People might wonder, “Why did it take you so long to beat a game that’s over 10 years old?” My reply is that I just have been distracted and never really put the time and commitment into going through the entire game. I’ve defeated Shadows of Amn a few times but for some reason Throne of Bhaal didn’t feel as compelling. However, I felt this time I just needed to pull through to the end.
For me, the difference between Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal is mostly in the storytelling and characters. Throne of Bhaal is something you can blaze through in a day or two. Shadows of Amn feels more epic overall with more character interactions and very non-linear game play. By the time you reach Throne of Bhaal, your characters will probably have accumulated quite a bit of items and levels, making the end game nearly trivial by comparison. In Shadows of Amn in contrast, you feel far more powerless and probably won’t have the high level spells that give you an edge in certain fights nor the items. This struggle in leveling up makes you want to play through the game a little more cautiously and carefully plot out a route.
Also, Shadows of Amn just is far larger than Throne of Bhaal. Some of the zones in Throne of Bhaal were just large rooms where your only task is to kill the boss. There’s not as much exploration which feels disappointing. Also, once you get out of the little starting town, there’s no way to really return. Sure, there probably isn’t much of a reason neither but it’s one of those things where you feel you’re being funneled through a very tiny tunnel to the other side. As a result, the experience does not feel as rich by comparison.
Going back to the story telling, Shadows of Amn is just leagues better than Throne of Bhaal. Right off the start, you can guess that the antagonist is the stinker woman who evades you like the plague in key moments. Her self righteous attitude is far too self righteous, raising red flags instantly. Compare that to Irenicus who is an extremely complex character for an CRPG. Irenicus’ diction and elocution cannot compare to the more one dimensional Melissan. For instance, when you encounter his journals and speak with the elven queen, you learn a lot about his history, making you realize that he’s a tragic figure, almost a Byronic anti-hero in many ways.
Lastly, the darker, grim and cynical environment of Shadows of Amn really pushed the envelope as far as AD&D storytelling and role playing go. Even for good aligned parties, you would be constantly faced with ethical decisions in the game such as working with the drow, dealing with thieves even cooperating with the githyanki. Then you also dealt with managing NPCs, sometimes going as far as having a romance. While the events were heavily scripted, the storytelling is what often wins fans over with this game.
Throne of Bhaal felt more like an ego boosting fight rather than a meaningful fight. The encounters were mostly just high level, overpowered fights. But for the most part, you could zerg them. In some ways, Throne of Bhaal felt empty not because of the way the fights were handled but the shortness and spurts that went into them. More importantly, the reasons for the fights were severely lacking. The only reason why you killed the Bhaalspawn was because they were plotting to kill you. Shadows of Amn gave you good motivation in acting against the various villains. For instance, the Matron Mother Drow intended to summon a demon but stole the Silver Dragon’s eggs while hurting her daughter, who became an ambitious power seeking turncoat. The entire episode with the drow provided an ample environment of how they operated, which when you compare to Throne of Bhaal’s drow encounter, was nothing more than a few high powered encounters with beings that had cool equipment.
I think another major problem with Throne of Bhaal is that you really don’t see much of a character progression at the upper levels. Eventually, you’ll be faced with an experience cap. But high level characters in that edition of AD&D received little abilities outside of the 1-2 higher powered ones. The only one I really cared about in the end was the thief’s “Use Any Item” ability. Beyond that, each level no longer felt as meaningful, which is more of an issue with AD&D’s rule set (for that edition). In Shadows of Amn, each level had an impact and you would look forward to gaining any amount of XP to reach the next one. Instead, Throne of Bhaal felt in some ways like World of Warcraft, where you ended up having more of a gear progression.
One aspect of the game that’s both good and bad is that once the game finishes, there’s really nothing else to do except replay it with either a different difficulty level or party combination. But it’s nice since you can just move on and do something else as opposed to farming the same boss over and over again.
I did hear that a new edition is coming out. I’m not sure if I’ll get that since I haven’t read how it’s been updated. I really wanted new content, especially for Throne of Bhaal since it was really lacking. I know they put up new NPCs, dialog and improved the interface but I feel that the real aspect that I want is content. When it arrives, I’ll look at the reviews and see what’s changed. I wasn’t too impressed from what I’ve read about the new Baldur’s Gate release so I’m going to hesitate.