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WHEN cRPGs TOUCHED THE SKY...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: October 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This was the LONGEST the MOST FUN game I have ever played! And, mind you, I am not an easy customer (feel free to browse through my reviews, you will see what I mean...)

The original BG series was excellent in all of storyline, gameplay, music and stability. Now, nowadays, sequels usually mean a graphically-improved expansion (at best). BG2 is a rare exception of the sequel clearly SURPASSING the original. And in the case of such great original, this means a lot!

Words fail to describe the perfect harmony of brilliant ideas, emerging story-line and detailed coding that makes this game an unsurpassable classic! This COLLECTION contains all the sequels, patched with the latest fixes. Do not let the slightly outdated graphics discourage you. They were cutting edge only some years ago - and you will be able to unleash their full potential even on mid-range PCs!

I have yet to meet anyone who has played it and not raved about it! Hard-core D&D funs will find the character building, fighting checks and balances and overall experience very close to the actual pen-&-paper games.
Casual computer gamers will notice none of the tedious stuff of other cRPGs as the gameplay runs smooth and beautifully.
You even have the choice to turn it into either a turn-based or an action game by tweaking the auto-pause options! I am telling you: this is how computers games should be!

You will let yourself get lost in the deep dungeons of the labyrinthic story; you will be laughing out loud to the humorous dialog; you will be surprised as to who is a double and triple-agent.
There is an evil beyond imagining unleashed and only you with your party can stand in its way.
Party members offer a multitude of unpredictable balancing points and diverging story-lines of their own: side quests, conflicts and love affairs enrich the story in so many original ways!

An unsurpassed classic!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Cool game, but tedious ...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 17 / 29
Date: March 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Baldur's Gate II (BG2) is a highly polished game. The designers have really put in special touches to make the gaming experience unique. Unfortunately, these special touches ultimately make the game tedious and unnatural.

** Minor Spoiler **

First, the good -
1. Good graphics. Not the cutting edge, but the graphics really brings out the medieval atmosphere.
2. Many, many weapons and spells. All unique. You will be trying new weapons throughout the game.
3. Unique classes, with their unique bonuses. You will really appreciate the difference between a monk and an archer.
4. Monsters are tuned and unique. Different monsters have different strengths and weaknesses, and require different kind of weapons/spells to kill.
5. NPCs will initiate dialogs. You don't have to go around looking for things to do, NPCs will come to you with their problems for you to solve. This gives the game a special twist.

The bad -
1. Monsters are too powerful. It's not that you cannot kill them, but many of them have annoying abilities (instant kill, mass confuse, level drain etc.), so it's either you kill them in 3 seconds, or they kill you. But remember monsters are highly unique, so you need the right kind of weapon to kill each of them. So either you are constantly switching weapons, or many times half of your party get the annoying "weapon ineffective" message.
2. Pre-memorization of spells. Because monsters can instantly kill you, you really need magic support. Unfortunately, the spells available to a mage are pre-determined the previous night. So either you have to guess right, or you won't have the proper spells to deal with specific monsters (Did I say many monsters have UNIQUE weaknesses). This is contrary to the exploring and adventure spirit of an RPG game.
3. NPCs initiate dialogs way too often. When you enter the Copper Coronet Inn, no less than four NPCs will approach you with their problems. That's four quests force-fed on you all at once. You either accept each quest on the spot, or reject it with an INSULT (no other alternative). Nifty. Your party members will frequently leave your party to sort out their personal issues, without warning (read: messed up). I find myself constantly halting my current quest just to hunt down run-away party members. It gets old very quickly.
4. Meaningless, unreasonable choice-making. Many times you will be faced with decisions that will change the outcome of the game. Supposedly this makes the game "non-linear." Unfortunately each choice has a right answer and a wrong answer, and choosing the wrong answer can often be detrimental. So it's up to you to guess the "right answer," or suffer reputation loss or worse.
5. At the end of the day, the game felt interminable because NPCs constantly interrupted my work by piling new errands onto me. And yes, it really felt like work.

BG2 really has LOTS of unique classes, unique weapons, unique spells and unique monsters. They are like good toys for you to play around with. Ultimately a role-playing game should be about exploration, adventure and problem-solving (with occasional trial-and-error when facing big bosses). It's not the constant save/load and "guess the right answer" that BG2 requires. You may find playing this game with a walkthrough more fulfilling than without.

Simply the most captivating game franchise I've ever played.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: December 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

With all the reviews about this game, you probably already have an understanding of what it is about, so I won't go into it. I will say that of all the games I've played, only a handful (if even that) has ever kept my interest enough to play them all the way through. Most of these so-called "Great classics", for me, tend to get boring half way through where I just lose interest, and I fail to understand what the big deal is about them. This would include games such as Half-Life... there are others, but I mention this because that game is still talked about. So, I am a tough customer to please.

The Baldur's Gate series is one of the few games that has captured my attention to play the entire series all the way through numerous times, and at the end, still being disappointed that there isn't more. It is a shame that there will probably never be another game like this one. Neverwinter Nights doesn't even come close. I would HIGHLY recommend BG2:SoA and ToB. Go pick up the original BG as well, as it may help you to appreciate you character more being able to develop it from the beginning.

Older game, still very entertaining

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: August 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As others have said, the graphics are dated but the storyline and structure are not.

A few other reviewers stated that there was no manual and no reference card included in this collection IN PAPER FORMAT. They do, however, exist as PDF files in the "BG2 Manual" folder of disk #1. I prefer the printed manuals as well, but for the game plus expansion and bonus disk I paid only $13.77, including shipping that took 3 days. In other words, I can live without the printed manual when everything else works out in my favour.

I purchased from "playongames-com" from within Amazon's site, first time purchase from them. Well boxed, fast delivery, and arrived in an original box (still sealed). What deal.

No Manual !!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: January 08, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is a review of the collection. Being a fan of the Icewind Dale series, and wanting to try a game that was more an RPG and less a hack&slash, I ordered this game. I just opened it and started playing last night, and while the game seems great so far, I'm very disapointed that a manual was not included. If I would have known, I'd have gladly paid the extra $$ to buy these 2 games seperately. It's probably going to turn out to be a 5 star game, but this product only rates 3 because of the missing manual.

Baldur's Gate 2: The Ultimate Collection

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: September 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Marvelous! It took me three weeks to get it awary from my son. Had to give him a guilty conscience so he'd tell me where he'd hid it.

BG2 rocks, and the mods make it rule

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: July 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is an excellent game--excellent enough after over a decade to unseat Wasteland as my favorite RPG of all time. The expansion, Throne of Bhaal, was a rush-job and the rough edges show.

But it's the fan-made mods that make this game rule, and have made it even more of a joy to play than it was at its autumn 2000 release. If you pick up this collection, I urge you to do a little extracurricular search for mods, particularly of the character variety. Your money will go that much further.

best game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: July 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is my favorite game, The game goes on forever it is so long and the world is so big. The graphics are great the gameplay is good, good story line is great, you can do whatever you want you dont have to do the quest you can just explore the game and fight creatures. There are so mant charactars barbarian, mage, cleric, and more and if you pick mage or fighter you can pick with fighter you wan to be wizard slayer or berserker, if u become mage u can be necromancer or illusionist. There is also dual class mage/thief. this is my favorite game i highly recommend it.

Greatest RPG to date

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: March 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal are hands down the greatest Medieval RPGs to date. Set in the "Forgotten Realms" world and following AD&D game rules, it features an engaging storyline that will offer you all of the entertainment and adventure that you could possibly crave. Its no surprise that these two games won Best RPG of 2001. The Interface is easy to learn and multiple endings make for great replay value.

If you are a fan of RPGs, Medieval anything or are just looking for a fun PC game, this is a must-have.

This RPG Stands the Test of Time

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: June 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I played Balder's Gate 2 an eon ago. Worried that MS Vista was going to make my gaming obsolete, I bought up a bunch of older RPG games to play on my XP system, and also, I'd never played the BG2 expansion game, which comes with. I was playing Neverwinter Nights 2 and Oblivion, but I kept coming back to BG2, and I'm going to play it through again. Five years later, it's still the best RPG for the solitary player ever made.

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