Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn Preview

Developer:
Bioware

Publisher:
Black Isle Studios

Target Release Date:
September 2000

Read our interview with Baldur's Gate co-creator Ray Muzyka.
By Elliott Chin
11/17/99

Page 1 of 12

Last week, Black Isle Studios and Bioware invited us to the Wizards of the Coast game center in Seattle to show us their next big game. Bioware had already revealed that it was working on three games. Two had been announced: MDK 2 and Neverwinter Nights. It wouldn't have taken a detective to deduce what the third game was. As the gaming community and press guessed, it was Baldur's Gate II. Bioware not only gave us a presentation of the game, but also made it available for us to play. So we sat down with Baldur's Gate II and took a closer look at the improvements being implemented in Bioware's follow-up to the role-playing game of 1998.

screenshot
Click to enlarge
At first glance, Baldur's Gate II will not look like much. The game still uses the Baldur's Gate engine, and the interface appears largely unchanged. However, the changes in Baldur's Gate II are not skin deep; they cut to the very heart of gameplay and are what will make this game better than its predecessor.

The line given to us at the announcement was that Baldur's Gate would be more focused in its character interaction, quests, and interface but larger in terms of the scope of character development, the locales, and monsters. Specifically, Bioware said there would be 15 player characters now instead of 25. The quests would involve less item hunting and be more story-driven, necessitating journeys to different locations but not requiring the delivery of mundane items. The interface and pathfinding, two big concerns of the first game, would also be slightly improved, although it takes more than casual observance to reveal just what that improvement is. However, in addition to making the game more streamlined, Bioware also made the game more fantastic. The locations you'll journey to are some of the most imaginative and evocative of all Dungeons and Dragons locales, and the monsters you will encounter are far and away more exciting and terrifying than those you faced in Baldur's Gate. In addition, character development, stunted as it was in Baldur's Gate, has a much higher limit, allowing you to learn better spells, gain greater abilities, and even attract followers and strongholds.

Let's take a look at the specifics, as we understand them, of the game's enhancements.

Next: Graphics and interface