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| Baldur's Gate 2 - Shadows of Amn |
 With Baldur's Gate 2 - Shadows of Amn, Bioware continues its success story that began back in 1998 with Baldur's Gate and shook a whole genre out of its deep slumber. After the game was published in the USA early October, the completely translated and localized German version of the game has shipped recently. Unsurprisingly, Baldur's Gate 2 has already made it to a respectable second rank in the international sales charts and is currently only topped by Blizzard's action RPG Diablo 2 - question is, how long Blizzard will be able keep their throne... |
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 Graphics & sound: |
 While the first installment's only resolution was 640 x 480 pixels, the game now officially supports a resolution of up to 800 x 600 pixels. Although it is possible to access even higher resolutions, Bioware doesn't guarantee a smooth operation of the game when doing so. Owners of a 3D acceleration card are now rewarded with more brilliant graphical effects (e.g. illumination). Similar to the first part, the extremely detailed graphics consist of pre-rendered backgrounds - in particular when it comes to displaying gorgeous temples or mighty fortresses, you'll find your mouth dropping open repeatedly. The graphics system's minor flaw is that the pre-rendered backgrounds are static, but fortunately weather effects and the changing of day and night time keep you from spending to much attention to that fact. Characters and monsters alike are animated well enough, with the spell animations being of undisputable quality.
The sound comes up to the game's epic nature, giving you the impression of being in the middle of a concert instead of sitting in front of your computer. The orchestral sounds fit perfectly to the medieval setting and, depending on the situation, change from melodic piano plays to threatening crescendos (e.g. in a fight). The characters' voices have been chosen carefully, altough they have been recorded at a lower quality level. |
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| Story: |
 The story begins after the occurences narrated in the first installment so that Baldur's Gate veterans will be familiar with their surroundings right away. Besides this, you'll also meet old friends, among them Imoen, Minsc and Jaheira. But also novices to the game haven't been neglected - occasional flashbacks cast some light on the eventful past.
Once you've chosen your favourite character out of 40 different hero types, you'll start Baldur's Gate 2 stuck an appearantly hopeless situation: You find yourself in a gloomy prison complex without the slightest notion how you came here and how you can escape this place. Having freed some of your old friends from nearby cells, you're off to hunt down the person responsible for your predicament. But once you've revealed his identity, events beyond your control unfurl: Imoen is captured by a mysterious sect of magicians and the villain can escape. In the biggest town of Baldur's Gate 2, Athkatla, you start looking for answers to the many questions lying before you. |
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| Gameplay: |
 The sprawling city of Athkatla alone would have sufficed to fill a medium-sized role-playing game with content. After a short period of time, you've agreed to pursue so many quests that you are in danger of not knowing any more where to go first. Fortunately, a journal keeps track both of all important events and quests, including those tasks you've already accomplished. Visited regions are automatically cartographed by your automap, which can even be edited to your liking. During your journeys, you're often confronted with scripted events (e.g. an ambush by bandits) that sometimes leave it open to you to draw blades or attempt to solve the situation by diplomatic means. In any case, conversations are an integral part of the game, since they have considerable influence on your interlocutor's behaviour.
But rest assured that you don't have to chat all the time - there's also ample opportunity to cross weapons. During the complex battles, it's possible to make a variety of decisions: who should be fighting in the first row, who stays behind with bow and arrows, and who terrorizes the enemies with which powerful spell. Since the player is highly unlikely to cast spells himself, you can pause the game at any time to give your party instructions on what they are to do next. In this way, you can react to all sorts of situations, e.g. by healing wounded party members or changing a missile weapon for a sword. Often you're are forced to do just that, since you encounter all kinds of enemies the Forgotten Realms had to offer - from undead vampires and flying wyverns to full-blown dragons. In order to maintain control of the many skirmishes, you can choose from 110 clerical and 182 magical spells and hope that you've chosen well. |
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| Active party: |
 In comparison with the first installment, Bioware has refined the party system even more. The party still consists of up to six heroes who can be admitted to your group in the course of the game. It's best to have a sound mixture of fighter, thief, cleric and wizard gathered in your party, but you should also pay some attention to the heroe's alignment. Put a virtuous paladin next to a necromancer and you can wait for the storm clouds massing on the horizon. If that the party's reputation increases through accomplished quests, it will irritate the evil and delight the good. Opposing party members then start their verbal duels out of their own, with the player finally acting as the mediator. In the worst case, a hero leaves your party when he's fed up with another character. On the other hand, you can flirt with female or male party members respectively, thus making the party appear as a living group instead of a bunch of brainless skull bashers. It's getting interesting, however, when one party member becomes talkative in the most unadequate situation imaginable (e.g. shortly before a fight) and you have to fight with yourself to remain patietnt. |
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| Pros & cons: |
 Baldur's Gate 2 is the perfect game for long winter evenings and long holidays - the highly complex game will keep you busy adventuring for months. Naturally, there are also points open to criticism. For example, the full install occupies more than 2 GB of disk space, which is advisable to minimize loading times from the 4 CD-ROMs. With reference to gameplay aspects, it remains a mystery why your party still cannot run, that many a scripted situation can only be managed by mere guessing, and that the talkative party gets on your nerves sometimes, irrespective of the otherwise ingenious party system. And although it's nice to choose from hundreds of spells, it doesn't really facilitate your opting for the fitting spell.
But given the positive aspects of the game, these are petty details. The atmosphere created through wonderful graphics and epic sounds is unique, the story is highly immersive, and by making use of hotkeys you'll be in control of all the game's functions. The great number of main and subquests keep you riveted to the screen, while taking your party members to ever higher levels of experience is almost as much fun as in Diablo 2. What's striking about the game is that the world around the Sword Coast appears to be alive, be it through the active party or through the many scripted events that give some insight into the inhabitants' everyday live. Finally, the game's multiplayer mode has been modified as well that allows you to play via the internet. In my opinion, Baldur's Gate 2 is the best hardcore RPG of the year, a game that shouldn't be missed. |
| © 12-05-2000 by CE |
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