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Should I bother with Icewind Dale?

I’m a huge Baldur’s fan from the old days. I played Icewind Dale when it came out and was underwhelmed with it compared to BG. The graphics were muddy and the story was thin. I did like it a fair bit. Now that I see Icewind Dale 2 is DEAD/will NEVER EVER BE MADE (which is actually really depressing to me :'( ) due to the loss of the original code computer-ey whatever stuff...

Should I bother getting Icewind Dale EE or not?
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Comments

  • WesboiWesboi Member Posts: 403
    Nah wouldn't bother until update or get in a sale if it's cheap.
    Abby_Zero
  • Mantis37Mantis37 Member Posts: 1,173
    Get it cheap. It may end up being playable within BG2 as part of the Enhanced Edition Trilogy project, and it's not bad as a change of pace and atmosphere.
    AerakarAbby_Zero
  • jsavingjsaving Member Posts: 1,083
    Get it and use the iwdnpc mod, which gives you five bg2-type joinable npcs.
    Abby_Zero
  • Abby_ZeroAbby_Zero Member Posts: 68
    I’m on my iPad :/ no mods

    What does playing it “within Baldur’s Gate 2” mean out of curiosity

    I got it by the way, I didn’t remember the portraits until I loaded it up lol
    Really takes me back.

    It seems harder to roll decent ability scores than BG.

    I always loved BG better, but IWD is still decent.
  • AstroBryGuyAstroBryGuy Member Posts: 3,437
    Abby_Zero said:

    I’m on my iPad :/ no mods

    What does playing it “within Baldur’s Gate 2” mean out of curiosity

    You can mod! See this - https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/66644/how-to-install-mods-on-ios-devices-no-jailbreak/p1

    Also, IWDEE is based on a mod, IWD-in-BG2 by DavidW and CamDawg (the latter now works for Beamdog). It ported the game to the BG2 engine (like Tutu and BGT did for BG1).
    Pibaro_Luke_Abby_Zero
  • InKalInKal Member Posts: 196
    "The events in IWD will always unfold as they have before."

    BG1/2 is almost exactly the same. Narrative driven 99% with illusion of choices. ;)

    but the most important difference between BG1/2 and IWD (and PoE for example) is that BG1/2 has not only a story but also a PLOT. Especially BG1 plot is excellent, unjustly outshined by BG2 plot (also great but not as good as BG1 imo - why I MUST go to the Underdark?? Irenicus? come again? stole something from me? what? my soul? eeeee....nice try. Heya, it was me! OK, I get it!)

    Overall IWD with its more simple and I would dare to say reasonable game mechanics is more suited for new players. For veteran BG players - play without prejudice/bias and cut your anomens short.
    Abby_ZeroPokota
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @InKal Not quite. You have far more choices in the story of BG2. Heck siding with Bohdi or the Shadow thieves changes the dynamics between you and several factions throughout the story. NPCs respond differently to you and the choices. You aren't railroaded to every area like in IWD, you can skip at least half the content in BG2 if you want. The end result is one of 4 possible results, whic is four times as much as IWD. The basic story unfolds in much the same way, but your choices changes much of the ride through BG2 as well as changing the ending. Not to be sniffed at for 1998ish
    Dev6BelgarathMTH
  • Dev6Dev6 Member Posts: 719
    edited November 2017
    IWD > BG

    IWD lets you create a full party of adventurers. No forced backstory. No reasoning. You just create a party and imagine why they're there, which IMO opens up more possibilities for roleplay.
    Sure, BG also lets you create a party but the game wasn't created with that in mind, it was created just with charname in mind. And some of the Race/Classes don't even make much sense considering that you've lived in candlekeep your whole life.

    The music is a million times better in IWD.
    The ambiance and aesthetics are better too. The Spine of the World is gorgeous.

    BG is better in that it lets you go out in the wilderness and explore, I'll give it that. It's a shame IWD never lets you just go out and explore. It's much more streamlined.

    I disagree with those who say IWD lacks history/plot. It's not the main focus, but it's there, and I personally prefer it over BG.

    I found myself much more immersed in the world of IWD than I ever did in BG.

    All in all, this is mostly down to personal tastes. Just try it out. You might not like it more than BG, but you will definitely enjoy it.
    CamDawg said:

    The events in IWD will always unfold as they have before.

    So will the events in BG.

    EDIT: Ehhhh, okay. @ThacoBell made some fine points in his previous post.
    RedrakeoakheartBelgarathMTHAbby_Zero
  • WesboiWesboi Member Posts: 403
    Ignore the comments about party creating you've always been able to make your own party in BG 1 n 2. If you want story go BG series if you want more combat and less story go IWD. That pretty much sums up the core gameplay.
    Abby_ZeroPokota
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    I always found the lack of fleshed out npcs to be to IWD's detriment. This is of course all up to taste, as I play rpgs more for the characters than the overarching story. Most stories don't really surprise me anymore.
    tbone1AerakarAbby_Zero
  • jsavingjsaving Member Posts: 1,083
    IWD is really good about providing lore, fleshing out the setting, and making sure dungeon layouts match the type of creatures living there. On the other hand it is fairly weak when it comes to NPC interaction, choices-and-consequences, and a compelling critical path. In many respects it is a mirror image of BG2, with all the pluses and minuses that entails.
    semiticgoddess
  • IWDIWD Member Posts: 24
    I loved IWD way more than BG, because of the setting and having more and much harder battles.

    Story and battles are the real big differences between BG and IWD. BG is much more story-based. The battles are short most of the times and you got to fight less monsters. BG II has more fights and harder monsters as well (like dragons and stuff). IWD has got a very linear storyline with just a few side quests, but its focus is on battling hordes of monsters. Another thing to mention: IWD has the much better soundtrack. The melodies are quite awesome. I've never had a game with a place you've got to return over and over again (like Kuldahar) where I could stand and even enjoy the music even after the tenth time being there. And IWD's story is not bad at all. It always keeps you moving forward, crawling the next dungeon, killing monsters and looting stuff.

    If you don't like the battles or battle system, don't bother with IWD. If you don't like dungeons, spiders, undead and cold weather, don't bother with IWD. If you want a game of not keeping track with the storyline at all at some point, don't bother with IWD.

    And I nearly forgot smething: most of the spells look much cooler in IWD. And there are a lot of them, I haven't even tried in like five walkthroughs of just the basic game.
    JuliusBorisovBelgarathMTHAbby_Zero
  • Dev6Dev6 Member Posts: 719

    @JuliusBorisov , Wow, I had no idea Minsc and Archdruid Arundel were one and the same. He's an amazing voice actor. Those two characters are a universe apart from each other.

    Apparently he also voices Hondo from the Star Wars Clone Wars / Rebels cartoons.
    I never would've recognized him.
    BelgarathMTHJuliusBorisovAbby_Zero
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Jim Cummings has approximately 3+ roles in everything that has ever been made that requires voice work, even from before he was born.

    Back on topic: I think BG1 suffers from the exact same lack of NPC interaction that IWD has. It wasn't until BG2 that npcs actually became characters.
    Abby_ZeroDev6lolien
  • RaduzielRaduziel Member Posts: 4,714
    IWD is awesome, go for it. Just wait a little bit for the 2.5 patch, otherwise you'll probably need to restart your game.
  • Dev6Dev6 Member Posts: 719
    Raduziel said:

    IWD is awesome, go for it. Just wait a little bit for the 2.5 patch, otherwise you'll probably need to restart your game.

    He'll probably be able to finish IWD long before the patch is released lol.
  • PokotaPokota Member Posts: 858
    edited November 2017
    Dev6 said:

    Raduziel said:

    IWD is awesome, go for it. Just wait a little bit for the 2.5 patch, otherwise you'll probably need to restart your game.

    He'll probably be able to finish IWD long before the patch is released lol.
    He probably could, at that.

    The really neat thing about Icewind Dale is - the lessons you learn playing vintage* Baldur's Gate don't always apply to Icewind Dale because the scope of the battles are different. Likewise, the reverse is also true. It's best summed up by Fezzik from The Princess Bride: "You use different moves when you're fighting half a dozen people, than when you only have to be worried about one." Solo and semisolo† fights are more plentiful in BG+TotSC so the overall strategy more strongly accounts for situations like Wizard Speed Chess or Amelyssan's puzzle battle. Meanwhile, in IWD you're fighting an army of Goblins, then an army of restless undead, then an army of Yuan-Ti, then an army of Elves, then an army of Salamanders, then an army of Drow, then an army of Barbarians...

    *I specify 'vintage' because ToB leaned more toward IWD's scope to begin with, and SoD's scope is that of ToB but at a lower character level.

    †Semisolo: A fight against a group of enemies, wherein the defeat of one specific one immediately finishes the battle in your favor. A perfect example of one is the Sarevok fight at the end of BG1
    Raduziel
  • AstroBryGuyAstroBryGuy Member Posts: 3,437
    @BelgarathMTH - The characters in IWD have very good voice sets but zero interaction. They have selection sounds and action sounds and such, but your characters don't talk to each other or comment on the adventure at all. In IWDEE, you can have a LG paladin and CE blackguard in the same party and they won't come to blows or even tell the other off. Compare that to vanilla BG1, where having Ajantis and any evil party member will result in a throw-down at some point.

    Adding this kind of interaction is one reason I love to use Kulyok's IWDNPC mod and Domi's IWD2NPC mod.
    lolien
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