Baldur's Gate 2 Part II

More Gameplay Improvements

You might be asking yourself how all these improvements will affect game balance. After all, if BG2 is supposed to be easy enough for a casual player, how will the end boss stack up to someone decked out in all the best shiznit to be found? BioWare assured us that not only will there be several ways to finish the game, but the ending will have its difficulty dynamically adjusted to reflect your character's status.

Magic attack

More action

The balance among the classes will also be improved upon. In the first game, druids seemed especially weak, since they are a class that only comes into its own in the later levels, which is precisely what the sequel deals with. Druids are the only class able to summon greater elementals, and gain control without a battle of wills. Their direct offensive spells have also been improved. Of course, these powers are offset by their slower advancement through the later levels.

There are 130 or so brand-new spells to play with, among them the much-vaunted Limited Wish spell. Remember how you always neglected that wisdom score for your non-priest or druid characters? Well, those dumb characters will encounter a problem if they try to wish, since wisdom affects their ability to properly word their wish and not have the summoned genie backfire the request. Summons will also include familiars, which are permanent wizard companions with interesting uses.

Impressive

More effects

Keeps Getting Better

The multiplayer aspect is getting some serious, much-needed improvements. The biggest one is the elimination of the entire group pause the moment anyone in the party starts a conversation with an NPC or buys an item from a store. Now all characters can continue on their merry way while a comrade is selling and buying.

The other improvement in multiplayer is the deathmatch mode which lets people take their characters and have them go at it. Teams, FFA and 1 on 1 are the options of play. Of course, balancing here is not and will not be perfect. Some classes, like clerics and druids, are very party-reliant. Others, like kensai, are excellent in duelling situations but might not be able to take on multiple critters as well as a regular fighter, even though they will beat that fighter in a straight-out fight.

On a ship

Another welcome improvement is the increase in character speed to 1.5X that of the original game. There is no "run" mode simply because no one ever uses a walk mode when available.