Another oldie but goody, BG2 is the sequel to BG and its expansion (if you played it). If you play through BG2 Shadows of Amn and BG 2’s expansion Throne of Bhaal your party will reach super high levels 20-30+ with some special cool new powers in the expansion. I found BG2:SOA very fun to play. It had a good plot, good development with tons and tons of quests in the beginning of the game and less areas to explore compared to BG. You also could do neat things like obtain your own base (which one depended on your class) and many BG NPCs made appearances (dead or alive, sometimes alive then dead real quick). The battles in BG2:SOA were fun and you really were able to cast a nice variety of spells and found many cool new weapons. The areas to explore were also interesting and you could even join the good or evil side in the beginning of the game depending on how you played your party.
I loaded BG2:TOB with BG2 so I received the nice additions including holding TAB to see all items on the ground. The expansion also began immediately after I finished BG2:SOA. Another thing loading the expansion adds is the area Watcher’s Keep to BG2:SOA. I think this is best left for after you begin the expansion as it is very tough. I thought, though, that Watcher’s Keep was the best part of TOB. The rest of the expansion, especially from the middle to the end feels like one huge boss battle after another. You have to go through 5 serious boss battles in TOB but the first and fourth are a lot less difficult than the other 3. These 3 tough battles were very long as well taking 15-20 minutes in some cases because of how many enemies you had to fight through. Another cool addition in the expansion is the ability to combine more pieces and weapons into super weapons. You could do a few of these in BG2:SOA, but your demon helper in your pocket plane in TOB can do a great many combinations. Many of these weapons are quite useful to your party as well. In short, if you played BG and enjoyed it, you will like BG2 even more (it even has a real expansion compared to BG).
Finally I want to give a big shout out to Dan Simpson for writing such a great walkthrough for BG2. I usually refer to Gamespot guides for many games (although I think they make less now than they used to), but the one for BG2:SOA was a joke. I quit using it in the beginning of SOA when you reach the town because the guide didn’t cover probably 90% of the quests available. Sure these quests weren’t required, but how do you expect to get all of the powerful items and experience for your party if you don’t pursue these quests? Anyway, Mr. Simpson’s guide was great and very helpful. I also picked up his guide for IceWind Dale (I figured I’d keep playing these infinity engine games all together). Look for Mr. Simpson’s BG2 FAQ and other FAQs on Gamefaqs.com under DSimpson.