Nothing can prepare you for this game. You will find yourself wholly immersed, and you will not want to pull yourself aw
Set in the Forgotten Realms series, with all the original characters from the first Baldur's Gate plus some new faces, this game will grab you from the start. Beautiful environments and grossly large areas, with plenty of dungeon crawling. Between the quests and subquests you will be kept busy for 200+ hours. The music is fully orchestrated and with definite ambience, need I say more? If you're an online gamer, there's improved multi player support for up to six players. You won't have the same adventure twice.
With the ability to create or import characters, new weapon abilities and AD&D proficiencies, you can customize your character more than ever before. New races and character kits enable you to become virtually any class/race you can dream of. The level of creation they leave up to you is awesome. You decide gender, portrait, race, class, ability scores, alignments, proficiencies, thief abilities, spells, racial enemies, appearance, voice acting, and lastly your name. There is a total of eleven classes to choose from, with sub-classes in each. This is not including the character customization kits. There is single,dual,and multi class options for each character depending upon race and class. For example, if you are a wizard, chances of your learning to fight with sword and shield are slim to none without disabling your spells and taking penalties. If you are a paladin though, you have the ability to use sword and shield, as well as learn a few spells. It's all in the character creation and your imagination.
They've even added "romances". Depending on your characters gender and alignment, you have the ability to change anothers life within Baldur's Gate, not to mention your own. From the confused paladin in training, whom you can either make or break for knighthood, to the devious drow, which you actually have to insult to charm. Based upon what happens in these situations, you can either permanently lose or gain the NPC. In order to "open" the doors for some of the subquests, you'll have to recruit the character involved, and leave behind another. Don't worry though, you can usually relocate the lost NPC.
The story is very well developed, and you'll be kept in suspense for awhile wondering, "what the heck just happened?" I think that's what had me playing as much as I did. I lost hours in a day without even realizing it. The only hitch I have found is the difficulty level. As with most AD&D adventures, it takes a little bit of strategy at times. In some situations, you may actually want to turn the difficulty level down completely.(I know I did!) Even then some of the higher level monsters, such as lichs, were still difficult. The trick was to save...A LOT!
You begin as a prisoner of an unknown party. Your goal is to escape with as much knowledge as possible. From here you set the pace as to whether you are of good alignment or evil. I opted for good simply because i like to get some of the best stats in the game. There are pros and cons to this choice if for no other reason than items. Some can only be used based on your alignment. You have the choice to recruit characters from any alignment, regardless of your own, but be careful of choices you make, someone in your party may disagree. For instance, you've chosen to be of evil alignment and one of your party members is of the good, you decide to pickpocket and fail, in turn you kill the guy for catching you, your party member may say something like "this type of behavior must not continue." If it does they will want to leave and you will be given the option to apologize or kick them out. And you thought your co-workers were difficult! Making "good" or "bad" decisions as a whole really doesn't matter because based on your choices you are either rewarded reputation points or they are taken from you. It's not until the last dungeon of the game that one decision will affect your alignment permanently.
The battle system can be played one of two ways, real time or turn based. Real time is constant, and you'll definitely want your hot keys assigned. Turn based allows you to pause when needed, and you can customize your battles according to preference. Almost every aspect of the game allows for change, there's not too much you don't have control over.
The journal has even been revamped. You can keep track of what's been done, and what's left to do, as well as thoughts your character may have during each quest until it is completed. You also have the option to rest anywhere, whereas the first Baldur's Gate limited you to inns. Some spell durations have been modified, mostly status abnormalities, and some new spells have been added, or changed.
If you likes the first Baldur's Gate, you love this sequel. If you didn't like Baldur's Gate, chances are that the things you did not like have been changed, and your chances of becoming addicted are still there. This game is recommended for anyone who is adventurous, and doesn't mind a little bit of a challenge. For the experienced players and beginners alike, though it will take some effort from both sides.