Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn

Rating:
Summary: Busy people beware...
Review: If you are someone with an active life, children who need attention, or an hour-intensive job, stop here. I, like so many other gamers, have found myself attached to this game like I have never been stuck to a game before. That's how powerful this game is. I haven't played the original game, but that did not stop me from enjoying the game to the fullest... I have heard the plot is quite different from the first game anyways. It's not especially difficult to learn either... the interface is easy and organized once you get to know it.
You start out with some dark, evil person casting painful spells on you over and over in a cage. Pleasant. Soon your friend Imoen enters and gets you out of the cage... and the adventure begins. On your journey, you meet many characters who you have the option to add to your team, all with differing personalities and voices. There's Aerie, the shy but good-hearted elf whose spell selection is unrivaled. You'll also meet Mazzy, the halfling warrior, Yoshimo the thief, and Viconia the evil drow cleric who, surprisingly, can also join your team. They all will help you fight (and talk) your way through the game to the very final match in... well, you'll just have to get there yourself. The graphics are excellent, and it is clear that a lot of time was spent on spell graphics, swords, axes, staves, and every other trinket in the game.
The point: This game will definitely not disappoint even the most picky of computer adventurers. Black Isle spent time and skill on this game! Take advantage of it!

Rating:
Summary: I can't keep my hands off
Review: This game is the ultimate in Dungeons and Dragons computer role playing. I am a veteran of tabletop 3e rules, so I was afraid that I would get confused. But after a little nosing in the manual, I managed to get the hang of the most complicated D&D rules ever. Why? Because most of it is done behind the scenes for you! All I had to find out was what THAC0 was, and why AC was better low than high. Otherwise, I was all set. This is a game that's easy to understand, but hard to master. And the graphics are great. The possiblilities are endless. I once tried to pickpocket a noble in a tavern. I failed, he went hostile, Minsc shot and killed him, and suddenly the entire tavern hated me. So I killed everyone, Minsc left, and I decided to reload the game and not steal anything any more. But that was so much fun! I am amazed.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible.
Review: Have played all the other major RPG's. Never played the first installment of this game, but purchased it due to the great reviews. Wish I had never read them. The game is terribly tedious to play and crashes every 15 minutes. Have tried for a week to get into it without success. The game has now been uninstalled and is going on ebay to get a small amount of money back out of this mistake of a purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Simply put.....it does not get ANY better than this.
Review: Can I give this six stars? This is what we all dreamed of back in the 1980's when we were playing Might & Magic and the Ultima series. And before that when we were "rolling d20 to hit."

The D&D system combined with great game-play and a rich, compelling story make this the best of breed.

If you have never played a RPG you are in for a treat. If you have, you will not believe the quality here.

GET THIS TITLE!!!

Rating:
Summary: Bravo! They got this one right
Review: Baldurs Gate 2 is an improvement over Icewind Dale, and a big improvement over Baldurs Gate. I rated both of those game 3 stars. I was very borderline on this series after playing the other games (although I loved Planescape: Torment, which doesn't really fit in), so I almost never bought BG2. I am very happy that I did. This game is great.

This game is drastically improved over BG1. Path-finding is better. It is rare that your characters wander off aimlessly now (it still happens every once in a while though). Tons of weapons, spells, and other goodies have been added. Some of them are redundant, but many of them add new functions, like spell absorption and reflection. The inventory system isn't tedious anymore - this is due to automatic stacking of items, and the addition of gem bags and scroll cases. The in-game maps have flags on them now with the important areas, so that you won't have to remember where they are. The shops are stocked with much better stuff, but their markup is higher - basically, it is harder to make money, but there is more to spend it on. Best of all, the frustration level of this game is much lower! A lot less of the "reload after getting bushwhacked and ripped to pieces" routine. This is not to say that Shadows of Amn is an easy game. It is still very, very tough. Your party will get killed here and there, but not as often. There are many other small additions that have improved the quality of this game.

Don't worry, Baldurs Gate 2 has everything that was good about the previous installments in this series. The graphics and animation, especially the spell effects, are excellent. The music is superb once again.

The game throws a multitude of quests at you - large and small. The "Shadows of Amn" world is huge. There are so many areas, each one rich and unique. Incredible attention to detail breathes life into every map. I am trying to imagine how many man-hours went into this game.

But here's my major beef with the game. You only get to generate one character yourself. All of the character and class variety built into this game is squandered - you only get to pick one out of many. What makes this worse is that the selection of NPC's that offer to join you is way too small. Most of them don't match what you're looking for. What's the point of having all of these funky character classes if you don't get to experiment with them?

To me, the other cons for this game come largely from the D&D system itself. It was made for the tabletop to be played in turns, and it doesn't translate well into a computer game. The system of having to pick a few spells and rest so that you can memorize them takes a lot away from this (or any other D&D) game. So does the lack of importance placed upon intellectual traits. Memorizing the right spells for a specific encounter sometimes makes the difference of whether you will survive it - the problem is, you don't know when these encounters will come until you have already died and reloaded your saved game once.

Fallout and Arcanum are a couple of games that I can think of which have a better overall role-playing and combat system. If you are looking for an excellent role-playing experience (which doesn't necessarily have great graphics or sound effects) then pick up one of those games too.

Regardless, this game is excellent (and, yes, addictive!) If you haven't played any game in this series yet, then you should seriously consider picking this one up. Baldurs Gate 2 is a great, long-lasting game.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite RPG!!!
Review: In BG2: SOA, you search for both answers and a means of defeating your enemy while you collect allies. It begins on a darker note: you have been captured by an evil wizard Jon Irenicus along with some of your former companions: Imoen (now dual-classed into a mage, which makes her one of the most powerful party members in the game), Jaheira and the goofy and lovable Minsc (The DonQuijote of BG2). When you escape Imoen is soon captured, and you are left with no option but explore the city of Athkatla and learn what you can about your mysterious malefactor, the people who captured him and Imoen, third and fourth parties with ulterior motives who are also interested in your progress, yourself, and your companions.

It's here that we see the structure of the game at it's finest. The city of Athkatla is the central focus for most of the game, and you will spend your time getting lost and enjoying it's rich detail while at the same time always finding things to do and quests to solve. This game is absolutley enormous. Most quests can be copleted in any order or ignored as you like. Your party members often have quests of personal importance to solve as well. Unlike the original BG, where you had to spend hours wandering through beautiful but empty forest ranges to find an isolated quest or dungeon to crawl through here and there, SOA's quests branch out to specific areas and rarely are you uncertain as to where to go, or those annoying random encounters, either.

Now, onto character generation. You can play as any of the standard AD&D classes and races (you can also import your BG1 character)and alignmets. Each class has the adition of extra kits that give specific bonuses and hinderances. Each class has 3 kits that all can prove useful in various ways. Unlike BG1, where it took forever to advance, BG2 starts you off at 7th level, which is formidable, but still quite mortal. By the end of the game, you may be around 20th level or so (depending on your class). Also, each class has a specific "stronghold" quest, which is fun.

While there are only 16 NPCs that can join your party when compared to BG1's 25 (5 of them have returned from the original game.) Each is excellent in his or her own right. As far as character development goes, I was impressed. These NPC's are chatty, and often take time to talk to you and each other and comment during the quests. Their depth is sometimes on par with the characters in Planescape: Torment. (I miss Annah.) Each character is lovable in some way or another, and I found myself replaying the game even if only to have a different combinatin of party members and see what thay had to say to each other. All the voices are convincing though, particularly those of Irenicus, Keldorn, Viconia, Korgan, Yoshimo, Aerie, and Edwin.

Keldorn is the no-nonsesne Paladin who is the ultimate lich slayer. Korgan is a surly and abusive meatgrinder. The sullen, cruel, witty, and cynical Viconia must one of the sexiest characters I've ever encountered on the PC (and remember: I'm a Tomb Raider fan). Mazzy is a noble halfling "paladin". Aerie is a former winged elf who is sweet but in search of an emotional crutch. Jan is worth bringing for his hilarious annecdotes and comments alone.

Oh yes, then there are the romances, completely optional, but I feel they are the best element in the game. In SOA you may develop a romance with any of 4 characters. If you play as a human male, it can be rather amusing to have not 2 but 3 women fighting over you in the party. These three dislike each other anyway, but even more so because they are all interested in the same man. Only 1 romance can be followed through per game, though, so more games of SOA are required. I'll sumarize them as best I can:

Ladies have only 1 choice, and his name is Anomen. Aerie likes to wade in relationships. Viconia likes to surf them. Jaheira likes to drown. Choose according to your preference.

The characters and story are what I loved most about this game. This is why games like Diablo bore me to death. Give me a great story with a heart, brain, and loavble characters any time. Games like Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn are the reason I love Computer Games and RPGs in general.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the first
Review: Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is an all out great game; practially flawless. The grafics are a breakthrough in the birds-eye-view third peson fantasy RPG's. Game play is great, and the story is wonderful. I couldn't stop playing it. The different areas are extremely detailed, down to the flies circling around dead fish lying on tables. The puzzles will rack your brain continuously, but you never get tired of them. It's much more intellectual than the normal hack and slash games like Diablo 2 or something, and you never get tired of it. The only problem that I had with the entire game, is that there are a couple puzzles that you would never guess unless you looked them up up on the internet. But otherwise the game is flawless. If you havn't played, or do not own Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, BUY IT IMEDIATELY.

Rating:
Summary: totally submersive and worth every cent!!!
Review: The graphics are MINT, The gameplay is endless due to the virtually unlimited number of the characters and their specialties and strengths. Through skill and careful planning, you can guide each character you create to achieving high experience levels. The game has many features to customize it to your exact liking. Easy or hard. Through the add-on packs and the available editors you can download from fan sites, the possibilities are endless. I found an editor to modify the artificial intelligence of the non player controlled characters!
Buy all the baldur's gate games and play them through from the beginning for maximum fun. Also, don't forget to try Icewind dale. In fact, I recommend doing Icewind dale first if your new to RPG's because the story is more focused and shorter so you can learn the basics of RPG before you jump into something as VAST and ENDLESS as Baulders.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best games ever?
Review: What is wrong with this game? Well, um, uh, I don't know. This game is so amazingly fun and addictive the only reason to get rid of it is if it's taking up all your free time and ruining relationships. The plot is fantastic and gameplay is addictive. The graphics are marvelous and support high frame rates. Even if your computer isn't quite up to par you can always slow down the frame rate. Choose between good or evil and harness your powers of being a Child of Bhaal. The game lasts pretty long and has replay value galore. Put this one in the game's hall of fame.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best RPGs out there
Review: This game is, in one word, simply a great game (oops that's 4). This is one of those games that you start and you just feel like finishing (although i don't recommend it in one sitting as it takes quite a while to finish). With the ability to create the character of your dreams, or you could (as I did) re-create the Lord of the Rings characters with the abilities to create your own portraits and sound file for the characters you play with. You can be anywhere from a blood-thirsty barbarian half-orc, to a bruce lee of a monk.

The games starts you out in a dungeon when you need to escape, and as you learn more and more about your situation, you meet new characters, embark on a number of quests, and forge unique and powerful artifacts from pieces you find around the globe. This game has enough twists and turns to keep just about anyone interested and occupied for quite some time.

Not only is this game one heck of a fun game, but you don't need the latest, state of the art computers to play it. It runs fine on my 350Mhz pentium II, with 160MB of ram (although it would run smoothly with less), and a 2MB video card.

Then, when you finish the game, and all of the fun seems to have ended, a new world is opened with the multiplayer game. Yes, the multiplayer is the same game as the single player, but you have the ability to make allies and destroy your enemies. Not only that, but you don't have the hassle of having to control 6 guys, you only have to control one.

Overall this game has to be just about the greatest, if not the greatest, RPG on the market and is well worth your money. Any computer gamer would be overjoyed to have this game.