Icewind Dale 2 Complete

Nothing against GoG, but IWD2 simply is not what even IWD1 was. When it was released, it was massively buggy. Combat isn't all that great, and spell availability for mages is pretty bad. Sorcerers were bugged too, not sure if that was ever fixed. At higher difficulties, AoE is pretty much the only option.

...he finally finished the game out of sheer, morbid curiosity." Yes, it took me that long. Reading the other reviews from GOG, and elsewhere on the internet, it's comforting to know that I'm not the only one who either took forever to work up the energy to complete this wretched child of the IE games, or just never bothered finishing it. I'll tell you what, though; I was a hair shy of permanently ending up in the latter category more than once during my one, and only, full play through. Look, I enjoy a challenge. The other IE games presented me with great challenges. Even NWN and NWN2 presented me with great obstacles and challenges. That being said, IWD2 was just plain old impossible. The only reason that I beat this game is because I made some modifications (mildly cheated), and set the difficulty down to "very easy" and, even with these changes, I found myself at a standstill at more than a few points. What does that tell you? Keep this in mind before you buy. How about the story, though? Well, it's about as stale as a bag of expired potato chips. I honestly don't know what else to say. I might as well have put a coat of paint on my fence, set up a lawn chair, and drank a beer while I sat and watched it dry. Most of the game is completely irrelevant to the plot, so don't be surprised if you find yourself wondering why you're characters are where they are, or doing what they're doing. The ending is even less rewarding and exciting than the rest of the game, incidentally. Keep that in mind, as well. Why two stars, then? Well, because it still gave me something to distract myself for a few days, and it is, technically, a game that is also an interactive video; a video game, which is what I paid for. That's the one thing keeping it from only getting one star.

Does not work on my computer, tried support and multiple fixes. So won't recommend this unless you are sure it will be compatible with your computer, otherwise it's just a waste of money.

While the first IWD may not have had the most intricate story ever written, it was epic enough to keep me interested and involved. I can't say the same for IWD2. The Narrator of the movie sequences was talking about IWD1 while you were playing IWD2, and the way they related made either no sense, or was so boring that I did not care. This does not take away from the fact that the combat was excellent, and it is an enjoyable dungeon crawl, just for the gameplay. Sadly, IWD2 had the dubious honor of being the only IE game that I ever sold off. Now that I can have it back without it taking up ANY space in my house, I think I will get it again.. :-)

Icewind Dale 2 is not as good as its predecessor and pales in comparison to the Baldur's Gate games or Planescape: Torment. It is a long linear slog that revisits several locations from the first game and makes you fight your way through some sections multiple times. The combat is cheap and nasty, like a pen & paper RPG run by a sociopath who is trying to annihilate his friends. The story is not good enough to warrant the time and effort involved in getting through it. On the plus side, it runs flawlessly on Linux using WINE.