Baldur's Gate Page 3 Combat Ok combat ... allow me to confuse you, it's real time, but still it's turn based. Confused yet ? Yes? Good, you should be :) Let me explain. It does not really work with turns, but you can only do so many things / 6 seconds (6 seconds being a "turn"). For the rest it's real time, you can play it like Diablo if you want, click on enemies and immediately you'll see your guy(s) walk towards the enemy and start slashing on them (but they'll slash only 1, 1 and a half, 2, etc times / 6 seconds, depending on your weapon speed, but that doesnt really bother you that much). Using this tactic though you'll die a quick and horribly death.... you should ... PAUSE the game. When you pause the game you can issue your orders and make your battle plan. After the orders have been given, you unpause the game and your guys start attacking/ casting spells /etc. As soon as something goes wrong or you change your mind, you pause the game again, issue your orders again, unpause the game and so on until the bad guys are dead. This all sounds boring and horrible, but trust me, it's not as bad as it sounds. It's cool :) Remember, you don't HAVE to pause the game, but if you don't, it's damn hard (read impossible). To summarize things: the combat system is very similar to the one used in X-Com Apocalypse Quests: "choose your destiny" You have 2 sorts of quests in the game, the main quest (find out who tried to kill you and why) and subquests (for example, help someone find her ring back). How many of these subquests you do is entirely up to you, you don't HAVE to do any, but they come in handy for earning money and getting your hands on all that other cool stuff. So basically, how long you will last with the game is in your hands, you can make the game as long or short as you like.   Enemies and other characters You have 2 kinds of computer characters really, the NPCs (Non Player Characters) and the Normal Enemies. With the NPCs there's a certain form of interaction, some will ask you to do a quest for them, others will want to join your party, etc. The normal enemies (for example a wolf) just plainly want you dead (told you, nobody likes you :)). Artificial Intelligence The artificial intelligence is not superb, but not bad either.There is one weird thing though, you have the option of choosing how many times / sec the AI updates, the standard is 30 and you can set it up to 60, and that makes the game harder (so you don't wanna do that :)). I do think that the AI for pathfinding could have been better though, I've had several moments when I cursed in the middle of battle when I ordered my player to go somewhere and then, with a great deal of agony, saw him walk there taking the longest route possible, it's irritating but not really a disaster since you can pause the game and give him the order again, and normally everything should go fine then. Mommy look, I'm the king of the world! Like I stated earlier, the story is placed in the world of Dungeons & Dragons; The Forgotten Realms. The places you get to visit range from fortresses, towns, mines, dungeons, mountains, forests, etc. A quite varied bunch I'd say :) The levels (better described as playing area's in this game I think, you can go wherever you want, and you can return to places you've already visited) are really fitting for the game, and very interactive. You really get the feeling that the world you're playing in, is "alive", which is ofcourse, groovy. Next Page Up Previous Page If you want to review your favorite game, or if you work with a computer game company and want your products reviewing, mail info@playdevil.com. All contributions are welcome. Any problems and/or suggestions are always appreciated on webmaster@playdevil.com Nothing of this entire Site, animation & logo's included, may be reproduced, stored, saved, transmitted, in any form or means, electronic, written or otherwise without the prior permission of PlayDevil. Other Logos & Names are Copyrighted Material of its respectful owners. All Rights Reserved. PlayDevil Productions © 199/8-199/9 "rip your own stuff"