An Enourmous Masterpiece (Baldur's Gate II - Shadows of Amn (PS))

Member Name: adamdavid

Product:	Baldur's Gate II - Shadows of Amn (PS)
Date:	21/04/01 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Huge game, highly playable

Disadvantages: Highly addictive!

Baldur's Gate II is a traditional RPG. You select a character and set off on an adventure. Along the way you encounter various characters that may try to hinder you, or they may try to help you. Depending on how you treat them, they may either want to join you, or kill you.

When you create your character, you get to choose the name and physical appearance as well as the race and alignment (good, neutral or evil) among other things.

When you've chosen your character, the game begins with you in prison. Soon you are sprung by a friend from the past and you set off to rescue more of your friends. Nearby are some basic weapons and armour and once equipped you're ready to fight your way out. Throughout the game you will encounter characters that will set you certain tasks and offer your rewards for completing them. That pretty much sets the tone for the whole game. I won't go into details because it will spoil the plot (which is pretty decent) and the game is enormous, coming on four CDs.

There are the usual shops to buy and sell equipment, weapons, armour, etc and there is the usual dose of sword and sorcery. Different characters have different abilities and also different story lines. I spent three weeks playing this game almost solidly and I completed it without having used some of the characters, which means I missed out on their story lines. One day (when I have the time) I'll go back and play it again to see what I missed.

Having the time is one of the problems with this game. It so consumes your thoughts that you end up really wanting to see what's coming next and as a result you end up spending a lot of time thinking about it (when you aren't playing it). The other problem is that when your main character dies, you have to reload the game. If your character isn't particularly hard (i.e. a druid or something) then you die a lot and I do mean A LOT.

I bought this game from PC
World because they were selling it at half price (that's £14.99, what a bargain).

If you like RPG's then you really should get this. It's great!

Summary: