drama! The game allows for an amazing amount of personalization as well. If you are so inclined you can import your own picture and voice files into the game, for that truly submersive experience. I could go on and about the good stuff as there is simply so much stuff to gush about. Interesting quests, size of the game (200+ hours of entertainment) etc, but there are a few caveats. The game is a bear - four discs! A full install will eat up several gigs. And if you dont do the full install, your load times can be veerry sllooowww. Additionally, the minimum requirements are a bit misleading. I make the minimum requirements and I've had to do *tons* of tweaking to make the game playable. If your machine is borderline, be very careful, or else you will have a game that is barely playable, its just too choppy. Besides hardware concerns, there have been some performance problems - the game does occasionally lock up and crash. But overall, Bioware has done an incredible job in delivering a solid, bug free game (especially when you compare it to other stuff on the market) that pushes the limits of the genre. They have done nearly everything right: great manual, great support, multiplayer etc. If you are ready to graduate from Diablo's mindless hack and slash into a game that will challenge your imagination, tactics, and assumptions, do yourself a favor. Baldurs Gate II is going to go down as one of the best games to ever be produced. If you like roleplaying games, go buy this game. NOW!
Rating:
Summary: super!
Review: I really enjoy playing this game, there is a lot of action, the weapons and spells are awesome, and it isn't too easy! The only thing I don't like about it is how the characters in your party will just leave to go take care of their own business.
Rating:
Summary: ...-KICKING FOR GOODNESS!
Review: I bought this game when it first came out, after enjoying the original Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast. I started playing and then set it aside -- for a reason I'll explain later -- and then got wrapped up in Dugeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights and then Icewind Dale II. But I kept BG II in the back of my mind, knowing I wanted to come back to it. I did restart it recently, and I've had a great two months of gameplay. What a fantastic game -- story, music, humor, interface, combat, voices. It is simply first class in every way. It ranks among my all-time favorites. I'll admit to being a total freak about playing D&D role-playing games -- they have wiped out any desire I have to play games like Unreal, Quake, NASCAR sims, etc. Ever since Planescape Torment, I've been hooked. These D&D games can be grouped into two main types 1) hack 'n' slash -- Diablo and Diablo II being the best of those and 2) role-playing stories -- Planescape Torment being the purest of those I've played. Most games combine these elements. Dungeon Siege barely has a story, Icewind Dale and IDII have a story, but who cares? Baldur's Gate II falls much more into the category of role-playing story. It has a great plot, and the plot is nearly always a factor. Combat, although plentiful, is not hack 'n' slash. It is more strategic, using your team of characters (up to 6) to the best of their abilities. In a good team, each character must contribute. In fact, one of your characters at any moment might be the key to your survival. That's engrossing. But the greatest feature of BGII is the quirky personalities of the characters. They are all unique and VERY willful. They will nag you, annoy you, please you, surprise you. And they might just up and revolt against you. I had Keldorn (good) and Vincona (evil) in my party, and they are both really valuable characters. Keldorn is a [good] fighter with great magic resistance, and Vincona is a pure cleric who can save your life in the worst of the undead dungeons. But after a few heated arguments, Keldorn just up and attacked Vincona. He would have killed her, but I broke it up. I then dismissed Keldorn in favor of Vincona. About one chapter later, Vincona got angry about the 'goodness' of my team and quit on me in the middle of a quest! The characters make for great, unpredictable gameplay. And the dialogue at times can have you rolling on the floor with laughter. Minsc (a tough but goofy ranger) is always ready with a funny line...and yet at times shows such fierce devotion to your team that it can almost draw tears. And Nalia (a mage) is always fretting outside a city, because she doesn't like peeing outdoors. And Korgan, the evil dwarf, will agree to your direction, but add "or I might chop your head off, heh heh." This gets back to my initial mistake playing the game. I tried to create my own team of six user-created characters. Although I formed a very strong team, they had no personality at all. That would take away all the fun of the game. When I restarted months later, I created a female 'skald' bard as my main character, and used NPCs for all the rest. Much, much, more enjoyable. I highly recommend Baldur's Gate II. It is an exceptional gaming experience.
Rating:
Summary: Baldur's Gate, JUST GREAT!
Review: Well, where to start. Well for starters if you read my review on Diablo 2, it stated how I would log on each day to their server just to get my fix. No longer. The day I bought Baldur's Gate 2 was the last day I logged in to Diablo. It is just that ... good! Baldur's Gate 2 is an R.P.G. that many of us would be familiar with (Icewind Dale, Planescape:Torment). I've started the game again numerous times trying out all the different character options, and believe me there are many. Fighters, Rangers, Paladins, Clerics, Druids, Thieves, Bards and Mages each have 3 styles to choose from (example: The thief class has:- Assassin-poisonous dagger & +'s in cmbt, Bounty Hunter-special trap setting, and Swashbuckler-Cmbt excellent.) Then there are the three new classes Monk, Sorceror and Barbarian. So it is actually really good fun to play a single-classed character as opposed to the original. Then into the game you start of as roughly level 7, depending on your class choice, which makes it a hell of a lot more fun as you are already quite capable opponents. Old characters are reprised, you'll encounter three at the beggining, and lets just say most of the wackier ones return for a bit more fun. I recommend playing Baldur's Gate 1 first if you haven't already done so, as the story continues on from after completion of it. There are also a few references to the other Black isle/Bioware games such as Torment, where a Tiefling has entered a portal into your plane, and you must save him. All this makes up for a hell of a game, enjoy! Poem: Baldur's Gate 2, it's for you Especially for anyone who's ever played a Black Isle game It'll work on as low as a P2, 233 You'll play more than 100 hours, this poem is lame.
Rating:
Summary: WAAAA KAZAAAAAM BOUGAAAAA
Review: So great !!!! san deconnai ca dechire, le plus realiste des jeu jamai creai !!!!
Rating:
Summary: The CRPG bar has been raised by BioWare and Black Isle again
Review: What can you say about BG2? 1. Excellent
2. An RPG at its finest
3. INVOLVING
4. Captivating
5. Action packed
6. Customizable characters! If you want a richly detailed world and even more detailed storyline, BG2 is the game for you. Sporting 800x600 and 32 bit support, this game is a present for your eyes as well as your imagination. The voice overs are AMAZING and fit quite well, especially Jon Irenicus, and my favorite, Minsc. 'You are as smart as Boo sometimes' lol that always cracks me up. First off, if you are not highly intrigued by the amount of creation options you have off the bat, theres something wrong with you. I spent a solid hour pouring over what I could be and where I could take a class kit. I finally went with the Kensai, which is in other words a master of swords that can attain special fighting abilities. Truly rocks. There were so many things I wanted to be and wanted to try, that I will play the game again just to be those classes. True, the game can total out to be 200 complete hours of gameplay, but what some people are not mentioning is the fact that it WOULD be, if you did every single side quest availible. In fact, the actual game itself is around 50 hours of gameplay, if you stick straight to the main storyline. I completed the whole game in about a months time, doing maybe half the sidequests. I thoroughly enjoyed the game from start to finish, there was no one real point where I thought it dragged on. The battles in the game are nothing short of a religious experience. From the time you kill your first monster, a memphit, to the red dragon Fiirkrag, to finally Irenicus/The Slayer, you will be drawn in and totally feel as if you are 'there'. The game is not meant for you to manage your party at once without pausing, for that would be impossible. Pausing allows you time to think and select the appropriate strategy or spells to use. I cannot overemphasize how much use the Pause button has given me throughout the course of BG2. Probably the most fun that I do have with a game like BG2 is collecting up equipment to better my character. Theres nothing better than being uber and knowing it. From the time you get your Celestial Fury, to Ring of Gaxx, youll have fun collecting all sorts of various items and reading some background info on them. In short; Baldurs Gate 2 is one hell of a game, and is worth a try from all skeptics out there. For the asking price, you really are getting what you pay for.
Rating:
Summary: A perfect game for anyone except me...
Review: Described in one word, Shadows of Amn is HUGE. The amount of choices you have for creating your character is huge - you'll probably restart a few times just to try different options for forging your champion, which range from seven different races (the classic stuff + half-orc), about thirty (I think) classes and character kits (specialist classes like inquisitor), and a myriad of other options like different combat styles and A LOT of spells. Truly, your imagination can, for once, run wild. Once you have a character you are happy with, the fun begins. Your character starts a lot more powerful than in BG1. Although the game starts out as a simple dungeon romp, when you eventually reach the city of Athkathla, far south of Baldur's Gate, the game EXPLODES with possibilities. You have tons of terrain to explore, lots of quests to solve (all of them take at least 15 minutes and are generally quite intriguing, unlike the usual fetch this, kill that), plenty of characters with interesting personalities to join your six-member-maximum party, many mosters to slay (of course), and a fantastic story to follow. Perfect in the gaming department. And now to the technical stuff. The game's graphics are, all in all, gorgeous. The rendered backgrounds look ten times better than before, even though they're still 16-bit (the game does support 800 x 600 resolution now, though). Bioware's artists have truly outdone themselves. But here's the part I don't like: some of the game's graphics, like character, monster and spell animations aren't created in the same style. Some of them are taken from BG1 (meaning choppy animation and low detail), while some are completely new (meaning high detail and smooth animation). The problem is that I (and probably only I)find it weird to stand next to a monster taken from another game (some graphics are also from Icewind Dale, others from Torment), that's rendered in a different art style. And also some spell animations (which are mostly gorgeous) look like they've been rushed and don't look very carefully made. I could probably list a hundred instances where the game's visuals aren't "seamless". Well, you're probably thinking, "why the heck should I worry about that?" You're right. You shouldn't. Now go out and get the game if you haven't already. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: THIS GAME ROKS
Review: YAY I BOUGHT THIS AND HAD A GR8 TIME
I LOST IT THOUGH AND RECENTLY FOUND IT, SCRATCHED AND UNUSEABLE
Rating:
Summary: Impossible to have a low 1 star rating as gaming excellence.
Review: Mr. Fox's review is ignorant of the complete overhaul of depth and gameplay in BG2 as compared to the original. BG2 is not exclusively about improved user interface or multiplayer team shootups. First and foremost it is an RPG, and most likely the best that has ever been made based on a RPG world particularly the AD&D Forgotten Realms. Bioware and Black Isle did a Lord of the Rings type effort job in incorporating the immense background from the original FR set in the 80's and the myraid expanded storylines from the novel series , expansion products and even Dragon magazine particularly the SpellJammer AD&D world. This kind of attention to detail is hard to top perhaps equaled by the recent SW:Knights of the Old Republic. I had played a few AD&D paper sessions in the 80's and Balder's Gate was already on the map of Faerun on the Sword Coast. A relatively major town but still secondary to Waterdeep. One of the best improvements over BG1 is the expansion of the character levels and abilities over 15th level incorportating the known limits of the 2nd Ed. AD&D rules. For example, many 9th level mage and 7th level spells are implemented. I was surprised that there was even an entertaining game version of the "wish" spell in BGII:TOB. Not to mention game balance is preserved and the capability of the 2nd ed rules to handle high level characters in this real-time CRPG was done so well by the programmers. As your character approaches 30th level and above, the sense of the NPC opponents' power in no way diminishes with the excellent implementation of the high level spells. There's a lot of advanced scripting and AI theory involved with the NPCs, a quality effort. The storyline, humor, voice acting and immersion into the plot and world of the Sword Coast and the main character is probably the best since the revolution of the Ultima series of the 8-bit machines. BGII came at time when computers were literally twice as fast and bigger in storage capacity than the pcs when BGI came out. BGI needed 300-500mhz machines while BGII fully took advantage of 1ghz+ machines. Perhaps Mr. Fox still hasn't gotten out of the initial dungeon yet. Keep playing, the beginning is literally 1% of the entire game. Hopefully Black Isle and Bioware return to a fantasy RPG world(not based on the Drow please, maybe even something LOTR) after their current excellent Star Wars:KOToR 3-D efforts.
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