 Overview
The prophecy of Alaundo is close at hand. The children of Bhaal, Lord of
Murder, are battling through the Sword Coast in order to achieve supremacy
and as Bhaalspawn yourself, you are caught up in the middle of it all. So
gather together some trusted friends and try to find out what your part in
the prophecy is. Will you be the heir to the Blood Throne or another
sacrifice to your murderous father? Find out in Throne of Bhaal.
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal is the last installment of the
Baldur's Gate "trilogy" and the culmination of all the Baldur's
Gate incarnations to date. Interplay and Black Isle Studios, the developers,
have raised the bar on this already excellent game by adding a well-planned
and well-executed expansion pack. While I don't necessarily agree with this
game being billed as the third part of a trilogy (let's face it: it's one
CD-ROM worth of material compared to four CDs for Shadows of Amn and
several CDs for the original Baldur's Gate), it is in effect an
excellent closing chapter to the series.
Gameplay, Controls, Interface
The interface, controls and gameplay are all nearly identical to Baldur's
Gate II, which leaves little to no learning curve for players already
familiar with the controls. The main additions to the game are a new class
(Wild Mage -- interesting but not inspired), the add-on dungeon (Watcher's
Keep -- excellent) and the completion of the Baldur's Gate saga. In
addition, the experience point cap has been bumped from 2,950,000 XP to
8,000,000 XP, which raises the bar for leveling much higher. Characters can
now achieve levels as high as 40, a worthy goal indeed.
Multiplayer Support
My experience with multiplayer was not satisfactory, but my computer and
56k Internet connection are mostly at fault. Multiplayer games are available
through LAN play, and also through the GameSpy Arcade program that comes
bundled with the Throne of Bhaal software. It was easy to find Shadows
of Amn games, but finding specific Throne of Bhaal games was a
little more difficult. I was also unable to connect to any games because of
latency problems, but I blame this more on a bad modem and even worse phone
lines. However, Throne of Bhaal seems to be very popular on the
GameSpy Arcade network, with over 100 users on both times I attempted to
play. Those of you with high-speed access can expect a rich and exciting
multiplayer experience.
Graphics
There's lots and lots of eye candy -- from the meaningfully rendered
locales right down to the armor detailing and character color schemes, the
developers seemed to spare no expense. The game supports 3D effects, but
like Age of Empires II and other
isometric-view games it isn't
truly necessary. Still, it does look nice and is just as exceptional as the Shadows
of Amn original.
 Audio
Ah, the sounds! Baldur's Gate II was exceptional in its use of
background music, and Throne of Bhaal raises the bar another notch.
The music, while stirring and evocative, is not overwhelming and adds a new
level of color to the gaming experience. I can honestly say I did not get
tired of listening to it, mainly because it was easy to let it wash over me
as the game played out. Voice characterizations are excellent, and while
some characters wear a bit on the nerves, the experience is more than
satisfactory. Spellcasting and battle noise is also very good, but not the
best part of the audio, although I do admit I love watching those healing
spells kick in… On another note, Throne of Bhaal supports several
modes of surround sound; while my system does not have the full capability
of surround-sound playback, I thought it was worth mentioning. Directional
sound support would make the experience even better.
System Requirements
Required: Baldur's Gate II, Windows 95/98 with DirectX 7.0
or higher, PII-233, 32 MB RAM, 800 MB hard drive space for installation (1.2
GB for Throne of Bhaal), 4X CD-ROM drive, 4 MB DirectX certified
video card, 100% Microsoft compatible keyboard, mouse
Recommended: PII-266 or faster, 64 MB RAM, 8X CD-ROM drive
Documentation
Documentation, while not as extensive as the 250+ page behemoth Shadows
of Amn ships with, still weighs in at a respectable 40 or so pages. Some
of this is unnecessary filler, with several pages devoted to spell tables,
level requirements and other tidbits which are readily available in-game.
However, there are some nuggets of usefulness including information on the
new class and spell and skill types available. More importantly, like its
predecessor, Throne of Bhaal includes a handy Quick Reference card.
It is not as complete as the card included with Shadows of Amn, so
keep both cards available for reference.
Cool Features
Throne of Bhaal claims to be the last episode of the Baldur's Gate
series, but the investment in your character's development will not
necessarily go unrewarded. Characters can continue to develop in the
"add-on" Watcher's Keep dungeon as well, and with characters now
able to achieve up to 40th level the game offers much in replay value,
especially in multiplayer games.
Patches/Updates
Throne of Bhaal has a couple of patches that have been released,
most of which deal with Windows 2000/ME issues. The latest patches are
available for download on Black Isle Studios' web site at http://www.blackisle.com/.
 Bottom Line
Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal is a fitting completion to the
Baldur's Gate "trilogy," but was slightly disappointing to this
reviewer due to the shorter amount of playing time available for the main
game itself (around 25-30 hours). Perhaps this should just be billed as the
completion of the Baldur's Gate series rather than as an expansion pack.
Still, none of this truly detracts from Throne of Bhaal, which is
well designed, excellently scripted and plays out almost exactly like a
pen-and-paper version of AD&D. If nothing else, the new add-on dungeon
will keep you coming back for more. High marks go to the Black Isle team and
Interplay, who have shipped yet another quality product. I give Throne of
Bhaal a score of 92 for the end of an excellent series.
Review Posted On 17 July 2001.
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