Icewind Dale II

[Amiel]

So, broke this out of its box finally (waiting on a friend to return Planescape: Torment)...and it's a ton of fun, a lot of fun. I'm a bit bummed at not being able to gain or lose notoriety reputation points for performing magnanimous or vile actions, but it's really a non-issue.

I've also been playing this game with DaleKeeper, cos after a long day's hard slog all I want to do is wait for the plodding slowness of my characters; all of my characters sprint everywhere at speed 50 (normal speed is 0).

Despite its emphasis on monster-bashing/monster-robbing, the story is actually rather engaging (if a bit bland, but that's a given), perhaps this has also been helped by the excellent voice-acting.

[Triaxx]

If it's running too fast, open your task manager and set it so it's only running on one core. This game, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, and Galactic Civilizations II all require I do this.

[Sylthia]

I had a bit of fun with this game. I really need to go back and finish it, but I no longer use the computer that has my save file, so I have to dig it out.

[Choyrt]

The combat was excellent, and I was really impressed with the implementation of the DnD ruleset. I found the music not nearly as good as the first game, however, but the story was good.

Since Black Isle only had nine months to make it, it is an amazing achievement. This was the last true Black Isle game and was supposed to same Interplay...

[Mordokai]

At this place I'd like to pitch in Garlic's excellent Let's play of Icewind Dale 2. It can be found here (http://lparchive.org/Icewind-Dale-2/Update%201/).

Reading about group of misfits has never been so much fun.

[Aotrs Commander]

Word of warning: unles you have specifically optimised your party for it from the first playthrough, don't be tempted to try Heart of Fury mode

I dug it out recently and tried with the party I'd completed the game with the first time. They'd taken the easy way of adding "difficulty", and just added loads of numbers to the monsters, meaning you basically couldn't attack them in melee (without a very specialised build).

Even after DaleKeepering extra feats onto fighters (to brign them in line with my own houseules), I managed to only get as far as Act II before getting bored, since all the combats were the same (rest, summon Greater Boneguards - summons are about the only thing that can tank the enemy - find combat, spam Entangle/Spikes etc and try to keep enemy at distance, have entire party shoot with arrows, rest, rince and repeat.)

[LibraryOgre]

There were some nice mods for it that made some neat changes... one of my favorites (that I used in a solo run) made every enemy, even woefully underleveled ones, worth at least some XP... because the default counted a goblin as worth 0, no matter how many of them there were. A solo Tiefling Druid, however, was pretty nasty. I beat the game with that character, actually, by saving the "Protection from Magic" scrolls and using them against the final bad guys.

Generally a fun game, though it suffered from a lot of 3e flaws... like the need to preplan your characters for maximum effectiveness. I especially liked the touches they threw in towards races... tieflings and aasimar were exhorted to help the main bad guys (though you couldn't accept their offer), drow had their special bits, as did some classes. It wasn't quite enough to make replay awesome, and Snake Blood didn't do anything when interacting with the yuan-ti, but it was still neat.

[Raimun]

I've played this a few times with different parties.

The most fun I had was when I modeled the six party members as closely as possible as The Order of the Stick. :smallsmile:

[Sylthia]

Finally booted up my old save. Just got to the Drow area.

[Choyrt]

I forgot how much fun it was knocking goblins off of wargs.

I'm still waiting for an Enhanced Edition of Icewind Dale 1.... but if they change the cut-scenes I will NERD RAGE.

[Avilan the Grey]

Never liked these two, because of No Party Banter. I find the BG series far superior.

Tried to play both, but got bored with in an hour or two with both of them.

[Winthur]

Never liked these two, because of No Party Banter. I find the BG series far superior.

It was always kind of meant to be Baldur's Gate Lite and the draw to it was to make fun team compositions and prove your mettle in battles (especially in the Heart of Winter mode).

So basically it's BG that's not for casuals

[Avilan the Grey]

So basically it's BG that's not for casuals

Let's not start the "casual" debate, shall we?

[Raimun]

Icewind Dale II let's you make up your own party. Picking Classes, Feats, everything. That's the main draw.

And of course the tactical party combat with your custom party.

And enough context through story and dialogue to make things interesting.

In all fairness, I'm also interested to try Baldur's Gate too, though Temple of Elemental Evil is higher on my "gotta get that"-list.

[Sylthia]

Never liked these two, because of No Party Banter. I find the BG series far superior.

Tried to play both, but got bored with in an hour or two with both of them.

I likfe the BG series better as well, but unfortunately there's only 3ish or 2 depending on how you look at it games in the series. I could never do Neverwinter Nights because I like having more than 1 or 2 people in my party.

For what it is, the Icewind Dale series is pretty fun.

[Choyrt]

I adore both games, but I understand the preferences people assert on all ends.

For me, personally, there is something going on with the music and art design in Icewind Dale that cannot be beat or duplicated.

[Philistine]

Icewind Dale II let's you make up your own party. Picking Classes, Feats, everything. That's the main draw.

And of course the tactical party combat with your custom party.

And enough context through story and dialogue to make things interesting.

In all fairness, I'm also interested to try Baldur's Gate too, though Temple of Elemental Evil is higher on my "gotta get that"-list.

If I may ask, why ToEE over BG? While I never picked up ToEE (I'm given to understand that extensive patching eventually sorted out most of the issues it had at launch, but it launched with an awful lot of issues), AIUI the general consensus rates BG - especially BG2 and ToB - higher on gameplay, to say nothing of story and character interaction.

ION, now I want to listen to the IWD and IWD2 soundtracks. So it's lucky for me that I have them, huh?

[Avilan the Grey]

In all fairness, I'm also interested to try Baldur's Gate too, though Temple of Elemental Evil is higher on my "gotta get that"-list.

ToEE really really got lousy reviews. to the point that I never bought it. And this from the people that rated BG / BGII 90+.

Apparently it's a buggy mess of badly implemented mechanics.

As for IWD; I know that is the main draw (make your whole party) but to me I enjoy Bioware's characters far too much. It would be like playing ME and replace Garrus with a quiet character you get to design yourself.

[Maethirion]

At this place I'd like to pitch in Garlic's excellent Let's play of Icewind Dale 2. It can be found here (http://lparchive.org/Icewind-Dale-2/Update%201/).

Reading about group of misfits has never been so much fun.

This actually made my day. Hilarious. I may have to pull this game back out...

[Aotrs Commander]

ToEE really really got lousy reviews. to the point that I never bought it. And this from the people that rated BG / BGII 90+.

Apparently it's a buggy mess of badly implemented mechanics.

It was, and Atari flat-out refused to patch it (to the point one of the coders took it home to work on it in his own time). The community patches, however, fixed most of the bugs and it became quite good, and the most accurate 3.5 representation. But in order for it to be playable, you really need to have the community patches.


As for IWD; I know that is the main draw (make your whole party) but to me I enjoy Bioware's characters far too much. It would be like playing ME and replace Garrus with a quiet character you get to design yourself.

IWD I & II were great, but they were unashamedly party hack-and-slash with a bit of roleplaying. (Admittedly, you could play BG 1 & 2 the same way - I don't think I ever in any of my playthroughs of BG 1 used th actual NPCs.)



Project Eternity is (in theory) going to attempt to offer a bit of both, with companion NPCs and the capability to make your own party members too.

[Triaxx]

Icewind Dale 1/2 is to Baldur's Gate as Fallout Tactics is to Fallout 1/2.

It's essentially the story light, combat heavy version of the game.

ToEE is actually pretty good, even in it's default form. Add the Circle of Eight Patch, and it's at least as good as BG1.

[LibraryOgre]

It was always kind of meant to be Baldur's Gate Lite and the draw to it was to make fun team compositions and prove your mettle in battles (especially in the Heart of Winter mode).

So basically it's BG that's not for casuals

I disagree with that, simply because BG involves a pretty heavy investment of time... you can play it casually, but it will take years.


If I may ask, why ToEE over BG? While I never picked up ToEE (I'm given to understand that extensive patching eventually sorted out most of the issues it had at launch, but it launched with an awful lot of issues), AIUI the general consensus rates BG - especially BG2 and ToB - higher on gameplay, to say nothing of story and character interaction.

ToEE was interesting, but it suffered under the 3.x engine, without the benefit of prestige classes.