NWN versus BGII

[Attalus]

I love NWN but voted for BGII, my favorite game in all the world. No, I never soloed BGII. Never saw the appeal. I like Viconia and Imoen too much to be without them. And Nalia. But, Sharwyn is great, too.

[Nas'Greth]

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn is an epic role-playing experience. However, it is also a rather clumsy and muddled attempt at incorporating 2nd Edition AD&D rules, and may soon become tiresome as more and more monsters of more and more power are thrust at the player.

The game is also questionably organized, with the game allowing almost limitless freedom to explore and complete nearly ever side-quest in the game, and then later becoming extremely linear. This leads to the game also being majorly unbalanced, though this is not only the case in the organization, but in the setup of various quests as well.

In terms of the plot, the game may ultimately fail to deliver any satisfaction or cleverness that was promised in the beginning. However, several of the characters are very well developed, and some are quite believable.

The game's graphics are much superior to Baldur's Gate I in a technical sense. However, in an artistic and aesthetic sense, the game suffers somewhat from its 'micro-management' appearance; the view is from a much higher resolution than in Baldur's Gate I, making character appear smaller and more diminuitive. The setting (and backgrounds in particular), though, are awe-inspiring; many areas are very memorable, and very impressive. In addition, several of the creatures and/or beings that appear in the quest are also impressive, and almost none of the more powerful AD&D monsters are a dissapointment in terms of appearance.

The sound does not disappoint either. While the first area makes use of loud, blaring and unappealing background music, the epic battles more than redeem the game with their epic battle scores.

Finally, the gameplay is as addictive and enjoyable as that in the first game; however, while it maintains the basic elements found in the first game, it is ultimately geared toward a much different audience. This presents several problems. Players who enjoyed the low-level journeys in the first game, and the sense of satisfaction in felling a towering ogre, may be disapointed by how trivial most battles in the game become. Indeed, many quests involve few challenging battles, with the exception of ridiculously powerful 'boss' battles at the very end. In this regard, depending largely upon how one chooses to play, the game will likely either lose its challenge altogether, or will be so challenging and time-consuming that the player may lose interest.

While Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn does deliver an epic role-playing experience set in the Forgotten Realms, the game struggles to do so through its questionable organization, non-plausible plot, improved -- but newly styled -- graphics, intially unappearing sounds, and unpredictible gameplay. However, it will almost certainly redeem itself in the end, and, should the expansion set Throne of Bhaal manage to conclude the saga in much the same fashion, it has a decent chance of satisfying fans of the original game.

[Attalus]

Non-plausible plot? This is fantasy, you know. TOB is as unsatisfying as they come, though. It feels hurried.

[Nas'Greth]

I meant "non-plausbible" in the sense of the Forgotten Realms, particularly time differences between events. In particular, most of the major characters are cmopletely unrealistic (Gorion, etc.)