I played this game on amiga as a kid. It was a great game then and its a great game now. I recently sad down to play pc gog version and cannot recommend it. The difference is sound effects and music. It's just straight up worse. Lack of the very catchy song at the beginning almost killed it for me. Also the cartoony characters are out of place. Second thing is design of the levels. I remembered them being unfair but some of them and just trail and error. Designed to waste your recruits and making you start from the beginning with new knowledge of the level gimmicks so you can handle later missions. So if you can get an amiga version and emulate it -go with that. Much better sound/music and save states saving you lots of time. Just don't abuse them too much because learning the levels and their gimmicks is part of the fun. ps. Don't listen to anyone who says higher rank=better soldier. Just like in real world higher rank just gives you fancier grave. Another layer of anti war message. Such a great game!
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.
