Icewind Dale 2 Complete

I never was a fan of Icewind Dale. I remember abandoning the game after playing it for a while. It was shortly after it first came out and I had just finished Baldur's Gate and expected more: more story, more immersiveness and less linearity. It felt like a hack'n'slay-game in comparison. Now I decided to give Icewind Dale 2 a try and am quite happy with it. The combat is tough and very strategic. The amount of sidequests is just right and so is the layout of the different areas. It just almost never gets boring. It is still true, though, that, like its predecessor, it lacks the open world that Baldur's Gate offered. Somewhat like Neverwinter Nights 2, the game and it's storyline more or less run on rails and it is almost impossible to derail the whole thing. But while I disliked this fact about Neverwinter Nights 2, I actually like it about Icewind Dale 2. It never gives you the feeling of being forced to do something when you acutally want to do something else. Its like every curve of the railroad seems reasonable, every change of speed justified, every stop just in time. This is a hard thing to accomplish in game-design, I assume! Even apart from that, the storytelling is good: You have to act like a hero at times, but on other occasion, you need to make questionable decisions. All of them seemed natural enough for me. This adds to the overall atmosphere of the game and makes the story believable. I didn't finde any obvious flaws. It's challenging but well balanced, polished, well thought-out, features an intriguing enough story and runs reasonably well even on newer machines. If anything, it is time-consuming as it is surprisingly long. What starts of as a simple mercenary mission step by step becomes a deep story with some surprising twists. I would compare the game to the german title Drakensang, which is somewhat reminiscient of it here and there - and is equally long and winding.

Masterpiece!

Next step in saga, new class and penalties, new quest and some new features, overall good sequel.

Largely linear game with a big focus on combat. The encounters are fun and exciting, however, this game could have easily been a solid 4 if I did not have to resort to using the console to get out of a game breaking bug in Ice Wall area in chapter 2. I had to use console commands to get my characters past a door that should have been open as I had fulfilled the prerequisites to open it. The door stopped being interactable and I couldn't even see it using the 'alt' key. I have played all the previous Infinity Engine games and this is the first game breaking bug I have come across that required me to use console commands. I am very, very disappointed.

I'm in the minority, that thinks ID2 is superior to ID1. There is much to cover. Graphics - it's pretty obvious that ID2 is by far the best looking game running on the legendary Infinity Engine. That's one of only two comparisons between ID and BG series . Pairing ID with BG & PS:T is frankly unnfair: BD PS:T are more story-oriented, while ID is combat oriented. Music - Inon Zhur made a terrific job. Targos & Kuldahar themes, Shaengarne + Sherincal + Lysara and final battle themes. If Zhur just combined his and Jeremy Soule's takes on the main theme - this would be epic. Story-wise: I agree with eraserparticles, ignatius_reilly, LegendaryStud & Elandryl. Having played both games I think ID2 has the better, more coherent story. Linear story doesn't make a game bad. Actually, the most revered RPGs of old, like Ishar, Dungeon Master, EotB, ARE LINEAR, but no one *dares* to criticise those games for it. To me ID1's story was an incoherennt jubmle of plots. ID2's progression seems more natural. It's good to see that some quests can be dealt with in more than one way. Plus, i think the bosses in ID2 are more memorable. Like others, I absolutely adore 3e D&D. True, more careful decision-makingis needed, but that enables building versatile characters. Battles can be challenging, especially early on. Yet later on some battles can also give a challenge. And there are also two optional epics battles: for the Cera Sumat blade and against Chult portal guardian. Lastly: a wide array of spells ann a customizable UI Window, a welcomed addition. As far as AI is concerned: it sucked in all 4 infinity-based great games (BG, BG2, ID, ID2). There you have that second comparison point. I won't lie: to me ID1 is somewhat meh, while ID2 is great. I hope this review does the ID2 some justice.