“Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn” (BG II) is a 2000 role-playing game for the PC by Black Gate Studios and a sequel to the then popular “Baldur’s Gate.” The view was the almost-overused isometric, three-quarter view and the characters were zany, including the evil-hating, hamster-loving berserker Minsc. This is a long game; it took me dozens of hours to complete when I first played it, and that’s without getting all the secrets and sidequests.

In this story, you fight soldiers, thieves, wizards, trolls and other baddies in your pursuit of justice and a restoration of balance to the world and heavens. Sound like every other RPG in existence? That’s not the point.

The “Baldur’s Gate” series took the “Dungeons and Dragons” game and built a whole computer game out of it and a fun one at that. Do you want to find out what old-school RPGs in your mom’s basement were supposed to look like? Here you are. And not to mention, it will have none of the strange smells or loud Doritos crunching sounds to worry about — win-win. This is all about killing monsters, grabbing loot and leveling up. Oh, and the other characters have funny conversations with each other too. (Even the hamster squeaks up from time to time.)

Play this game, pick up some gold and smash some tyranny.