Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

2000

role-playing (rpg)
fantasy
single player
co-operative

The story

Every World has conflict. Good and evil. Friend and foe. Safety and danger. In Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, you'll find yourself between these factions. This epic sequel to the Roleplaying Game of the Year will immerse you in a world of intrigue, adventure and fierce combat where your ability to discern the difference between these sides - with the assistance of steel and spell - determines your fate. Set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, Baldur's Gate II is the most stunning Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game to date.

What it’s like

Pre-rendered painted backdrops in rich, slightly murky fantasy palettes give this isometric RPG the feel of a lavish storybook, with moonlit crypts, smoky taverns lit by hearth-orange and torchlight, and cold blue-grey wilderness under heavy skies. Its sound is a sweeping orchestral score that swells in towns and turns to tense, low strings in dungeons, punctuated by the clash of steel, spell bursts and the murmured voices of companions who comment on the world as you walk through it. The pace is deliberate and tactical: real-time exploration gives way to pausable turn-based combat, so long stretches of reading dialogue trees, sorting inventories and planning formations alternate with brief, sharp skirmishes. The mood is brooding but warm, a slow-burning adventure of camaraderie and moral compromise in which companions gradually reveal their pasts. Violence is frequent and stylised, with bloody deaths, undead, and some grim material including torture and vampiric horror, though it stays in the fantasy register rather than gore-heavy realism. It suits long solo sessions, a rainy weekend with a lot of time to kill, and players who love building a party and sinking hours into systems and story.

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