Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

aka: BG2, Baldur's Gate II: Cienie Amn, Baldur's Gate II: Schatten von Amn, Bode zhi Men 2: Anmu de Yinying
Moby ID: 2465
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

Some time after the events described in Baldur's Gate, the protagonist and his friends Imoen, Minsc and Jaheira have been captured by an elven mage called Jon Irenicus. His intentions and connection to the heroes unknown, Irenicus conducts experiments on them, holding them in cages somewhere in his vast underground complex. During his absence, the heroes manage to escape, and soon find themselves in the city of Athkatla in the country of Amn, where they confront Irenicus. However, at that moment several wizards arrive and arrest both Irenicus and Imoen for unlicensed use of magic. The first task at hand is to raise the money needed to rescue Imoen, before facing Irenicus again and unraveling his true goals.

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn is a party-based role-playing game using the AD&D rules. The basic gameplay is similar to that of its predecessor: the player navigates a party of up to six active combatants over isometric environments, conversing with non-playable characters using branching dialogue, and fighting enemies in real-time, free-movement combat that can be paused to issue specific orders to the characters. World traveling now occurs by selecting locations on a map rather than exploring wilderness areas to reach the destination. However, the game world is larger than in the previous game, with more individual locations to visit and side quests to perform.

Being a direct sequel to Baldur's Gate, the game lets the player control stronger, higher-level characters from the onset. The main character can also be imported from the previous installment. Three new classes (sorcerer, monk, and barbarian) are available along with those that were present in the original game. Characters can also acquire specializations within most of the classes: a paladin, for instance, can become a dragon slayer or an inquisitor. Weapon proficiencies are more specific: for example, instead of just specializing in blades, the player can choose between proficiencies in long swords, two-handed swords, bastard swords, katanas and scimitars. There are many new types of weapons, armor, and magic spells in the sequel.

Sixteen characters may join the party during the course of the story. Each of them has his or her own motivations, sometimes conflicting with those of other characters. Scripted events and interaction with playable as well as non-playable characters have been noticeably increased in the sequel. The main character can also romance some of the companions by choosing appropriate behavior and dialogue lines. The game allows the player to make many moral decisions and pursue character-specific side quests unrelated to the main story. Many of the companions bring their own quests, and unique tasks are available for the main character depending on his or her class.

Spellings

  • Baldur's Gate 2: Тени Амна - Russian spelling
  • 博德之门2:安姆的阴影 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 柏德之門II安姆疑雲 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

384 People (376 developers, 8 thanks) · View all

Dedicated to the memory of
Executive Producer
Line Producer
Producer
Director of Writing and Design
Lead Design
Design
Scripting and Data Entry
Additional Design
Original Baldur's Gate Game Design
Lead Programmer
Programmers
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 93% (based on 74 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 285 ratings with 9 reviews)

It improves on the original, but loses something in the translation

The Good
Graphics went up to 800x600. Quests were easier to follow and track. You practically start out fighting. Some new character classes and abilities. You got to start out at a higher level, with more abilities to play with. The story was still engrossing, the music was still good, and there are still characters to pick up along the way - each with his/her own goals.

You get to play truly evil parties, and it isn't impossible! In fact, Vicconia actually likes you this way... .

The Bad
The entire series seems to suffer from ADD (Attention Deficeit Disorder). You simply cannot complete one quest without being offered four or five more along the way.

Another thing this series of games suffers from is mage-overkill. At the end of every quest there's a spell caster with some spell which is going to make your life miserable.

I found the graphics to be distracting. They were sharper and clearer, but something about them just didn't work for me. Maybe it was too many of the same hue.

Magic items seemed to abound in this game. Arguably, that's the way it should be for higher-level games, but other than my party and the people we were trying to kill, everyone was low-level. If Bob the salesman had +4 armor and weapons, why wouldn't he be out adventuring?

The Bottom Line
Overall, it's a good game. It will probably go down as one of the greats, but for me, it was too much. Part of that may be because I played the original, then immediately started playing this one.

Still, it's challenging (in a good way), and the story is really good. Just stay away from some unnecessary side quests and you should be OK.

Windows · by Cyric (50) · 2001

A Great Sequel!

The Good
The game took the elements of the original Baldur's Gate and made them better. The AI was improved so that when one member of your party is going to pick up treasure, other members will move out of his way. The 800x600 graphic size was a welcome improvement (though you can still play 640x480 if you wish). The ability to make notes in the journal was great for tracking important things like a specific place to return when a quest was completed. Also, now your party gets XP for doing things like picking locks and disarming traps. Conversations with NPCs are better done.

The Bad
What I didn't like was the repetitive music. Don't get me wrong, the music sounds great. It's just that after a while I was sick of hearing it (but I'm always like that). Also it seems that the number of quests gets to be a bit much. Granted doing all these things build experience points but most of them have nothing to do with the main storyline. So at times I would feel like "Ugh! Another tedious quest to do but hey, it will gain me XP and maybe a higher reputation).

The Bottom Line
Basically this game picks up where Baldur's Gate ended and goes from there. There are all kinds of new monsters to challenge your party as you become more powerful. Plenty of new items, spells, etc. in this game. If you like RPG games or D&D, you'll really enjoy BG2.

Windows · by AstroNerdBoy (35) · 2002

An excellent conversion of the classic pen & paper game.

The Good
BioWare's Infinity engine does an excellent job of taking a basic, straight-forward role playing system and turning it into a vivid experiance, with the role of the game master replaced by the computer. A variety of treasures (spells and items), an easy character creation, and a lot of possible quests and errands (which change after restarting the game, with appr. eight possible paths) make this game replayable and fun.

The Bad
The game's music is repetitive and monotone. There is only one battle music, only one travel music, etc., and after several minutes of playing you'll open your favorite .mp3 and ignore the music entirely. Additionally, whenever you restart the game you have to do a tedious starting sequence, which is used as an "advanced tutorial" and bores experianced players.

The Bottom Line
Even if you don't like role playing games, try Baldur's Gate II- you can either play it as a slash and hack game or as a roleplaying game. It has a huge replayability factor (even with the annoying starting sequence) and the entire experiance is F-U-N.

Windows · by El-ad Amir (116) · 2000

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Baldur's Gate II appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

German version

In the German version the gore option is set to off by default and removed from the options menu. This results in missing blood and splatter effects.

Novel

Wizards of the Coast published a novelization of this game in 2000, written by Forgotten Realms series editor Philip Athans.

References

  • Ever wonder what happened to the kids from the animated Dungeons and Dragons television show? In the back of the Adventurer's Mart, there are two portraits on the wall of these "Adventures far from home" with rather snide descriptions and the speculation that they ended up in the belly of Tiamat.
  • In the Rangers cabin in Umar hills, you can find a book labeled "The Umar Witch Project", which clearly is a joke referring to the famous Blair Witch Project movie.
  • In the Bridge district of Athkatla, on the third floor of an inn in the western part, you can find a picture of Elvis on the wall!

Sales

In 2001, Baldur's Gate II won the Gold-Award from the German VUD (Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland - Entertainment Software Association Germany) for selling more then 100,000 (but less then 200,000) units in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • April 2001 (Issue #201) – Role-Playing Game of the Year
    • November 2003 (Issue #232) – Introduced into the Hall of Fame
  • Game Informer
    • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #89 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
  • GameSpy
    • 2000 – RPG Game of the Year
    • 2001 – #37 Top Game of All Time
  • GameStar (Germany)
    • Issue 02/2001 - Best RPG in 2000
    • Issue 02/2001 - Best Gameworld in 2000
  • PC Player (Germany)
    • Issue 01/2001 - Best Game in 2000
    • Issue 01/2001 - Best RPG in 2000
  • Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland
    • 2001 - Gold Award

Information also contributed by ClydeFrog, Emil Kraftling, Marko Sošić, Pseudo_Intellectual and Xoleras

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Related Sites +

  • Baldur's Gate Forum
    The biggest German forum about Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and other Infinity Engine games.
  • Baldurdash
    A site by Kevin Dorner of Bioware containing hundreds of unofficial bug fixes for both Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal that weren't corrected by any of the official patches.
  • Baldurs Gate Trilogy
    A German Fansite - with tons of detailed informations, walkthrough, and many files, including the unofficial german text-patch
  • Gamasutra: The Anatomy of a Sequel
    A post mortem article by Ray Muzyka (May 2, 2001)
  • Hints for Baldur's Gate 2
    These hints might help you solve the game.
  • Planet Baldur's Gate
    Another Planet, this one covers Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast, Baldur's Gate II and the Throne of Bhaal, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment. Files, forums, articles, help, walkthroughs, news, and links populate it. A typical Planet site.
  • Pocket Plane Group
    Pocket Plane Group publishes a number of detailed mods for Baldur's Gate 2 and other Infinity Engine games. BG2 Mods include Kelsey NPC, Quest Pack, the BG1Tutu converter, Banter Packs, and Ashes of Embers.
  • Spellbound Studios
    Spellhold Studios (or SHS) is a community committed to creating mods for different CRPGs, especially Baldur's Gate II and other games using the Infinity Engine, but also Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 2465
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by -Chris.

Macintosh added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: Dr. Elementary, PCGamer77, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, phlux, Corn Popper, JRK, FloodSpectre, Xoleras, Silverblade, Jason Compton, Klaster_1, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, FatherJack.

Game added October 1, 2000. Last modified March 20, 2024.