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Okay - I really want to dislike this game but I can't. It does too many things done too well to just dismiss it out of hand. There were several parts that were fun and enjoyable, but the majority of the game was spent in dealing with the tediousness of the combat and in reloading the game due to bugs.

It's 4 am - I'm just going to fire off the comments as they come to me.

The good:
This is a worthy sequel to BG1, continuing the story of the Child of Bhaal that started there. (In fact - I would highly recommend playing BG1 first - while you can play BG2 without having done so, you'll miss a lot of the depth on certain plots and NPCs). BG2 continues to be as faithful to AD&D (2nd ed) mechanics as is possible on a computer. Mistakes in gameplay from the first game have been corrected and/or adjusted - for example certain spell durations have been changed and there are no more "arrows of fireball" and no more summoning 40+ monsters to overwhelm the opposition.

Expansion of power: While there are not a lot outward changes between BG1 and BG2 - the whole new range of powers and abilities is both expansive and mostly seamless. Wow. It's only after the fact that I realize just how much work was done - while each individual power/spell may seen relatively easy to conceptualize - there are a whole bunch of new powers/spells. Still no fly spell, however. Certain things just can't translate to the computer - limited wish, for example, gives you a large range of choices instead of being open ended. (BTW - be certain you field test some of the options before needing them. I asked for a huge swarm of monsters to attack my foes during my final battle with Irenicus. . . I got about 20 or so rabbits dumped in the middle of the combat.)

Insider comments/references: Buttloads of 'em. Everywhere. From the talking sword who often mentions that "his brother is a +12 hackmaster" to Kachico's Knife and Dakkon's forceblade, there are a lot of cool references throughout the game - AND - none of them are overwhelming. If you get 'em - you get 'em. If you don't - you'll probably never see the reference again. In fact, the only references that are laid on heavily are BG1 ones - and even those aren't required.

Pentium 266: I ran this game on two machines - a PII 266 and a 750 Duron. I just want to make mention of the fact that the game ran almost as smotth on the 266 as it did on the 750. The animation sequences were solid, sound was good and even the most complex combats didn't get bogged down too much.

The maps/scenery. Wow. Again all of the maps are incredible. The artists did a spectacular job of conveying different cultures, settings and even alien mind sets. The Sahugin city alone is worth the side trip.

NPCs - Continuing the trend from BG1 and Planescape, the NPCs in your party have an incredible connection to the world. In fact, several indepth quests spawn off of your party members. A real nice touch.

Minsc'isms: Deserve special mention of their own. The "Go for the Eyes Boo, GO FOR THE EYES" is still there, but some of the other things he says are just hilarious. "A den of stinking Evil. Cover your eyes Boo, we shall leave no crevase untouched!". Um. . . At one point I was witness to a philsophical debate between Keldorn (humble paladin) and Minsc on how to best fight evil. That was amusing.

Manual: A 264 page wire bound manual, indexed and organized well.

Bad:
Flat storyline: It must have looked good on paper as the game has everything and more - evil wizards, damsels in distress, dragon plots, Illithid experiments, Beholder cults, Drow hatreds and Harper schemes and more. But they are all secondary to the main focus and seem to fall flat. The main storyline? You are shown the bad guy in the beginning of the game. . . now go kill him. Admittedly, this is what BG1 did but there just seemed to be something missing from BG2. I can't quite put my finger on it, but of all the Black Isle games I've played - this one grabbed me the least.

Bugs: Of course, the reason that I may not have been able to get into this game was the typical Black Isle bugginess that I've come to expect. Not as bad as Fallout 2 - but the usual assortment of problems typical to the Black Isle games continues. Completed quests that don't register as completed, looped sounds, invulnerable NPCs (that aren't supposed to be invulnerable), triggered secondary events when the primary hasn't kicked in, quests that never trigger or a link is missing, lockups, reboots and BSoDs. And it's not the hardware - the 266 was more stable then the 750. Due to the autosave feature and quick save feature they weren't fatal - just irritating. I can now see why they call it the Infinity Engine. Come on guys - this is the 6th use of your engine, and the 4th using the AD&D system. What - are you guys hiring away Microsoft programmers now? One particularly interesting bug was the random damage turns everyone against you. One typical scene is to come up to an area where "good guys" and "bad guys" are fighting. If any of the good guys damage each other - they all turn on you. One particular example was the mage who cast a lightning bolt that bounced back and hit him. He and all his allies started attacking me. Another time I had elicted the aid of some folks against some vampires - but several times when a vampire "died" it would explode in a fireball (?!?) which the NPCs interpreted as an attack. This particular fireball problem happened when I didn't follow the script - if I didn't walk up the corridor right away or if I enter the room from the wrong angle. Insult to injury - that awesome 264 page manual - mine was bound wrong - the pages are upside down and I have to read the pages backwards (the text on each page is alright, but the even numbers pages are on the right). Okay - not the design team's fault, but still. . .

Tediousness: You get a LOT of game play in BG2 - but none of it really had the "magic" for me that Planescape or System Shock 1 (IMO the high water marks for computer RPGs) had. The game involved a lot of quests - simply walking into an area of the town would spawn usually 2 to 5 quests - most of which require you to go to other areas of the town and the waiting 2 to 5 quests there. While you could technically ignore those quests - you do so at the cost of the experience and magic items they provide - which hinders your chances on the main quest.

DnD mechanics: Like it or not - AD&D mechanics lead to some very kludgy situations. A couple of times just simply walking down the street would take days. Go a few steps, trigger an encounter, rest for 8 hours, go a few more steps, trigger an encounter. . . That and the high levels of the monsters involved usually made the combats dull. Well, the first time through they were interesting, but more often then not I had to reload from a save position when the death spell kills my main character (there were a lot of death spells) or the confusion/fear/mind control what not spell/ability causes one of my characters to wander off into a nearby room - activiating all of those monsters in there. One beholder ws fun, a room of 5 of them was just dull. Even the dragons stagnated - by the time I reached the third dragon (that I wanted to fight) it had turned into combat by the numbers. And it's simply AMAZING the number of 15th+ level magic users out there whose only magic item is a +1 quarterstaff.

Triggers for quests: Not very well done - I like the idea of non-linearity in RPGs, but there should have been a few more restictions on when you can go on certain quests. One particular quest locked the door behind me and I couldn't backout until completed. I was not ready for that one. Take a step, trigger an encounter, run back to a safe spot and then rest, take a step, main character dies, reload, take a step half of party dies, reload, take a step win that encounter save, run back and rest for 8 hours. . .

Which leaves me with my closing comments - Definately worth picking up, but it's a far cry from their previous high water mark of Planescape.

I'll be picking up Neverwinter Nights, but not until the first patch has come out.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Balder's Gate II
Author: Black Isle/Bioware Category: Computer game Company/Publisher: Interplay Line: Baldur's Gate/ AD&D Cost: 49.95 Page count: n/a ISBN: 1-57629-557-5 Playtest Review by Allan Seyberth on 11/26/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	Okay - I really want to dislike this game but I can't. It does too many things done too well to just dismiss it out of hand. There were several parts that were fun and enjoyable, but the majority of the game was spent in dealing with the tediousness of the combat and in reloading the game due to bugs. It's 4 am - I'm just going to fire off the comments as they come to me. The good: This is a worthy sequel to BG1, continuing the story of the Child of Bhaal that started there. (In fact - I would highly recommend playing BG1 first - while you can play BG2 without having done so, you'll miss a lot of the depth on certain plots and NPCs). BG2 continues to be as faithful to AD&D (2nd ed) mechanics as is possible on a computer. Mistakes in gameplay from the first game have been corrected and/or adjusted - for example certain spell durations have been changed and there are no more "arrows of fireball" and no more summoning 40+ monsters to overwhelm the opposition. Expansion of power: While there are not a lot outward changes between BG1 and BG2 - the whole new range of powers and abilities is both expansive and mostly seamless. Wow. It's only after the fact that I realize just how much work was done - while each individual power/spell may seen relatively easy to conceptualize - there are a whole bunch of new powers/spells. Still no fly spell, however. Certain things just can't translate to the computer - limited wish, for example, gives you a large range of choices instead of being open ended. (BTW - be certain you field test some of the options before needing them. I asked for a huge swarm of monsters to attack my foes during my final battle with Irenicus. . . I got about 20 or so rabbits dumped in the middle of the combat.) Insider comments/references: Buttloads of 'em. Everywhere. From the talking sword who often mentions that "his brother is a +12 hackmaster" to Kachico's Knife and Dakkon's forceblade, there are a lot of cool references throughout the game - AND - none of them are overwhelming. If you get 'em - you get 'em. If you don't - you'll probably never see the reference again. In fact, the only references that are laid on heavily are BG1 ones - and even those aren't required. Pentium 266: I ran this game on two machines - a PII 266 and a 750 Duron. I just want to make mention of the fact that the game ran almost as smotth on the 266 as it did on the 750. The animation sequences were solid, sound was good and even the most complex combats didn't get bogged down too much. The maps/scenery. Wow. Again all of the maps are incredible. The artists did a spectacular job of conveying different cultures, settings and even alien mind sets. The Sahugin city alone is worth the side trip. NPCs - Continuing the trend from BG1 and Planescape, the NPCs in your party have an incredible connection to the world. In fact, several indepth quests spawn off of your party members. A real nice touch. Minsc'isms: Deserve special mention of their own. The "Go for the Eyes Boo, GO FOR THE EYES" is still there, but some of the other things he says are just hilarious. "A den of stinking Evil. Cover your eyes Boo, we shall leave no crevase untouched!". Um. . . At one point I was witness to a philsophical debate between Keldorn (humble paladin) and Minsc on how to best fight evil. That was amusing. Manual: A 264 page wire bound manual, indexed and organized well. Bad: Flat storyline: It must have looked good on paper as the game has everything and more - evil wizards, damsels in distress, dragon plots, Illithid experiments, Beholder cults, Drow hatreds and Harper schemes and more. But they are all secondary to the main focus and seem to fall flat. The main storyline? You are shown the bad guy in the beginning of the game. . . now go kill him. Admittedly, this is what BG1 did but there just seemed to be something missing from BG2. I can't quite put my finger on it, but of all the Black Isle games I've played - this one grabbed me the least. Bugs: Of course, the reason that I may not have been able to get into this game was the typical Black Isle bugginess that I've come to expect. Not as bad as Fallout 2 - but the usual assortment of problems typical to the Black Isle games continues. Completed quests that don't register as completed, looped sounds, invulnerable NPCs (that aren't supposed to be invulnerable), triggered secondary events when the primary hasn't kicked in, quests that never trigger or a link is missing, lockups, reboots and BSoDs. And it's not the hardware - the 266 was more stable then the 750. Due to the autosave feature and quick save feature they weren't fatal - just irritating. I can now see why they call it the Infinity Engine. Come on guys - this is the 6th use of your engine, and the 4th using the AD&D system. What - are you guys hiring away Microsoft programmers now? One particularly interesting bug was the random damage turns everyone against you. One typical scene is to come up to an area where "good guys" and "bad guys" are fighting. If any of the good guys damage each other - they all turn on you. One particular example was the mage who cast a lightning bolt that bounced back and hit him. He and all his allies started attacking me. Another time I had elicted the aid of some folks against some vampires - but several times when a vampire "died" it would explode in a fireball (?!?) which the NPCs interpreted as an attack. This particular fireball problem happened when I didn't follow the script - if I didn't walk up the corridor right away or if I enter the room from the wrong angle. Insult to injury - that awesome 264 page manual - mine was bound wrong - the pages are upside down and I have to read the pages backwards (the text on each page is alright, but the even numbers pages are on the right). Okay - not the design team's fault, but still. . . Tediousness: You get a LOT of game play in BG2 - but none of it really had the "magic" for me that Planescape or System Shock 1 (IMO the high water marks for computer RPGs) had. The game involved a lot of quests - simply walking into an area of the town would spawn usually 2 to 5 quests - most of which require you to go to other areas of the town and the waiting 2 to 5 quests there. While you could technically ignore those quests - you do so at the cost of the experience and magic items they provide - which hinders your chances on the main quest. DnD mechanics: Like it or not - AD&D mechanics lead to some very kludgy situations. A couple of times just simply walking down the street would take days. Go a few steps, trigger an encounter, rest for 8 hours, go a few more steps, trigger an encounter. . . That and the high levels of the monsters involved usually made the combats dull. Well, the first time through they were interesting, but more often then not I had to reload from a save position when the death spell kills my main character (there were a lot of death spells) or the confusion/fear/mind control what not spell/ability causes one of my characters to wander off into a nearby room - activiating all of those monsters in there. One beholder ws fun, a room of 5 of them was just dull. Even the dragons stagnated - by the time I reached the third dragon (that I wanted to fight) it had turned into combat by the numbers. And it's simply AMAZING the number of 15th+ level magic users out there whose only magic item is a +1 quarterstaff. Triggers for quests: Not very well done - I like the idea of non-linearity in RPGs, but there should have been a few more restictions on when you can go on certain quests. One particular quest locked the door behind me and I couldn't backout until completed. I was not ready for that one. Take a step, trigger an encounter, run back to a safe spot and then rest, take a step, main character dies, reload, take a step half of party dies, reload, take a step win that encounter save, run back and rest for 8 hours. . . Which leaves me with my closing comments - Definately worth picking up, but it's a far cry from their previous high water mark of Planescape. I'll be picking up Neverwinter Nights, but not until the first patch has come out. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Balder's Gate II