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What do you guys think of Icewind Dale?

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  • SeriousMikeSeriousMike Member Posts: 38
    Because of the heavy focus on fighting I prefer IWD over BG for multiplayer sessions. But the lag is a real problem. After a while the clients desync pretty bad. Has anyone found a solution to this problem?
  • FillaFillasonFillaFillason Member Posts: 110
    The problem whit icewind dale is that you have to create your own party, witch takes away the rp fealing. What makes the bg games great over iwd is the interactions between characters, personality etc
  • SilverstarSilverstar Member Posts: 2,207
    ID1 I've never managed to get really far with. I found it too damn hard, though that might be due to me never using a full party (more people means slower leveling, give me my levels damnit, ROAR!)... but I must say I find the storyteller to be amazing, even better so than the Baldur's Gate guy which is also great, the music is beautiful and the "ambience" all over the place is too. I also only ever played it after BG2 which made going back to the horrible low resolution impossible.

    ID2 is quite awesome I think. I really like having sub-races available; if only it had BG2's class kits too. There's a lot of neat upgrades to the infinity engine in the game and once again the level design is very well done with all that involves. There's a lot of really good dialogue, some downright hilarious (anyone remember "Me goblin. Me hungry." from the chimera fort door?) and a lot that is contextual based on class and race. It even changes a few quests slightly here and there, like a paladin instantly exposing a shapechanged witchthing through in-dialogue use of Detect Evil, thus saving you 20 minutes of running around doing her errands.

    I'm not a huge fan of the particular ruleset used in ID2, but it works well enough and has had me make tons of characters and parties even without getting to roll for stats. The storyteller isn't very good though. It's not bad voiceacting, but the girl just doesn't give the DM/storyteller feel of the guys in the Baldur's Gates and first Icewind Dale. The story itself is nice I think, but then I like action movies and don't read paperback books, so apparently I have no clue about such things :(

    What makes the Icewind Dales lose points is that there's -no- NPC party members available. Making your own party is nice and all, I've even done it a ton of times in the Baldur's Gates by starting a multiplayer game and just filling it with my own characters, but some party banter and reactions to your choices is sorely missed.
    QuartzParasolsyndicate
  • SeldarSeldar Member Posts: 438
    Characters and maps are great in IWD 1 and 2 ! Larrel, Malavon, Iselore, Isaïr and Madae.... The severed hand, Profondorn, Khuldahar
    JolanthusWoldanKurumi
  • KharasKharas Member Posts: 150
    IWD 1 and 2 are damn great games.. some of the best game music ever!

    I have completed both numerous times, and I really hope for an IWDEE 1 and 2.

    But the one thing I hope for in that situation.. is party banter. It really make the characters come alive.. and I really miss that :(
  • drawnacroldrawnacrol Member Posts: 253
    I kind of want to play IWD 1 again.
  • BelgarathBelgarath Member Posts: 15
    Personally I prefer Second Edition rules than third Edition. I will agree that the Icewind Dale Series is not such a great story but it has all the elements we loved from BG Series to get you going. Event though as I said IW2 and AD&D 3rd Edition is not my fav, back in the August of 2002 it looked like Christmas to me. :) While waiting for a BG3 that never came, IW2 was the next best thing that summer.
  • KosonKoson Member Posts: 284
    I liked IWD1, in IWD2 didn't like the 3rd edition AD&D rules so gave it a few attempts but only once finished making a full party and even then never got out of the starting village.
    Sachery said:


    A game I dont see peole write about is Arcanum, a game some are both uniq & good. Alot of freedom and some very special quests.

    Arcanum was fun despite the outdated graphics and bugs (most of which were fixed by its last patch), sort of a fantasy Fallout. Joinable NPCs were very well made there, with strong personalities and following their own agenda.
  • AnduineAnduine Member Posts: 416
    I will keep my answers short in order to prevent myself from rambling (A rare occasion).

    I prefer the Baldur's Gate saga to Icewind Dale 1, though I enjoy it. I do not like Icewind Dale 2. The change in edition and the overall feel of the game made me feel like I was playing a diminished form of some different game.
  • charnamecharname Member Posts: 13
    like said before trying to create the perfect party is more fun than actually playing the game. i started a new game in iwd2 so many times but only few times managed to get to the final chapter and never actually finished the game. but right now i'm pretty close to the end.

    if only druids had animal companions and the ability to cast spells while shapeshifted, then a six druid party would rock so hard. just think about it; six bear companions, six druids shapeshifted into bear and also casted call lightning... your opponents would definitely feel the nature's wrath.

    "nature, take the life she gave!"
  • KerozevokKerozevok Member Posts: 695
    IWD ? A hack'n'slash with a better scenario than The Black Pits... :)
  • The_Guilty_PartyThe_Guilty_Party Member Posts: 44
    IWD and IWD2 were both nice, but didn't have that hook or drive to get me to finish them. The BG series was a lot better at giving me a good feeling of Why I'm going around slaughtering goblins.
  • MilesBeyondMilesBeyond Member Posts: 324
    I absolutely love IWD. It's a very different beast from BG but still quite enjoyable in it's own right. The combat is far and away better than anything in the BG series, IMHO. The battles are larger and much more tactical.

    Also, as has been said, its lack of emphasis on story and dialogue makes it a substantially better game than BG for multiplayer. Get a couple friends together, create a party and off you go.

    That being said, that same lack of emphasis is what keeps it from being a top-tier RPG, in my book. It will never be as good as BG, Fallout, or Planescape: Torment.


    I guess I like to see IWD as the pinnacle of the old D&D based games; while BG represented a new sort of RPG, IWD took the party-based dungeon-romp of games like Eye of the Beholder and perfected it.

    Plus I love what the Heart of Winter expansion did with the classes. Bards getting a plethora of different songs, with the last giving regeneration? Druids gaining a whole bunch of immunities, the ability to shapechange into elementals and some wonderful spells that aren't even in BG2? Clerics having different spells depending on if they're good, neutral or evil? That was some cool stuff that I wish they'd bring into BG. Especially the Bard and Druid boosts - helps to improve two unpopular classes.
  • TalvraeTalvrae Member Posts: 315
    Personally too much of an action game not enough of a RPG
  • SilverstarSilverstar Member Posts: 2,207
    Been giving ID (the first one, allready like the second) another go for the last day now. My opinion is improving rapidly. Never knew one of the expansions introduced playable resolutions... and apparently quite a few other upgrades as well. Really helps kill time till BG:EE is out!
  • bigdogchrisbigdogchris Member Posts: 1,336
    edited August 2012
    The only real difference between BG and IWD is the linearity of the story telling, writing quality and pacing.

    I'm playing IWD2 right now and I like the UI, the implementation of the 3rd edition rules and the sub-races. Casters are limited though but they are still fun.
  • MilesBeyondMilesBeyond Member Posts: 324
    One of the things I always thought was funny and also awesome about IWD was the way that the experience given increased/decreased based on the difficulty level. Because people who play games on Easy are jerks.
  • MusaabMusaab Member Posts: 92
    I really, really enjoyed the Icewind Dale games a lot. IWD2 was a very fun game, and while some of you guys rag on the story, it's probably because you were spoiled by BG.
  • SilverstarSilverstar Member Posts: 2,207

    One of the things I always thought was funny and also awesome about IWD was the way that the experience given increased/decreased based on the difficulty level. Because people who play games on Easy are jerks.

    No idea how anyone can play on less than Normal, or D&D hardcore which BG/ID/NWN calls it. Flesh to Stone needs to be permanent!
  • LadyRhianLadyRhian Member Posts: 14,694
    I Played IWD twice. The first time, I only created one character, thinking that, like Baldur's Gate, I'd meet companions to add to my party. Yeah, I got disabused of that notion *very* quickly. The second time, I played the game through and beat it. And... I never played it again. It was okay, but it was missing all the things I loved about Baldur's Gate. No party interaction, and it was mainly fighting. A lot of fighting. Which is okay in its way, but where was the role playing? It was a lot more like Roll Playing, and that's not the same thing.
    DragonspearElandir
  • koverasaltkoverasalt Member Posts: 4
    My roommate and I played through both IWDs a few summers ago. It was fun creating 3 characters each. My favorite memory was the Timeloop Lava place, I can't remember the name or game. The worst part was in one of the intros, we had to kill all the goblins. There was one goblin that seemed to be offscreen or invisible. We had to reload quite a few times before we were finally able to complete the intro.

    I'm not too keen on the differences between rulesets so that didn't affect me that much. Both games were enjoyable experiences though I don't really remember the stories...something something demons something evil shamans maybe?
  • MornmagorMornmagor Member Posts: 1,160
    I didn't like Icewind Dale a lot. Played through IWD2 a lot of years ago and haven't touched it ever since.

    What i didn't was :

    1) No npcs to join your party. I had the option to create my own party in BG2 as well, i didn't need IWD for that, so it just felt like BG without interaction.

    2) 3rd edition rules. Not that it's a bad thing, bad in IWD it was.

    And here's why.

    In BG2 there was a nice thing called kits, that allowed you some further customization of your character.

    The equivalent of that was in 3/3.5 edition as prestige classes, which was not present in IWD.

    Also, IWD uses 3rd edition, not 3.5, so basically you have a sub par system with the basic classes only, not allowing you some customization that would come close to what you could create with prestige classes, not allowing you party banter with all the other stuff that comes with it, and with the same dated visuals of BG2.

    And although i like BG graphics, even then i always believed it would look 10x better if it was hand-drawn instead of a 3D rendered in 2D pixelated image.

    In other words, i didn't feel like i needed IWD after playing BG and especially after PS:T which i played before it.
  • SchneidendSchneidend Member Posts: 3,190
    @Talvrae
    HP, experience levels, loot, different gear to choose from. Sounds like an RPG to me.


    @Mornmagor
    I don't think you're recalling IWD quite correctly. IWD1 was using 2E rules, IWD2 was using 3E rules. And, even without prestige classes, IWD2 had the awesomeness that is choosing Feats. that's more customization of abilities than BG2 ever allowed.
  • MornmagorMornmagor Member Posts: 1,160
    Yeah, icewind dale 2 is what i'm talking about. I prefer having kits over feats, never liked the vanilla 3E.
  • TalvraeTalvrae Member Posts: 315

    @Talvrae
    HP, experience levels, loot, different gear to choose from. Sounds like an RPG to me.

    That<s not my definition of a RPG, it<s more than character and inventory management, it<s being a character, take decision as the character, trought dialogue and action and IWD sure lack of thouse
  • recklessheartrecklessheart Member Posts: 692
    I imagine my opinion is rather conformist. Good game; relief from playing Baldur's Gate all the time while still being 2nd edition. But it's nowhere near as good. Enjoyable, yes, but it really is just a dungeon-crawl with no personalisation to it. Furthermore, some of the areas are really tedious (namely Dragon's Eye, appearing in BOTH games and being the least entertaining area in ANY D&D game).

    Another issue I had with IWD is how generic the items are. I liked the randomised loot thing; it made things vaguely interesting across multiple playthroughs. Even so, BG had amazing items with huge backstories and a lot of attention paid to them to make them special. Whereas in IWD the best items you can get are a little more mechanic in their delivery; Fire Dagger +1, Sword of Phasing +2, etc.

    Ultimately, IWD would benefit hugely from an EE. There's nothing the developers could really mess up. Just add kits, maybe some subraces, a few new areas and new items. *shrug* It wouldn't be anywhere near as risky as BG:EE. Mind you, it also wouldn't attract nearly as much attention, as IWD is universally less loved than BG, I think.
    TalvraeDragonspearMoomintroll
  • beerflavourbeerflavour Member Posts: 117
    edited August 2012
    I like IWD for what it is. When not in the mood for much story and NPC interactions then IWD with its linearity is an ideal hack&slay. Create a custom party (with or without experimenting) and enjoy the combat part.

    Actually the random loot is great. On every play through I have a different party (different class setup, different races, different alignments). So there is always a good chance to find decent items for the party. Static loot would just be an incentive to replay with the same old party setups.
  • DaekeeperDaekeeper Member Posts: 12
    I never could get interested in it. I tried many times. I'd always end up finding a new bg2 mod and forget about Icewind Dale.
  • elsmalloelsmallo Member Posts: 5
    IWD1 had the best artwork and music by far of any infinity engine game, imho. The area art, hand-painted and 2D, is still better and more beautiful imho than any 3D RPG I've seen. I loved the unique inventory icons and inventive backgrounds to the magic items. I actually felt sad to leave some of those weapons behind when upgrading, like Kresselack's Sword (2-hander +1) or his black plate mail, even though they were entry-level items, because they were just so damn cool. And while I missed the NPC's of, say, BG2, others I know preferred the system of creating your own party and not having to bother with all the annoying 'banter' and characters they didn't like etc. Each to his own. I think that if BG had been made with the same level of art detail and location design/music developed in IWD, it would be simply a peerless game, as opposed to being, um, a peerless game. I'm a visual artist by profession though, so perhaps I value these things a bit more. In terms of gameplay, I loved the big battles in IWD and especially the Heart of Winter expansion against some tough monsters. But tactically nothing beats for me the battles against spellcasters and high-level opponents in BG2, where winning required forethought, luck and a lot of nail-biting in the best cases. Story-wise, there's no contest - BG2 was epic and meaningful - at times moving and disturbing; IWD was a standard dungeon crawl. Fun and beautiful, though!
    Dragonspear
  • JolanthusJolanthus Member Posts: 292
    Icewind Dale allowed me to experiment with my party a lot more than Baldurs Gate did Allowing me to create a party consisting of only multi-class characters. Since I already knew the characters inside and out, I didn't really need interparty banter. It was already in my head.

    Fighter/Mage
    Fighter/Theif
    Ranger/Cleric
    Cleric/Mage
    Mage/Theif
    Fighter/Mage/Theif
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