Icewind Dale 2 Complete

This game is pure love for me. I got into RA Salvatore because his books carried the Icewind Dale name. This is how you make a book into a game/ game into a book. Place the characters into the universe and play the game. It doesn't have to be his characters which makes this amazing. This is still just as much fun today as it was when I first played it.

This game is all about combat. It doesn't have a complex story and important choices (though there are some that change the game in a way) as seen in Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment, however, the story of Icewind Dale 2 is far from bad, rather it's linear. That being said, the game is awesome! Much like the first Icewind Dale you get to create 6 characters and start off your journey as a band of mercenaries hired to defend the town of Targos, only to realize there is far more to it than a simple Goblin attack. Not to spoil anything, the story is honestly good, and what amazed me the most is that it was written in 2 days only, because of the horrible crunch time, as was said by Josh Sawyer, Lead Designer. So hats of to the Black Isle team for making this game this good in under a year! As opposed to the other Infinity Engine games, this one is the only game that has Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition Ruleset, which in my opinion is way better due to different mechanics and new spells. Not to mention the Drow as a playable race. I would say that Icewind Dale 2 has the most beautiful art out of all Infinity Engine games, except Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear which was released in 2016 by Beamdog. As for Beamdog, I'm sorry to hear that the source code for IWD2 is lost and we'll probably never get to have it enhanced like other games. However, there are a couple of mods you can install to enhance it yourself per se. These are Almateria's IWD2 Fixpack (game fixes and restored content), Widescreen mod, GUI Fix, and maybe Bigger Fonts mod (for resolutions above 1080p). After that, I honestly never had any problems playing this game, and I'm playing on a modern PC with the latest Windows 10 Pro x64 build (2004 at the time of writing this review). So, in the end, I'd definitely recommend IWD2 to any D&D and old school RPG lover, but I'd recommend you play Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition first cause of all the references about it in the second game. Cheers!

Icewind Dale was one of the first D&D CRPG's that I ever played and I enjoyed every minute of it - in fact, together with Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale got me hooked on a whole new genre of computer games. It is a must try for anyone with a love for well crafted story telling, exciting action and intriguing strategy.

Icewind Dale 2 An Infinity Engine-based high fantasy role-playing game set in the popular Dungeons and Dragon's world of Forgotten Realm. Gameplay: Icewind Dale 2 plays similar to other Infinity Engine-based RPGs developed by Black Isle Studio (the Baldur's Gate series, Planescape: Torment, and the original Icewind Dale). However, Icewind Dale 2 uses the 3rd edition rule set of the popular D&D P&P RPG franchise. This rule upgrade adds a lot of details and options on character creation and progression mechanics. These include a more comprehensive racial choices, most skills becoming more universal and accessible to every class, and enhanced specialization focus. These added mechanics increase the depth of the comparitively shallow role-playing elements of the game. Gameplay is relatively action oriented that focuses on party management, effective employment of combine arms and specializations, and squad-based combat tactics. Story: Icewide Dale 2 story is relatively linear compared to the Baldur's Gate series and Planescape: Torment. Like the original Icewind Dale game, Icewind Dale 2 have minor side quests that often utilizes the non-combat skills and abilities of the characters. People that are familiar with and love the Icewind Dale novels will most likely enjoy Icewind Dale 2. Like the original Icewind Dale game, Icewind Dale 2 feels more like reading an interactive high fantasy novel than playing a proper roleplaying game session. Presentation: Arguably, Icewind Dale 2 have a more refine art direction and consistency compared to the older Infinity Engine games. Though outdoor levels and natural dungeons still feels like cramp and artificially constructed for gameplay purposes. The stylistic graphical unit interface of the original Icewind Dale was abandoned in favor of a more streamlined, customizable but cramp lower tab buttons. Sound effects are mostly recycled from the older games. The music is atmospheric and impressive.

This was a good sequel. I enjoyed the challenge and creativity involved in: character creation/advancement, spell selection/usage (i.e. the entire D&D spell list), equipping characters, the various tactics one can use in battle, etc. Basically it's enjoyable due to the things that make D&D enjoyable. I gave 4 instead of 5 stars because it's also *missing* some of the key elements that make D&D enjoyable. I'm sure this was somewhat unavoidable due to budgetary constraints, as well as the system constraints of the early 2000's, but I can't help but say what could have made the game better. The party cannot deviate from rather narrow areas of travel, and you have to complete the series of quests in an area before the next area can be visited. There is also no way to zoom out on the field of view. Effectively, you can see much shorter distances than you can in actual table-top D&D. In fact, the "Spot" and "Track" skills, which are critical in tabletop D&D, do not exist in the Icewind Dale series. This takes away some of the strategic fun of spying and sneaking up on potential enemies. You can use the "Hide" skill to explore unseen with your rogue, or you can use invisibility spells, but there are few scenarios in this game where that is really helpful, although I guess it's unavoidable that a tabletop game where your imagination if the limit is going to have more possibilities than a PC game. While the game feels large and long in a way, it also feels like it ends too soon. My characters had just reached level 16 when the game ended. I never got to try out those 9th-level spells! The ending battle also seemed a bit too easy and anti-climactic. Some previous battles had been more challenging than the final one. Also, toward the end of the game I was awash in gold from all the enchanted items I had found and sold, but there weren't any merchants that had anything I particularly wanted at that point. Would have been nice to see a few BIG-ticket items.