Baldur's Gate II: Shadow of Amn
| Baldur's Gate II: Shadow of Amn | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Original title | Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn | ||
| Studio |
 BioWare
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| Publisher |
 Interplay
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| Senior Developer |
James Ohlen (Lead Designer) David Gaider Brent Knowles |
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| Erstveröffent- lichung |
Windows: September 24, 2000 September 29, 2000 Mac OS: September 2001  |
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| platform | Windows , Mac OS | ||
| Game engine | Infinity engine | ||
| genre | Computer role playing game | ||
| Subject | Dungeons and Dragons | ||
| Game mode | Single player , multiplayer | ||
| control | Keyboard , mouse | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
Windows :
Mac OS :
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| medium | CD-ROM , DVD-ROM , download | ||
| language | German English | ||
| Current version | 23037 (July 26, 2001) | ||
| Age rating |
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Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (ger .: Shadows of Amn , in short: BG2 / SoA) is the second game of a AD & D - computer role-playing game series of the Canadian developer BioWare and direct successor to Baldur's Gate . It was released by Interplay Entertainment on September 24, 2000 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS . In 2013 the Canadian developer Overhaul Games released the revised and expanded Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition .
Like its predecessor, Baldur's Gate II is based on the Infinity Engine developed by BioWare itself and continues the storyline of the first part and its expansion, Legends of the Sword Coast . Its release was a commercial success and the game has won multiple RPG of the year 2000 awards. An expansion was released on June 21, 2001 under the title Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal .
action
The main character awakens in a dungeon of the magician Joneleth 'Jon' Irenicus. He was formerly a member of the elven community in Suldanessalar, but was expelled by them and now seeks a part of the divine essence of the Bhaal children. With the power he has gained, he plans to wage a campaign of vengeance against Suldanesalar and then to become a god. The main character is freed by his half-sister Imoen and is able to escape from the dungeon. He finds himself in Athkatla, the capital of the kingdom of Amn south of Baldur's gate.
The player decides to hold his tormentor accountable. He first explored the city and the surrounding area of Athkatlas. He also learns more details about his parentage. The legacy of Bhaal is expressed in the form of dreams that haunt the main character several times over the course of time. In the later course he also transforms into a deadly, strange monster, which is based on the nature of his divine father Bhaal. With every transformation there is a threat of an ever closer approach to the character of its divine progenitor. The game ends with the main character's main argument with Irenicus in the elven city of Suldanessalar.
Game mechanics
Single player campaign
Baldur's Gate II uses a further developed version of the Infinity engine from the first part. The player controls up to six player characters on pre-rendered maps. The main character can either be imported from a saved game from the first game or recreated at the beginning of the game. In the latter case, the character is upgraded to character level 7 at the beginning of the game.
Compared to its predecessor, the character classes have been greatly expanded. So it is now possible, in addition to the main class such as B. Priest or Rogue to select a specialized class such as Assassin or Bounty Hunter. In total, more than 30 specialization kits are available. The half-orc can be chosen as a new race and there are three new classes available: sorcerer, barbarian and monk.
The rest of the group members will be added to the group in the course of the game, some have already performed in Baldur's Gate . The characterization of the companions was much more elaborated and dramaturgized in the successor. The characters engage in conversations and respond to the player character's actions. They also bring new story arcs and new quests to the game that shed light on their personal background and personality. In addition, romances are possible between the main character and some selected companions.
Magic characters must prepare their spells before they can be used , according to AD&D rules. With 182 magician and 110 priest spells, the magical repertoire has more than tripled compared to its predecessor. The upper limit for experience points has also been increased, which is now 2,950,000 points.
Multiplayer mode
The multiplayer mode of the first part was largely taken over unchanged. Up to six players can play through the single player campaign together with self-generated characters. With a completely self-generated hero troop, however, the interactions between the pre-generated accompanying characters, which make the game so attractive, are not inconsiderable.
development
| 1998 |
Baldur's Gate |
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| 1999 |
Baldur's Gate: Legends of the Sword Coast Planescape: Torment |
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| 2000 |
Icewind Dale Baldur’s Gate II: Shadow of Amn |
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| 2001 |
Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance |
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| 2002 |
Icewind Dale II |
|
| 2003 |
|
|
| 2004 |
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 |
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| ~ | ||
| 2012 |
Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition |
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| 2013 |
Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition |
|
| 2014 |
Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition |
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| 2015 |
|
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| 2016 |
Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear |
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| 2017 |
Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition |
All four publications of the computer role-playing game series Baldur's Gate by BioWare were commissioned by the publisher Interplay, who at the time was the owner of an AD&D software license from TSR (later Wizards of the Coast ).
technology
The game is based on the Infinity engine developed by BioWare, a 2D graphics engine . Games developed with this do not require a 3D graphics card. The engine was originally designed for an MMO, but on the advice of Interplay's Feargus Urquhart , it was eventually used for role-playing games. The combat system was heavily influenced by Westwood's real-time strategy game Command & Conquer .
BioWare licensed the Infinity game engine to Interplay for further D&D projects. It was therefore used at the Black Isle Studios for Icewind Dale , Icewind Dale II and in Planescape: Torment , which are visually and playfully very similar to Baldur's Gate . Collectively, these games are referred to as the so-called Infinity Games.
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows from Amn also supported 800 × 600 pixels for the first time in addition to the resolution of 640 × 480 thanks to a further development of the graphics engine. In the game options, even higher resolutions can be activated if desired, but the manufacturer does not officially support them. Another difference to the earlier titles is that the user interface can now also be hidden during the game.
Soundtrack
Like its predecessor, the music came from the German composer Michael Hoenig .
Development goals and course
Baldur's Gate II was dedicated to Daniel Walker, BioWare's second employee in company history, who died in 1999. Baldur's Gate was the young development studio's first role-playing game and, after the action title Shattered Steel , only the second game overall. In Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn wanted to put all that successful at what they had learned from the novice errors during development of the first title. There should also be more time this time to get the most out of the game. This time was missing in the first part mainly because the Infinity game engine had to be worked on in parallel to the development of the game content.
From the ideas or criticism of fans in news groups and portals, from test reports and the internal meetings, a list of suggestions for improvement was first drawn up, most of which were also adopted as project goals. In order to avoid design errors, which one had to contend with in the first part, guidelines were set in advance for the various parties involved. During the development of the game, BioWare set up a quality assurance department and received support from Interplay's role-playing game specialists at Black Isle Studios . There was a particular need for testing, which had become a nightmare due to the extreme size of the project.
reception
Reviews
Baldur's Gate II received outstanding ratings (Metacritic: 95%). It was one of the best-rated PC games at the time and beyond.
The game was described as a consistent further development of the strengths of its predecessor without major innovations. The interaction with the accompanying characters and the staging of their background stories were mostly positively emphasized by critics, the game world was rated as authentic and credible. The increased ease of use was praised, for example the documentation of the orders in a game day book. There was occasional criticism of the path-finding AI and the technical quality of the sound output.
Awards
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated the game at the 2001 awards in the categories of Game of the Year , PC Game of the Year , Computer RPG of the Year , Game Play Engineering, and Character or Story Development , of which it won the latter. The first three categories went to Diablo II . By May 2005 around two million copies of Baldur's Gate II and around 500,000 copies of the extension had been sold.
Fan modifications and extensions
The great success of the game and the modding tools that can still be used for the second part ensured a large output of fan add-ons well beyond the release date. In addition to numerous quest expansions, rule modifications and additional characters, Baldur's Gate Trilogy appeared, a modification with which Baldur's Gate and its expansion can be integrated into the game Baldur's Gate II . In this way, both games and their expansions can be played consistently with the more advanced engine of Baldur's Gate II . However, possession of both games and the expansions is required.
After the end of the official support for the first two parts, the active fan community tries to maintain support for the game series with so-called community patches . B. to ensure playability on new platforms .
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal
| Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal |
| Studio |
BioWare
|
| Publisher |
Interplay
|
| Senior Developer |
James Ohlen David Gaider |
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
June 21, 2001 July 19, 2001 |
| platform | Windows , Mac OS |
| Game engine | Infinity engine |
| genre | Computer role playing game |
| Subject | Dungeons and Dragons |
| Game mode | Single player , multiplayer |
| control | Keyboard , mouse |
| system advantages preconditions |
in addition to the main game:
|
| medium | CD-ROM , DVD-ROM , download |
| language | German |
| Current version | 26498 (September 6, 2001) |
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal ( ToB for short) is an expansion for the game Baldur's Gate and completes the ongoing plot of Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II . It was released on June 21, 2001.
action
In the Throne of Bhaal Expansion, the descendants of Bhaal are springing up all over Faerûn, waging war with one another and ravaging the land. The prophecy says that Bhaal will be resurrected from the blood of his children. One is now required to track down and fight all other children of Bhaal in order to reach one of three possible endings of the story:
- One accepts the legacy of Bhaal and becomes the new evil god of murder.
- One accepts the legacy of Bhaal, but becomes a new, good deity.
- One does not accept the inheritance and thus the immortality of Bhaal, but rather destroys it and continues to exist as a good / bad mortal character and lead a happy life (possibly with the loved one).
development
The publication of the expansion for the second part occurs shortly before a legal dispute between BioWare and Interplay, which marked the end of the collaboration. As a result, Bioware's following D&D title was no longer published via Interplay as originally intended. In 2002 BioWare followed up with the 3D -based RPG Neverwinter Nights through its new publisher Infogrames / Atari , which according to the ToB development team and an indication in the loading screens of the expansion was originally intended to offer the option to import player characters from Throne des Bhaal . However, this option was never implemented in Neverwinter Nights due to new rules from Dungeons & Dragons .
The accompanying music for the extension comes from Inon Zur .
reception
Throne of Bhaal received very good ratings (Metacritic: 88%).
The expansion of the second part, on the other hand, is more extensive in terms of playing time and content and, based on the credits of the main game, ends the background story about the main character. It takes place in a separate location and can therefore not be played in parallel with the plot of Shadows from Amn . Therefore, the add-on is unofficially often seen as the third part, from which the also unofficial series name Baldur's Gate Trilogy, used in fan circles, is derived (among other things for game modifications, see below).
The expansion was named Best PC RPG of 2002 by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences . The US gaming magazine Computer Gaming World awarded Throne of Bhaal as an extension of the year and justified this as follows: "Throne of Bhaal has done what Ultima IX should have done: it provided a great finale to an established franchise." By May In 2005, around 500,000 copies of the add-on were sold.
Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
| Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio |
Overhaul Games |
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| Publisher |
Beamdog |
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| Erstveröffent- lichung |
15th November 2013 | ||
| platform | Android , iOS , Linux , macOS , Windows , Nintendo Switch , PS4 , Xbox | ||
| Game engine | Infinity engine | ||
| genre | Computer role playing game | ||
| Subject | Dungeons and Dragons | ||
| Game mode | Single player , multiplayer | ||
| control | Keyboard , mouse , touch screen | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8)
Mac OS (from OS X 10.6.8)
iOS (from 5.1)
|
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| medium | Download | ||
| language | English | ||
| Age rating |
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The Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition is a revised and expanded version of Baldur's Gate II: Shadow of Amn including the add-on Throne of Bhaal . The main feature in addition to the summary of the originally separate publications is the adaptation for newer operating systems and devices with touch control (tablet PCs). The first release took place on November 16, 2013 for Windows via the online provider Beamdog , the company behind Overhaul Games and Steam . Since then, versions for iOS , Ubuntu , SteamOS and macOS have followed . A version for Android was released in June 2018. In December 2019, this title will also be available for PS4 , Xbox One and Nintendo Switch .
Development (Enhanced Edition)
The project came about at the initiative of Beamdogs , operator of an online sales platform for computer games of the same name. Beamdog and its development department Overhaul Games was founded by former BioWare employees around Trent Oster , who had worked on the original titles of the game. On March 15, 2012, Beamdog announced a revised new edition of the series with Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition (BGEE) and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition (BG2EE). While maintaining the technical framework and based on the technical status of the add-on Thron des Bhaal to Baldur's Gate II , both games should be modernized and provided with new content.
Changes
In addition to the integration of the expansion Throne of Baal , a Black Pits campaign has been added, just like in the first part, in which the player can prove himself in different group compositions through arena fights. There are also four new NPCs , each with their own quests and mini-missions. The manufacturer also advertises easy management of multiplayer games and support for widescreen formats .
Reception (Enhanced Edition)
The game received good ratings (Metacritic: 78%), but worse than the original and also remained below the rating for the Enhanced Edition of the first part of the series. The computer magazine PC Games even judged the remake to be a "deterioration". The main point of criticism was above all an interface that could be improved and was even reduced compared to the functions of the original game. GameStar judged somewhat more mildly, but with roughly the same points of criticism, that the game was "improved, but dispensable". In contrast to the first part, which also contained German-language texts when it was published and for which the German language edition was delivered after a year, the new edition of Baldur's Gate II was only published in English.
Novels about the game
An English-language novel was published to accompany the game and the expansion.
- Baldur's Gate 2: The Shadows of Amn by Philip Athans , Wizards of the Coast , September 2000, ISBN 978-0-7869-1569-9 .
- Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal by Drew Karpyshyn , Wizards of the Coast , September 2001, ISBN 978-0-7869-1985-7 .
Follow-up projects
The Black Hound
During the development of the add-on Heart of Winter for Icewind Dale , a small team from Black Isle Studios led by designer Joshua E. Sawyer began work on a sequel to Baldur's Gate under the project name Jefferson or FR6 . The name Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound was intended as the title of the game until the project was discontinued in 2003 . The termination of the project was preceded by the loss of the license rights for Baldur's Gate .
The game was not conceived as a continuation of the content of the Bhaalskind theme, but should have an independent storyline without any references to the previous BioWare games. However, through the character of Maralie Fiedelbieger, which was to be introduced as a possible accompanying character, there was an indirect reference to Black Isle's own series offshoot Icewind Dale II , in which she took on the role of the narrator.
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was a successful console offshoot . Despite the use of the name Baldur's Gate, there is neither a content nor a playful connection with the games developed by BioWare. Dark Alliance was developed by Snowblind Studios on behalf of Interplay Entertainment and was based on the combat-oriented style of play of Diablo . The rules of Dungeons & Dragons have been heavily modified for this purpose. The game was released on the PlayStation 2 , Xbox and GameCube consoles . In 2004 an adapted version for the Game Boy Advance followed . Also in 2004, the direct successor Baldur's Gate appeared for PS2 and Xbox : Dark Alliance 2 , which was developed by Black Isle Studios on the same technical basis as its predecessor. A third part was suggested several times by Interplay, but was never implemented for licensing reasons and due to financial difficulties.
Neverwinter Nights
In August 1999, Interplay and BioWare announced the development of Neverwinter Nights at the GenCon game fair . Unlike Baldur's Gate , the game used Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition of the rules and a 3D graphics engine. In addition, the game offered extensive multiplayer options. The core was a tool set for creating your own adventure modules and a game master function for supervising multiplayer games. A loading screen from Baldur's Gate II announced the possibility of importing characters from Baldur's Gate II , but it was never implemented. After legal disputes between BioWare and Interplay, the cooperation between the two companies ended and the game was published by the French publisher Infogrames , who published it under its Atari label.
Baldur's Gate III
In June 2019, Larian Studios announced a continuation of the Baldur's Gate series with Baldur's Gate III on their homepage and published a trailer.
Web links
- Baldur's Gate 2 at MobyGames (English)
- Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal at MobyGames (English)
- GemRB: Infinity Engine Remake - Remake projects
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Jörg Langer : Baldur's Gate 2: Shadow of Amn in the test: The role-playing epic is even better than Baldur's Gate 1 . In: GameStar . IDG . December 1, 2000. Retrieved September 12, 2011.
- ↑ a b Test Baldur's Gate 2: Winter is saved . In: GameCaptain . November 15, 2000. Retrieved September 12, 2011.
- ↑ a b c Stangl Florian: Test Baldur's Gate 2: Fateful Encounters . In: PC Games . Computec Media Group . March 7, 2001. Retrieved September 12, 2011.
- ↑ a b Jörg Luibl: Test: Baldur's Gate 2 (engl.) . In: 4Players . freenet AG . October 16, 2000. Retrieved September 12, 2011.
- ↑ a b Thierry Ngyuen: GDC Europe 2010: Baldur's Gate Was Originally An MMO ( English ) In: 1UP . UGO Entertainment, Inc .. August 16, 2010. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved September 11, 2011.
- ↑ Trent Oster: Getting into the Games Industry ( English ) In: Blog of the BG developer . March 23, 2010. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
- ↑ Stephen Totilo: What's So BioWare About the Next Command & Conquer? ( English ) In: Kotaku . February 24, 2012. Retrieved June 12, 2012: " And Muzyka remarks that," if you think about the combat mechanic in [early BioWare game] Baldur's Gate, that was heavily influenced by RTS mechanics. " "
- ↑ Michael Hoenig at Discogs (English). Last accessed on September 10, 2011.
- ^ Ray Muzyka: Baldur's Gate II: The Anatomy of a Sequel. In: Gamasutra . May 1, 2001, accessed June 15, 2014 .
- ^ Metacritic.com , PC Average Rating, accessed September 13, 2011
- ↑ Metacritic PC High Scores , the top rated PC games. Last accessed on September 12, 2011.
- ^ Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences : 2001 award winners . Official website. Last accessed October 10, 2011.
- ↑ a b BioWare : About BioWare ( English ) In: Official company website . November 8, 2010. Archived from the original on May 17, 2005. Retrieved September 11, 2011: “ Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, was released in Sept. 2000 and continued the award-winning story line of the Baldur's Gate series, selling over close to 2 million units so far; in June 2001 Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal was released, the expansion pack to the award winning Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, and the conclusion to the Baldur's Gate series, selling more than 500,000 units "
- ↑ Alratan: Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn Review ( English ) manapool.co.uk. November 8, 2010. Retrieved April 10, 2011: " Many of the mods and unofficial patches improve the game immensely, and are definitely recommended. "
- ↑ Dave Bradshaw: Baldur's Gate II Fixpack ( English ) gibberlings3.net. November 25, 2011. Retrieved on February 3, 2012: “ The BG2 Fixpack is a WeiDU compilation of fixes for Baldur's Gate II. […] This collaborative effort, including the work of modders from several different modding communities and assistance from BG2 lead writer David Gaider, has resulted in a fixpack that currently includes all of the fixes addressed by Baldurdash (including the Game Text Update) and several hundred new bugfixes. The project is ongoing, and we're working through a substantial list of bugs culled from various sites, the old Baldurdash forums, and our own research. "
- ↑ a b Gunnar Lott : Bioware sued Interplay . In: GameStar . IDG . September 21, 2001. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ↑ Peter Steinlechner: Is Interplay losing Neverwinter Nights? . In: GameStar . IDG . December 3, 2001. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- ↑ a b Gamestar editorial team: Neverwinter Nights from Infogrames . In: GameStar . IDG . January 25, 2002. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved on November 20, 2019.
- ↑ See BioWare.com forum moderator, et al. (2008, ed.), Importing from Throne to NWN · 01 May 2008 07:06 PM ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 2008-0602-0344 (2008-0501-0706)
- ↑ See BioWare.com (undated, Red./Hrsg.), Can I take my character from the Baldur's Gate series? ( Memento of March 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) , 2008-0602-0344 (n.d.)
- ↑ Inon To the interview ( Memento from March 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Metacritic.com , PC Average Rating, accessed September 13, 2011
- ↑ Trent Oster: Getting into the Games Industry ( English ) In: Blog of the BG developer . March 23, 2010. Retrieved February 16, 2011.
- ^ Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences : Winner in the category "Computer RPG of the Year 2003" . Official website. Last accessed October 10, 2011.
- ↑ CGW editorial team: Best Game Expansion: Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal . (Article scan) In: Ziff Davis (Ed.): Computer Gaming World . No. 213, April 2002, p. 84.
- ↑ Trent Oster: Twitter message ( English ) In: Twitter account of the Beamdog founder . Twitter . March 15, 2012. Retrieved March 18, 2012: " Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition is going to have new content for the game you love, made by some of the original team members "
- ↑ Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition , official game homepage, accessed June 15, 2014
- Jump up ↑ Peter Bathge: Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition - Test: Worse, ancient RPG. In: PC Games . Retrieved June 15, 2014 .
- ↑ Maurice Weber: Baldur's Gate 2: Enhanced Edition in the test - improved, but dispensable. In: GameStar . Retrieved June 15, 2014 .
- ↑ Jon "Buck" Birnbaum: The Black Hound Interview ( English ) In: Gamebanshee . UGO Entertainment, Inc .. February 13, 2007. Archived from the original on April 14, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2011.
- ↑ Winterwind Productions: An Interview with Damien "Puuk" Foletto (English), February 2005. Last accessed on September 11, 2011.
- ↑ Elliott Chin: Interplay Announces Neverwinter Nights ( English ) In: GameSpot . CNET . August 6, 1999. Retrieved September 12, 2011.
- ↑ Larian announces Baldur's Gate 3 ( English ) Retrieved October 15, 2019.
- ↑ Baldur's Gate 3 Trailer ( en ) Accessed October 15, 2019.
