Icewind Dale 2 Complete

I love all of the Forgotten Realms Infinity Engine games and IWD2 is no exception. In fact this is the first of those games where I actually almost want to side with the antagonists. I also love that I could canonically finally make a drow without mod intervention :)

I returned to the game after years of not completing it and I finally finished it. Game does run on Windows 10, but you have to do some tweaks. First of all I recommend to run the game in window and with compatibility layer(Windows XP SP3). It shouldn't lag that much with those settings. If you got high resolution monitor I also recommend wide screen mod, but don't set it too high. 1920x1080 should be enough. Bigger fonts mod is optional if you got bad eye sight. I DO NOT recommend installing fixed GUI mod because it broke the game for me after few hours. UI just disappeared. I had to reinstall the game to make it appear. Luckly saves worked. (tip: if you run it windowed you can still scroll the map with mouse. You just have to move the mouse further than the screen ends.) The game itself starts off great. I love Icewind Dale setting and Targos section is one of the best parts of the game that I remember fondly. However after few hours you start to realize that this game is going to be a grind. A literal grind through horde of enemies. Pure hack and slash. There's not much to the story and what's there is rather silly. I have to say if you're not accustomed to infinity engine games this game is going to kick your ass even on normal. I am not kidding with the horde of enemies and there's usually a priest or wizard with the horde to mess up your day. I think ICWD2 is the hardest out of all old BioWare games. It gets really tiring at some points. Where game drops the ball is the middle. Some of the puzzles are trial and error nonsense to waste your time. I just used guides if I couldn't figure it out after 15 minutes I recommend you do that too if you get stuck. Last chapter is really good. Probably the most developed section of the game and puzzles are acceptable. I give it three stars but I only recommend it to people who love infinity engine games and simply want more.

Back then, genres were easier to distinguish. A game was what it was meant to be, without the need for genre cross-pollination just for the sake of mass appeal. These days, Dark Souls, The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk or the modern Assassin's Creeds all pretend to be role-playing games. Back in the good old days, a player had to build up a party, with each member having their own strengths and weaknesses. Success or failure on the battlefield was not a matter of the agility of the player. There was no gunpoint like in shooters. The statistics of the party and the strategy of the player were the only things that mattered. Nice that thanks to GOG you can return to the Forgotten Realms and relive a good old game.

Very slow loading time. Dosen't launch correctly. Not like the original game: it's a patched version with emulated graphics.

The game had way better, tougher, and tactical combat than IWD. The 3e system implementation wasn't the best, but was light years beyond 2e. It has actually good chardev, which is necessary for me in any game. It had great quests and areas, great everything. Though the combat was far superior than any of the other IE games, it is still crappy RTwP. That's really the only negative. If you are the type of person that thinks they like crpgs but would rather play a game that is a story told to you, rather you it simulating your character(s) making a story, I would stick to the other IE games (besides the original IWD too).