A console style game, set in the Baldurs Gate universe

In brief
A spin-off of the PC games, this console version ditches 2 pages of status of status effects and RTS interface and concentrates on hack and slash gameplay.

Gameplay
In all truth, aside from being in the Baldurs Gate universe, this game plays nothing like the PC versions, and plays more like Phantasy Star Online. You have three characters to choose from - an archer, a melee fighter, and a mage. Aside from attack magic, which is only available to the mage, your choice doesn't restrict your tactics too much though, and you're free to dabble in other areas.
The game is pretty much a dungeon crawler, with a few town scenes with a couple of shops and a people who direct you to the next dungeon. Actual gameplay usually involves lots of hacking, slashing, running around, healing, and - if you feel like it - hopping. And it's actually very good, and even manages to add some strategy to things in places due to the level layouts. E.g.: How are you going to take out that long line of kobolds guarding the switch to the door? Rushing straight into the middle of them will get you killed. Perhaps hit and run tactics might work? Or maybe you could use the scenery to take cover, and attack from there? Climbing up high and firing from there is the best course of action. You could always run in bashing the auto-heal button, although that tactic won't get you very far in the game. Unfortunately, however, not all of the game is that clever, and a lot of it revolves around fights in plain corridors.
Another strength of the game is probably the co-op mode though. Two players can team up against the scenarios, and the ability to import characters from another save file helps a lot. In a sense, characters are independent of the save files that contain them, and can be transferred between games at will.

Graphics
Especially considering how soon it came out on the ps2, the graphics are amazing here. They rival the pre-rendered screens of the PC version. Spells are suitably pretty, and the game does a good job of rendering a lot of monsters onscreen at once for the players to hack, slash and hop to death.
One minor point is that the two-player mode plays on one screen, rather than split screen. This means that players have to stick close together, however if you can adjust to this it is not too much of a problem.

Sound
All the expected sounds are all present and correct - there are satisfying whacks, screams of monsters and other sound effects. Music fairs slightly less well. What's there is good, but it is often just content to take a step back and play second fiddle to the sound effects and background noises, which are also quite well done.

Replay value
The itself is reasonably short, however different difficulty levels - as well as a really harsh extreme mode which is on par with ultimate mode on PSO - add a lot of replay value if you find that you like the game.

Summery
A brilliantly fun game, probably the only thing wrong is that it does not bother too much with plot or town/rest levels.

Reviewers Bias
Strongly for

Overall: 8.5/10