Getting started into Throne of Bhaal was very simple-I just imported my final save file from the end of BG2, and the expansion began right from where BG2 left off. Bioware has also provided other means of migrating your BG2 game to the expansion-you can import your main character from a exported BG2 player file, or generate a new character just for the expansion. Regardless of what you choose, you and any party members below 2.5 million experience will have their experience points adjusted to that amount in order to ‘bring them up to speed’ for the increased challenges the expansion promises. If you aren’t yet through with Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, then installing the expansion opens up a new area, Watchers Keep, for the player to explore in the free-roaming chapters (2,3,6). Expansion players will also have this new area opened up for them as well, although the rest of the Shadows of Amn areas are inaccessible in the expansion. Bioware has done a stellar job of the tricky task of making sure every player of Throne of Bhaal will be able to tackle the expansion in the way they see fit, and for that they are to be commended.

The core gameplay in Throne of Bhaal remains virtually unchanged from Shadows of Amn, but if there was ever a case where the cliche “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies, it would be to this expansion. I am not going to get into spoilers, but Throne of Bhaal doesn’t miss a beat from the epic storytelling, challenging combat, and addictive questing that propelled Shadows of Amn into the one of the ranks of the finest RPGs ever to grace the PC. Attention to detail, something often lost in the reduced budgets that normally accompany expansion packs, are in abundance in Throne of Bhaal. The same voice actors who so splendidly brought the Shadows of Amn characters are back, and the ratio of spoken lines to text-only are about the same as they were in Shadows of Amn.The overabundance of cool loot is just as strong as in Shadows of Amn, and even early on I have come across powerful items, weapons, and armor, including a mechanism (which I will avoid discussing in detail to prevent spoilage) to combine items to forge particularly powerful items. The few battles and dungeons I have encountered so far have been very much along the lines of Shadows of Amn as well-combat is somewhat sparse but always challenging and intelligent, and dungeon areas are smartly designed and reward the investigative and through player greatly.

Despite all of the above praise, these are first impressions, and many questions I have about the game remain unanswered. How well will the AD&D 2E rules, which the Infinity Engine is based on, stand up to level 30-40 characters, when not even the pen and paper version of the game handle those characters well? Will Watchers Keep, a large dungeon that makes up a significant portion of the expansion, progress smoothly or bog down in places like Durlag’s Tower in Tales of the Sword Coast. Does the skill system introduced to higher level characters break the game balance in later levels? These are all valid and serious questions, and I have no answer yet for them. What I do know is this-Throne of Bhaal is so far a well-produced, high quality expansion that fans of Shadows of Amn should strongly consider purchasing even with these issues unanswered. If the game is able to maintain the level of high quality-something that over the years we have come to expect from Bioware-that the first few hours have, then it is already on the fast track to an RPG of the Year nomination from this writer. Even taking into account heavyweight titles like Dungeon Siege, Arcanum and Bioware's own Neverwinter Nights being released this year, it really is just that good.