1.
Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn (PC: 2000)
And here it is. Number one. Numero uno. The best of the best. The favorite of the favorite.
Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn has held the status for years with me for many various reasons, all of which I will expound upon in excruciating detail. I'll try to keep this as entertaining as possible.
First off,
Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is the sequel to the first
Baldur's Gate game, which was my first foray into the world of Dungeons and Dragons. The first game... well, let's just say that I really like the first game, but it's really not perfect. It's kind of a diamond in the rough. Actually, not really a diamond even, more like a quartzite really at times. Still, I loved it enough that it made it's way onto my list... Ahh, number 11. Remember that? I was so young, so full of idealism then. Now? Just piss and hate... and cheetoes.
Now,
Baldur's Gate 2 takes near everything wrong with the first game, improves upon it, then it takes everything good about the first game and improves upon that too. And then it does even more. The side-quests are all epic by themselves and there are a ton of them. Each one is expansive, with different approaches available. These are not the simple and straightforward "Go fetch my Slippers of Warmth +5" style quests that made up a majority of the first game.
The combat is much improved. Now there is a lot more strategic depth to the combat, especially when fighting against mages as you have to use your own spells to strip away the layers of protections before you can eventually take the mages out. Even without mages, the combat can be especially brutal as you get to take on some truly classic D&D monsters that were ignored in the first game. Mind flayers, demons, elementals, drow, golems, beholders, giants, and even a few screen-filling dragons will thwart your loot and experience-filled dreams. Using your spells and abilities and items to their fullest potential will be required to best many of these threats.
Like the first, BG2 is an isometric RPG. It plays out in real-time, however you can pause the action to queue up orders to your party so it proceeds as fast or as slow as you wish. You pick your race, class, gender, and your outlook on life (alignment - from hippy, goody two-shoes all the way to baby-punching, puppy-kicking, evil douchebag). There're a lot more races and classes to pick from than in BG1 (many of which I have not tried and will, undoubtedly never, ever try...). You can have a party of up to six adventurers, your main character plus five other characters that you can recruit along the way, each with their own quests, personalities, and back stories to further enhance your experience. There are fewer characters in BG2 than in BG1, but there is much more depth to them this time around. You'll come to like and prefer certain characters over others and all of them have their own niches and uses in the game.
The story of BG2 is easy to follow, even if you haven't played the first. The game drops enough hints and references to keep even the noobiest noob up to date. At the beginning of BG2, you get nabbed by some mysterious figures, sealed away in a dungeon, and experimented upon by some evil mage. During the experiments, some other group attacks the mage and you manage to free yourself. Once you escape from his dungeon, the game opens up in true Bioware fashion and you are given a relatively straightforward goal and multiple means to achieve it. Really, once you get topside, there is so much stuff to do. Quests involving slaver cartels, thief guilds, mysterious cults, castles under siege all literally jump right into your lap. Some of the quests sit out in the open, just waiting for you to nab them and others are more hidden and you will need to search around to find them. From there, the game will take you on an epic journey from the grimy streets of Athkatla (think typical high-fantasy medieval city) to blood-soaked vampire dens, demi-plane prisons, ancient elven cities, the depths of the Underdark, and even to the very demon-infested heart of the Abyss as well.
Most of the dialogue is presented as text, however, the little voice acting that is in the game is excellent. British B-Lister (C-Lister?) David Warner (of Time Bandits, Star Trek V and VI and numerous other films) voices the main villain and he is awesome. He is the true standout here as he takes what few lines he has and makes them shine. Only Tony Jay, who played the 'villain' in Planescape: Torment, has managed to deliver a better performance than Warner.
Special mention must be made of the games graphics. BG2 uses the Infinity Engine which, in its heyday, was goddamn beautiful. It utilized hand drawn 2D backgrounds but BG2 spruces them up with some 3D effects to jazz up the spells, backgrounds, and character models and almost everything looked like a work of art. There is a reason that
Project Eternity is using the same approach of overlaying 2D artwork over 3D backgrounds.
So that's it. My favorite game ever. I love it because there is so much to do in the game, so many quests, so many different approaches to take (some of which I still haven't done), the combat is a lot of fun, the story is great, the graphics hold up incredibly well despite the game being almost fifteen years old, and it's got that nostalgia factor going for it too. Will some other game ever come along to dethrone this? I don't know, but considering my gradually lessening gameplaying time, I seriously doubt it. I'll likely still pull this one out every so often when I want to 'relive' the classic, but I don't know if I'll ever have the time or will to put another game through the same ringer. This game might be here in the number one spot for the foreseeable future, but you know what? I can live with that.
Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn comes with the highest recommendations I can offer. Anyone and everyone should play this game but especially those for whom a d20 is an intense aphrodisiac, David Warner fanboys, and any who find the 2e Monstrous Manual to be their preferred bathroom reading material.
Special Mention should go out to
Throne of Bhaal, the expansion pack for the game. Unlike with
StarCraft and
Broodwar, which I usually bundle together as one, singular whole,
Throne of Bhaal and
Baldur's Gate 2 I tend to hold separate. This is mainly because the 'story' of Baldur's Gate 2 is finished by the end of the game and
Throne of Bhaal starts up a new storyline. I think
Throne of Bhaal is an essential part of the Baldur's Gate series, anyone who is a fan of the first two should definitely play
Throne of Bhaal as it finishes off the overarching storyline of the series and it's pretty damn epic as well. However, it is not perfect. It is significantly more difficult than BG2 and BG2 is not an easy game. Every fight becomes a drawn out, life-or-death struggle where victory is grasped by the barest of threads. That does lead to some truly epic encounters but it can be a bit tiring after a while and it means the more epic battles stand out less.
Also, by the end of BG2 your characters become so absurdly powerful that if defies belief that once
Throne of Bhaal starts up, you continually encounter other creatures, organizations, and individuals on the same power level as yourself. It makes your accomplishments in the previous game seem so... hollow and meager by comparison.
So, in conclusion, I think
Throne of Bhaal is a very good finale for the series and a good game in its own right, but BG2 is better on it's own, in my opinion at least.
So that's it. That's my favorite 25 games. It was an interesting trip down memory lane and pretty much every one of these entries that, when I was writing them out, made me want to go back and replay the game. I actually started up quite a few and played for a couple of days after writing out their respective entries. Bioshock, The Legend of Zelda, Doom (well Brutal Doom actually), Deus Ex, X-Com, Super Mario World, UT, and Skyrim all saw a not insignificant amount of play time. As for BG2? Well, I'm pretty much always in the process of replaying that game.
Hope you all enjoyed my longwinded ramblings. If any of you happen to pick up any of these games and enjoy them because of this list, then I've done my job.