Icewind Dale 2 Complete

Ich schreibe keine Rezensionen, diesmal mache ich eine Ausnahme, weil dieses Spiel zu meinen beleibtesten gehört (BG1,BG2.ICWD:EE). This Version of the game is unplayable, it crashes nealry every 5 minutes, which wouldn´t be so bad if it wouldn´t freeze my whole PC until I Log off and log in again. Tried many solutions from the internet, nothing works and this website doesnt even try to Update this game so it runs smoothly on newer devices shame.

This is what RPGs were meant to be like. Took me back to the days before responsability.

And the reason is not only that Icewind Dale 1 got "Enhanced". As others have mentioned before, this part was a try get more money from first part's popularity. Second part was made in hurry. It is not so good as first, even considering some improvements. You will never see Ten Towns you are supposed to defend, except ruined and abandoned Targos with no interesting side-quests and NPCs in it. More so, you will have no "base" and many locations will be impossible to visit twice. Locations (backgrounds) themselves got worse than in first part. Art is not that impressive (still better than BG 1-2). Locations are ridiculously small, like Wandering Willage and surroundings, or absurdly big, like Ice Palace that can simply host one of Ten Towns. Every step on these locations however has tough battle in it. Most of them are impossible to win without decent preparations, but reconnaissance will be mostly ruined by cutscenes and/or monsters showing only when battle starts. Loot is overspecialized, meaning you need to carry tons of different equipment to change it in almost every battle (and interface is not helping at all). More so, there is no bestiary. You need to read battle logs very carefully to understand why your +2 axe cannot harm this yet another beast. Oh, and you have beat all crap from yuan-ti in first part at level about 6? Forget it. Here they will beat all crap from you on level about 14. Because screw you that's why. And so on. Better get first IWD. Hope someday we will see this old but cracked gem on proper engine (like Solasta) with turn-based fights as they should be in DnD.

There's something deeply echanting about Infinity Engine games, Icewind Dale 2 being no exception. I mean, yes, the D&D rules governing the gameplay make no sense whatsoever and are overly convoluted to the point of eating their own tail, yes the pathfinding is infuriating, but the cozy Forgotten Realms feel is nowhere else to be found.

This is one of the only games I have purchased from GOG that has never run. There are suggestions on the forums such as installing odd 3rd party files, but no advice from GOG about how to run the game - and plenty of comments about it not working on GOG Galaxy, or from the .exe file. The game itself however is fantastic and I have great memories of playing it from my old CDs. If GOG can provide a way to play it (preferably from their launcher) I'd recommend buying it. But as it is, it has just been a frustrating experience trying to make it work and a waste of money. GOG please fix this problem.