Icewind Dale:EE, Your thoughts...
mch202
Member Posts: 1,455
I know that its a wee little bit early as BG:EE yet to be released, but lets *assume* that there is gonna be IWD:EE..
We all know that IWD had some of the Best Animations, Music, Areas and ATMOSPHERE in IE games..
BUT!! it laked in gameplay, it was linear as hell hack&slash style and I personally had a hard time before I could finish IWD2 ( had to start it twice actually... )
again, let assume that they will be doing IWD:EE, what would you expect from the enhancment??
New Areas? Joinable NPC'S?? Open World Exploration?? Sidequests? keep its style as it is ?
your thoughts?
p.s
I think that trent said in one of the twitts that IWD is better for ipad because of its style..
We all know that IWD had some of the Best Animations, Music, Areas and ATMOSPHERE in IE games..
BUT!! it laked in gameplay, it was linear as hell hack&slash style and I personally had a hard time before I could finish IWD2 ( had to start it twice actually... )
again, let assume that they will be doing IWD:EE, what would you expect from the enhancment??
New Areas? Joinable NPC'S?? Open World Exploration?? Sidequests? keep its style as it is ?
your thoughts?
p.s
I think that trent said in one of the twitts that IWD is better for ipad because of its style..
1
Comments
There are already some little quests during the stroy but not enough !!!
Maybe some characters and places depth and some options how to solve some quests/dungeons would help the game a lot.
Other than that, I would like to see the story be a little more overt as I tended to sort of forget what was going on after 8 hours of dungeon crawling...and a choice or two in the direction is always welcome. But essentially IWD is much less in need of being enhanced than BG1, I would say (even though BG1 is my favourite of the IE games).
The reason IWD is bad is not because it has no branching storylines, the reason IWD is bad is that Dragon's Eye is far too long.
Aside from that I have no quarrel. IWD is a solid game with a solid story. Sure, you don't get 'much' story, but the story you DO get is better than ALL of your 'filler' in Baldur's Gate.
I love filler. But IWD doesn't need it. People who think it does can't appreciate a good storyline and Diablo-style (I hate comparing infinity engine games to it) dungeon crawling. That's fine though, not everybody likes spending 10 hours killing things. I don't like spending 10 hours killing things.
But the reason I play Diablo is for atmosphere and quality. IWD has atmosphere and quality. It has a much more specified quality than Baldur's Gate, being set in the frozen mountains and the Ten Towns. IWD perfected the antique system of Baldur's Gate, but skimped on story a bit.
I know I enjoyed IWD a lot more than I enjoyed BG1. Did you people?
I don't need more areas and more sidequests. I just need the soundtrack on my shelf.
Dragon's Eye was amazing; just the interior in level 4; you have to see it in high resolution.
I know what i don't want to see in a future EE of IWD: i really don't want to see the looks from IWD2, not even 3e rules.
P.S. no such thing as "bad" about Icewind Dale; allready slept on as it is.
IWD isn't mindless clicking, but it is combat based. Diablo has little side-story, or even story. The reason I compare to the two is because they both are combat based rather than story.
I didn't like Dragon's Eye because it was too long in comparison to difficulty. Lots of weak monsters, but it takes far too long to get to the end. Could've been a little shorter. But man it IS WORTH IT. Yxunomei is a badass, epic killer boss.
I agree about not mixing IDW2 in it. Poor compared to IWD, not good. Keep them apart no matter wut.
And now you've got the battle music from the first caves area outside Kuldahar playing in my head - where you fight those ghost things outside the caves. And I've got mental images in my mind of how the larger skeletons spin around in a circle as they collapse in their death animations. And the bass singers chanting minor thirds softly in the background inside all the caves. Music and art in IWD are among the best in games.
I've been playing all these infinity engine games for 10 years now, give me something new already!
Featured by -INFINITY 2012-
just dont let uwe boll make use of it....
I Understand that IWD is not BG kind of game, and therefore I dont think that Joinable NPC would make much sense, because its a Linear anyway.
but, I think a couple of new Areas and a sidequests ( not delivery-boy kind of quests ) would add alot to the game, and wont change much its style.
I agree, If a new IE game will be set in the Icewind dale region, and will be in the style of BG1( i.e open world, joinable npc ) it could be potentially better than BG
@Ward I like Dragons Eye, it goes on forever and manages to make the player feel almost as exhausted as the characters would feel, good immersion that, and it builds up to one helluva finale with Xunomei
Some parts of Icewind Dale I prefer over BG series.
I love making my own Party.Even in BG I start all my games in multiplayer so I can at least have 2 party members I made.
Sure I love character interaction in BG , but I also hate being forced to have certain NPC's(Imoen) in your party cause the game lacked pure thiefs.
Icewind dale is a little better suited for Multiplayer over BG.Mainly due to more combat less dialog.
The music scores in both Icewind dale's are well above 99% things by put out in the last 12 years.
I really prefer a Enhanced Edition of Planescape if BG goes right, cos planescape has one of the best plots I've ever come across but with a low utilization of the infinite engine combat system, the only some few lacks in PS:T: few combats through the game (and a terrible quick acess interface to weapons, items, spells and special abilities), a low graphic, a problem with the party AI (that sometimes just can't calculate the patch to a target if something is betwen the NPC and the target) and a almost inexistent use of AI from the enemies during the game.
Today all those problems can be easly solved, what will make the rebirth of one of the best games that ever came to be done.
@cattlekiller pure thieves in bg1: Imoen, Safana, Skie, Alora.... that's more than any other class has, perhaps the problem is that half of these characters can only be recruited after you can enter Baldur's Gate tho which makes you feel that there are no thieves.
I love Icewind Dale, I love the plot, the Npc's, the villains and the locations. It is, however, a very different game from Baldur's Gate, intentionally.
Baldur's Gate is a personal game, it has a personal story. It revolves around your quasi-divinity, legacy of blood and murder, possible godhood and all the problems that come along with it. Icewind Dale is very much a D&D game with a D&D plot; There's evil, go stop it.
Where Baldur's Gate had the plot to drive it on and motivate you, the attacks on your person, your best friend taken away and such, Icewind Dale only has the threat to the world to push you forward, so it has to make its locales more interesting. It would be terribly dull if it were set on the Sword Coast (and BG1 would be a mess if it was set in Icewind Dale).
The Severed Hand is an epic piece of storytelling, especially if you go into Dorn's Deep (my favorite place in possibly any game, aside from Durlag's Tower) and learn the complete story (Nyyyyyym!!). The frozen aquarium is a beautiful place, Kuldahar (with its music) makes a strong impact when you get to it and the long trudge through Dragon's Eye is, while exhausting, incredibly forboding and well finished off. Yxunomei is a frightful villain who hints at a greater evil, who is even creepier when you finally get to him (I got all chilly when I saw the blooddrenched robes of Revered Brother Poquelin, who was surrounded by flowers and bunnies and deer).
All of this compensates for the lack of personal intrest. The simpler, more lineair form also means that there's less to enhance, mostly just the interface and some bugs. It's not an exploration game, it's not a game where NPC's can be fleshed out, it's not a game where your history has to be expanded on. All the areas are well crafted and offer insight into its own history (though nobody answers the question 'How did they get a gorram whale up in that watertank?')
So, if there's an Enhanced Edition of Icewind Dale, I don't see any need for improvement, other than some engine bugs. It already has two expansions, that should be enough.
Icewind Dale 2 on the other hand...I loved it, but where some people complain about Dragon's Eye in IWD, IWD2 has several of those parts, only without the grand finish. Those could be livened up a bit.
In my point of view to forget to develop NPCs (be they in the party or not), to make a non personal history and to make a obvious or maybe classic (to some) history today is a failure.
I didn't like IWD and i hope that a future EE change his plot to give more sauce to it, but i respect your point of view @Drugar.
as @kamuizin said, Its better to focus on enhancing PS:T ( which need serius enhancment ), PS:T is one of the best rpg ever created, but because of poor performence in many fronts, it is not as successful as BG Saga.
But...that was about it. I like lots of things about the game, but roleplaying is not one of them. Unless you make your party roleplay with eachother, which will end up like this. (http://lparchive.org/Icewind-Dale-2/Update 2/ Danger; hilarious link with lots of swearing and violence)
I've replayed IWD for different parties; a mage only party for example. (it didn't go well)
As said, Planescape: Torment needs it more. AI updates, graphic overhaul, better interface, bugfixing, more everything!
But I was sure that after BGEE the next client would be BG3, not other EEs.
They're separated. First BGEE (BG1) will be released before summer ends, and then BG2EE will be released before the end of the year.
Also, I figure a few loose hours are already going into BG2 as pre-work. Taking a wild guess; the NPC that's introduced in BG1 might carry over into BG2 (because, why make one for only BG1). If that's the case, they should already have his storyline planned out til Throne of Bhaal (though in broad strokes for the moment).
Just an example of course.
I have wait this for 13 year, what are 6 months or 1 year more?