Geneforge 2

Christmas vacation provided me with some extra time for gaming. After a couple weeks of concentrated effort, I completed Geneforge 2. Although the game engine was essentially the same (800x600 resolution), there were some nice improvement over the first entry in the series. Geneforge 2 had more areas to explore, more spells, and more creatures to shape. My character was level 46 by the end of the game. In the previous game, my character only made it to level 23. Overall, I enjoyed it about equally with its predecessor.

Geneforge 2 starts not long after the end of the first game. Although it is a sequel, you play a different character. This time I played as Esther, and Agent of the Shaper Council. Esther was an apprentice sent on a mission by the Council along with her mentor Shanti. When Shanti went missing, Esther began an intensive search. Along the way, she encountered four factions (vs. three in the original Geneforge). Unlike many RPGs, Geneforge 2 continued with a morally complex story line. Often, it was hard to know who were the good guys and who were the bad guys, if there were such a thing. In Geneforge, everything tends to be shades of gray. Like the original, I stayed unaligned throughout most of the game. Unlike the first game, however, I eventually chose a faction to side with at the end. There are many possible endings, but I was satisfied with the path I chose.