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

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

An excellent game. You'll laugh, you'll cry when you have to do the same part 10 times before you make it out alive. Incredible game, easy to get lost in- maybe a little to easy. The graphics are nice, especially at the higher resolutions. Once again the voice acting is great, and you'll grow to love your traveling companions. An odd addition is that this time they talk a lot more, and some tend to have issues at different times that they want to discuss with you. Very detailed environments, whether it's the beautiful landscapes or the intricate cities. The sound is awesome. People always ask what movie I'm watching. One warning though - keep a clock nearby if time is an issue, because hours can disappear faster than minutes while playing.

i Am prepared to give this game my highest comment, drum roll please; its even better than CIV 2.(theres a very small part of me what didn't want to say that) You can tell by the content and the way its designed, that this game was made for d&d gamers by d&d gamers, and you dont have to play or like d&d to be totally engrosed by this masterpiece. every one i have lent this too or have recommended to, have ended up hateing me because of the amount of time this game has taken from there lives. 10/10

If you get past the game's age and outdated graphics, here's what is in store for you...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