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What a role-playing game should be.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 23
Date: August 27, 2000
Author: Amazon User

If all you want to do is hack and slash through life (your character's life, that is) and wear out your mouse, go with other titles that can do that, and just that, well. However if you are a role-playing traditionalist who wants more then hack and slash, one who appreciates a deep non-linear story, one who wishes to lead an adventuring party and considers the consequences of one's decisions, Bauldur's Gate II is for you.

The great graphics doesn't hurt either.

Tied with Icewind Dale as the Best RPG of 2000

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: December 12, 2000
Author: Amazon User

First, and this has been said by other reviewer's, this game is HUGE. I remember reading that someone had finished the game in around 40 hours--I honestly don't see how this is possible. You have multiple sub-quests which are actually essential to the plot as they give you the magic items you need to confront the deadly monsters you'll encounter; you have the main plot quests which eat up tons of time; you have specific quests (called 'stronghold quests) which are given to each main-character class; you even have NPC-specific quests you'll only get if you join a certain organization or keep a particular NPC in you party for a set period of time! So--as others have said--be prepared to spend quality time with this game. Secondly, the NPC's themselves are much more interesting. They actually have personalities now, are aware of your gender and can even start a romance with you if you treat them as they want to be treated (obviously you need to act differently with Aerie-the winged elven cleric/mage than you would a Drow priestess). Thirdly, the monsters are much more challenging and interesting. They react intelligently now and caste devastating spells which can reduce your party to mush in seconds. Even if your party is powerful--and they will be--you'll need to plan your combats carefully to avoid the dreaded 'hand-falling-into-dust' cutscene. Black Isle has really done a great job on balancing the combat's here. Lastly, the new classes that have been included have added even more replayability to an already highly replayable game. In addition to the barbarian, sorcerer and monk which were added from the 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons rules, you chose from over 15 speciality classes (off the top of my head; fighters can be berserkers, magekillers; thieves: assassins, bounty hunters; clerics: cleric of Lathander, Talos, Helm; paladin: Inquisitor, Cavalier, Undead Slayer; ranger: archer, etc. etc.) to further customize your game. Now for the problems, and there are some. First, and this is not a problem with the game per se, is the fact that it uses 2nd edition D-and-D rules which means it suffers from some of the illogical conventions that that game has set up (clerics not using edged weapons, for example). Secondly, it does have some bugs--I couldn't complete the Nalia quest because she was apparently reduced to free-floating atoms somewhere in the game world when I wasn't looking and I was never able to find her again. There is a patch out on the Interplay website (www.interplay.com) which should fix some of this stuff though. But other than those two small points, if you're a fan of RPG's and don't mind using the outdated 2nd edition rules (and even if you do), this game will definitely give you your money's worth.

Another great game from Interplay

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: March 05, 2001
Author: Amazon User

After reading Stephen Edwards' review warning that this game could lead to divorce, I realized that my husband came up with the perfect alternative: he coerced me into playing these games with him! This is our second multiplayer RPG game to play together (Icewind Dale was the first), and we both had a great time.

The game offered many options for gameplay, with a ton of character types to choose from, and with the ability to take on ready-made characters like Keldorn and Yoshimo, I was able to focus on my own main character, a Kensai/Mage. There are so many great side quests that it took us more than a month to finish the game, providing us with many hours of entertainment.

The game was great in that it is flexible based on what type of character you are. There were side quests for good and evil characters, so if you want to play more than once, you have the opportunity. And there are many visits from non-player characters from the first Baldur's Gate, including assistance from Drizzt in one of your battles. And be prepared for a few unexpected turn of events!

We had a few problems with the game; there were bugs here and there in technical aspects of the game. And my computer locked up on an average of three times a day though my husband's did fine (extremely frustrating). But overall, this was challenging and a lot of fun!

The CRPG bar has been raised by BioWare and Black Isle again

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: October 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

What can you say about BG2?

1. Excellent
2. An RPG at its finest
3. INVOLVING
4. Captivating
5. Action packed
6. Customizable characters!

If you want a richly detailed world and even more detailed storyline, BG2 is the game for you. Sporting 800x600 and 32 bit support, this game is a present for your eyes as well as your imagination. The voice overs are AMAZING and fit quite well, especially Jon Irenicus, and my favorite, Minsc. 'You are as smart as Boo sometimes' lol that always cracks me up.

First off, if you are not highly intrigued by the amount of creation options you have off the bat, theres something wrong with you. I spent a solid hour pouring over what I could be and where I could take a class kit. I finally went with the Kensai, which is in other words a master of swords that can attain special fighting abilities. Truly rocks. There were so many things I wanted to be and wanted to try, that I will play the game again just to be those classes.

True, the game can total out to be 200 complete hours of gameplay, but what some people are not mentioning is the fact that it WOULD be, if you did every single side quest availible. In fact, the actual game itself is around 50 hours of gameplay, if you stick straight to the main storyline. I completed the whole game in about a months time, doing maybe half the sidequests. I thoroughly enjoyed the game from start to finish, there was no one real point where I thought it dragged on.

The battles in the game are nothing short of a religious experience. From the time you kill your first monster, a memphit, to the red dragon Fiirkrag, to finally Irenicus/The Slayer, you will be drawn in and totally feel as if you are 'there'. The game is not meant for you to manage your party at once without pausing, for that would be impossible. Pausing allows you time to think and select the appropriate strategy or spells to use. I cannot overemphasize how much use the Pause button has given me throughout the course of BG2.

Probably the most fun that I do have with a game like BG2 is collecting up equipment to better my character. Theres nothing better than being uber and knowing it. From the time you get your Celestial Fury, to Ring of Gaxx, youll have fun collecting all sorts of various items and reading some background info on them.

In short; Baldurs Gate 2 is one hell of a game, and is worth a try from all skeptics out there. For the asking price, you really are getting what you pay for.

A word or two...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 32 / 52
Date: August 02, 2000
Author: Amazon User

First off, Baldur's Gate is BY FAR the best game I have ever played. The gore of Diablo, The depth of the Final Fantasy series... it is the one game I own that I can continually play without getting bored with. It got a great overall rating from gamers and gaming networks alike, and Bg2 is a bigger, better Baldur's Gate. Anyone in their right mind would love this game! (unlike others around here...)

Where to start?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: November 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Quite simply the best game ever. EVER! Nothing else even comes close. The artwork is superb, the gameplay enthralling, sound enchanting and characters exciting (couldn't help the aliteration there). There is nothing to fault this game on, except for the fact that it totally consumes your life. Do NOT begin playing this the night before an exam, on a school-day or in your lunch hour. There are well over 100 real time hours of gameplay if you play it properly. I have spent in excess of 150 hours, investigating sub-quests, talking to NPC's etc.

If you played Baldur's Gate, you will have no problem grasping BG2. If not, the tutorial and in-game help are very useful. For those that haven't played Baldur's Gate before, you will be amazed at the depth of the graphics, sound, gameplay and converstions with NPC's. If you did play BG1, your mind will be blown away by the improvements over the original.

Finally, if you get the chance - buy the collector's edition.

Quit your griping and play!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: November 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I notice many previous reviewers saying that the AI is terrible, the map's no good, the load times are too long, it's full of bugs and crashes constantly. I must ask: What game are you playing?

As far as the "bugs and crashes" go, I've experienced no bugs, and have crashed twice in over 20 hours of time running the program. Load times? I'm on a P133, well below the minimum requirement, so I expect them to be long. Even taking that into account, I don't feel they're very long at all. The map: vast improvement over the original. I don't like the lack of an exploring option, but I can see the reasoning behind it. I DO like the fact that once the map is updated, you can immediately go to the spot you want instead of having to explore thru 2-3 other map portions in the first place. Party AI is pointless to me as I turn it off and micromanage. Pathfinding AI is adequate. Monster AI is your typical "rush straight in" type. No plus or minus there. For my style of play, I find the game wholly enjoyable.

If you play games to have fun, like the RPG genre, and know that computers (regardless of how top of the line they may be) still have limitations and take time to load things, I believe you will have TONS of fun with this game.

If you expect everything to be instantaneous and perfect, you will be disappointed, in this and all things.

Me, I choose to have fun with this incredible 5 star game!

So very close to being fantastic

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: March 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

First I just want to say that I played this game with my wife, and so take it from the multiplayer angle that it is.

I really think the story was great, but I have come to expect that from both Black Isle and Bioware. The game was MASSIVE as far as side quests, hours of play, critters, NPC's and items go. I was really impressed, and say that the size alone makes it very worth the price. As usual the graphics are amazing, actually it is even better now than in past games. The addition of 3rd edition 'extras' like extra character classes were a great bonus. I played a monk, and let me tell you this. For some ol'boy that never uses armour or weapons, he is a killing machine. I would spar against well armed players and beat them in a straight fight. If I added stunning blows and quiver it became unfair. The selection of armour and weapons is staggering, causing you to make some very tough decisions on what you wear, wield and carry with you. (even strong characters only have so much room for loot :)

The bad... well, the very reason this gets a 4 and not a 5 from me is technical problems. It is one thing for a game to have limited gameplay, archaic graphics, bad story, or whatever is possible... but technical problems are inexcusable. The multiplayer problems seemed to be endless. Lock-ups, dropped players, bad resource allocation and inability to free resources later, along with problems with syncing the machines together made for many frustrating moments. My advice as always... save soon and save often... but save on different files. If the game craps out while saving, it corrupts the file.

Now for the non-technical gameplay part. Well, as with the technical part, the multiplayer is really not well done. Much of the problems/omissions of multiplayer are not of technical reasons but well... I really don't know. For example, other player characters can NOT summon familiars, yet NPC enemies can. Other player char's can NOT have strong holds, yet if the problem is multiple strongholds then why can a multiplayer have multiple strongholds. And another problem is their choice of what conversations and situations are global and which are player local. For those who don't know, the game does cut down on the annoying break-ins of other players, if one player talks to a shopkeeper, goes in a building, or talks to a non-essential NPC. However I found that their choices for what is essential and what is not were often reversed. Many times I or my wife would have to relay vital conversations to each other because we couldn't see the dialogue. Other times, we broke into each others buying/selling because of talking to some nobody NPC.

I think that too much of the party revolved around the 'protagonist' as they called it, and stepped too far away from the traditional D&D setting of party oriented adventure. On that note, I am looking forward to Neverwinter Nights.

Game engine was tweaked a bit but I still find it a bit old... not enough world interaction. I still say that Ultima VII was the best CRPG ever, at least on the grounds of world interaction. Character development and freedom of movement (non-linearity for one) would leave me to vote for Ultima Underworld II. I still yearn for a REAL RPG game that allows you to develop the character, step through the story, and interact with the world the way YOU want to. I guess my biggest gripe (non-technical) with this game is its all too frequent re-writes of D&D rules in order to make situations happen... or to be hard. It off balances the game and takes away from the epic feel it normally gives you, to be replaced with a cheep Nintendo 80's clone feel. How is it that various sorcerers have such amazing telekinetic and teleporting powers... yet my level 21 mage does not. How is it that enemies can run off because the story says so, using "SaveMyBuns Gate Spell" yet I never see anything useable like that for my characters. Stick with the rules guys, or you end up making a Kiddie Nintendo Clone. If I can't do it, then neither should the monster or NPC.

To end on a good note: the addition of the character kits and the ability to truely duel wield really make it easier to bring your table top character to the screen here. Good game, but I hope they don't get lazy like Origin did....

incredibly, they made it even better

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: September 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

If you're new to Baldur's Gate and the Bioware Infinity engine, you have many hours of great gaming in front of you. This game is for all those of us who played D&D growing up and who would like to play it with all the advantages a computer can offer. The first Baldur's Gate was superb, and Icewind Dale was great but linear. Now we get a longer adventure that has truly incorporated many of the lessons of both earlier games.

Graphics are that type of gorgeous that helps one to suspend disbelief and become immersed. The characters are familiar to Baldur's Gate players, but they have been tremendously fleshed out: I won't spoil any surprises except to say that some of the best loved BG NPCs are back, with even more opinions and personality and dialogue. You can import your characters from BG and Tales of the Sword Coast (the expansion) but not from Icewind Dale that I know of. Baldur's Gate just *felt* great, as did Icewind Dale; BG2:SOA feels even better.

A lot of attention has been paid in advance to video and sound hardware compatility; we have more tweaks available than ever before to enable the game to run smoothly on as many machines as possible. I have a P3-600 with 256MB and a Geforce, but I suspect it could be gotten to run on much less powerful systems thanks to the tweaks and accompanying instructions. Hasn't crashed on me yet, either. Not only is 800x600 support included, but there are options (clearly listed as unsupported) for higher resolutions still, if people want to take their chances. (Refreshing to be treated as adults in this way. "Sorry, you'd just screw that up, so we'll comment the code out" is far less appealing than "We did a lot of work on this, but didn't fully test or advertise it; if you feel up to revving up your display, be our guest".

Want a whole bunch of immersive gameplay at higher levels than BG? Get this. You know you want to.

RPG perfection as close as it can get

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: October 30, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is a master piece. This game combindeds skill, a story, real options, and great fighting. First lets analize skill, this game has trick questions, who to trust, who to add to your party, and where to go. This game is not like daiblo 2 in that it is just you verse the world and sometimes a worthless hired hand. In this game you have up to 6 people under your total conrol. In compairing this game to Daiblo 2 this is where Daiblo 2 is up to snuff. This game his a more interactive story lines but the seens arn't quite like D2's movies. In this game you are the son child of baul the god of muarder. Baul forsaw his own death and had alot of children to make sure he could return. IN Baulders Gate 1 you killed your brother to stop Bauls return. Here you have to decide what quest to do, where to go, compaired to daiblo 2's no real options, witch brings me to my next point. Real options, will you chariter be good and hero of realms or become a underworld lord and use you evil power to punish all who opposes you. You have a repuation that will take into effect how other people react to you. The one negitive is it hard to be truly evel because gaurd start attcking you. The fighting is great because it is more than hack and slash. use spell and wand to complment your fighters pure strenth. This game is a must have for all RPG players.

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