Icewind Dale 2 Complete

Back then, genres were easier to distinguish. A game was what it was meant to be, without the need for genre cross-pollination just for the sake of mass appeal. These days, Dark Souls, The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk or the modern Assassin's Creeds all pretend to be role-playing games. Back in the good old days, a player had to build up a party, with each member having their own strengths and weaknesses. Success or failure on the battlefield was not a matter of the agility of the player. There was no gunpoint like in shooters. The statistics of the party and the strategy of the player were the only things that mattered. Nice that thanks to GOG you can return to the Forgotten Realms and relive a good old game.

Very slow loading time. Dosen't launch correctly. Not like the original game: it's a patched version with emulated graphics.

The game had way better, tougher, and tactical combat than IWD. The 3e system implementation wasn't the best, but was light years beyond 2e. It has actually good chardev, which is necessary for me in any game. It had great quests and areas, great everything. Though the combat was far superior than any of the other IE games, it is still crappy RTwP. That's really the only negative. If you are the type of person that thinks they like crpgs but would rather play a game that is a story told to you, rather you it simulating your character(s) making a story, I would stick to the other IE games (besides the original IWD too).

The game certainly lacks the depth and scope of its Infinity Engine predecessors, but despite its linearity well-designed encounters, gorgeous pre-rendered landscapes and the exciting build options 3e offers ensure that IWDII is anything but bland and quite replayable at that. 3e multiclassing is more logical if less easily optimised than 2e, and I really enjoyed playing around with that. The game never punishes you too harshly for suboptimal choices anyway. Like its predecessor, IWDII is mostly focused on tactical combat rather than intricate story lines or side quests. To anyone looking for a more BG-like experience, I would warmly recommend the superbly written IWD2 NPC Mod at Gibberlings3, which adds recruitable characters to the game whose backstories are intertwined and by extension expand the plot as well. The basic concept of the plot, however, is actually quite novel and does well at engaging the characters as real mercenaries rather than the cliched would-be saviours of grandma's kitten and the world. Unfortunately, the interesting setup comes back to haunt the game during its finale in which the utter lack of choice becomes all the more apparent. Of archival interest is also that IWDII contains a number of references to the vapourware Baldur's Gate III - The Black Hound, from its intro hinting at that game's location (ever wondered what's the deal with Deepingdale?) and characters (spot the Black Hound!) to allusions made by Maralie Fiddlebender throughout the game.

The original release of Icewind Dale and Riven are my favorite games of all time. This one comes in close behind. Put 140 hours in the playthrough.