'Ware the Bio

Refinements galore

BioWare has been refining the titles I saw in my last visit. First off, BioWare showed its Baldur's Gate II expansion pack - Throne of Bhaal. Dubbed an expansion by BioWare and Interplay, it almost seems to be a game unto itself with 30-50 hours of gameplay and 80 new areas to explore.

Throne of Bhaal will conclude the Bhaal Saga, and is played in two parts. The first is the add-in part, which will be tacked onto the main Baldur's Gate II game with a new dungeon and a few new monsters and toys, including the Machine of Lum the Mad. From what we saw, this part seems to be pretty much complete and locked down.

Too.. many.. simultaneous effects.. eyes.. bursting.

How many eyeballs in this shot?

(spoiler alert) What we saw more of the add-on part, the part of the game that picks up after you finish Irenicus in BG2. You don't have to finish the main game to play the expansion, as you can import characters from any Baldur's Gate game (including Tales of the Sword Coast), who will be automatically beefed up with experience, items and abilities to match the add-on.

With an 8-million experience point cap, the add-on is perhaps the most power-oriented D&D CRPG since Dark Queen of Krynn. Characters can easily reach levels 30+ and gain special high-level abilities like 10th level mage spells or some crazy-powerful cleric quest spells. One of these was a 'Globe of Blades' or something to that effect, which worked a bit like Blade Barrier, except that it formed a rotating globe around the cleric, absolutely demolishing any weaker creatures that attempt to strike the caster. Fighters and thieves get very powerful new abilities as well, and your main character continues to gain the powers that come with being a Bhaal-spawn.

Still too many

Another battle

What's it about?

Since it ends the Bhaal saga, the expansion pack, fittingly enough, resolves the problem of who claims the throne. There are only 5 Bhaal-spawn left, one of them being a very powerful fire giant who has an army of his kin besieging the city of Saradesh.

To make the locale feel alive, the development team has gone to great lengths to give Saradesh the feel of a city under siege. Archers fight along the walls and get replaced as they fall to their enemies. Flaming catapult shots fly over the walls and strike at the citizens, while the citizens complain about hunger, even to the point of striking at refugees from outside the town, whom they see as competitors for the scarce food supplies.

Attack!

Smile!

Major spoiler!:Among the many new enemies you will face is Demogorgon - Prince of Demons. He's a perennial favorite supervillain since 1st Edition and is the most powerful of the demon princes. To give everyone an idea how powerful he is, BioWare threw up an encounter between him and a 30th level party. It lasted one, maybe two rounds. The party wasn't completely prepared for combat, but they were extensively equipped and would be hardly pressed to take on regular demons, even Balors.