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Baldur's Gate 2 Expansion: Throne of Bhaal

Baldur's Gate 2 Expansion: Throne of Bhaal

List Price: $19.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply amazing...
Review: The combined talents of Bioware and Black Isle Studios have done it again. The Throne of Bhaal expansion (which hardly feels like an expansion) brings many more entertaining hours of BG gameplay to the already spectacular product of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. If you are considering of buying the Throne of Bhaal expansion, you probably already enjoy Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn immensely. And if that is the case, I highly recommend this product for any BG fan. There are three whole new chapters added to the game's story to bring a wondrous conclusion the Bhaalspawn saga, as well as a large dungeon known as Watcher's Keep that can be accessed at any time. I found every new area with all the high-level foes very challenging. The voices, sound and music were top-notch. The graphics aren't very different from what you have seen in the original BGII, but they still strike me as being richly detailed and beautiful to behold. I did not find this expansion short one bit. (It is an expansion after all, not an entirely new game) The price for this product was very fair considering all the many hours I spent returning to the Sword Coast and battling enemies with god-like power. And as you finish the expansion and watch as the Bhaalspawn Saga comes to a close, you reflect back on the simple beginnings in Candlekeep and all the journeys and adventures that took you to this point. If you've been a fan of the Baldur's Gate games from the beginning, it'll be a sad but satisfying experience to see it end.

My hats off you to hardworking folks at Bioware and Black Isle Studios... There are few games out there that I love as much as this series. Lets hope you guys continue to release quality products that raise the expectations of RPGs for years to come.

"Wherever evil treads, Minsc treads louder!!"

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: This should have been a whole new game!
Review: I love BSG II. And when I got this, it was such a let down. It has cool battle's and a decent plot but I think BlackIsle could have put a little more effort into this and make this a new game (aka BSG III). I give this two stars because it does have potential. But overall, a big disapointment.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent! (4 1/2 stars)
Review: This expansion is a great conclusion to an excellent computer game. Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal gets right everything that was good about the first 2 games. The character development and party dynamic are still the best in any computer RPG that I have played. The story centers around discovering your destiny as the offspring of an evil god. You and your band of adventurers will go through towns, forests, mountains, dungeons, and even another plane of existence. There are many new spells, magic items, weapons, armor, and monsters, and the pocket plane idea is a really nice touch. The isometric view and graphics are still pleasant to view, and the dramatic music is among the best in any game I've played. The story is well told and measures up to the high standards set in the first 2 games. Actually, the suspense in this expansion really draws you in, sort of like the final chapter in part 1. I docked the game a half star for two reasons: one of the levels of Watcher's Keep had a maze and a couple of puzzles that were too frustrating to be fun. Also, when I kill something/somebody I want it to be dead, not to come back again and again (a problem that I had with Shadows of Amn). There were no real bugs that I noticed, besides a few spelling errors, one frozen cut-scene, and a few cases in which spell casters simply would not cast spells at key times during combat. This last problem was especially frustrating since magic use is so central to winning fights in this expansion. Otherwise, this is a grand conclusion to one of my favorite computer game series. Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well worth the money and time.
Review: Buying a video game is like watching a movie, its not so much the cost of the game but whether it will be worth playing once you get it. This game is definitely worth the time and money. I spend most of my gaming hours playing everquest but Warcraft the Baldur's gate series are the only other PC games I play these days on a regular basis.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The End never looked so good
Review: This is a great expansion to one of the best RPGs of all time. I loved this game. I only have one major gripe about it that made me give it 4 stars. When I played BG2:SoA, after i would complete a sidequest and try to talk to the person i completed it for so that i could get the XP, it said he appears busy!! So then i would wait numerous days (completing other side quests in the process) to get the XP i should have gotten way earlier. But other than that it was one of the best expansions to a game ever.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A little disappointed
Review: I loved BGII so much I played through it multiple times with different characters and trying to complete all of the romance subquests. When I finally got the expansion, I was disappointed to find the entire thing was one long, tedious, drawn out battle and you no longer had the freedom of wandering wherever you wanted. Also, the NPC interaction and subplots and the romances were the most interesting part of BGII and were for the most part absent from the expansion. As much as I loved BGII, this left me disappointed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Must-have for Baldur's Gate II players only
Review: This is an expansion and should be considered like one. It does not improve upon the original Baldur's Gate II so much that I would buy BGII just to play this expansion (the way I would buy Starcraft just to play its expansion, Brood Wars).

For those who already own BGII, however, this is an investment more than worth the money. The new areas (especially the now-infamous Watcher's Keep) are fairly challenging, the new spells, skills, and items are almost mind-boggling in their sheer ...-kicking power, and there's a brand new (if not terribly original) storyline to boot. You'll definitely want this expansion if you wanted to play the Bhaalspawn saga to its bloody end.

As an added bonus, Throne of Bhaal allows players to use the 'Tab' key to highlight items on the ground, chests, doors, etc. While this may not sound like much of an improvement, now that I have it I can't imagine playing BGII without it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Well....
Review: One thing that gets me is that whenever I get around a Black Isle product, I have to buy it. I have definately not been disappointed. This expansion kit is definately worth it, but if you go too attached to character and NPC conversations, you'll be disappointed here. The graphics and story line continue to be first rate, but it seems as though BI went back to the BGI format as far as interaction and NPC freewill in BGII:ToB. There also seemed to be a problem with continuing the game from BGII:SoA into ToB. There was a big problem continuing with the party at the first of the game, and some of the graphics tend to slow the game if your processor isn't top-notch. It seemed as though BI rushed this a little. The expansion pack is a worthwhile buy as long as you are interested in more adventure and level gains and didn't get too attached to character interactions and conversations from SoA. B+

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This Could Have Been more
Review: Don't get me wrong, I think the expansion packet is great; But this had the makings to be another chapter in the baulder's gate saga. I love the Watcher's Keep saga and the story line over all. I wished Bioware could have spent a little more time on developing this into a whole new game, it just seems like they tried to get out so they can end this and go on to something else. The game itself is fun, what I like is that you can upgrade your weapons like the holy avenger which kicks butt into something even more powerful. I also like the quivers and bags of unlimited ammo; keeping tack of all that is a pain.
What I don't like is the spell "Time Stop". It's used too much and your characters get killed before they get a chance to [...] in their pants. Like that Draconis (now that guy is a [...]). You can whack at him all day and he still WON'T die! Because he'll cast time stop and heal himself and then kill your characters. If they choose to return to this saga, please limit the ammount of times Time Stop can be cast by the enemy.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I thought Icewind Dale was the Dungeon Crawl
Review: Ok, most of my gripes about this game come from me being a D&D player. First of all, the max levels you can get in D&D is 30, not 40, and if you're level 40 pretty much the only thing that can hurt you is a god. There were probably a couple hundred mortals in this who could beat you down. Where the heck did they come from? It seems like they gathered every mortal in the .0000005% of the population over level 10 and put them in one region!

Now, a non-D&D gripe, the first 2 BG games were good because they offered a few multiple ways of solving quests. In ToB all there was was dungeon crawling and fighting. They turned the BG series into an action game! Its supposed to be an RPG!! Anyway, if you like hours of fighting unrealistic enemies go for it. If not, pass. Its still fun, just not even close to the first 2.

Lets put it this way. All bhaalspawn have cool powers, its just that yours is to gain 60,000 experience for picking up a rock.


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