Baldur’s Gate Shadows of Amn revisited
I played Baldur's Gate 1 for the second time sometime back and recently started playing BG2. Strangely enough, BG1 was sort of a breeze. The ending was not as difficult as I remembered. My group hardly sustained any loss of hp. When I played it for the first time, I wasn't much of a strategist (still am not much of one 
) and would charge headlong into any situation. Besides that, I didn't have much use for potions (except for healing potions and antidotes) and wands but for my replay of BG1, I actually used the wands of summoning and wands of frost a lot, not to mention wands of lightning for corridors (my heroine, Dynaheir). So I guess these made life simpler.
Before starting BG2, I was planning who I wanted in my party. Minsc and Edwin was a definite must, so was Yoshimo (later filled by Imoen). I wasn't too sure about who was going to fill in the last two slots. I had to have a healer so it was either Jaheira, Anomen, Aerie or Viconia. I already had Viconia in the first playthrough so I didn't if possible want her along. I found Aerie too whiny, who didn't care about other npc's feelings except her own. Yeah, I needed a mage in the beginning but no way was I bringing her. I managed to get through the Temple Ruins and get rid of the Shade Lord without a mage. Then, I picked up Anomen. Yeah, I remember I couldn't stand him that much the first time and as we wandered here and there, I was thinking, well, he wasn't so bad as I thought and entertained the possibility of him filling in a slot. Until ... until ... he opened his big mouth. WHAT WAS I THINKING?????!! No way am I taking this pompous, self-absorbed, self-centered, ass of a man. Now, I am just waiting to get his quest over and done with!
Sometimes, one wonders what the heck the developers were thinking when they chose that kind of character to be the female interest. Hubby says that the male love interests weren't like so fantastic either; you've got Jaheira who is sort of bitchy, Aerie (who is like the female version of Anomen or Annoying Man -- read this in a post somewhere) and Viconia who is facing culture shock and sort of bitchy too. But hey, you've got at least 3 to pick from, we women have only 1. I never did the romance in the first playthrough and don't intend to this time, either.
