Baldur's Gate: The Zero Reload Saga

Many have consigned themselves to the task of beating Baldur's Gate II without ever reloading the game, or at least seeing how far they can get. In fact, contests of this very nature continue to this day over at the official Bioware forums.

I, myself, have always considered Baldur's Gate II to be a fairly easy experience when you know what you're doing. With enough care, forward planning and encyclopaedic knowledge of the various ins and outs, it should be possible to get through a very large chunk of the game, or even beat it altogether, without ever seeing the "You Is Dead" FMV.

With this unwarranted self-confidence running rampant through my mind, I have decided to set myself to a slightly different mission.

I intend to try and beat Baldur's Gate II, not just without ever reloading, but in its entirety. From the beginning of Shadows of Amn to the end of Throne of Bhaal, I will complete every single side quest right down to the most piddling, pointless Fed-Ex missions (including those introduced by selected mods) and slay every foe right down to the most pathetic gibberling.

This, obviously, will have to happen within reason. A few aspects of the game are mutually exclusive (you can't work for both Bodhi and Aran Linvail, for instance) and some places (I think) have infinitely spawning enemies and so on. However, the general rule is that if it is possible to complete a quest or kill an enemy without either breaking the game or having to haxx it, it will be done.

Naturally, I wouldn't go announcing something like this if I had no intention of following up on it to some extent, so I will, of course, be posting regular updates chronicling my successes, failures, challenges, frustrations and strategies, all mixed in with whatever (hopefully) amusing commentary I feel is appropriate.

For me, this will be as much of a learning experience as a bit of fun. (As well as a desperate cry for attention, not that I'd admit to such outside of parentheses.) As someone who intends to get involved in BGII modding, which is still going after all these years, (albeit sluggishly) it'd probably be a good idea for me to know a lot more about the game than I currently do, and this seems like it'd be an enjoyable way of going about it.

Besides, despite having played the living hell out of BGII, I admit that I still haven't seen all of it by a long shot. (One of the hallmarks of an excellent game; never getting old.) In doing this I hope to finally get the most out of a game that I have enjoyed for years.

For you, this could be anything. It could be an amusing read. It could be insight into general tactics and information on things you've missed in your play through(s). It could be a roundabout review of whatever mods I end up installing. Or it could just be something you look at once and then ignore completely because it's boring or it's too long or you don't care or you want to spite me for some reason.

Nevertheless, whatever this tale may or may not do for you, I hope you enjoy it.



This began its life as a thread over at the GameFAQs forums, but after spending some time writing it, I decided to move it here, to its own blog, for a multitude of reasons that I need not go into.

Since there wouldn't be much point in starting again from scratch, everything up until Day 4, Hour 22 has been transferred directly from the original thread and touched up slightly. From then on, however, everything you see will have been written straight to this blog.