Posted September 17, 2012
GOG loves D&D! Here's why:
While our [url=http://www.gog.com/en/promo/hasbro_stacking_promo]Diamonds of D&D promo is in the works we--the GOG.com staff-- would like to share some very personal memories with you. Today we we're talking about the coolest game in the entire collection. So cool, that it makes you go knee-deep in snow and slide on glaciers. So cool, that you shouldn't even think about playing it without your winter hat on. So cool, that it just had to include the word "ice" in its title: Icewind Dale series!
It took me a week before I could start Icewind Dale 2. My blessing and a curse of RPG games is that I tend to completely think over any character I intend to play. I need to have a background history, custom portrait, way of roleplaying - even if in my mind only. Usually it takes hours, but in Icewind Dale you have to create a whole party. However, a week and 14 characters later (I couldn't decide on one party) I could finally start playing IWD in earnest. Since that first time two wonderful mods were created that add party NPCs (with dialogues/banters) to both IWD games and now I never play without them.
--Thiev, the GOG.com level 19 bug hunter
Icewind Dale was, to me, always something of a more thinking version of an aRPG like Diablo: brutal combat, epic settings, and a story that didn't interfere with the action. Of all of the Infinity Engine games, it was the one that I best like for just diving in, playing an hour or two, and then moving on to something else for a while. Fighting through the snow against all comers gets even better with some of the mods that were developed by the community in the years after the release of this game, so if you're a fan of the games but haven't tried them recently, you should definitely check them out again and see what's been made of them since then.
--The Enigmatic T, the GOG.com [information classified]
I'd like to confess something. When I say RPG, what I usually mean is actually cRPG. Not that I don't play the pen & paper type - I do! But when I really want to be told a story, I leave it to a whole team of people--the developers--who will tell it to me using my favorite medium--a computer game. And then I take my time to experience it in the fullest, how I want, when I want. But there's one thing that I love about pen & paper RPGs and I always come back for more of it. Heroic fantasy adventures. I used to play a lot of classic Forgotten Realms D&D for the sheer enjoyment of traveling with a party of merry adventurers fearlessly laughing in the face of evil, chopping goblins, gnolls, and ghouls, and spending way too much time drinking ale in suspiciously purposefully located inns. Well, this and loot. And experience points. Ok, I admit it - when it comes to pen & paper RPGs I'm a complete munchkin. And I say that word--munchkin--with pride!
What I love the most about pen & paper RPGs I found in Icewind Dale. It did have a story (and a pretty decent one, for that matter), but it didn't divert my attention from what was clear to be the main focus of the game: adventuring. Being able to create the whole party from scratch was another great pleasure for me. I usually spend at least an hour in any character creation utility that offers more than three customization options. In Icewind Dale I got to do it six times in a row and I enjoyed it immensely each time, before my dream-team of custom-made characters walked through the door of the Winter's Cradle Tavern. From there it was an enjoyable ride, that I like to repeat once every few years. Nothing too demanding, nothing morally ambiguous, just good old heroic fantasy hacking, slashing, and looting. Epic, but not overgrown.
There's one more thing I'd like to mention here. I absolutely loved the art style used for the characters and the hand-drawn intro pictures. The character portraits reminded me of Pre-Raphaelite oil paintings and--in my book--that's as good as game artwork could get. So when I think about the Icewind Dale series, I see it as an immensely enjoyable adventure that does heroic fantasy the way I love the most. And it does it in style!
--G-Doc, the GOG.com clickity-click guy
So, there you have it. Our very own stories of chilling out with the Icewind Dale series. Care to share one of yours?
The previous entries in our GOG loves D&D series, along with some great user-submitted stories (thank you!), can be found here:
GOG loves D&D: The Baldur's Gate series
GOG loves D&D: Planescape Torment
While our [url=http://www.gog.com/en/promo/hasbro_stacking_promo]Diamonds of D&D promo is in the works we--the GOG.com staff-- would like to share some very personal memories with you. Today we we're talking about the coolest game in the entire collection. So cool, that it makes you go knee-deep in snow and slide on glaciers. So cool, that you shouldn't even think about playing it without your winter hat on. So cool, that it just had to include the word "ice" in its title: Icewind Dale series!
It took me a week before I could start Icewind Dale 2. My blessing and a curse of RPG games is that I tend to completely think over any character I intend to play. I need to have a background history, custom portrait, way of roleplaying - even if in my mind only. Usually it takes hours, but in Icewind Dale you have to create a whole party. However, a week and 14 characters later (I couldn't decide on one party) I could finally start playing IWD in earnest. Since that first time two wonderful mods were created that add party NPCs (with dialogues/banters) to both IWD games and now I never play without them.
--Thiev, the GOG.com level 19 bug hunter
Icewind Dale was, to me, always something of a more thinking version of an aRPG like Diablo: brutal combat, epic settings, and a story that didn't interfere with the action. Of all of the Infinity Engine games, it was the one that I best like for just diving in, playing an hour or two, and then moving on to something else for a while. Fighting through the snow against all comers gets even better with some of the mods that were developed by the community in the years after the release of this game, so if you're a fan of the games but haven't tried them recently, you should definitely check them out again and see what's been made of them since then.
--The Enigmatic T, the GOG.com [information classified]
I'd like to confess something. When I say RPG, what I usually mean is actually cRPG. Not that I don't play the pen & paper type - I do! But when I really want to be told a story, I leave it to a whole team of people--the developers--who will tell it to me using my favorite medium--a computer game. And then I take my time to experience it in the fullest, how I want, when I want. But there's one thing that I love about pen & paper RPGs and I always come back for more of it. Heroic fantasy adventures. I used to play a lot of classic Forgotten Realms D&D for the sheer enjoyment of traveling with a party of merry adventurers fearlessly laughing in the face of evil, chopping goblins, gnolls, and ghouls, and spending way too much time drinking ale in suspiciously purposefully located inns. Well, this and loot. And experience points. Ok, I admit it - when it comes to pen & paper RPGs I'm a complete munchkin. And I say that word--munchkin--with pride!
What I love the most about pen & paper RPGs I found in Icewind Dale. It did have a story (and a pretty decent one, for that matter), but it didn't divert my attention from what was clear to be the main focus of the game: adventuring. Being able to create the whole party from scratch was another great pleasure for me. I usually spend at least an hour in any character creation utility that offers more than three customization options. In Icewind Dale I got to do it six times in a row and I enjoyed it immensely each time, before my dream-team of custom-made characters walked through the door of the Winter's Cradle Tavern. From there it was an enjoyable ride, that I like to repeat once every few years. Nothing too demanding, nothing morally ambiguous, just good old heroic fantasy hacking, slashing, and looting. Epic, but not overgrown.
There's one more thing I'd like to mention here. I absolutely loved the art style used for the characters and the hand-drawn intro pictures. The character portraits reminded me of Pre-Raphaelite oil paintings and--in my book--that's as good as game artwork could get. So when I think about the Icewind Dale series, I see it as an immensely enjoyable adventure that does heroic fantasy the way I love the most. And it does it in style!
--G-Doc, the GOG.com clickity-click guy
So, there you have it. Our very own stories of chilling out with the Icewind Dale series. Care to share one of yours?
The previous entries in our GOG loves D&D series, along with some great user-submitted stories (thank you!), can be found here:
GOG loves D&D: The Baldur's Gate series
GOG loves D&D: Planescape Torment
Post edited September 17, 2012 by G-Doc
