BALDUR'S GATE II  - THE THRONE OF BHAAL

                  Reviewed by Stefan Herber

Well here we go again. I must confess to having been slightly
disappointed by BG1 after all the hype it had received but I
replayed it hoping to finally master the combat system (finally
done!) and also to take a character I really liked into BG2. First
disappointment - I couldn't, whether due to my own inability to
comprehend the method or a bug I don't know. Second problem - the
game wouldn't work at all until some hefty patches had been
downloaded. Anyway we finally got underway..

Although a party game only one member can be generated with the
remainder being picked up on the way. This leads to difficult
problems of choice and also to subsequent developments. The
interpersonal relationships are much more developed than in the
primary game - amongst other things one can have affairs with
certain of your party if you treat them right and say the right
things. Sadly I got it wrong early on (as in real life) but in all
honesty spending the rest of my life with either of the partners the
game selected for me would have been purgatory. As there are many
missions that rely on you having certain characters in your party
there's no problem in temporarily dropping long-term members so that
you can do the outstanding missions so that the rest of the party
get extra experience. BUT - this can lead to romantic problems.

The other main point of difference is the strength of the various
mages you have to fight. They have taken on a whole new world of
difficulty and end up being the trickiest opponents.  My mages were
cleric/mage and thief/mage conglomerates and a bit of a letdown
really. Problem is the only really powerful mage and priests
available are evil aligned, which would cause difficulties in my
"good" party. Maybe I shall try something different if I replay.

And that's the crunch point. The game is absolutely massive - I've
heard 500 hours although I think that's an exaggeration.  The combat
starts out tough and by the end of Throne of Bhaal becomes as near
impossible as I've known in any RPG. I didn't have to tone down the
difficulty but there was a point in the final series of battles that
I was close to giving up because of this. But with perseverance I
succeeded. Do I really want to do it all again??

The quests are interesting; the overall story very strong;
characterisation takes place and I suspect the variations on a theme
with the vast numbers of available characters huge.  There's a
choice of 2 endings - fortunately the final battle is
straightforward (not the penultimate one which is very vicious) and
I experienced both. Neither is worth the effort of what went before
but the final scenes in RPGs usually disappoint.

I don't really see how anybody with the vaguest interest in
traditional RPG can miss this. It doesn't have the vicious humour of
"Planescape Torment" or the graphics of "Vampire - the Resurrection"
or the richness of "Ultima 7" or the freedom of "Daggerfall".
However it's got one hell of a lot going for it and will keep you
busy for a long time.


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