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Baldur's Gate 2 Review October 22, 2000 Obviously, the first thing to be done is to create your character. Baldur's Gate II has 7 races to choose from: human, elf, half-elf, gnome, dwarf, half-orc, and halfling. Each class , besides humans, has its own advantages and disadvantages (though humans are the only race that can dual-class). For instance, whilst half-orcs gain a bonus to their strength and constituion, they incur a penalty to their intelligence and charisma. There are many classes and kits to choose from in Baldur's Gate II, from the noble Paladin, to the berserk Barbarian, to the reserved Mage. Each are nicely varied and distinct from one another. Three new classes have been added, the Monk, the Sorcerer, and the Barbarian. The Monk cannot wear armor and cannot use two handed weapons. He is, however, a superior unarmed fighter and has a natural magic resistance, fast movement, stealth, detect traps, and can use the Paladin ability, lay on hands. The Barbarian cannot wear full plate or plate mail. He also may not specialize past normal specialization. He does, however, have fast movement, high hit points, and a special ability, the "Berserker Rage". The Berserker Rage gives the Barbarian high combat bonuses, extra hit points, and immunity to most mind affecting spells for a short while. The Sorcerer does not need to memorize his spells to cast them, meaning he can cast everything in his spellbook. He cannot, however, learn spells from scrolls, meaning he will learn them much slower than the traditionalist mages. Another huge addition to Baldur's Gate II is the new class kits. Each class, besides the Barbarian, Monk, and Mage (the Mage class, instead of having kits, has specialist Mages), has 3 kits, or "subclasses". Each of the kits has special advantages, yet suffers from certain disadvantages. For instance, the Shapeshifter, a kit of the Druid, may shape change into a Werewolf, an immensely powerful beast. However, the Shapeshifter may not wear armor and cannot shapeshift into any other forms that a normal Druid could, such as a bear or wolf. The Kensai, a fighter kit, cannot wear armor, gauntlets, or bracers, nor can he use missile weapons. He does, however, benefit from high combat bonuses and is faster than the other fighters. He also has the "Kai" ability. By using this ability, he will for 10 seconds inflict maximum damage on an opponent each time he hits it. Over a hundred new spells have been added to the priest or mage's arsenal in Baldur's Gate II, bringing the grand total to around 300. Such favorites as Magic Missile, Fireball, and Melf's Acid Arrow return, along with many new ones. Some of the more notable ones are Meteor Swarm, Wyvern Call, Disintegrate, Earthquake, Fire Storm, and Sunray. New spell are learned by finding scrolls and copying them to your spellbook, a process that has a percent failure chance based on your Intelligence or Wisdom depending on whether you are a mage or a priest, respectively. Magic isn't so powerful as to be game-winning; it takes magic as well as brute force, both complimenting eachother, to succeed in Baldur's Gate II. Combat is extremely fluidic and seamless, with no clunky, complex combat system getting in the way of things. Left-clicking on an enemy, or selecting a spell and then choosing the target, is about as difficult as combat gets. Different formations can be used to protect your weaker members, and they are usually required for some of the tougher enemies. There is also a difficulty slider; making it easier will result in combats being much easier and monsters doing less damage. A higher difficulty is the exact opposite, making monsters hit harder. Load times are frequent, and occur whenever your character moves to a new area, or even inside a tavern or shop of the town you're currently in. The first time you load an area, it takes a fairly long time to load. After that, the area will be cached and will load very fast if you re-visit the same area. When you exit a game, however, it clears the cache, so you'll always have to deal with the long load times at first. More optimization in this area by Bioware would have been much appreciated by its legions of loyal followers. A nifty little feature of Baldurs Gate II is the Strongholds. Each class has access to one at some point in the game. A quest must be completed before obtaining it, however. Strongholds are run by your character. You must manage them, collect taxes, and deal with anyone who wishes an audience with you. After clearing a keep of an evil Troll and his minions, I became the lord of the keep, and my subjects refer to me as such. Just recently a merchant wanted to see me about some bandits ambushing his caravan in a mountain pass. He wanted to be payed 1,000 gold for his lost caravan, and wanted me to hire 500 men to take care of the bandits. After doing so, I was awarded with a ton of experience and heartily thanked. Different strongholds require different quests to acquire. For instance, a Druid's Stronghold, the Grove, is acquired after challenging the current Great Druid for control. Strongholds really help you get "in character", and are extremely fun to manage and maintain. Kudos to Bioware for throwing in this feature "just because".
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