Throne of Bhaal Review Retrospective
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| An Epic Banality — A Rush-job |
Released by BioWare in 2001, the Throne of Bhaal expansion for Baldur's Gate 2 constitutes the third and final phase of the Bhaalspawn Saga. Having passed through two critically-acclaimed phases - Baldur's Gate and Shadows of Amn - Throne of Bhaal ends the Saga on a note that might best be described as a wet fart.
If BioWare's aptitude for campaign design hadn't already gone down the gurgler in BG1 vs BG2, it certainly did with Throne. And they never again climbed their way back to the level of the original Baldur's Gate released back in 1998-99, which is one of the Best cRPGs of all-time.
Throne took some of the worst aspects of Shadows of Amn's cRPG Design and somehow managed to worsen them. Ignoring the best thing about Shadows (non-linear exploration of the quest dense city of Athkatla, and its outskirts), it ran only with the bad things:
It wasn't enough that Shadows nerfed exploration in comparison to the original Baldur's Gate: Throne removed exploration almost entirely:
It wasn't enough that Shadows' story was a poorly-written yawn-fest: Throne barely has one:
It wasn't enough that, in comparison to Sarevok BG1, Archmage Irenicus BG2 was weakly employed as an antagonist (and is only popular due to being peerlessly voice acted): High Matriarch, Amelyssan the Blackhearted, is a completely unmemorable blowhard with whom no one can empathize:
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| One of the rare dialogues in which Melissan isn't screaming at the top of her lungs |
With its tiny world map devoid of waylays...
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| Colorful and cartoony |
... tiny, lifeless town-hubs featuring boring questing...
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| Saradush & Amkethran: not hubs, but husks. |
... and areas that exist merely to be filled with epic mooks or to show off shallow siege-warfare spectacles (areas have no life, lore or mystery of their own)...
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| North Forest & Oasis: borefests |
... Throne is an on-rails hack and slash campaign with almost no redeeming qualities.
In an attempt to offer something deeper than just linear hackfest segments culminating in big, set-piece Bhaalspawn battles, and petty Pocket Plane challenges (both of which are accompanied by lectures by Melissan and the Solar), Throne added in the mega-dungeon known as Watcher's Keep to the Shadows overworld (accessible in Ch. 2, 3 and 6); also immediately accessible from its own. But Watcher's Keep just feels like a parody of a mega-dungeon, lacks thematic consistency ("It's Epic!" is not a theme) and therefore cuts a poor figure when going up against Durlag's Tower, which is a masterpiece of cRPG dungeon design.
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| The Keep vs. The Tower |
The truth is, though: Throne's bad design was rooted in the Monty Haul of Shadows (a campaign made for munchkins), its hands were tied, and so it could do naught but throw itself headlong into the emptiness that is the hallmark of the Epic. As a result, it falls flat on its ass.
Take for example, Arcana Archives Baldur's Gate 2. The sheer amount of spells on offer in one place is gobsmacking.
For all its engine enhancements (eraseable spells, non-pausing mapscreen), feature bloat (43 tacked-on High Level Abilities) and big-budget polish (OST, VOs), Throne cannot even take credit for pushing the Infinity Engine to its limits: Black Isle's Icewind Dale 2 takes that prize, and is also superior in writing, reactivity and - most importantly - cRPG combat encounter design.
Basically, the Bhaalspawn Saga is a mess after the revelation of CHARNAME being a Child of Bhaal in Baldur's Gate. As I've mentioned before, Shadows and The Exile would not exist in a sensible rewrite of the Bhaalspawn Saga. Shadows is just a marathon-length diversion that could easily have been omitted in favor of focusing on the real story: that of the Bhaalspawn & the Prophecy of Alaundo. Imagine a 100 hour Baldur's Gate sequel that kept its focus on this:
... instead of getting side-tracked by the antics of an elf and then having to scramble to cram exposition of the Prophecy into a rushed expansion. That could have been a sequel that did the ending FMV of Baldur's Gate justice. Chasing an elf from Spellhold to Suldanessellar wasted too much time.
Basically, the Bhaalspawn Saga is a mess after the revelation of CHARNAME being a Child of Bhaal in Baldur's Gate. As I've mentioned before, Shadows and The Exile would not exist in a sensible rewrite of the Bhaalspawn Saga. Shadows is just a marathon-length diversion that could easily have been omitted in favor of focusing on the real story: that of the Bhaalspawn & the Prophecy of Alaundo. Imagine a 100 hour Baldur's Gate sequel that kept its focus on this:
... instead of getting side-tracked by the antics of an elf and then having to scramble to cram exposition of the Prophecy into a rushed expansion. That could have been a sequel that did the ending FMV of Baldur's Gate justice. Chasing an elf from Spellhold to Suldanessellar wasted too much time.
But Throne is not without merit. Some of the tracks in its OST are great: the classic Poledouris-esque track that plays on the approach to Yaga-Shura's fire giant stronghold (think Conan) is one of the best I've heard on the IE, and the track that plays during the battles against the Five is top-tier, too.
In fact, with the exception of Illasera, the battles against the rival Bhaalspawn are well-designed - especially the ones against the half-dragons and the Drow.
Their enclaves and dungeons, however, are comical in size, consisting mostly of tiny inter-linked areas, just like Watcher's Keep. Imagine if Sendai's enclave was refitted into a redesigned Shadows Underdark, for example. That would have been more worthy.
In locating rival Bhaalspawn, we should have to climb mountain ranges, delve to abyssal depths and traverse great deserts, not just click an icon on a map - and BANG - we're there. Again, the germ of this lack of a sense of landscape, and of journeying, is found in Shadows.
While most of the forced exposition and lore-dumps by the Solar are not only boring but annoying as well, the dialogue with Charname's mother, Gorion and child-Sarevok are welcome and well-written.
Charname's mother and Gorion:
Child-Sarevok then steps in and adds:
This dialogue segment is noteworthy in that it allows us to empathize with the conqueror-villain of Baldur's Gate. Charname can acknowledge a certain debt owed to Sarevok BG2 (his Fate could have been Charname's), and Charname is even able to redeem Sarevok (and Viconia) by shifting his alignment to Chaotic Good through various companion-based dialogues. Sarevok's capacity for redemption was forseen by Tamoko BG1.
There are several dialogues in regard to Sarevok's redemption, but this lengthy third one is crucial, and the thread can easily be broken by a single "incorrect" response, so I doubt many players even know about the potential for redemption:
In the follow-up banter, Sarevok shifts to Chaotic Good permanently:
It's a big change from:
Here is a variation in which Sarevok alludes to the evil within:
It is also notable that Imoen gains Bhaalspawn abilities such as Draw Upon Holy Might. Charname would actually be quite jealous since his or her abilities are lost in Spellhold to make way for the Slayer transformation, which, however, is clearly inferior to DUHM.
Wait, you don't think DUHM is very strong? You don't think scaling Strength, Dexterity and Constitution - a max of +6 for you - is very strong?
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Having slain the Five and taken out The Ravager (the last of the Pocket Plane "challenges"), we have the finale at the Throne of Bhaal itself.
That's right: one battle and one area constitutes a Chapter. It's just a multi-stage battle against Melissan...
... interspersed with epic-level mooks that are guarding essence-pools of Bhaal, which are the source of her power.
Having beaten up Melissan four times in a row, the Solar steps in to finally pronounce her defeat:
We are then presented with "a choice" the consequences of which, at this point, can consist of nothing more than which of the two ending FMVs play: to ascend to godhood or remain mortal.
As with Irenicus, Melissan is then shown being utterly vanquished through a cutscene:
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| Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! |
We don't even get to lay the smackdown ourselves. And thus, the Bhaalspawn Saga comes to its comical and unsatisfying conclusion.
Throne is an epic banality, a rush-job. While it was an admirable attempt at salvaging Throne, the climax-enhancing Ascension BG2 mod did not set out to address what many BG veterans perceived to be its flawed fundamental design. That would take one year and an entire studio. Throne was made in six months; Ascension in four.
As I've said, Shadows - which ate up 18 months - should never have been. Instead, there should have just been Baldur's Gate followed by a completely different Baldur's Gate 2 that focused on the Bhaalspawn, Bhaal-lore, and the Prophecy of Alaundo. Basically, a massively expanded Throne. But what's done is done and there's no going back.
Throne is an epic banality, a rush-job. While it was an admirable attempt at salvaging Throne, the climax-enhancing Ascension BG2 mod did not set out to address what many BG veterans perceived to be its flawed fundamental design. That would take one year and an entire studio. Throne was made in six months; Ascension in four.
As I've said, Shadows - which ate up 18 months - should never have been. Instead, there should have just been Baldur's Gate followed by a completely different Baldur's Gate 2 that focused on the Bhaalspawn, Bhaal-lore, and the Prophecy of Alaundo. Basically, a massively expanded Throne. But what's done is done and there's no going back.
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