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I have played titles like <i>Baldur’s Gate, Diablo and Death Trap Dungeon</i> over the years and loved them all. There are the inevitable myriad combos to remember, and the spells, level-ups and menu items all presented in a straightforward manner. After a while this becomes completely intuitive. Certainly after playing one or two of the games in the series it does. <i>Baldurs’ Gate Dark Alliance 1 & 2, The Bards’ Tale, and the <a href=” http://www.ladygamers.com/cgi-bin/CGInews/cginews.pl?record=33″ target=”_new”>Champions of Norath Realms of Everquest</a></i> duo.
The L2 and R2 buttons on the PS2 access potions and magic quickly. You do have to sit through many cut scenes. You’re given some of the story to propel you into the missions, and just enough interaction to feel some connection to the NPC’s which is better than just random battles.<i> Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2 </i>takes place immediately following the timeline in the first game. The Onyx Tower is destroyed. You can’t access your characters from <i>Baldur’s Gate 1</i>. It is explained away by a cutscene in the beginning that tells you that the sorceress, the archer and the dwarf are held captive by a new enemy.
You choose from five possible new characters; a female cleric, a male dwarf, a male barbarian, a female Drow monk and a male moon elf necromancer. Each character has vastly varying abilities. Of course some are better at magic, some are better at fighting and some can wear different armor and shields. If you wanted to you could replay the game and parts of the story vary with whichever character you chose.
The levels are set up as individual quests. You need to complete them in a sequential order. The city of Baldur’s Gate takes a while to reach. And that is where you can learn of new jobs, buy and sell goods and weapons. The weapons shop is easy to miss since this time it isn’t in the tavern and is just a guy standing there in the street. “Dwarf dude - where is your shop?” If you get in to a jam in one of the dungeons you can use a recall potions to teleport back and forth to Baldur’s Gate at almost any time in the game from any level. This is essential if your inventory is full and you wish to sell a few things off to purchase additional health potions and better weapons.
The game experience varies a bit from character to character. As the necromancer, you have the ability to summon a skeletal companion to help you fight. He looks rather geeky since he carries a book in one hand the whole game. I immediately abandoned that character in favor of the Drow female. I enjoyed the <i>Daughter of the Drow Forgotten Realms </i> trilogy and I was happy to try her out. Though as a monk her capabilities were oddly limited. She can’t use a shield, or a two handed weapon. she can fight with both hands as you level up and she can equip up to three weapons at once. It is tricky switching between weapons in a battle, and she doesn’t have very powerful spells. One thing that was disappointing was the power and variety of the spells that the Sorceress from Baldur’s Gate 1 which I missed. Alas for my level 20+ sorceress!
Other players have access to different spells, my favorite is always a lightning spell, from the first game. Three to four foes group in one spot. You fight them then pick up whatever gold, items or weapons they drop. Save points are spaced at very reasonable distances. Which is a relief from games that require you to find save tokens or have mission based save points like in <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer : Chaos Bleeds </i>or <i>Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb.</i> You always can run away and power up. Another simple strategy is to open a door, and then run back to a narrow area and take out the enemies one by one.
The sequel’s improvements lie not so much in graphics or the game dynamics. Part 2 has a multitude of pretty rendered locations, and gross spider infested catacombs. There is a gothic mansion and a haunted tomb. The lighting in this installment is still pretty darn dark. Light emanates from your character and casts weird confusing shadows. Magic, firepower and poison can give you a purple sparkle or green ooze aura.
New in this volume is that the use of rune stones, they make weapons, armor and items of a fine class or higher have various attributes from gemstones in the shop keeper ‘workshop’ menu. Certain gems, which can also be purchased, possess qualities such as magic enhancement, increased strength, or even elemental attacks such as poison, fire or ice. By equipping the right gemstone the attack points rise.
The vocal acting is again fun, as characters mouth off. My Drow said something like “if we don’t get going I am going to strangle you with the controller cord”. Which I found highly amusing and just as impertinent as a Drow should be. The soundtrack is identical in all of the games, and is about 8 years old. Sound effects play a large role in <i>Baldur’s Gate.</i> The sounds of swords clanking, beasts roaring, gold being dropped, spells being cast and, best of all, the squishing sound of an enemy being hit are key to the mood.
Few role-playing games succeed on as many levels as the <i>Baldur’s Gate</i> series, which has had longevity from being a PC/Mac game and PS One. It has reincarnated over and over with much success. It is addictive and it remains the game by which all other RPG’s are judged. Unfortunately when “something works you don’t fix it”. And being at the top of the profession can be limiting. Other games have gone on to surpass it in many ways. That is the problem with being first. It would benefit from larger characters that you can actually see on a decent size TV or monitor. But on the whole it is still a terrific game and I feel a kind of loyalty to the <i>Baldur’s Gate</i> series. <i>Baldur’s Gate 2</i> doesn’t have the sentimental value that the first volume had - but I still give it a solid tried and true 8 out of 10.
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