Baldur's Gate 2 - Retrospective Review

[HiddenX]

MrEdders123 looks back at Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn:

Baldur's Gate II: A Retrospective Review

A retrospective review of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, developed by Bioware Corporation and published in September 2000 by Black Isle Studios. Examines the context in which the game was developed, how it compares to the original, some of the mods available, and also differing perspectives on its place in the history of computer roleplaying games. Feel free to take breaks between chapters or just skip around using the timestamps if you're only interested in a specific topic. Sorry for the stuffy audio at times - I'm definitely considering changing mic. Anyway, hope everyone enjoys it! Next video will be 1998's Descent to Undermountain.

More information.

 

[Moorkh]

Love that game to bits, and yet - 5h seems a tad long to watch, no?

 

[Redglyph]

OMG. Indeed, that's a lot.

00:00 Opening 01:18 Chapter 1 - Introduction and Overview 09:40 Chapter 2 - Behind the Scenes 10:07 2.1 - Making Baldur's Gate II 32:05 2.2 - Pre-Release Response 37:43 2.3 - The Throne of Bhaal Question 50:48 Chapter 3 - Gameplay 51:07 3.1 - Gameplay Basics and Overview 1:13:00 3.2 - On Combat and General Gameplay 1:45:26 3.3 - On Pacing and Exploration 2:00:21 3.4 - On Quest Design, Interactivity, and Throne of Bhaal 2:11:40 3.5 - Final Thoughts on Gameplay 2:16:17 Chapter 4 - Art and Sound 2:16:36 4.1 - Graphics and Art Direction 2:30:04 4.2 - Voice Acting, Sound Design and Music 2:40:24 4.3 - Playing BG2 Today, Alternate Versions

2:48:58 Chapter 5 - Story and Roleplaying 2:49:17 5.1 - Background Lore and Story Overview (Minor Spoilers) 3:03:45 5.2 - On Story and Setting (Mild Spoilers) 3:29:15 5.3 - On Roleplaying and Alignment (Mild Spoilers) 3:37:43 5.4 - On Companions and Continuity (Minor Spoilers) 3:52:12 5.5 - On Romance and Final Thoughts (Minor Spoilers) 4:03:00 Chapter 6 - Mods and User Content 4:03:18 6.1 - Mods and Modding Overview 4:20:25 6.2 - Classic Adventures 4:29:40 Final Thoughts 4:39:22 Acknowledgements

(I've always wanted to test this table format A bit crowded in there...)

 

[Couchpotato]

Thank you. Your table saves many viewers time.

I see the uploader also included timestamps nice.

 

[Redglyph]

Thank you. Your table saves many viewers time.

I'm afraid it may scare them off tho

But it shows that it's possible to just watch a part, since the author covers a lot of different concepts. Nicely structured video.

 

[Ripper]

The timestamps make this sort of thing much more approachable. The other thing I've realised is that most of these are more like podcasts - the video is just to give you something to look at. I'd never sit and watch 5 hours of this, but if you put them on in the background like the radio, while doing other things, you can pick up on the interesting bits.