Forgotten Realms: Baldur's Gate II - Shadows of Amn

Wow. Where to begin. I have already completed the whole thing twice through and started on a third time. So heres a review for you. I first heard of this game through a friend. Used to the Diablo and other Blizzard games, i was intrigued by the interesting layout of the game. After starting a game there - i grew to love it and before long bought it for myself. The game has so many great features its not surprising that it won best RPG of 2000! - Amazing storyline with intrecate details and plot development. - Characters (who can join you) with incredible realism and development that have their own personality that you can interact fully with. - Hundreds of individual townspeople and merchants to talk and trade to. - Thousands of weapons - Hundreds of indivual spells. - Endless Side-Quest as well as one comlicated main quest. - 12 diffent character classes to choose from - each with 3 sub classes. - Amazing graphics and scenery and backrogunds. - Over 200 hours of gameplay So know that you know a bit about Baldur's Gate II - go ask a friend about it or look it up more on the Internet. I give this game a definite 10/10! Buy it today.

Feel free to e-mail me with your views on the game. If you enjoyed this game also check out - Diablo II, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate

If you get past the game's age and outdated graphics, here's what is in store for you...

BG is role-playing at it's best! What makes the game special for me is the story - one of the best story lines ever as you play through. It builds up perfectly, from humble beginnings in BG1 having trouble battling one enemy to the stage of slicing and dicing (or incinerating) mass armies in the Throne of Bhaal expansion (and having your enemies rightly fear you especially in the dialogue)...

The game itself is a rich world full of interesting characters some that follow you others that serve other purposes. With the great storyline, voice acting included and superb music (which builds up from humble beginnings to epic struggles worthy for a fight against a dragon), this game really defines the word 'epic'...

I've watched a lot of movies, played many games including Neverwinter (the successor to this series) but the story of Baldur's Gate is truly epic, and it sticks with ya. It involves you deeply; you're not just a mercenary on the side saving the world, you are saving the world from something else which you will find out! The ending of this game is also very impressive. Every time I play it through, the hard to describe feeling of 'finality' is never surpassed by any other game/movie/book I've played, watched or read...

In the end I just wish one day those guys at Bioware would make a 3D game that surpasses the feats that BGI/II accomplished as a 2D game. Just a fool's hope...

Summary Writing in the closing days of 2007 one can only say that this game is still one of the best rpg's ever and still can be used to benchmark other games in this genre.

Main

The BG line was on rudely broken by the NWN series and in that period you had to find your party-rpg needs in games like KOTOR and Jade Empire. Not that NWN 1 was bad, mind you, but it was just not a BG kind of game. With the creation of NWN 2 the AD&D series is progressing back to the BG branch with notably a better storyline and the ability to control a party of individuals with their own stories to tell. 'Re-inventing the wheel' is the phrase the dutch use.

Of course modern hardware and software has enabled better graphics, camera handling and many more things and in this respect BG is dated. But modern hardware can't provide us with a well told story. Or to put it in another vein: it can't make up for the lack of it. There are many developers who use the better performance of modern system to make up for the lack of a good tale. Usually in time these games disappear after a while because newer game that perform even better surpass the. Stories however are of all times and in this they are timeless and it is a well told story which is the cornerstone of BG 2 which makes the game last so long.

A big contribution is made by David Warner as the voice of Jon Irenicus. While the lines are probably written by others, it is Warner who uses his voice to add that extra layer of evilness which make Irenicus one of the outstanding bad guys of all games, a quality he shares with Vlad Lem from Max Payne 2. It shows that Warner has played Evil in the movies time bandit's and it is that same acting he uses to portray Jon and it works very well. A good antagonist is very important, but Warner takes it one step further and this is one of the many factors which makes the game shine.

But many other factors contribute to the game. There is much in this game but in an incredible refined mix. Just not to much to bore and enough of it to keep things interesting. An example is the way in which a quadruple betrayal is used in the dark-elf(aka drow) city with one faction using the players to set up an other faction and a third drow requests to player to betray the first faction too and finally the player betraying them all(well so to speak). It's a well thought plot that sounds preposterous when written here, but actually very well illustrates how that dark-elf society is portrayed in fantasy writing.

The main plot is at thankfully different from those overused bad-guy-plotting-to-subject-the-world and has a note of sadness in it. I would like to add more, but the space is limited here and I can only point you to other reviews to see what is in this game.

Well written, well voiced and developed with much fun the game still overshadows many of it's successors. A must for anyone who loves the rpg genre and can live with the now dated graphics. My hopes is that new software and hardware will not put an end to this game.

Definietly the BEST game I have ever played. I have played it at least 10 times and I never get bored, the different posibilities are endless. It is just THE BEST. And if you want to know which is the second best game ever... Baldur's Gate I, it is awesome, endless choices, millions of plots, etc. just play it so you can experience it

To any of the Dungeons and Dragons fans out there who haven't played this game, it is high time you did. This game does for RPG's what Star Wars did for Sci-fi. Cream of the crop. Hands down.

You are thrown into a dungeon at the beginning of the game with nothing but your bare skin. With the help of your longtime friend Imoen, you have to find a way out. Along the way, you find friends, armor, weapons, potions and magic spells. You fight enemies such as golems, goblins and mephits along with a sprinkling of other various D&D monsters. Various puzzles need to be solved, traps disarmed, creatures helped and the character of your tormentor begins to unravel. But what happens after you finally escape the dungeon of your foe is the magic of Shadows of Amn.

Enter into a huge world that is simply overwhelming at first. Inns, shops, quests and enemies lie everywhere in the main sections of the city. Not only that, but as you meet people in your travels, your quest log requires travel outside the city to numerous other sites and towns. Huge!

The characters of your chosen party of six reveal their personalities and specific quests through dialog initiated by them. The sheer number of simultaneous quests that can occur is mind boggling. Not only that, but the huge selection of spells, armor, weapons and items make it a micro manager's dream. Along with the leveling of characters of a wide assortment of classes and races, each with their own perks and drawbacks, you could easily spend up to two to three hundred hours of game-play.

The main quest involves the tracking down of your tormentor, Jon Irenicus, an evil yet charismatic mage of considerable power who has kidnapped your childhood friend, Imoen. However as the story progresses, the reason behind the kidnapping and your destiny unfolds. Along the ride, you will battle dragons, liches, beholders, dark elves, golems, trolls, mind flayers, vampires, mad wizards, demons, sahauguin, thieves, rakasta as well as many other classic monsters from the D&D game. Your travels will include settings such as graveyards, thief-ridden dives, fallen temples, detailed towns, a druid grove, an underwater city and an underdark city of the drow to name a few. The final battle in the beautiful, fallen elven city is just simply spectacular.

How much thought, effort and artistry went into this game is not only to be commended, but to be marveled. I sat there and just shook my head in awe at various points. No game, from the many I have played, from Doom 3 to Diablo had the effect this game had on me. Has to be played to be believed. 15 out of 10 stars.