Baldur’s Gate II review

Battle

The battle system is also brilliantly built, allowing you to make it as simple or complex as you wish. You can give the characters individual commands. For example, you can assign your wizard to launch Magic Missile. At the same time, you can send a berserker to destroy the goblins closest to you.

But if you’re more interested in story than combat mechanics, you can also set default actions, allowing your party to simply follow your move. This will be based on their default attacks as you ally yourself against the enemy of your choice.

You can also spend hours on side missions enjoying the jokes between your mates. It adds the necessary depth to a game that might otherwise be considered hack-and-slash.

Each of the characters on your team has their own backstory and a series of missions that you can voluntarily explore. The decisions you help them make on each of their missions can drastically alter their future.

Final verdict

It’s rare for a sequel to surpass its original, but Baldur’s Gate II has rightfully earned this distinction. While the first game was great, it was the first RPG made by BioWare.

BioWare has taken what they have learned and enhanced it here with everything from storyline to character development to battle interactions. It is recommended that you have both games in your library, but if you only get one, buy Baldur’s Gate II.