IWD2 - Never got into it. Don't know why.
I found my IWD2 cd in a box I was unpacking. I only got halfway through the first time I played - then gave up. I don't know why it didn't click. Maybe it was:
The 3E rules I didn't understand.
The annoying spellbook illustrations - give me simple icons.
The lack of weapon restrictions for any class - I like that clerics can only use blunt weapons. Everyone needs pros and cons to be interesting.
The lack of humour? It seemed really dry.
Or something else? May be I just was expecting something different and I should have made the adjustment.
Does anyone rate this game and know how to play it for fun?
(I did like the difficulty - I found the fight for the goblin fortress good. And I loved the goblin wolf riders).
The 3E rules I didn't understand.
The annoying spellbook illustrations - give me simple icons.
The lack of weapon restrictions for any class - I like that clerics can only use blunt weapons. Everyone needs pros and cons to be interesting.
The lack of humour? It seemed really dry.
Or something else? May be I just was expecting something different and I should have made the adjustment.
Does anyone rate this game and know how to play it for fun?
(I did like the difficulty - I found the fight for the goblin fortress good. And I loved the goblin wolf riders).
Post edited by Tanthalas on
3
Comments
Buts its true that later on there wasn't much humor.
but, hack& slash killed it for me. iwd i went through and it was fine (i liked heart of winter, there was a story attempt in it as well as few really interesting quests. ice rose, the whole seer thing, anybody?).
iwd2 was just... slaughtering any red circle in vicinity. most of the time i had no idea what the hell happened or what my immediate goal is. enter new area, kill, level up, repeat.
i tried to start it again a few times but i get completely demotivated somewhere near ice temple. there is just no motivation for me to kill half the bestiary available to faerun.
Goblins aren't really scary , the death priest is kinda dull , the spells aren't really fun , the voices are terribly boring...
However, I love the custom parties and higher level combats!
The game itself it not very impressive, to say the least. It's a little like DA2 when it comes to dungeon recycling, the absurd amounts of ingame time that can pass makes you doubt the villains' effectiveness (They've had DECADES to realize their evil plan! Nothing is happening! In Fallout you got a Game Over screen after 13 years of stumbling through the desert, at least), the villains are boring, so are the majority of the enemies (goblins, goblins, goblins....) and the 3E rules didn't really work out for me (they force every character to be very generic and un-exceptional, IMO). Overall I though I was playing a bland and repetitive version of IWD 1.
But it has its moments.
I remember picking up a dead cat and a corpse at some point and stashing them safely away in my bag of holding (that fucking bag must have reeked!).
Anyway... literally decades later ("your party has rested for 214 days and 5 hours"), in one of the blandly recycled dungeons, I meet this demon. And it starts talking to me. And one of my characters has this brainfart and dreamily tells this demon how sometimes he likes to play with the dead cat in his inventory and how the cat and the corpse play together and comfort him and tell him bedtime stories and... I forget.
Point is, when even a hellish spawn of evil is utterly revolted by your mere presence, something is terribly off. Probably your sanity.
So I suppose that if you don't like the ruleset or the overall gameplay then you're kinda boned with IWD2 which sucks because it was a nice attempt at mixing 3ED with an isometric viewpoint.
Half-Elf - Ranger/Cleric
Gnome - Figher/Illusionist
Dwarf - Fighter/ Thief
Halfling - Fighter (He's my archer - Between a Halfling and an Elf, I wanted the higher Con)
Human - Fighter
Human - Mage
Human - Paladin
Dwarf - Fighter/ Cleric (healer/basher)
HalfElf - Fighter/ Thief (my archer)
Human - Bard (just to identify on the move really)
Gnome - Illusionist
Human - Diviner
I hate 3 parts in this game : Ice Temple / Black Forest (or something like that / Dragon's Eye...
hum ok so in fact I hate 50% of the game lol
The Severed Hand is my favorite place but it's true, IWD 1 was better.
I dunno know why they couldn't pursue the same principles in iwd2!
And whoever wakes in Lonelywood sees, some morning, unaware
... a corpse mangled by a werewolf.
Ok, not quite the original poem. I think Lonelywood is one of the best creations of the entire Infinity Engine series. The music is beautiful. Every character has a story that you can interact with. The artwork is great. IWD is a great game - but it really takes off when you get to Lonelywood.
Other people's parties posted here have inspired me. In fact I'm going to play it again.
And npcs reacting to your race and class accordingly makes this whole game much more enjoyable. Rping a group of 6 bane priests turned out to be the most fun playthrough yet.
edit: Btw. I liked the story pretty much, especially why the twins started the legion in the first place. A sad story and understandable why they try to conquer Targos and the other cities.
Campaign has its ups and downs, but in all, it's a good game.
So if combat is what you like most about IE games, IWD2 should have you covered for a long time. Otherwise, it's safe to say that there are better titles in the series.
@Ligg: The 3E in IWD2 is fairly transparent in that the feats and such are painless. It plays very much like any other Infinity game.
I remember IWD2 as having some of the best battles in the entire Infinity engine series. I enjoyed the hell out of it along those lines. Beware of dead orc shamans that are still sparkling from a call lightning....
Having to either start over or learn a new and complicated rule set would be bad enough in their own right, but both together were too much considering that I had not expected or wanted either of them. Rather than try to force myself to tolerate IWD2, I just went back to playing BG2 instead and had a much more enjoyable experience.
This is the word to describe IWD2, plus the lake of interest in any of your NPCs or characters in the game made it the black sheep of the IE games.
I stopped played at the bridge, for me, Hack and slash in non stop way is too much violence. But game is good, and very deep in atmosphere.