Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn For: pc Genre: rpg Reviewed by: Tal Developer: Bioware Publisher: Interplay Released:fall 00   Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn Hands-on with the biggest RPG of the year. August 21, 2000 I’ve never really connected with religion. Though, I do admit that last week, when I tore open a white FedEx envelope and out slid a fully playable build of Baldur’s Gate II, I found it hard to be agnostic. Here’s the scene: the lights dim, the birds living in the bushes outside my window cease their constant prattle, the celestial choir –- directly on cue –- thunders into a rousing rendition of the Conan the Barbarian soundtrack, and a shaft of divine light lands directly on the package in my hands. This week I’ve played more hours of Baldur’s Gate II than I am comfortable disclosing. There was a stretch of several days where I didn’t leave the house. No, worse – I left my room only for microwaved chimichangas and Cherry Coke. Hey, I had reason to be excited -- Baldur’s Gate II: The Shadows of Amn has been a title that’s been mercilessly toying with the hearts of RPG fans worldwide. Baldur’s Gate, the top-down view adventuring RPG with the powerful Dungeons & Dragons license, turned out to be a huge success and further proved that the role-playing genre was back from the murky depths of unpopularity. From the moment it was conceived at that womb of role-playing brilliance, Bioware, players of the original role-playing magnum opus Baldur’s Gate have been hooing and hawing. The story essentially picks up where Baldur’s Gate left off. Except, Baldur’s Gate II: The Shadows of Amn is different. It’s lush, thick, breathing, brooding and lovely. Not dark, say, in the Jules Vernish/NIN sort of way that Torment was. BGII is subtler -– perhaps even imperceptible to players unfamiliar with the series – but it is darker, and certainly more involving than the in-comparison cotton candy story of Baldur’s Gate. The plot is much more bold and innovative; beginning your adventure locked in a hanging cage, without any kind of memory of how you got there, and the subject of wicked magical experiments. The mage responsible for your torture is terrifyingly powerful, inherently filling your mind with a hopelessness of escape. Though, while the mage is under siege from an unknown group as assailants, the opportunity for your escape presents itself. In the nearby cages, several of your friends from your previous adventure can aid you if you can free them. Baldur’s Gate players will be overjoyed to note that one of them is Minsc and his miniature giant space hamster, Boo. You, of course, are the child of a god, and the plot continues on in that theme. Your immediate goal will be to escape the dungeon to the lands of Amn, explore the great capitol city of Athkatla, figure out who this evil mage is and why he’s been experimenting on you and your compadres, and continue to unravel the prophecy behind being a child of the god of murder. One of BGII’s largest improvements over Baldur’s Gate is purely graphical. I don’t know if its possible to exaggerate the positive change that the jump from 640x480 to 800x600 brought Baldur’s Gate II. Suddenly, the player gains perspective, being able to see battles and environments from higher up. Pixels are smaller, edges clean up nicely, and the ambiance-rich lands of Amn take on a much clearer focus. If you’re not comfortable with the new resolution, however, the option of using the 640x480 resolution is still there. The engine improvements are equally appreciated. In each progressive title over the years, starting with Baldur’s Gate and then Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, and now, Baldur’s Gate II, the environmental improvements become increasingly pronounced. In Baldur’s Gate, the backgrounds were almost completely lifeless and devoid of interactivity and movement. Now, for example, in the city of Athkatla, great statues hold gigantic spinning, magical orbs that fill rooms with light. Wacky sets of gears and cogs twirl and roll in intricate background machinery, and bubbling tanks of filled with spiritual auras decorate eerie dungeons. Now, instead of walking through a still snapshot of an environment, you can explore and truly experience and living, moving, world. I can finally say with confidence that the Dungeons & Dragons universe has come alive, and the attention to detail makes all the difference. What about gameplay? Expect movement, battle, and character interaction to be just like Baldur’s Gate. Smart move, considering how wildly successful the hybrid between turn-based and real-time combat turned out to be for the original Baldur’s Gate. However, the designers have managed to throw in a few new features that have far-reaching implications for gameplay. First and foremost, you’ll notice some changes to character creation -– there are now a number of player-classes taken straight from the forthcoming Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition: the Monk, Barbarian, and Sorcerer. In addition, a new race, the Half-Orc, is being introduced. Players will also find that each of the player classes, with the exception of the three new classes, have 3 new "kits." These kits allow for further player customization by adding abilities and disadvantages to the class. For example, one of the kits for the Fighter class, the Kensai, cannot wear armor or bracers of any kind -– however, he gains a –2 to starting armor class, +1 to hit and damage for every 3 levels of specialized weapon skill, substantial armor class bonuses while gaining, levels, and the “kai” ability which makes all attacks deal out maximum damage, usable once a day per skill. Speaking of character creation, when you begin a new game you have the option of importing you party from the original Baldur’s Gate. When you do this, you won’t have the opportunity to use the new player classes or race, but you will be able to continue the adventures of your favorite party. Of course, if you choose to start a brand new party when playing BGII, you’re characters will start at either 7th or 8th level, depending on your player class. I ended up playing Baldur’s Gate in multiplayer mode, so that I could use a party comprised entirely of characters created by me. I took a different route in Baldur’s Gate II, starting with a single character and going through the single player as intended. From my experiences so far, I have to wholeheartedly recommend giving it a shot -– the NPC characters are fantastic (How can you live without Minsc?!), there are a number of quests and dialogue options unavailable to you without having certain NPC party members along with you, and a number of the NPC characters have abilities that are unattainable through regular character creation. How you go about it will certainly be your choice, and the game is equally enjoyable either way. Familiars. If you’re a D&D fan, that’s the only word you’ll need to hear to get worked up into a froth. In BGII, Mages can now conjure forth an intelligent servant familiar (a miniature animal or beast) that will do services or fight. Which beast you call forth is dependant on your moral alignment. For examples, a mage with a lawful evil alignment gains the services of an Imp. Conversations with the Imp are absolutely priceless – he answers “Yes, Boss?” just like a Mafioso and complains about bad treatment from his evil mage master. This familiar can cast spells, fight alongside you, and even offer advice. Familiars do not act like other summoned creatures -- instead of being unsummoned after a period of time they stay with your mage until they die. When you summon a familiar, you gain a substantial bonus to your hit points as long as it is alive. If they do die, your mage loses those hit points along with a point of constitution permanently. Thinking ahead, Bioware designed it so that in a situation of great danger you can place your familiar inside your backpack, taking up a slot of inventory. Every single alignment has a familiar, ranging from rabbits and cats to pseudo dragons and fairy dragons. Players choosing to use a mage will be very pleased with how well-executed the familiar use is, and they appear to be balanced perfectly: they aren’t too much on an advantage, but they can be helpful in clutch situations. The music is absolutely inspired. The introductory song sounds like an orchestral tribute to the Monarch of Hell –- mighty, black, and terrifyingly foreboding. Music, just as in Baldur’s Gate, appears to be triggered by events that take place in the game. The battle songs, for instance, have that same bloodlust-inspiring quality that the soundtrack from Gladiator does. It’s the kind of music that has you saying aloud to a giant troll, “Hey, fatboy, you want a piece of me?!” Just as you would expect, the voice acting is superb. Although about a quarter of the voice acting has yet to be completed, if the work continues on the same quality level there will be little room for argument – it’s the best voice acting ever heard, period. Quests make up the heart of an RPG, and the quests of Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn are second to none. The average “Go fetch this item for me and bring it back” quests are almost non-existent in BGII, replaced by dynamic quests that truly test your character roles. In many instances you will be presented with a very important choice, and you’ll be forced to choose sides, and the entire game will be affected by that decision. Many quests are ridiculously large -- I can’t stress that enough. At a certain point in the game, there is an opportunity to gain a stronghold or house for your character to call his/her own. When my mage was working to gain a stronghold in the city of Athkatla, the resulting quest was literally the size of a game in and of itself -- it took me an entire day of hard playing just to complete this non-essential quest. Now, I don’t want to spoil any surprises on the strongholds, but it appears that many (if not all) of the player classes have their own unique home that they can earn. In the case of my mage, my new living place came complete with a team of apprentices, a guardian golem, and a massive collection of bizarre rooms, storage places, and contraptions. The monsters are…frightening, both in size and number. Which is fine because you’ve got a much stronger party. Just don’t be surprised when you notice the nastiest creatures fought in Baldur’s Gate look like sewer rats in comparison to what you’ll face. Mages ruthlessly cast powerful spells well beyond the 6th level even in the early stages, and mighty trolls take fire or acid to keep them down for good. Rumors are floating around that Bioware has cooked up some Dragons for our enjoyment, which should be educational, because I’m sure my motley crew would get schooled. Apparently, they’ve been constructed to scale size, and should take up the better part of the screen. As expected, the items in BGII are painstakingly crafted. Weapons and armor, on the whole, are much more powerful than those found in Baldur’s Gate, and you’ll find yourself not even picking up items in Amn that would have been top of the line before on the Sword Coast. Bioware has always taken the time to write detailed and fascinating histories about each unique item, and they continue that trend in BGII with items such as the Flail of Ages (a magical three headed flail) and the Mana Bow (longbow +4). Scrolls for powerful spells are abundant, as are wands and other knick-knacks. To add a spice of controversy, it appears that Baldur’s Gate II producer Ben Smedstad has left Bioware for reasons undisclosed. I’ve been assured that BGII is still on schedule, and from the build I’ve been playing it looks like the game is nearly finished. So, hopefully, the departure won’t have too much of an effect on the development. The sheer amount of gaming here is nearly inconceivable, and after a weeklong siege on Baldur’s Gate II, I don’t feel that I even scratched 15% of what it had to offer. The press build released to journalists didn’t contain the entire game, only the early acts, so I did at least complete what was available. There are simply too many new and useful changes you’ll find in Baldur’s Gate II to mention in this preview –- it’s a real manwich sized RPG. Instead, I’m going to assure you that Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn will be one of most important RPG’s ever released. It is a beautiful epic, bringing to the field a new level of polish, detail, and design. And, it’s going to change everything. -- Erik Peterson -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- November 12, 1999 Baldur’s Gate was the best RPG of last year, hands down, and some (like the editors of IGNPC) thought it was good enough to deserve Game of the Year for 1998. The game took RPGing to the next level, and brought role-playing fans a new game in the most well-known fantasy RPG universes: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The original Baldur's Gate was an amazing feat, especially considering that no one who worked on the project from BioWare had ever worked on a computer game before. Given the success of Baldur’s Gate, it came as no surprise that the team at BioWare had been working on the sequel since January of 1999, just one month after the release of the original. With Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, the lads and lassies at BioWare are dedicated to making the best possible D & D-based RPG ever and, as Director of Writing and Design James Ohlen puts it, “We want BGII to be the most immersive game available next year, and we’re making sure we do just that.” Shadows of Amn, based on the 2nd edition AD&D rule set, will take place along the Sword Coast, just south of where the original game was set. Geographically speaking, Baldur’s Gate II is going to have a large variety of locations for you to visit. Since the game takes place along the Sword Coast in the Forgotten Realms universe, you’ll have a chance to explore cities and locales you would expect from the area: an Elven city embedded deep in the Tethir forests, the underground Drow city Underdark, an underwater Sahuagin town, and even the bustling metropolis of Athkatla, the capitol of Amn and one of the largest cities in the upcoming RPG. As Ohlen tells us, “With the city of Athkatla, we wanted to create the most detailed and believable fantasy city ever found in an RPG.” But since your characters will attain extremely high levels during the game, you’ll also have the chance to explore some more peculiar and dangerous areas like the Astral Plane and even the vile depths of Hell. In order to decrease travel times through the more tangible reaches of the Amn region, BioWare has increased character movement speed by 150%. Shadows of Amn will also include an annotated map feature that will allow you to write notes directly on your map, making for easier navigation around the gameworld since you can note points of interest. And in an effort to make it as simple as possible to determine where your next goals lie, your adventuring journal will now be split into three separate sections – main quests, side quests, and finished quests – making it easier to determine where to head next. You can import your characters from the original game or from the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion set, or, of course, create an all new hero for BGII. All characters in Shadows of Amn will begin with 89,000 experience points, effectively starting them somewhere between 7th or 8th level, depending on their class. In order to make the transition from the original to the sequel fair to imported characters, they will be credited 89,000 experience points when they are imported even if you haven’t earned that many. You’ll be able to work your way as high as 20th level in Shadows of Amn, affording you some neat amenities usually reserved for high-level characters, like the acquisition of special class rewards for completing certain quests. One such task in Shadows of Amn will be to clear a Keep of unwanted denizens. In appreciation for your help, if your main hero is a Fighter, (s)he will be awarded ownership of the Keep to set up as his/her personal stronghold. Don’t fret if you don’t decide to be a Fighter, though. Every class will have something similar to the Fighter’s Keep. One example mentioned by the BioWare team being a personal Guild for you Thieves out there (you know who you are, and you know what you’ve stolen … now give it back). Since they already have a very solid framework in the Infinity engine to build upon, the design team can now go in and add a lot of story options and new features to the game that they just weren’t able to do in the original due to time constraints. As Black Isle Producer Chris Parker explains, “A lot of our goals in BGII was to increase the depth of play and the depth of story,” and from what we saw the other night, they’re doing just that. The development team is going to incorporate several new enhancements to the game, and even looked to the players for suggests on how to improve on Baldur’s Gate. One such player request was the addition of character kits from the optional rules set. “This was one of the major fan requests, and we wanted to do that in BGII,” says BioWare Producer Ben Smedstad. “Basically the bottom line is this – we took all the suggestions from our casual and hardcore gamers and made the best role-playing game possible.” And it seems like they're on track to do just that. There will be a total of 20 specialized character kits, including Barbarians, Cavaliers, Bounty Hunters, Wizard Slayers, Berserkers, Kensai, Assassins, and Jesters. In addition to the character specialization kits, BioWare has added fighting proficiencies (including one handed, two-handed, weapon/shield combo, and dual wield), new weapons (like the wakisashi, katana ), new magic items, new skills for Thieves (move silent, detect illusion, and set traps), and will also introduce the Half-Orc as a player character race. In addition to beefing up the dynamics of the game by adding some of the optional rules from AD&D, BioWare is stressing much more intra-party interaction in the sequel. There will be party romances, love triangles, and disagreements. And, instead of repeating two or three canned phrases throughout the entire game, your party members will let you know exactly how they feel by telling you directly. “Each of the individual characters in the game has as much dialogue as all of the characters in the first Baldur’s Gate,” story writer Dave Gaiden tells us. Characters will also be much more robust and well rounded in terms of their personal history, and you’ll learn about all sorts of background information from family problems to personal goals, past relationships to former lives. All in all there will be 15 characters in Baldur’s Gate II that you’ll be able to choose from to incorporate into your 6-person party. And on the non-player character side of things, there are already 200 more NPCs in BGII than in BG and Tales of the Sword Coast combined, which means for even more opportunities to interact with the gameworld environment. Overall, your party should be much easier to manage as well. The team has fixed some of the nasty pathing problems that would often put your spellcasters at the front of your group, in a prime position to get wailed upon by the opposition. Now your strong-arms will automatically take positions at the front of the ranks and your weaker supporting mana slingers will make their way to the back of the ranks. Baldur's Gate II is getting a graphical facelift as well. The game can now be run in 800 x 600 resolution, making for a larger viewing field than was possible in Baldur’s Gate, and making the game much tighter and crisper visually. Another much needed enhancement to the Infinity engine will be the addition of OpenGL 3D support, giving those of you with an accelerator increased video performance. Shadows of Amn will also sport a revamped interface, with many enhancements based on player suggestions. While the updated interface includes all of the original functionality of Baldur’s Gate, the team has opted to include such enhancements as a rest button on the front page now so players don’t have to go digging every time they need to sleep. “We really looked to the players to see how we could improve the feel of BGII,” James tells us. You’re still presented with option buttons on the left hand side of the screen, character portraits on the right, and a text field at the bottom, but now any and all of these interfaces can be hidden so you can play BGII in full screen mode. And let me tell you, Shadows of Amn looks absolutely beautiful running full screen in 800 x 600 resolution. BioWare is adding an additional 130 spells to the already impressive magical arsenal, making for over 300 total spells in BGII. And since your characters can achieve such high levels, expect to see the most powerful spells in the AD&D universe included in Shadows of Amn, -- Meteor Swarm, Contingency, Time Stop, Chain Lightning, Blade Barrier, and Summon Elemental (which sounds really neat as you’ll have to win a battle of wills with the Elemental or it will attack your party). Of course, these new spells will be accompanied by colorful new lighting effects, but the art team has also gone back and revamped the look of some of the older spells which they weren’t too happy with in the original game. As Chris explains, “We’re bringing new spells to the game and making them graphically beautiful in the process, as well as upgrading the effects associated with many of the existing spells." The team also says they are looking into Familiars for Magic Users, although nothing definite had been decided as of yet. Along with new spells, an enhanced interface, character specializations, a refined spell effects (jeez, is there anything the kids at BioWare aren't doing?), BioWare has added an entire bestiary of new creatures for you to take your aggressions out on. Powerful monsters like the Mind Flayer, Djinni, Trolls, Umber Hulk, and the multi-eyed Beholder. There will also be many more obscure faces -- like the Githyanki --from the creature compendium Fiend Folio. You're going to be up against much more robust foes in Shadows of Amn, and many show their fortitude not only by the damage they deal out, but also by their shear size. Some, like the Iron Golem, are huge compared to any of the beasts from Baldur’s Gate. Co-Lead Designer Kevin Martens even hints at the possibility of Dragons in Shadows of Amn, saying, “It is called Dungeons and Dragons, and we already have the dungeons.” Multiplay options in BGII hold true to the original, with a few improvements. While the game will still focus on one main character to drive the story, other players are now free to roam around while the main player is selling or buying items. This minimizes down time and keeps other players busy instead of freezing them in limbo waiting for the main character to finish his/her transactions. As joint CEO of BioWare Ray Muzyka puts it, “BG was intended to be the game we always wanted to play, and BGII is going to be even better.” Thanks Ray, I think most RPGers would agree that the original BG was the game they always wanted to play as well, and I know all of us at the IGNPC dungeon are looking forward to getting our hands on Shadows of Amn. Look for it sometime in late 2000, and keep checking back to IGNPC for updates on BGII as they become available. -- Tal Blevins 8.26.00   click on the above images for screenshot for the larger image images from ign