Pros: mucho space and adventure, good story, a lot of control of everything, expansive
Cons: starts a little slow, can be corny humor and suspect path finding
The Bottom Line: I would definitely recommend this game, especially to RPGers, based on the fact that it is interesting and fun to play for a long, long time.
dmarusz's Full Review: Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn
Most of the reviews that I've seen have appreciated the first Baldur's Gate over this sequel. In my past, I have usually enjoyed the original games more than there later incarnations, too. The original has the first creative idea with the great gameplay. The second and third generations can tend to be poor clones of the first with little added newness, and in return just seem more stale. However, with Shadows of Amn, I think that this may change.
It's not that Shadows of Amn is that revolutionary from the original. It really doesn't wander far from the original at all. Its true strength comes from the fact that it builds off the strong platform of Baldur's Gate and perfects it. If you've played the first, it takes a lot of the strong points. You still have a plethora of people you can move in and out and back into your party (The party size is still six.) There are new spells but they haven't torn up the old spell book. They pretty much added to it. The great manual that you got with the first one is replaced with a larger and better one.
With the manual, the game is really easy to learn even for someone who hasn't played Baldur's Gate or does not have a lot of game playing experience. Just make sure you read it, and keep it close by as you play.
The manual is big just as much as this game is big. You will probably play this game longer than any other game you have ever played. There is a large space to travel as well as an in depth plot. It essentially is the second in a trilogy, where the lead character has a part of a soul of a demon. He is kidnapped and used as human testing. Once your lead character breaks free, it is up to you to find out why you were kidnapped and what has it to do with your part godhood. This story should please even the hardcore RPG lover. I found it very compelling, and kept me going even when the fighting became a little tiresome. I even liked it more than the first.
Shadows of Amn also dispels the tediousness of plot and battle with side quests, of which it has a large host. These side quests are varying, ranging from delivering something to small stories in themselves.
The graphics were a little improved over the first. I was happy with the first, so this pleased me as well. There are some good color effects usually created during magic sequences. The only weakness might be the fact that the characters still move too stiffly. Maybe they'll figure out the body kinematics in the future. Although, I doubt this will take away from anyone's fun.
The sounds were adequate too good. The part that I think I enjoyed most from audio were the voice overs. There were a couple of slightly poor actors. However, they used many voice actors in their cast of characters. Most were very believable and created for unique characters. Unfortunately, the humor was not up to par with the original.
There were some problems with Baldur's Gate that were not addressed in the Shadows of Amn. The most annoying was the movement of the characters within their spaces. You could have two characters trying to pass each other to opposite sides of the room, and it would take forever because they won't let each other by. When in combat this is extremely frustrating. Overall, the path finding of all of the characters is suspect. On top of this, the game gives you a nice set of ways to confront the enemy (like in a T-formation or a wedge) which usually spreads the team you have out. However, you end traveling down hallways that are two person wide so none of these arrangements are very useful. Pray for combat in open settings.
As in Baldur's Gate, some battles seem very disproportionate. It sometimes seems that it is a role of the dice to how tough your opponents are. I know these are Dungeons and Dragons rules with dice determining outcomes, but I was hoping the dice wouldn't determine if my opponents had 10 hit points or 10000. Obviously, this can make some fights overly challenging.
Those above are about the extent of all of the problems that I had with The Shadows of Amn. I wouldn't say that the total is enough to sink or even demote this project. I would say that Shadows of Amn is an improvement over the original Baldur's Gate. It was a great value that kept me into the story and game throughout (for quite a long time.) I would definitely suggest this game to most everyone.
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