Fond Memories Of Icewind Dale: Share Your's!
Elrandir
Member Posts: 1,664
With this game's enhanced edition on the horizon, what better way to celebrate than for those who have played the game before to reminisce on some of their favorite moments? Here are a few of mine.
This was my first experience with the infinity engine games, and I originally played it when I was... 6? 7? After watching my brother (who was already in his twenties) play, I finally convinced him (after much begging) to let me play. It was wonderful. I never got very far in the game before my brother moved and took his computer with him, but it was an incredibly fun time, and was honestly one of the big reasons I developed a love for fantasy games/books/movies/etc. and for RPG's in general.
I still remember that MARVELOUS voice option. The voice was snarky, made sarcastic comments to the player, and used funny voices in a somewhat mocking way. As a kid, I absolutely adored it. That voice was probably one of the biggest reasons why I like playing snarky characters in games. Even my much older brother found it to be amusing as well, so it wasn't just my childish sense of humour.
The portraits. Every single one was wonderful. While Baldur's Gate's portraits are all tied to a character and are all filled with a lot of thought and design for each character, Icewind Dale's portraits were defining enough to allow for obvious class/portrait combinations, while still being a blank enough slate for you to put your own twist, your own character into them, allowing for the greatest inventive imagination. You made your own characters, and their opinions, their philosophies, their methods, their EVERYTHING was your's to create.
That first town. You're just dropped in. A man says "Want to join me on an expedition?" You say yes, and then you're free to explore, outfit yourself, and even complete some minor quests. (some that even have long-lasting effects on the game) It wasn't like BG, where you had a goal and while you had freedom to choose your path, you knew where to go. Icewind Dale's first town had so many possibilities. For a child like me, I was so amazed. I could CHOOSE what to do, I could CHOOSE my own equipment. You could (with many reloads) pickpocket several handy disposable items that made it seem worth it, just to keep trying for that one special trinket or potion that could save your hide later on. I found a quest or two that my older brother had missed, and it just made me feel that much better, knowing that the little kid me had found more than my adult brother. The first town (the name of which I can't remember) was incredible.
The disappearing robe. In the second town you come to, there's a small shop at the entrance. Most of what it sells isn't that great, but on my first trip inside, there was this super expensive robe. I don't know if it was a glitch or what, but it was this super awesome robe that I could NOT afford. I said "Well I HAVE to buy that later!" but I came back to the shop to show my brother, and it was gone. Somehow, someway, the robe was no longer there. I don't know if the shop's stock changes, I don't know if it was some cruel glitch, or what, but there was that incredible robe that I never got the chance to get.
So those're some of my fondest memories of this game. What're some of your's?
This was my first experience with the infinity engine games, and I originally played it when I was... 6? 7? After watching my brother (who was already in his twenties) play, I finally convinced him (after much begging) to let me play. It was wonderful. I never got very far in the game before my brother moved and took his computer with him, but it was an incredibly fun time, and was honestly one of the big reasons I developed a love for fantasy games/books/movies/etc. and for RPG's in general.
I still remember that MARVELOUS voice option. The voice was snarky, made sarcastic comments to the player, and used funny voices in a somewhat mocking way. As a kid, I absolutely adored it. That voice was probably one of the biggest reasons why I like playing snarky characters in games. Even my much older brother found it to be amusing as well, so it wasn't just my childish sense of humour.
The portraits. Every single one was wonderful. While Baldur's Gate's portraits are all tied to a character and are all filled with a lot of thought and design for each character, Icewind Dale's portraits were defining enough to allow for obvious class/portrait combinations, while still being a blank enough slate for you to put your own twist, your own character into them, allowing for the greatest inventive imagination. You made your own characters, and their opinions, their philosophies, their methods, their EVERYTHING was your's to create.
That first town. You're just dropped in. A man says "Want to join me on an expedition?" You say yes, and then you're free to explore, outfit yourself, and even complete some minor quests. (some that even have long-lasting effects on the game) It wasn't like BG, where you had a goal and while you had freedom to choose your path, you knew where to go. Icewind Dale's first town had so many possibilities. For a child like me, I was so amazed. I could CHOOSE what to do, I could CHOOSE my own equipment. You could (with many reloads) pickpocket several handy disposable items that made it seem worth it, just to keep trying for that one special trinket or potion that could save your hide later on. I found a quest or two that my older brother had missed, and it just made me feel that much better, knowing that the little kid me had found more than my adult brother. The first town (the name of which I can't remember) was incredible.
The disappearing robe. In the second town you come to, there's a small shop at the entrance. Most of what it sells isn't that great, but on my first trip inside, there was this super expensive robe. I don't know if it was a glitch or what, but it was this super awesome robe that I could NOT afford. I said "Well I HAVE to buy that later!" but I came back to the shop to show my brother, and it was gone. Somehow, someway, the robe was no longer there. I don't know if the shop's stock changes, I don't know if it was some cruel glitch, or what, but there was that incredible robe that I never got the chance to get.
So those're some of my fondest memories of this game. What're some of your's?
Post edited by Elrandir on
13
Comments
Honestly I don't really have that many memories of IWD from when I was younger. Too much BG
Of course I also owned Icewind Dale 2 back in 2002 or so (now I own it through gog). At least for about 2 days until its CD physically broke in two because of how tight the CD case that held it was (the only time this has ever happened to me). To say I don't miss the days where you owned a physical copy of a game would be an understatement.
I fell in love with those dwarven ruins.
I'm pretty sure the original Baldur's Gate doesn't have class spesific lines like this and there's not much in the sequel either, so I thought it was all kinds of fantastic back then. I also remember liking the voice of the game's narrator very well. He's very good I think, easily as good as the BG one.
Oh and hordes and hordes of monsters - especially on insane difficulty
Back then I had no idea how anything worked, I didn't know how my mages learned new spells, I didn't know what 99% of my clerics stuff did ... So I would just mindlessly rush in and get vaporized over and over again...
God I hated that place... Now I just lob a few fireballs in their face, easy mode :P
Then I made a new game, with only 4 characters, and everything went much smoother.
I've played this game dozens of times, maybe not all the way through, sometimes it is fun to make a party of characters, but not so fun to play them. I tried to play as many different ways I could.
My most awesome party was the ranged weapon party. Filled up with arrows and bolts and bullets, they killed (almost) everything in their path before it got to them ... Same with my spellcaster party
Things that I like most: Severed Hand and Dragons Eye. The ambush when you return to Kuldahar. And Trials of the Luremaster was such a cool add-on
Well I could talk about this all day ... But I won't...
So I was playing quickly, not really paying attention to the story or dialogue, since I've played so many times before. Then once I got to Kuldahar, I was going up to Orrick the Grey's tower. And for some reason I stopped. The music, the scenery, and the ambient noises just hit me and took me back to playing the game for the first time as a 10 year old. That lonely looking tower, nestled among the roots of a massive tree, the little lantern flickering outside... and that incredible music/ambient combo... now that's fantasy.
Playing as a child, the game was really too difficult for me to get far. Which is why Kuldahar became such an important location: just like in the game's lore it became a safe zone for me, away from all the hostile environments like Dragon's Eye and the Vale of Shadows. That's another reason why, although there wasn't much to do there compared to Baldur's Gate of Athkathla, it's still a very memorable place for me.
I used to love making theme parties when IWD first came out. I did a Star Wars theme party, and I did the cast of the first season of Big Brother, which has remained a guilty pleasure of mine.
I hunted online for a bunch of different photographs of the various movie characters and TV stars, and I would spend hours finding them and cropping them into game portraits. I think I spent as much or more time making game portraits and creating theme parties as playing the actual game.
In fact, I had trouble ever actually finishing the game, because I kept restarting with new party ideas. That's become a pattern of mine with Infinity Engine games.
Some of the voice sets are incredibly memorable. The two that really stick with me are the male who says "Whelp, it looks like I'm going to have to go on a killing spree", and deadpans "Yay. More fighting;" and the female who says "A little fire and lightning should liven things up!"
Edit: every time I play a new party in IWD, I will have a dwarf with this voice set. Sometimes I have two dwarves, with one pure fighter and the other a fighter cleric. The fighter uses axes and this voiceset. I suppose a ftr cle with hammers could "split ya in two", but the dwarven battle axe fighter probably fits that better. Come to think of it, a dwarven battlerager (read: berserker) with this soundset sounds like oodles of fun. I can't wait to play this version.
Meeting Kresselack was trippy.
Also the really, tired annoyed line where he goes "What do you need now...?"
Aragorn: Ranger (shocking, I know)
Weapons: bastard swords/shields/bows
Gimli: Fighter or Berserker. I never could quite see him as perfectly fitting the berserker.
Weapons: Axe. Duh. And single weapon style since there were no two-handed axes.
Legolas: Ranger (In EE he'd be an Archer obviously)
Weapons: Bows and daggers.
Gandalf: Mage (Or possibly Mage/Cleric, since this party desperately needs a cleric)
Weapons: Staff (and sword if I could mess around with the game and let him have one)
Boromir: Fighter
Weapons: long swords and shields
Frodo: Thief
Weapons: Shortswords
My mind is boggling here. Totally.
I hope you added Sam sfter killing off Boromir.
You are absolutely right. When you play Icewind Dale, you can feel the cold wind blowing across your face, the arduous march through knee-deep snow, the warmth of the inn barely keeping the winter out. The entire game oozes personality and style.
He "heals" Frodo of both physical and especially mental ailments at many critical times during the epic. He sees Gollum for what Gollum is, and protects Frodo from him to the best of his ability, as Frodo constantly rejects his attempts to warn. He rescues Frodo from the undead in the swamps. He cures Frodo from the poison of the spider queen, rescuing our Charname yet again, for the umpteenth time and then some.
Samwise's ability to bless, heal, raise morale, rescue from undead, and protect from fear make him the closest to a cleric that I can see in LotR. So, he should be the LotR IWD party cleric, and should be indispensable.
Who to let go in order to include him, I'm not sure. There are so many good choices in a LotR inspired IWD party. But, offhand, I'd say that Sam and Frodo are story-required, and both Gimli and Legolas are needed in order to represent the dwarvish and elvish races.
That only leaves two slots. I'd pick Gandalf for mage, and either Boromir or Aragorn to represent the humans.
I think most people would put Sam in instead of Boromir, but I just really like Boromir a lot and I feel he fits better than the halflings due to his fighting prowess. (Although, as I previously mentioned, Pippin is actually a very skilled warrior, being the first and only halfling to kill an orog-hai, which are the smarter and faster trolls that do not fear the light. One of them nearly killed Aragorn at the end of the third movie, if you're having a hard time remembering them.)
This tale is rather personal and rather depressive, so please be warned.
I remember that my oldest brother often came by, it was almost as if he lived with us. He often played games on my foster father's PC and one of those games was Icewind Dale, the game he played by far the longest. I often watched him while he played, we came up with the party together, we talked about the game a lot ... it was just like back when our parents where still around.
It was one of the rare moments I actually felt at home at my foster family's place.
So yeah, Icewind Dale gave me a small bit of my childhood back and for that I will forever hold it very dearly.
I also enjoyed the Severed Hand area. Such tragedy!
The entire game has a feel of melancholy, and the artwork in some of the areas actually evokes a shiver sometimes. It just looks so cold!
Other highlights include all the little class specific discoveries and the stories behind the various weapons and items you find along the way.
Can't wait to see them all in the good resolution.