23.3.2014

A band of adventurers are among the mercenaries called in to help defend the remote settlements of Icewind Dale after they come under attack by an army of monstrous creatures. Investigating the causes of the raids, the team embark on a lengthy trek into the hostile Spine of the World mountains.Icewind Dale II was released in 2002 and was the fifth and last game to use the Infinity Engine. Originally used for Baldur's Gate in 1998, the Infinity Engine had powered a whole series of classic roleplaying games and was arguably the last great 2D engine before most games switched to 3D technology. At the time of its release, Icewind Dale II was heavily criticised for using old tech,made even more apparent by it coming out just a month or so after BioWare's Neverwinter Nights, with it's all-singing, all-dancing 3D engine.Played without regard for such concerns, Icewind Dale II emerges as an enjoyable, solid roleplaying game much in the vein of its predecessor. The Icewind Dale games are very much the 'brainless action movie' branch of the Infinity Engine tree, where combat is emphasised over roleplaying. There isn't anything too wrong with that, especially since Icewind Dale II also puts more emphasis into puzzle-solving, quest-resolving and occasional bursts of proper roleplaying. You still spend 80%+ of the game hacking enemies apart, but there's a little bit more story and character to proceedings this time around.As with the previous game, you create a party of six adventurers from scratch. Balancing melee combat characters with ranged ones with magic users (and a rogue to help open all of those locked chests of loot) is key to completing the game effectively. Unlike the other Infinity Engine games, Icewind Dale II uses the Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition rules which gives your characters much greater choices of weapons (no more arbitrary restrictions by class), classes (no more arbitrary restrictions by race) and skills and feats, which improve your combat abilities.You start the game in the town of Targos which is under goblin attack. After dispatching the attackers you find yourself running around town getting to know people and finding out more about what's going on. This being a game by Black Isle (which splintered apart shortly after this game's release, the remnants reforming as Obsidian and Troika), with such CRPG luminaries as Josh Sawyer and Chris Avellone working on it, the game features some amusing meta-commentary about the genre. One soldier recounts how he started his adventuring life by killing rats for ages because it was 'character-building', whilst running around town doing trivial odd-jobs for pitiful amounts of money. This was funny at the time, but is slightly tragic in 2014 given how many modern RPGs still insist on using the same structure.The game is linear, with your team moving from objective to objective without as much ability to go off and do some exploring by yourself (although there a few optional side-quests). This makes sense in the context of the game - you are a mercenary party on a military commission to halt an invading army - and also given the time restrictions the game was made under, but it does feel a little constraining at times. The game is also pretty relentless and, in the midgame especially, becomes something of a grind. The environments are beautiful, ranging from palaces made of ice to spectacular underground caverns and windswept mountain passes filled with snow. However, too often there is little to do in these environments rather than bludgeon lots of things to death and search for loot. There are a few moments of satisfying roleplaying - doing a side-mission near the end of the game makes the final battle considerably easier, whilst you can completely skip a lengthy and lethal battle in a mind-flayer fortress by convincing their relentlessly logical leader that it's just safer to let you pass - but the focus is very much on fighting.Fortunately the fighting is pretty good. As usual you can pause the game to issue orders and battles soon become a frenzied rush of arrows, swords swinging and spells flying past. As the game progresses enemies become more likely to use magic, so it becomes necessary for your party to use magic to buff your characters or summon small armies of monsters to act as cannon fodder. Unlike, say, the Dragon Age games, which have a seriously tiny spell selection (presumably for simplicity's sake), Icewind Dale II offers a large range of spells, weapons and combat options which can tend towards over-complexity, but also give the player a satisfying choice of tactics to pursue. Many seemingly-impossible battles can be won by simply changing tactics or even just the positioning of your characters: bottlenecking large enemy forces in narrow passages is a simple but often decisive tactic.So the combat is good, the choices for character development are better than any previous Infinity Engine games and the story is moodily and effectively told through animated storybook cut-scenes. For its time, the 2D graphics are impressive (if inevitably a little pixellated on modern machines) and the music is splendid, though there isn't a whole lot of it. The game is pretty long (clocking in at well over 20 hours) so you get a lot of content for your money. The game gets grindy and repetitive at times, but it's worth persevering for the satisfyingly epic conclusion.Icewind Dale II (****) is a worthy follow-up to Icewind Dale and a decent conclusion to the Infinity Engine era of roleplaying games. You can get the game now from GoG, where it has been optimised to run well on modern machines, or you can also get it as part of a triple-pack with the original Icewind Dale and its expansions (UK, USA).

20.11.2002

Unlike many, I was a big fan of the original Icewind Dale. This retains many of the features of the original (notably the wintry setting and lots of combat) but improves on it in every respect.First off, it's beautiful to look at. The icebound landscapes are dramatic and you really feel as though you're in the far north; there's a tangled forest taken over by unnatural forces which feels genuinely oppressive and eerie and the remote monastery set into a mountainside is truly a sight to behold. The new monsters have been exquisitely drawn and animated - you'll love the driders, for example - and Icewind Dale still has the best iron golems in the business.The incorporation of the third edition D&D rules is a huge enhancement and they have been very well incorporated.Character creation is a delight and the constant improvement of your characters is a major motivator for playing the game. The incorporation of feats makes for great variability within the same character class. No longer is a fighter just a guy who whacks things with swords until they're dead; instead you can choose to create an elven finesse fighter who wields two swords and can hit a penny with an arrow from thirty yards, a half-orc bruiser who can dish out tremendous punishment with a two handed sword or a dwarven tank who can take everything the bad guys can throw at him and then repay it with interest. Balance is excellent: you can choose to play a drow character who appears to have enormous powers but who also has limitations which makes him or her no better or worse than a plain human.There is lots of combat in Icewind Dale II and it is extremely challenging, particularly in the earlier stages when your characters are still quite weak. Enemy AI is fearsome: you can't just pick the bad guys off one at a time using the fog of war as cover; instead if you attack one creature, all his mates join in. Worse, they don't just attack from the front but go round and creep up on you from behind, targeting your weak sorceror who's been merrily tossing fireballs at the frontline bad guys. Worse still, once an enemy targets your weak sorceror, he won't let up and won't be distracted unless your other characters surround him. This is how you play, right? You kill the magic user before worrying about the guys with the spears. Despite all the fighting, there is nonetheless room for diplomacy and deceit. You can avoid many hard fights either through flattery, intimidation or downright lies and you get the same experience as you would have got had you put the enemies to the sword instead. In earlier games smarts and particularly looks were mere candy. People who played the games by numbers would set intelligence and charisma to 3 and everything else to 18. Well now, many dialog options depend on these characteristics (not to mention many skils and feats) and they are only available to you if you're a good looking guy or girl with a magnetic personality, a glib tongue and wits to match. Even better, dialog options depend on the class of character being spoken to. Your bard can discuss philosophy and history while you'll want to kick your paladin's backside when he graciously refuses a reward or gets you into a really tough fight because he just can't keep his views to himself.One of the major criticisms of the original Icewind Dale was the plot which did have a tendency to go something like: "Are you the bad guy?" "No, but I can tell you who might be.". Now you're waging war against a sinister organisation which has forged alliances with all manner of malefactors and disaffected elements and you are forever plugging breaches and cutting off one tentacle only for another to appear elsewhere yet emerging victorious against overwhelming odds (as I said elsewhere, the difficulty level is high). You may not have a particular commitment to the welfare of the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale, but the bad guys sure do get under your skin so that you want to punish them (the rewards are attractive too). Interestingly, the main villains aren't villainous for villainy's sake but are human-demon crossbreeds, mistreated as children, who are now taking revenge against those who hurt them and those who have slighted and shunned them.Icewind Dale II is set thirty years after the original game and events from that game have repurcussions in this one. If you played Icewind Dale your characters would have killed a priestess of Auril called Lysan. In Icewind Dale II her death means that the Aurilites are just one of the many enemy forces allied against you. I won't give away other cross references because coming across them is just of the game's many delights.Humour, sparingly applied, is the icing on the cake. If you have fond memories of pen-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons and your characters carried iron rations, ten foot poles and fifty feet of rope, you'll find a lot to make you chuckle. If you played the original Baldur's Gate, there's a scene around a campfire which will make you laugh out loud.Any faults? Not many. Your characters' pathfinding seems to have become dreadful again having been quite good in Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate II. I haven't found any major bugs but there are a couple of unimportant ones. Nothing else comes to mind.Bioware seem to have given up on the Infinity Engine and have bet the company on going 3D. I don't know what's with the fetish for 3D because Neverwinter Nights is a rubbish game which looks terrible and runs like a dog. Icewind Dale II, on the other hand, looks gorgeous, is totally immersive and runs very nicely thank you on almost all systems. If Icewind Dale II is the last Infinity Engine game, I will be most sad. Anybody fancy starting a petition?

19.9.2002

So, this came as a surprise. Neverwinter Nights was meant to be the end of the Infinity engine, used for classics like Baldur's Gate and of course the original Icewind Dale. But here then, months after the (3D) release of NWN (Neverwinter Nights), is Icewind Dale 2. In 2D. Using the 4 year old Infinity Engine.So, is this a bad thing then? Most definitely not. NWN struggled to create a convincing world in 3D - but the luscious backdrops in Icewind Dale II are clearly much more detailed and realistic and most important of all: convincing. While NWN lacked atmosphere, IWD II has loads of it. The spell effects and the character animations are well designed too - not to mention resolutions of up to 1600*1200.So in the looks department, it still holds its ground quite well.And now to the game - in many (and maybe even all) ways it's a huge improvement - over the original and even Baldur's Gate. The character system has been vastly improved. For example dialogue options will change according to the class of the person who conducts it or the skills of that person - making the game feel more lenient and freeform. Also, you can now avoid fights if the spokesperson of your party has a high degree in Diplomacy.Quests are also very original at times - and many quests can be solved without having to raise a sword which is an interesting change from the original. For example one quest is about breaking a time loop by talking to people and changing the future - and past.The game uses the 3rd generation of D&D rules which allows a character to change classes - so instead of being stuck on one class you can advance in another. This allows a fighter to be skilled in stealth and lock picking or a sorcerer to stand his own in a fight. Great in theory though in practice most people will prefer to stick with specialized characters instead of having 6 party members who can do a bit of everything but none great at anything.The fighting has been slightly improved too with the ability to use several preset weapon sets so you can switch between a sword, bow or axe in mid-combat. Also, the interface for each character is customizable allowing you to put each favorite spell, potion or magic object on the bar for immediate use. All inventory weapons have been redrawn too, creating a fresh new look replacing the old and tired look of the original and BG1&2. The interface has been rearranged to let you see more of the gaming area. And while the control system is more or less identical to the other games in its line, it still works perfectly with the option of pausing mid combat to change tactics and select spells.One of the biggest improvements is the story though, which, while basic at its simplest, is well defined and worked out. NPC (non-player characters) are well written and don't feel as shallow as the ones in the original. And it really feels as if you're making a difference in the world with people cheering your progress - and the game allows you to see the changes in their attitude towards you which makes it all the sweeter.Still, there are some problems: it can be easy to get stuck if you miss one object. For example I left a book behind on one occasion which I needed to advance to the next part of the game. Problem is, I forgot where I dropped it and, unlike NWN, you can find all essential objects in a pool. So I had to reload and replay a big part of the game.Also, fighting is often based on chance - which is only logical as the original pen & paper D&D games were also based on chance. Except it can get frustrating at times here and it can feel as if you don't have enough control over your party members.But all in all this is a great game that any fan of the original should definitely buy. Especially the ending truly is great which is unusual for a game using the Infinity Engine. Just give this one a chance, even if you love NWN and think you won't be able to return to plain 2D. Because, this game just might prove you wrong.

7.2.2003

From the title, and the four stars it should be obvious that I love Baldur's Gate 2. Anyone who's played it would and despite the fact that I've not completed Throne of Bhaal yet I still keep going back to it. So knowing that ToB was the last in the series meant I had to look elsewhere for my roleplaying fix. I quickly played through Icewind Dale, though again not the expansion, and really enjoyed it despite it being very linear.I eventually got round to buying the sequel a couple of weeks ago and though I'm not finished yet I feel I can write this without being contradicted through later experience.This game is very similiar to the original in the way you are stuck on one path and beholden to follow it.

25.4.2003

I just couldn't stop playing Baldur's Gate, BG2, Icewind Dale, Shadows of Amn, and Throne of Bhaal, so when IWD2 came along, it was next on my shopping list.Quite simply, this is more of the same. Same interface (with some small and interesting changes to the graphics), same controls, same everything really. Thankfully this range of games, for the right kind of people, is addictive and interesting - drawing you into the fantasy world for hours and hours on end as you build up your repertoire of spells, money, armour, weapons, scrolls, experience, and the like. Fantastic!Check the storyline out: "The civilised realms are threatened. The Goblinoids have united and the Orcs are advancing.

17.5.2012

This game was too good to be left with the meagre review here.Using the same game engine as Baldur's Gate, arguably the best computer game EVER, this is more of an inferior production line model.This is Dungeons and Dragons for the computer. Here you have six characters that you can choose yourself - for experienced D&D players I chose Paladin, Barbarian, Ranger, Thief, Cleric, Magic User. These are either fighters (killing machines), clerics (holy men with healing spells and slightly less killing machines than fighters), thieves (open locks, disarm traps, sneak around), and magic users (cast large variety of spells).Plunged into a generic icy fantasy world - but generic because D&D influenced

17.12.2002

Icewind Dale is a massive game, which requires masses of time and is all the more satisfying for it.Very similiar to the Baldurs Gate games although with subtle differences, Although this is an amazing game it doesnt come close to touching Baldurs Gate 2.Make sure to download the bug fix patch of the web before playing, as even with the patch there are still a few annoying glitches in the software, being told that party members are being injured when there are no foes around can become a bit annoying.The players skills and attributes have changed a bit, and it takes a little getting used to, but on the whole is satisfying as with icewind dale you have complete control over your party from the get go.

9.2.2003

The game has a lot more character options than Baldurs Gates, and actually took me over an hour to configure all six characters. Yes, in this game you create all six character and you can't get new character to join you during the game. Which fits in nicely with the game's story, but I miss the opportunity to get people to join.The path finder was no worse that that in Baldurs Gate, character occasionally getting lost - but there is an option to increase the accuracy of the path finding, but does slow the characters down.I found the spells more varied and visually pleasing, just remember to keep your spell casters a safe distance from the battle.There is far more visual display that in Baldurs Gate due to the re-designed GUI,

3.6.2003

There has been a lot of discussion around the place about whether this game is any good compared to Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, or the original Icewind Dale. There has also been a lot of debate about the relative merits of the 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules used in this game.As I have never played those other games, and have no idea about what 3rd edition D&D rules even are, I cannot enter into these debates. All I have to go on is the fact that I bought this game more than two months ago and have been playing it constantly ever since. And for me, that makes it a winner because it means I am getting excellent value for money out of it.I find the interface easy to use,

1.12.2002

I haven't played all the way through yet as I've rather lost heart with this game. It's very good, don't get me wrong - the graphics are stuffed full of good old-fashioned Infinity Engine goodness and the rules are, sensibly, now D&D 3rd Edition compliant. The plot is engaging, the action is heroic, so what's the problem?Battles. There are too many battles. The Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale series offer some excellent roleplaying, but it seems that ID2 has taken a leaf out of the Dungeon Siege guide to game design and involves battle after battle with not much chance for roleplaying. Party members dying left, right and centre and constant reloading to try and find a lucky way through yet another battle with yet another million goblins make for a frustrating gaming experience.

22.1.2003

Fantastic settings, addictive levelling-up and character enhancing (just one more level before I crash out, honest), great new portraits. Superb usage of the suberb infinity engine. Just one thing, its too damn linear. I know we all harp on about BG2 - but it was soooo good it deserves to be harped on about. The first Icewind Dale was too linear, and so is IWD2. I guess it has more of a storybook quality to it than the BG series, so perhaps its justifiable. But its so annoying that there's only one way to do anything. If you want to advance your quest, you HAVE to go here, then there, then there, etc...Having said that, now I've completed it on Insane mode, I'm about to restart on HeartofFury mode.

19.10.2007

I can't recall when this came out, but I bought and played it after playing Baldur's Gate 2, easily the best RPG and one of the best PC games ever.Icewind Dale 2 looks great, plays well enough, but lacks the scripting and character interraction which, among other features, made Baldur's Gate 2 so interesting to play. It is also very linear and does not have the sort of quest options which would have given it more depth.The graphics are worth a look and it will take you many hours to finish, but I doubt that having got to the end, you'll want to replay it.

30.11.2002

This is excellnt, do not be put off by the fact that the visuals are not 3D. There is so much more to this than never winter nights for the single player. The charactor creation is excellnt and as with the original you can still create a party of upto six charactors. The changes are fairly substanstail, the only thing not greatly changed is the graphics. New races and charactor classes are most obvious but the real changes are the subtle ones, fans of the original will love it, others should try it.

22.1.2013

What can one say about these older bioware/black isle titles apart from BRILLIANT, truly inspired games very much of their time.

21.3.2021

Classic game great price price!

Icewind Dale 2 (PC) - Reviews

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