The answer to that question is simple-make a expansion pack so brilliant and complete that fans will accept in the same way they would a full blown finale. Throne of Bhaal does just that- it is a nearly perfect conclusion to the Child of Bhaal saga, combining deft storytelling , an intelligent abilities system, and the trademark high quality fans of the series have come to expect into one superlative package.

Throne of Bhaal picks up immediately after the end of Shadows of Amn and puts the player-one of the offspring of the dead god Bhaal, Lord of Murder-in the midst of a rapidly unfolding dark prophecy. There is a war underway in the nation of Tethyr, and the combatants are your siblings, each determined to kill the other progeny of Bhaal and declare themselves the true heir to Bhaal´s throne. The player, like most fufillers of prophecy, must come face to face with others that would have them dead, and, in doing so, must also come to terms and accept the accursed heritage of their own blood. The game´s presentation of the story is top notch, both in direct and indirect ways-the story itself is presented with the prerequisite twists and surprises that we have come to associate the Baldur´s Gate series. The events that happen in the game also have their own meaning to the discerning roleplayer-as your character lays waste to the armies of their foes, killing innocent and guilty alike to reach a goal that must be attained, the player must eventually reconcile the price of those actions and determine for themselves how to go about in redeeming themselves. A more casual computer RPG gamer might not notice this subtlety, but a longtime Baldur´s Gate fan will certainly see its value and cherish it. The storyline is very tightly focused and linear, much like chapters four and five of Shadows of Amn, and will take an average player about 20 hours to see to completion (not including the time spent in Watcher´s Keep).

Any fan of the pen and paper version of Dungeons and Dragons-the source material for which the entirety of the Infinity Engine used in the Baldur´s Gate games are based on-will tell you that the game was never really designed for characters above the level of 20. By the end of Shadows of Amn most characters were at or very near that level, a point after which character development becomes quite dull and stagnant. Bioware has implemented an interesting solution to that problem in Throne of Bhaal by adding in special abilities for each class to choose from every time they gain a level above a certain level plateau. Fighters, for example, can learn devastating attack maneuvers which can drastically increase their effectiveness for short amounts of time, and mages can learn powerful new spells that are far beyond anything seen in Shadows of Amn. These new abilities serve a dual purpose-the first of which is to provide a more meaningful character progression at higher levels other than `gain 3 HP, THACO reduced by 1, 2 new spell slots'-something that seems quite puny considering your party are supposed to be some of the most powerful adventurers in Faerun. The other purpose is to make the character truly see what kind of power their characters wield-when their mage summons an angelic defender from the celestial planes, or your fighters clear out a room full of elder beholders in less than two rounds, it is hard not to see just how far you have come since your days as Gorion´s ward in Candlekeep. Some of the new abilities are fairly unbalanced, though-the Greater Whirlwind combat ability, when properly coordinated with other fighters in the party, can make some of the more difficult battles far too simple. The Smite ability is so powerful that even the toughest of encounters can see a very quick end with little to no effort at all. The balancing isn´t a major flaw, but the game would have been a bit better and lent itself more to more diverse strategy if all of the abilities were as useful as the fighter abilities were, which by the end of the game dominated combat strategies.

Bioware has also added a new player class in the expansion, the Wild Mage. Wild Mages harness powerful and unstable magical energies to cast their spells, and as a result their spellcasting can often incur unexpected side effects, ranging from the beneficial (and extra lightning bolt at the enemy) to quite negative (instant petrification) to the comical (sex change). Wild mages eventually can learn spells to help swing the chaos more to their favor. The new class is certainly not a `serious´ one like a monk or wizard, but it is fun and does a nice job at providing a character class so different that it might convince players to replay the entire game, as well as providing a very entertaining multiplayer character choice.

Part of any character development in Dungeons and Dragons is getting the best armor, equipment, spells and items available, and Throne of Bhaal adds a great deal to the already bursting menagerie of items in Shadows of Amn. In addition to the huge amount of `normal´ weapons and items that can be found in the expansion, your impish assistant, Cespenar, has special recipes for forging certain items strewn across the expansion into some of the most powerful weapons in the entire game. Finding new stuff for Cespenar was very entertaining, and the +5/+6 items my party received in return made the effort well worth it. The only complaint I had was that there seemed to be a bug in the inventory searching code Cespenar uses, as he kept prompting me to build a certain crossbow over and over using and item I did not have in my inventory at the time. I took the crossbow nonetheless, of course.

In addition to main storyline of the expansion, the game also adds the huge multilevel dungeon of Watcher´s Keep, which is accessible at any time during the expansion as well as being available to players of Shadows of Amn if they have the expansion installed. Brilliantly designed from top to bottom, Watcher´s Keep is one of the most captivating dungeons I´ve ever had the pleasure of raiding in my 13 years of playing computer RPGs. A great combination of challenging encounters and puzzles keeps the dungeon fresh right up to the very end, culminating with an encounter with one of the most nefarious creatures in existence on any plane. The trek through Watcher´s Keep should take a experienced BG2 player about 15-20 hours to complete, although having higher level expansion-only characters will help shave a few hours of saving and reloading during some of the tougher scraps.

One issue that most expansions of popular games have is keeping up the same level of technical quality that made its predecessor so captivating-expansion packs usually have much reduced budgets and far tighter schedules than the original game. Bioware seems to have found a way around this in Throne of Bhaal, however-the game is every bit as technically impressive as Shadows of Amn was, and, in select ways, even better. Graphically, Throne of Bhaal is on par with Shadows of Amn: the same careful attention to detail is present in all the areas of the game, from the besieged and broken Tethyrian city of Saradush to the dankest corners of the massive Watcher´s Keep dungeon, Throne of Bhaal consistently delivers an authentic Dungeons and Dragons feel.

Shadows Of Amn set itself aside in the sound department last year, with it´s fantastic voice acting and superb musical score. Throne of Bhaal continues in that tradition, and, in some regards, even exceeds it. All of the original voice actors were brought back to reprise their roles, and the new characters are also brought to life with the same quality as the more familiar faces. Spoken dialogue accompanying text is more of the norm, rather than the exception, so gamers not keen on `reading a book´ while playing should have no concerns about having to follow pages and pages of dialogue without having something to `anchor´ them to the game world itself. The added music score in the expansion is simply stunning, with compositions that really evoke the mood of the game perfectly. Bioware´s attention to graphic detail and flawless audio execution merge do a fantastic job of putting the player in a vivid gameworld worthy of ending the Child of Bhaal saga.

The Throne of Bhaal game CD has the text `The Final Chapter´ branded on it. Nowhere on it does it say `expansion pack´, and it is in this perspective that the game can truly be judged for what it is-a grand and fulfilling conclusion to the saga, and truly an expansion that fans of the series should purchase without hesitation.

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