Baldur's Gate II - The Shadows of Amn (Mac)

As denoted by the ?II? after the title, this game is the sequel to the hugely popular and successful Baldur?s Gate. I haven?t actually played the first one, and it is a bit of a moot point now that I have journeyed into the sequel quite a ways.

The storyline is a rather complex tale of Gods, death and woe, taking off from the end of the original game where our character, progeny of the fallen God Bhaal, God of Murder, slaid their ...
...game, the character and several companions from the original are trapped in the dungeon of Jon Irenicus, a powerful mage with quirky tastes and hobbies. It appears that he is playing with death, literally, and experimenting with people at the same time. What role our protagonist had played in these experiments is unknown.

You start out by freeing yourself and your friends and making your way out of the dungeon, not necessarily a difficult ... more

As denoted by the ?II? after the title, this game is the sequel to the hugely popular and successful Baldur?s Gate. I haven?t actually played the first one, and it is a bit of a moot point now that I have journeyed into the sequel quite a ways.

The storyline is a rather complex tale of Gods, death and woe, taking off from the end of the original game where our character, progeny of the fallen God Bhaal, God of Murder, slaid their evil half-brother Sarevok.
At the beginning of the game, the character and several companions from the original are trapped in the dungeon of Jon Irenicus, a powerful mage with quirky tastes and hobbies. It appears that he is playing with death, literally, and experimenting with people at the same time. What role our protagonist had played in these experiments is unknown.

You start out by freeing yourself and your friends and making your way out of the dungeon, not necessarily a difficult feat. The Dungeon makes up the first of seven chapters, each following different phases of our protagonist?s adventuring as they explore many different parts of the realm in which the game is set. There are many different places to go, each of which contain many and varied quests, depending on your alignment (various types of good, bad and apathetic) and your goals.

One of the many outstanding features of the game is the astounding detail imbued in each of the various places on the map. Whether it be dank caverns, tangled forests or noisy, bustling cities, the level of care taken to ensure that the playing environment looks and feels realistic is astounding. Background noises such as running water, distant yells, moans or threats, or the general chatter of the city help add to the ambience. The graphics themselves aren?t top of the shelf, but all the same, they are still excellent, and add a great deal to the playing experience.

The sheer scale of the game is colossal. Each place on the map can contain many different subareas, depending on where it is. The areas of Athkatla, the main city that we travel in, contain themselves at least a dozen separate areas to visit, each with their own role to play in advancing quests. The time taken simply to walk around and get information, supplies or quests is almost ridiculously long. It truly makes for an immersive experience, however.

The quests themselves take on many different forms. It can range from recovering an object such as a gem or amulet, to the more common one of taking out an enemy and thoroughly kicking a lot of butts. This might seem on the surface one-dimensional, but when one considers the sheer array of foes to face, and the different strategies that need to be employed, the surficial gloss disappears, leaving behind a staggering multitude of possibilities and challenges. There are dozens and dozens of different types of enemies (more than a 130, if I recall correctly), many of which require a unique way of taking them out.

Perhaps the most annoying and frustrating thing about the game is the actual level of challenge itself. This is by no means a simple hack and slasher. It constantly keeps you on your toes, not only with the multitude of enemies and things to do, but smaller touches such as traps. Playing it on the novice level, as I am, still presents a rather large challenge. Simply mastering the controls and gaining an understanding of different abilities, spells, and artefacts, is hard enough. Actually utilising them in an effective manner, against all types of situations, not only takes a bloody long time, but makes things damn difficult.

The level of difficulty is not a constant factor, as there are many quests which are quite simple. A lot of quests are simply for gaining experience, which is essentially what builds your character. The complexity imbued in the characters themselves only adds to the game. You can choose from many, many different types ? specialised fighters, mages, priests, thieves, even barbarians and half-orcs, each themselves containing several even more specialised variants, which makes for an incredible amount of replayability. Gaining experience points lets you build up levels for your characters, where you can learn special abilities, as well as building the character?s constitution.

Another great aspect of the game is the music and
sounds. Ambient sounds I have mentioned above, but even other things such as conversation, character interaction, and the effects of different enemies and the sound effects that they have, are very well done. The voice acting is pretty good, and all of the characters have quite distinctive voices, even if all they do is utter a few words and then attack you. You can choose from many different sets of default voices for your character, or customize your own. Conversations between characters are the most important part of the game, and often dictate how you act. There are even possibilities of romances between us, the main character, and other members of the travelling party.

The game also exhibits an often wry sense of humour. Talking to other characters around the map can reveal this in many ways, and even the fact that one of the main members of the party thinks his pet hamster is a giant, super-intelligent Space Hamster points to the rather dry humour that pervades the game. Conversing with the dragons also shows this ? the idea of a creature so superior and indifferent to puny mortals is rather well done! There are also a lot of serious moments, which can come across as either cheesy, overly sentimental, or even poignant.

As you can probably tell, Baldur?s Gate II has an enormous array of nuance and possibilities. Playing this game can have several detrimental effects ? loss of memory (forgetting to do the washing, eating, sleeping), loss of social interaction, and loss of hair, but overall, it is well worth it. For a truly addictive gaming experience, you simply cannot go past this! 

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