Baldur's Gate II - PC

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

Platform: PC, Year: 2000, Publisher: Black Isle Studios & Interplay Entertainment, Genre: CRPG

   This review will be given understanding that I picked up the game in 2013 and so it is a fresh take on the game unhindered by nostalgia. I always heard about Baldur's Gate when I was a teenager but I never got the chance to experience the game until much later (kinda like Diablo II). I have to admit that at first I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy the game as it seemed a bit dated and quite complicated (I still have no idea what 1D6 means or whatnot). But as I progressed and got accustomed to the how the interface and gameplay worked I found one of the most worthy of games to be called masterpiece I have ever played.

Gameplay: 7/10

   This aspect of Baldur's Gate II, as well as other Infinity engine games, will either be one of it's strongest points or one of it's lesser aspects. Once you get the hang of the system (It helps if you play D&D which I have not) it works quite well. The problem is the steep learning curve. The most important thing to know though is that 'Spacebar' pauses the game at any time for any length of time, including mid battle. This is very important to know so that you don't get yourself killed as quickly as the game requires quite a bit of strategy and planning. Nowadays I love the Infinity engine and even if I don't get the whole dice rolling mechanics behind it all, I don't have to understand it to love the game. Weapon stats and Armor Class are confusing but I learned that +1 is generally better than the average weapons and that each + level made the weapon that much better, up to +5. As far as Armor Class, the lower the number the better (I know, seems contradictory to logic).

   Another confusing and potentially overwhelming aspect was the extremely large amount of spells. You could read the spellbook for hours and still not read all of the spells available and what they do. With spells it is almost better to learn by trial and error and learn that some spells can kill party members while others can heal or boost them. The combat also felt clunky and dated at times. The difficulty level was also at times very high especially during boss fights if you aren't an expert at utilizing spells and equipment. As such, I was able to beat this game at normal difficulty on my first playthrough but I died at least 30 to 40 times to get there. SAVE OFTEN and save under different files. It is completely necessary in this game.

    Despite all of the criticisms for the gameplay aspect of this game, I really did enjoy it. I loved moving my party members around the immense world, encountering all sorts of creatures, and kicking butt or getting kicked in the butt. Yes the gameplay is showing its age but if you stick it through the learning curve it is very fun! You can't play this game without using your brain consistently.

Graphics: 10/10

   At first play, the game doesn't seem amazing as far as graphics. The character animations are quite dated (kinda like the original Age of Empires sprites) and there aren't any voice animations. Combat looks a bit off at times and the spell special effects are meh. But (a big BUT), where the game truly blew me away was with the artwork and finesse put into the environments and enemies. Few other games have been able to compete with the world immersion this game provides. You actually feel like you are fighting your way through a lair infested with beholders or lost in a labyrinth of devious riddles and traps. In this game I shivered as I took the last remaining light source, the only thing keeping hordes of shadow monsters at bay, I gasped after entering an Egyptian inspired tomb and setting off a trap releasing swarms of undead monstrosities in a mad dash for me and my party, and I sat back in wonder, many a time, when I discovered an intricate landmark or creation completely unique to anywhere else in the entire game. There is so much detail to everything in this game. Just walk in a noble house in Athkatla to find intricately designed furniture, tiles, columns, items, etc. There is very very little repetition in tiles and this game captures the sense of exploration and adventure possibly better than any other game. It is also quite possible the biggest game I have ever played that doesn't rely on random maps or cookie-cutter levels. AMAZING, simply amazing!

Sound: 10/10

   Amazing on all accounts. The voice acting is very well done, the enemies and environments sound surreal. The soundtrack is astounding and fits the mood of whatever is happening on the screen. Some characters can be annoying but that is in no fault to the voice acting. Even most all of the NPC's in the village are voice-acted.

Story: 10/10

   Absolutely PHENOMENAL! The story is so rich and detailed full of heart, action, plot-twists, and more. Is it Brandon Sanderson quality, not quite, but it is definitely better than most run of the mill fantasy books out there, perhaps better compared to R.A. Salvatore (who I love as well) as far as quality. The best part, is the back stories and interactions of all of your party members. The game gives you 16 completely unique NPC's to compose your party. Who you choose to recruit and keep will greatly affect what dialog (often voice-acted) and banter you receive. Your choices, whether for good, evil, neutral, lawful, or chaotic, will warrant comments from your party members and will make some of them leave. The game has more written script than entire novels and if you take the time to read them (which you will because you often have to respond to them) you will be amazed at how much a part of this world you will end up feeling. You can make a lover or an enemy out of some characters depending on how you respond so choose wisely.

   Another truly remarkable aspect of Baldur's Gate II is how there are literally hundreds and hundreds of quests but each one of them is so much fun and unique with talking NPC's and unique situations. Gone are the fetch this, protect them, and kill this quests. Instead, the majority of side quests will take you to completely new locations  with their own thought-out stories whether it is freeing the slaves from their captors to gaining admittance in the city sewers to the cult of the unseeing eye only to descent into the pit to fight the sacrificial victims, and their eyes (beholders). One side quest had me plunging into the gauntlet-esque lair of a fiery red dragon while another had me awakening the tombs of some seriously difficult Liches only to resurrect an even harder lich. Astounding!

Variety, Pacing, and Everything Else: 10/10

   This game takes the cake on this section! There is an incomprehensible amount of variety in this game, it never seems to cease to astound. There are hundreds and hundreds of different enemies, loot, environments, NPC's, textures, quests, witty lines, magic spells, you name it and you've got it. The pacing of the game is spectacular as well. If you want to experience it all, quest by quest, you do not have to worry about getting bored. As mentioned before, each quest is a completely new experience. Even if you never leave the massive city you start out in you will always find something new to do until you've spent over a hundred hours. I'm sorry I am gushing about this game but it truly is something special. There are even large branching paths for the main quest based on decisions. Do you kill the vampires and side with the thieves guild (by far the easier option astoundingly) or do you join the vampires and infiltrate the elaborate guild. So much to do, so much replay value, like Shining Force or Chrono Trigger, I will be playing this game until I die. I forgot to mention the different classes and specialties you can choose for your main character as well. That will surely warrant a few playthroughs alone.

Overall: 47/50 - 94% Phenomenal!

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Bonus Stuff:

Favorite Party: Keldorn, Jan/Imoen, Edwin, Anomen (although he really annoys me), Mazzy/Valygar. This is an endgame party but I tend to incorporate Minsc, Jaheira, Korgan, and Yoshimo for most of Chapter's 2 and 3 (the biggest chapters by far).

Favorite Characters: Jan Jansen by a long shot! Edwin is pretty great too, Minsc for the first playthrough is fun as well but he gets to be annoying after a few playthroughs.

Least Favorite Characters: Nalia (never take her, her personality bugs the crap out of me), Cernd and Haer'Dallis are both useless to me, and I'm just not a fan of Viconia.

Favorite Quests/Locales: Absolute favorite: Beneath Spellhold, Close runner ups: Temple Ruins, the Underdark, Planar Sphere, Cult of the Unseeing Eye.

Favorite Class as Main Character: Paladin (Undead Hunter and then Cavalier because I use Keldorn as the Inquisitor) I have tried most every other class but I feel like the Paladin is the most versatile as he isn't squishy and can back up as an emergency priest which is always helpful. Plus the Carsomyr makes the game much easier and is a sick weapon!

Shining Force - Megadrive/Genesis

Shining Force: Legacy of Great Intention

Platform: Sega MegaDrive/Genesis, Year: 1992, Publisher: SEGA, Genre: Turn-Based Strategy

   Many people laud the Fire Emblem series as the best Turn-Based Strategy Genre. I would have to respectfully disagree with that. While I enjoyed Fire Emblem (although the fact that there is no revive always scared me half to death in battle) for me it was Shining Force, 1 and 2, that really epitomize what I love about turn-based strategy games. This review is about the first one which is ultimately my favorite of the two I have played (although Shining Force II is stellar, by all means). For those that are inexperienced with how turn-based strategy games go I will explain it in the Gameplay section of this review. This game is astounding! It is challenging each time I play it but never completely unfair. There are so many different tactics you can employ to combat the forces of Runefaust that are invading the land of Rune and as such each playthrough (which have been more than I can count on my two hands) is unique. If there is a game series and in particular a game that I will probably still be playing when I am 80 it is this one. It is very addicting and intellectually stimulating. I will have to go into more detail here:

Gameplay: 10/10

   It is amazing how addictive this game can be. "Just one more battle" is a common thought that leads to sleepless nights. The premise of this game is leading your army of warriors, knights, archers, mages, priests, and a good variety of creatures (including a dragon) into battle against the enemies army of warriors, knights, mages, creatures, etc. in a way that the smaller army (usually you) can overtake the larger army (usually the computer). Your units have a set number of spaces they can move a turn and must maneuver the landscape which will alter their movement (e.g. forest is 1 less space of movement, and mountains are 2 less) in order to attack the enemy. Unlike Fire Emblem, Advance Tactics, and Civilization V, your characters do not take damage while they attack, rather the computer moves their units almost in a random order on a different turn. Perhaps it is the somewhat predictable but still unpredictable pattern in which both enemy units and your units are selected that enhances the experience. It forces you to be on the defensive mindset before you send out your squishy mage to devastate with an Area of Effect (AoE) spell when quite possible they could be pummeled to bits by the same golem they were barbecuing. Anyways, it works quite well as to keep you attentive. 

   Deciding when to promote your troops is an important decision you have to make. The user menu is universally friendly with pictures of what each choice will do and it is pretty easy to get in the hang of it. The game is quite challenging at the higher levels and has a significant learning curve but it never is impossible as long as you level up your army equally and strategically. Also, watch out for your main character (default named Max) because if he dies you have to start the battle over with less money. The only qualm I have with the gameplay is how tedious it is to move items around to different team members but, it is bearable, especially considering it came out in 1992.

Graphics: 8/10

   For 1992, the graphics are wonderful, especially the battle scenes. For today's standards I would say that they aren't anything to brag about. Everything about the battle scenes is amazing for it's time, from the character animations (your picture actually changes based on the weapon) to the backgrounds. The actual fighting map looks like, well, a map. There are a very limited amount of tiles on the outdoorsy type maps and that is where the game suffers the most, graphically. In the towns, castles, caves, ships, whatever, the game looks fairly good, but on your average outdoors map, it isn't that great. The characters on the map, do their function and are pleasing to look at (except for some promotional characters, i.e. Kokichi, Lowe, etc) but the graphics overall on the map simply serve a function to the awesome gameplay. Like I said, for 1992 it is good and the battle screens are nice so 8/10.

Sound: 5/10

I'll be completely honest, I don't love the sound. It is a MegaDrive game so with that in consideration they aren't abysmal. The music is great however the same tune is played for most of all the outdoor battles. I think there are only around 10 or so tracks so it does get repetitive. None of it bothers me now but then again I have grown accustomed to it. At least I'm not getting squeaked at by my PC like on DOS.

Story: 9/10

  Yes it's so cookie cutter, not too many surprises to be found here, but that's okay. Stories such as the Hobbit have become so cliche by now but it still warrants enough excitement to get 3 Peter Jackson movies. While the dialog gets cheesy at times, I really like this story. It makes more sense to me than the one in Shining Force II and seems like the battles fit it well instead of it being concocted just to have X amount of battles (like Shining Force II). While there is not a whole lot of party interaction you begin to feel for them and hate it when one of them is killed. The bosses are pretty epic and you get enough story to want to defeat them, for the most part.

Variety, Pacing and Everything Else: 10/10

   Here is where this game really shines above it's sequel. The pacing of this game is just so wonderful. It is always challenging and very rarely is it not exciting. The variety of enemies is great and the list gets pretty long by the end of the game. The variety of environments is strong at some points and not at others. The best variety however is how many recruitable crew members you can choose to form your army with (I think there is around 20 or so NPC's). This factor included with the decision of how to level each of those NPCs up is oine of the key reasons this game is so replayable. It is also fairly lengthy but it never feels like it is too long or overwhelming.

Overall: 42/50 84% Very Good 

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Bonus Stuff:

Favorite Party Members: Domingo, Bleu, Guntz (with Turbo Pepper), Lyle

Worst Party Members (EndGame): Jogurt (duh), Hans, Pelle (better if its earlier)

Favorite  Boss Fight: Marionette (Rindo Circus)

Most Overrated Characters: Adam (Why Bother?), Arthur (I leveled him up and thought it wasn't quite worth the time), Zylo (I just don't find him that great End Game, esp. indoors).

Most Underrated Characters: Gong (He's awesome after level 6 or so and with the power ring, who doesn't want a healer who can fight and not die), Vankar (He seems like he sucks but he was better than Mae at the end), Jogurt (haha, jk)

Favorite Battles: Rindo Circus, Pao Bridge, Mishaela Battle

Chrono Trigger - SNES

Chrono Trigger

Platform: SNES, Year: 1995, Publisher: Sqaure, Genre: RPG,

I figured that I should start out with a review of one of my, if not my most, favorite games of all time. Chrono Trigger. Don't be fooled by the misleading name, this game is not about jump-starting a watch or playing around on a timeline. Instead it is one of the most beautifully executed story-driven role-playing games of this century. You play as Crono (coincidental name, I think not) or whatever you name the silent-protagonist who joins with a party of memorable characters to rescue the world from eminent destruction by going backwards and forwards in time. It was a fusion of the artist of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama, with the creator of Square's Final Fantasy Hironobu Sakaguchi, as well as Yuji Horii, the designer and creator of the Dragon Quest Series. Let me just say this, the game does everything right. There are so many amazing aspects to the game that I will have to list them individually.

Gameplay: 10/10  While it isn't completely original, Chrono Trigger polishes the Final Fantasy-esque role-playing game formula into an extremely enjoyable experience. Unlike the Final Fantasy games of it's time, there are very few completely out of the blue battles. For the most part you can see the enemies on the screen and then you can choose to bump into them or try to sneak past them. While in the battle screen you simultaneously take turns with the enemies, employing simple attacks and elaborate techniques. The best part about the battle system is how many different combinations of techniques you can use with the other characters to choose from. For example, fire & Ice can make a devastating antipode attack or even electrocuting a tough caveman girl with lightning can cause her to be able to bite enemies with a high damage volt bite attack. It's amazing how they all can work off each other's attacks and definitely one of the highlights of the games. Since you have complete control through the majority of the game to choose who is in your 3 person party, it has a great replay value because you can choose one play through to strengthen one group of characters only to find that you were missing out on some amazing dual and triple techniques by not employing other members. And speaking of replay value, the game has 13 different endings depending on how you play. Some aren't very noteworthy but it is still cool that that option is available. The bosses are some of the best in history and will definitely challenge your mind as well as your fingers but at the same time won't feel cheap. They are completely beatable once you learn the strategy required.

Graphics: 10/10
  You know that these are going to be top-notch based on the artists involved and as such it goes without saying that this game is a visual feast. The pre-rendered environments traverse flawlessly and each time-era has a very distinct feel. It looks as though the video-game gods sat down and had a water-color party. For 1995 you can't get much better than this. The character animations are very well drawn as well and they convey an emotion that unparalleled in SNES games.

Sound: 10/10
   Maybe I am just a sucker for extraordinary soundtracks but this game scores high on all fronts as far as sound. Sure there is no voice acting (this is an SNES we are talking about guys) but the sounds are very appropriate to what is happening. As far as soundtrack, I will go so far as to say that this game has one of the most beautifully composed soundtracks I have ever heard. I even looked up for piano music to play it myself, it was that good. It is also so diverse. The music for the Middle Ages is very distinct from the dreary future or even the present. Simply, just go and check it out, now.

Story: 10/10
   Is it cliche, maybe, but it is still amazing! Few games can touch me on an emotional level as much as this one. The story may be simple at times but it is executed so perfectly you would think that you were watching a high-quality movie. The characters are so deep for a video game, especially Frog (original name, huh?) and Lucca. When you see the world being destroyed on the video-recording from the future you feel the same as the characters, you want to pound the snot out of Lavos just as much as the characters do at the end of the game. That is the result of an excellent script that, now that I think of it, isn't so cookie-cutter after all (for those that have played the game think Ocean Palace ending). Definitely worth experiencing even if you aren't a fan of RPG's.

Variety, Pacing, and Everything Else: 10/10
    This is the catch-all category that focuses on how I actually felt, enjoyment-wise during the game. Chrono Trigger hits all of the high marks. The variety is superb as each time-zone and "level" has unique enemies that are fitting to its locale. The pacing of the game is probably slightly slow at the beginning (first 10-20 minutes) but as soon as you are sucked into the time portal, the action and excitement doesn't let up until you finish the game. I never felt like I was stuck in one area for too long and the leveling up was frequent enough that it kept you playing for more until you could unlock that tempting dual technique. Overall the game is quite lengthy and you will definitely get your money's worth but it never feels like it drags on and it is just as fun the second time through as it was the first (believe me, I play it completely through at least 2-3 times a year which is saying a lot since I have a limited interest on games and often bounce back and forth on a daily/weekly basis).

Overall: 50/50 = 100%
  It's not hard to see why this is perhaps my most favorite game of all time. It simply has it all and puts many a video game to shame. If you like Final Fantasy, pick it up and never turn back to Final Fantasy again. If you don't like Final Fantasy, great, this one knocks those games out of the park. Pick it up now and see what I mean. Good job Square, you have created a masterpiece.
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Bonus Stuff:
Favorite Playable Character(s): All of them but Robo, Lucca, & Marle kick butt at the end
Favorite Boss Battles: Magus, Black Tyrano, Giga Gaia
Favorite Time Zone: Middle Ages
Favorite Music: To Far Away Times, The Trial, Magus' Theme, pretty much all of it.
The Point Where I Was Hooked: The Cathedral with the Hidden Door and Nuns (so pretty early)
Favorite Single Tech: Flare (It's Beautifully Destructive)
               Dual Tech: Antipode III (Way Too OverPowered); Volt Bite/Spire (Cool Looking)
               Triple Tech: Either Delta Storm or Delta Force (They just look cool)