I love this game. Best D&D computer game ever! But without the Circle of Eight modpack it's practically unplayable. Even with that, there's still a ton of bugs. If you can stomach the technical issues and the steep difficulty curve, you'll have a blast.
Icewind Dale is a very fun game if you enjoy lots of combat, occasional traps, and straightforward dungeon exploration. If you want some story and some combat, play Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights or Arcanum. If you want all story, play Planescape:Torment. If you want nothing but combat in beautifully rendered areas, then Icewind Dale is for you. Though the game can drag towards the end, the first half will have you delving deep into exciting areas to slay powerful monsters. It's a great way to spend 40 hours.
Having played all 3 of them, the 1st and 3rd to completion, I just don' t see them as being worth $10. The first one can be found online for free (I believe it was given away as a promo for 7), and there are high-rez fan-made remakes of the first two floating around out there. Sure, when they came out they were revolutionary and moved us from the mystery house era to the full-graphics era, but they just weren't that great by today's standards. Do yourself a favor, skip this collection, and go download the Infocom Zork games for free.
With 32 other reviews our right now, this is just a drop in the bucket. Still, it's worth it to say that you'll never find a handmade world bigger than this one. Sure, one can argue the infinite forests of procedural generation, but there's nothing more fun than stumbling across a set of ruins or a cave set in a mountainside as you traverse the massive continent. The balance isn't perfect, and the game can be very difficult to start, but its definitely one of the best RPGs in existence and you'd be a fool not to try it. Demos for it are still available online if you want to try before you buy.
To me, this game sets the standard for creepy, grotesque adventure games. An excellent story, and reasonably easy puzzles allow you spend time being drawn into the world rather than banging your head against a wall. The only reasons I don't give it 5 stars are the sub-par voice acting for some characters, and the clunky movement system, leading to some areas being rather annoying to solve. However, these are minor flaws, and any adventure game, horror, or mystery fan should not hesitate to buy this game.
