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 | Icewind Dale 2 |
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Product Description
A Baldur's Gate Engine AdventureProduct InformationReturn to the frigid north of the Forgotten Realms in the sequel tothe critically acclaimed Icewind Dale. Building upon the successes of theInfinity Engine used to power the Baldur's Gate series and Planescape: TORMENTBlack Isle Studios continues to refine the classic RPG gaming experience.The worst fear of the civilized realms has come true. The Goblinoids have unitedinto an army of outcasts and misfits and they want to call the Ten Towns theirown. Massive swarms of Orcs and Worg-mounted Goblins are attempting to overrunthe town of Targos and that's just the beginning! A call has gone out to allthose willing to face insurmountable odds in defense of the Ten Towns. Will you heed the call to arms and face the greatest threat to the Spine of theWorld?New Features A variety of new character classes like the Barbarian Sorcerer and the Monk. New Player Character Races and Subraces like the Half-Orc Drow Tiefling and others each with their own special abilities. New Priest Druid and Wizard Spells New Random Treasure generator for enemies New Player Character Portraits New Player Character Sound SetsProduct FeaturesNew 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons Classes: The Barbarian - A merciless warrior of the north call upon your greater strength speed and rage to carve a path through your enemies. The Monk - A master of hand-to-hand combat and unarmed in battle the power of wisdom is your greatest weapon. The Sorcerer - A natural spell caster tainted by the blood of dragons draw upon the raw power within to defeat your adversaries. Character Races: New character races like the Drow and Aasimar add to an extensive array of character options. 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons Feats and Skills such as Lightening Reflexes and Alchemy extend character customization. Take up a battle axe in each hand and cleaProduct Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #5774 in Video Games
- Brand: Vivendi Universal
- Released on: 2002-08-27
- ESRB Rating: Teen
- Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP
- Format: CD-ROM
- Dimensions: .25 pounds
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Review
Return to the Spine of the World, that famous mountain
range deep within Dungeons & Dragon's official world, the Forgotten
Realms, for party-based adventure par excellence. Icewind Dale II
is a throwback to an earlier time when D&D simulation meant six
party members, 2-D graphics, and a heavy focus on story and real-time
strategy game tactics.
Icewind Dale II plays like Baldur's
Gate with one major difference: you create and control your entire
party, which leaves you free to experiment with the huge array of
options D&D 3rd Edition makes possible. Halfling paladins, wizards
with thieving skills, it's all possible because Black Isle dutifully
added all the new skills, rules, options, and feats given to D&D
characters in the tabletop game.
The story line is long and epic
and maybe too focused for its own good. You can experiment with any
character combination you want, but you can't really range far and wide,
adventuring as you wish. The story concerns a goblin army that is
threatening human settlements far to the north. Infernal implications
quickly surface as you learn that the goblins' masters might not be of
this prime-material plane. The combat is fast, furious, constant, and
extremely challenging. One of the reasons Baldur's Gate II worked
so well was that your priest always had enough healing powers and Raise
Dead spells handy. In Icewind Dale II, you begin at first level,
so for half the game you must trudge homeward whenever somebody dies,
which is frequent. The enemy appears in large numbers, usually with a
spell caster in tow--and just beyond one group of enemies is another
one. It's relentless and strategically satisfying, if more than a little
frustrating too.
Fans of the earlier games who were perhaps a bit
unsatisfied with the single-PC focus of Neverwinter Nights will
delight in another chance to play party-based D&D. --Bob Andrews
Pros:
- Full implementation of D&D 3rd Edition rules
- Same old glorious tactical gameplay as the Baldur's Gate series
- Retro looking in this 3-D age of Neverwinter Nights
- Often too difficult for its own good
Customer Reviews
Return to the Dale
I have played both Baldur's
Gate games, Planescape: Torment, and the Icewind Dale series
extensively. While these games all share the Infinity engine, I was
never truly absorbed by Torment or the Baldur's Gate games the way I
have been with Icewind Dale 1 and 2. All were splendid games, but
Icewind Dale offers a feature that sets it victoriously apart from its
kin - it allows you to create a PARTY of adventurers, not just a single
hero. I joyously spend hours crafting my party before leaping headlong
into the game itself, where the fun only continues. Icewind Dale is
everything that Diablo is NOT, despite both games' reliance on open
battle. Where Diablo is a clickfest to see who drops first, Icewind Dale
requires tactics and strategy amidst the chaos (and gives you a pause
feature to simulate a kind of turn-based, thought-provoking play style).
Despite the action, very little about Icewind Dale II (or Icewind Dale)
can be called "dumbed down," save perhaps for the linear nature of the
campaign - which I, for one, embrace, as I loathe errand boy quests that
seem unimportant to the storytelling. Icewind Dale II is pure gaming
goodness in a tasty D&D shell, and anyone who likes the sound of
that should not hesitate to play this game... not even for a second.
Deserving of Better than Five Stars
I honestly hope that people
who read these reviews pay more attention to those praising Icewind Dale
II than those that in my mind belittle a great game. Icewind Dale II is
similar to the other Forgotten Realms games, but it is unique in its
own right.
Icewind Dale II seems to have found the balance between
the heavily quest-based Baldur's Gate II and the hack-your-way-to-fame
Icewind Dale. The new third edition rules make Icewind Dale different
from the other games as well, and they add a whole new challenge to the
game, making the perfect characters. The vast amount of skills and feats
all characters can choose from, not to mention all the new races (Drow,
tieflings, deep gnomes, gray dwarves, among many others) and subclasses
offered, make characters unique, and each level almost makes a player
giddy when they try to decide whether they should give their rogue more
hide skill for the ever useful sneak attack or maybe more to pick pocket
or open locks for the always fun five-finger discount shopping. The
addition of the bluff, diplomacy, and intimidate skills also make for a
nice variety in NPC dialogue, and deciding whether you want to use your
nice little paladin to go negotiate or an evil dreadmaster of bane to
threaten an undead life to your enemies can put a player into a moral
dilemma. A player's character class can affect NPC dialogue as well, the
most obvious class being a cleric which has something to say whenever
you run up against a different order or cult. The joys of threatening to
kill half the members of a village of druids with my dreadmaster of
bane, raise their corpses as undead, and then laugh as they tear into
their surviving friends remains potent in my memory. The creation of
characters and a well balanced party might dissuade some from this game
and the lack of character interaction is disappointing, but characters
are far from stale and part of the fun in my mind.
Although the
graphics remain the same as all of the recent Forgotten Realms games,
players should still appreciate the beauty of the artwork within the
game. The one thing I've seen on most reviews, even ones by people who
test games as a job, that remains constant is that the fighting in
Icewind Dale II is hard, or even impossible according to some. I've
played the game on the normal D&D rules throughout and I understand
why people describe it as hard. Sure I've had to reload the game a few
times after having a character or two die, but I remember spending a
hour or two on the final battle of Baldur's Gate II and reloading on all
the other games as well. Then again some reloads were just because I
wanted a better-looking battle. The reason people probably complain
about Icewind Dale II being too difficult in fighting is because battles
need to be planned for once, and yes monsters will spawn behind you and
try to surround you, a problem perhaps, realistic definitely. I won't
discuss strategy in a review, but I will say it's required in most
fights in Icewind Dale II and can make fights quite easy. As the makers
said, the game has a feature that varies the difficulty depending on
your party's skill, not the skill of the player, so plan your battles
carefully or turn down the difficulty if you need (a feature all the
recent Forgotten Realms games offer) because you're in for one difficult
good time.
The story in Icewind Dale II is not anywhere near the
level of Baldur's Gate II, but it was not intended to be. You are not a
hero that has the blood of the god of murder in your veins, you're a
band of mercenaries out for some coin who just happen to save the North
in the process. When Icewind Dale II is looked at by itself rather than a
comparison to the other Forgotten Realms games, the story will draw you
in and is very well done. The big baddies of the story aren't the
devilish Irenicus from Baldur's Gate II who seemed to be pulling at the
very core of your character's self, but two outcasts who seek revenge.
If they seem to come off as childish and vengeful but immensely
powerful, then that is because of the story behind their creation which
is quite sad and not for me to tell.
The one complaint I can offer
about the game comes from a very common cliché, to the victor go the
spoils. I find myself spending anywhere from ten minutes to an hour
planning out my spending and selling. Charisma as well as some skills
can affect the price of goods or the price which you can sell your
goods, and in addition to that, supply and demand plays a role as well,
sell all things of one type (a good example being gems) at one time from
the same character or prices will go down. Although it's a complaint,
it's realistic that a charismatic character could barter better prices
especially if trained in that area, and besides, who can complain about
coming back to town with sacks bulging with gold and gems, bags full of
all sorts of potions, and characters laden with all sorts of magical
means of destruction ranging from nondescript weapons of immense power
to armors of such a design as to have an effect by themselves. Just
remember to buy all the potion bags, scroll cases, and gem bags that you
see, and always hold onto bags of holding when they're found.
A Worthy Successor to an Instant Classic
I still remember the reason I
got the original Icewind Dale. I was simply bored out of my mind,
disappointed with Diablo II, and looking for more Baldur's Gate while
waiting for the sequel to be released. Icewind Dale had a unique flavor
that distinguished it from the other Infinity Engine games, and a
fast-paced, svelte system that still makes it an eye-opener in this
world of 3-D everything games. The soundtrack, also, was arguably the
best of any game I've seen.
Icewind Dale II is good enough that
I'd call it a worthy successor. Like Baldur's Gate II it carries on in
the flavor of the original, but with improvements to increase
replayability. These improvements are largely comprised of a change to
the 3rd Ed. D&D rules. In this regard, the game does a fair job at
approximating them. I would say it's roughly comparable to Neverwinter
Nights, though there of course are some major differences since you can
control up to 6 characters.
The gameplay is pretty similar to the
original, with less Fed-Ex quests and more good old-fashioned slaughter.
The plot is still very much linear, but there's many ways you can go
about meeting NPC's requests. One of these ways is to simply kill them
all and take their stuff (though you might not always want to). There
are quite a few new spells, and although the game lacks metamagic feats
you can do things like spontaneous casting, domain spells, and wizard
school specialization. All the old summoning spells have been upgraded
as well, so they are actually useful at higher levels. Lastly, the
'Heart of Fury' mode is embellished with better weapons and items to
make chopping down the horde less impossible. Your characters can
advance to level 30, up to level 20 in any one class. It doesn't quite
follow the epic level rules, but you'll probably be glad for the extra
hit dice, since the only way to get that high is HoF mode.
There
are many magical weapons and items to find, and a whole ton of new magic
ammo. I can't say I used very much of the latter, however, since the
sell price is so ridiculously high that I ended up selling it all
instead of shooting it. You also have far more quick weapon slots so
changing weapons isn't a pain. There are even more NPCs and more
dialogue choices than the original IWD, and more places to visit than
the original game plus its expansion. I don't doubt there will be an
Icewind Dale II expansion coming up, either. The music follows in the
flavor of the original score, but it isn't quite as good (a different
artist). It's good enough, however, for my tastes. The graphics, of
course, are still magnificent. While the character avatars haven't
changed at all, it has always been the rendered backgrounds (and perhaps
spell effects) that's the real point of interest. No disappointment
there.
I'm not normally one to lower a rating solely due to bugs,
but I'll have to make an exception here. Icewind Dale is so badly bugged
that it really reduces the fun of the game. Some of the bugs are so
ridiculously obvious I wonder if Black Isle even did QA on it, or if the
delayed release made them rush it to the store shelves. Importing and
exporting characters used to be perfectly fine, but now you'll end up
with weird things like extra spells, missing levels, altered natural
armor class, and a gamut of others. Magic is also bugged crazy, with
enemy saving throws incorrectly calculated and spell quirks all over the
place. My favorite so far is the Melf's Minute Meteors bug. If you
de-equip the meteors you can equip a sword or other weapon, and your
attacks remain at 5/round! Who needs fighters now? Savegames are also
not nearly safe. I've seen characters change permanently for no
particular reason between a save and load.
I should note that most
of these bugs aren't game-breaking, especially since you can use the
cheat console to get past things. This isn't a very natural way to do
it, though, and I hope the patch fixes everything. The original game was
also known for bugs, but it wasn't nearly this bad. Though the 3rd Ed.
rules are nice, I would have rather they stuck with 2nd Ed. and not had
so many bugs.
Overall, Icewind Dale II was a great RPG experience
and well worth its weight in good game time. It is fun enough to simply
explore the areas and see a great rendition of the region, and battle-
ever the heart of the game- is still as challenging and exciting as
before. If you're looking for a good RPG, here's something you won't
want to miss.
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