Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition Review

Lilura

Hi guys. I have posted my Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition Review. Enjoy!

BelgarathMTH

Nice review. I read the whole thing. I'm still torn over which version to play most of the time. I've gotten kind of spoiled by the quick loot button, but I do like to play IWD without anything from BG2. The BG2 stuff just seems like such overkill, and winds up taking a lot of the fun out of it for me. I've currently got a run going using EE but only a four member party with pure classes, on Core Rules.

I'll be reading more on your blog - it all looks very interesting.

Lilura

Thanks, BelgarathMTH. There is no doubt that IWD:EE is fine for a lot of ppl, but it's just not for me in its current state. Maybe when 2.4 comes out and there is an SCS-like tactics mod available...

Lilura

Thanks for promoting my review, JuliusBorisov. I thanked you at the end of the review, too (and in the first post of my Siege of Dragonspear walkthrough, for promoting that one, too).

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Lilura

I'm just one of those ppl who prefer BG1 to BG2, IWD to IWD2, and the original incarnations to the EEs.

It's partly about game balance, partly about playing the game as the original devs intended it to be played, and partly about nostalgia and the feel of the game (stuff like hearing the bows being drawn back, the swings of the swords, and the clanging of steel on steel, which were removed in the BG2 engine).

For my upcoming retrospective I'm currently replaying IWD again, this time just the 1.06 version from my original CDs (i.e, without HoW installed).

I've noticed that 1.06 runs even smoother than 1.42 (i.e, HoW & ToLM), at least on my PC. And I can use display driver scaling to play at 640x480 res, full screen, for that oldskool feel (I wish I had my old CRT :P). I wasn't able to do this with the GoG version on my PC. It would nest the game in the center of my display, unscaled. I wasn't able to get EE to play at 4:3 res scaled to FS, either.

I read somewhere that Beamdog added extra dialogue for the Tempus PrC, so that's cool. But I think five priest PrCs is ridiculous. And I always thought BG2 kits went way overboard.

AstroBryGuy

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Lilura

I never said Black Isle IWD didn't have issues; I even made it clear in my review that it did. My intention is to cover them in my in-depth retrospective, but just for 1.06, because I never really valued HoW and dislike many of its additions. I'll probably criticize it separately.

And I dislike the tone of your response ("Say what you will [I don't care]"), so I won't be responding to you further other than to say "Say what YOU will (I don't care)".

BelgarathMTH

@Lilura, I think he just made a poor choice of words with the "say what you will" expression. I don't think he meant any offense. Also, remember, we are an international forum, and one never knows for sure that one is talking to a native speaker. Sometimes I think some friction arises between our American and European posters due to misunderstandings based on language or culture. And sometimes even among people from exactly the same region, we get regular internet misunderstandings based on just the limitations of written language without vocal expression or body language.

Lilura

Mmm.. well, it's not just the part I cited but the lecturing tone about things I don't need info on and that are mentioned in the review (original IWD isn't perfect, spell scroll itemization is stingy).

Yes, some posts come off objectionable and perhaps without meaning to, but I'll make it known that I don't like certain tones, regardless.

AstroBryGuy

I certainly didn't mean to offend, but I thought that IWD's gameplay had significant drawbacks for mages that weren't covered by "I'm not saying original IWD was perfectly balanced on golden scales" and "stingily-itemized spell scrolls" (i.e., no spells for Invokers/Diviners at 9th level is beyond stingy). But, if my comment offends, my apologies; it's removed.

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Lilura

I disagree. It's more than a mod, it's an Edition of the game and is named and marketed as such. Beamdog would very much like it to become the defacto standard for IWD, and it probably already is (and that's fine)

Thus, it can be compared to the original version.

And it imbalances the original in many ways.

The fact that the kits are not implausible like in BG is irrevelant to the point that they imbalance the game.

The fact that the original was stingy in its spell itemization is irrelevant to the point that BG2 spells imbalance the game.

And yes, obviously the original had a few balance issues of its own (mostly from HoW, which added all kinds of stuff), but it seems that Beamdog's Enhanced Editions aren't so much about redressing balance as they are about adding features that rock the boat further.

But again, that's fine. Even-handedness is difficult to market. 95% of players don't care about balance: more features and options that result in more power over the mobs are a good thing. Which is why, at review's end I listed all those features and said most ppl are gonna like what the EE offers them.

Just not so much me, or my regular readership that leave comments.

lefreut

***

SirBatince

If you find 1.4 untrue to the original feeling then you're gonna have one heck of a surprise with 2.0+

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Lilura

SirBatince said:

If you find 1.4 untrue to the original feeling then you're gonna have one heck of a surprise with 2.0+

Why would I be surprised? I wasn't surprised with IWD:EE or BG:EE. Because I had played BGT and Tutu before them.

Lilura

By the way, how do you put trolls on ignore?

brunardo

Yeah I found the changes to IWDEE wasnt what I hoped for as the time beamdog put with BGEE trilogy...and they need a SCS version for sure but noticed they upgraded the AI somewhat compared to the originals but not as much as LOB.

brunardo

Anyways looking forward to reading your walkthrough @Lilura as your SOD one was excellent...finished my two runs recently for IWDEE but thinking of doing a third down the line...

JuliusBorisov

Lilura said:

By the way, how do you put trolls on ignore?

If you feel someone is trolling or othewise breaking the site rules, report it using a Flag button on the left of the appropriate post. Moderators will deal with it.