Okay, first of all, when this game came out back in the day, I distinctly remember it getting only average reviews, but now, it's suddenly getting nines and tens. What gives? Did the game become better as it aged or something? I hardly think it did. Have you ever wondered what you would get if you had Baldur's Gate and took away all the non-linearity, the interesting characters and quirky companions, the well-designed areas, the balanced combat, the huge variety in enemies and battles, the engaging story and the wondrous feeling of adventure? Well, you would get Icewind Dale. It has none of those things and for a game based solely on combat, it has some very poorly designed battles. You basically fight the same mob of enemies over and over again until you get to the next room where you fight them again. If that wasn't annoying enough, the Infinity Engine truly shows its greatest weakness here as the poor pathfinding turns the game into a nerve grating micromanaging task. It probably wouldn't have mattered back in the day where every game was like that, but it wouldn't fly in today's world. The only reason people are giving such high scores is obviously because of nostalgia instead of the game's own merits.
