Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

2023-07-23
Finally played one of the all time classics. And what can I say? I enjoyed it. Much like BG1 I whacked the difficulty all the way down to Easy and Story Mode a.k.a. "you can kill anything with auto attacks and none of your party members can ever die". Ah, delightful. That meant I could sit back and enjoy the story, the art, the world building, and music. And boy does it ever deliver in all of these regards.

There's nothing like a sequel that carries over from exactly where you left off in the last game even carrying over your character. That's a hallmark of a Bioware game and presumably this is where they kicked off the schtick. My character was promptly loaded into the new game and then abducted and landed in the hands of a one Jon Irenicus, a malevolent and mysterious mage of absolutely awesome powers. Soon after your introduction you're treated to a scene where a group of mages try to apprehend Irenicus to which he replies "Do you know who you're dealing with" and then proceeds to massacre all of them. Even with technology as dated as this the cutscene enthralled me. I think it works even in 2023 because it captures the imagination so well. One of the greatest tools in the arsenal of the team in fostering this imagination is the delightful writing paired with an incredible vocal performance for Jon Irenicus from David Warner. I mean, what a terrific casting job. UK Shakespearean actors delivering lines in video games is always cool and I was excited every time Irenicus would show up and I'd have more lines to listen to from Mr. Warner.

Overall the story is fun romp that takes you all over new lands, ditching the eponymous Baldur's Gate for a new city to explore. Another part I loved was being taken to the Underdark where you can work on behalf of a Silver Dragon to infiltrate a Drow city. As a fan of the Drizzt Do'Urden books this was a delight. And hey, Drizzt shows up in the story as well, even offering to aid in your fight against the vampire villainous in the campaign.

Writing as I mentioned also rules. There's a huge variety of characters and they all have convincing motivations and personalities from the dull drunken sailor, to the conniving ship captain, to the dreadful Drow.

I could talk about the actual gameplay but just like BG1 I basically ignored it. The inventory is an absolute chore and there are far too many spells and abilities to keep track of. Thank god for Easy difficulty.

All in all another great game to knock out.