Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Publisher: Interplay
Developer: BioWare
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"It's a worthy successor to Baldur's Gate and a superior role-playing game in its own right." - Greg Kasavin, GameSpot
When BioWare's original Baldur's Gate was released in 1998, many considered it to be the game that saved computer role-playing games from extinction. At the time, there hadn't been many computer role-playing games released, and what few were available were unimpressive at best. In contrast, the original Baldur's Gate had an epic story; authentic Dungeons & Dragons rules, magic spells, items, and creatures; and many, many hours of solid gameplay.
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All things considered, the sequel to the original game, which had been in development for over two years, had a great deal to live up to. Fortunately, Baldur's Gate II not only met the expectations of most fans and critics, but it exceeded them. Baldur's Gate II features even more content - more magic spells, more magical treasure, and more powerful monsters - than its predecessor, and nearly all of it came right from TSR's Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks. In addition, the game features a staggering number of authentic character class kits that let you create not only standard fighter, thief, magic user, and cleric characters but also a great many intriguing specialist character classes with unique special abilities. What's more, the game is even larger - and longer - than the original. Baldur's Gate II takes place in and around the sprawling countryside of Amn (and various surrounding areas) and features far more new areas to explore and new quests to undertake. And Baldur's Gate II's quests aren't just more numerous than in the original game; they're also much longer, more involved, and more rewarding as well. In addition, since your character - the hero of the original Baldur's Gate - has made something of a name for itself, you'll find that instead of having to track down important characters to find quests to perform, other characters will seek you out because of your character's reputation.
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Though there were a number of outstanding role-playing games released this year (including Interplay's own Icewind Dale), GameSpot has chosen Baldur's Gate II to be its Role-Playing Game of the Year 2000 because of its epic story, involved quests, and the quality, depth, and breadth of its gameplay.
