Icewind Dale II

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Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000065DGH
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: August 27, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,755 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

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

Cons:

• Retro looking in this 3-D age of Neverwinter Nights
• Often too difficult for its own good

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Return to the Dale, September 7, 2002

By	-- "--" (Gondor, IN) - See all my reviews

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.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserving of Better than Five Stars, December 29, 2002

By	Alex (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews

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.

42 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Worthy Successor to an Instant Classic, September 18, 2002

By	Yu-jin Chia "Yu-Jin Chia" (Cupertino, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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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