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A sense of adventure, a touch of awe.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 146 / 150
Date: July 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

If you've never played Baldur's Gate, then I'd recommend playing that before you ever come near Icewind Dale. Playing Icewind Dale will make it nearly impossible for you to enjoy BG. If you've also never played Planescape: Torment -- the same applies (relatively), although you should probably play BG before Torment as well. The engine enhancements make it difficult to enjoy the earlier games once you've experienced the new capabilities.

Icewind Dale is a "Baldur's Gate Engine" game set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. The game takes place in the northern lands of Faerun known as Icewind Dale. The game is labeled, and plays, as a traditional 'dungeon crawl.' The combat in IWD is a lot more intense than in both the previous BG/TotSC and Torment titles. That being said...

-- What Icewind Dale Does Right --

[Music & Sound] The compositions in this title are by far the best of any Black Isle game released. The game is filled with deep, rich, orchestral pieces that fill the air with the spirit of the Dale. The beautiful, Celtic music of the town of Kuldahar is spectacular, and the dark, sinister sounds of some of the more ... exotic ... places you visit are awe inspiring. The battle sounds have been improved upon as well, with more bass and bigger clashes. Voice acting and dialogue are a lot more prevelant in this game, because the dialogue is sparser and not as present as in earlier games. The voice-sets for your characters are much more diverse, and superbly done.

[Graphics] The artwork of Icewind Dale is something to dream about. The maps and landscapes are done with such attention to hues and moods that I almost felt cold as I walked though a frozen Dwarven museum. The portraits of your characters are also given this same depth and attention to detail, making it infinitely more enjoyable to construct your unique party. One of the greatest improvements to the engine is the support for large creatures. No longer do you have to imagine a frost giant ten times your height -- to say more would ruin the surprise. Just be assured that the first time you see a frost giant tower over your players like an oak over an acorn, you will be humbled. The spell effects for this game are much more like Torment than BG, and you'd require knowledge of both games to know exactly what I mean. Basically, the spell effects have some of that gothic-imbued tone that Torment lent to them.

[Gameplay] With the improvements to the BG engine, including increased walking speed, bumping, and increased animations the game is a pleasure to play. The game is situated mostly in underground locales, but you'll never miss the overland of BG or the landscapes of the Planes. Icewind Dale has its own mood and setting -- one that lends itself extremely well to a dungeon crawl. The last thing you have to be worried about in Icewind Dale is gameplay. You'll always have some battle to wage, some mystery to solve and places to explore. Unlike BG, there is absolutely no "empty space." There are no large areas of maps with nothing in them, or any at all so to speak. Every inch of this game is filled with things to do. The game also includes an enormous amount of items, armors, weapons, etc -- much more variety than ever experienced with BG or Torment.

-- What Icewind Dale Doesn't Do Right --

Basically, this game is a Baldur's Gate Engine game (Bioware Infinity Engine). What I saw that dissapointed me was the lack of new paper dolls for the characters, a lack of animations for some of the new weapon types, and for lack of icons for new types of magical weapons and armors. Such things are not incredibly difficult to include in a modification of an engine, and I wish that BIS had taken the time to include them.

Basically, IWD delivers more of the things that have made BIS the RPG leader that it has become. Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate 2 will be the last two games to make use of the Bioware Infinity Engine. If you've never experienced these epic RPGs before, you're missing out on a fantastic experience. If you're familiar with both BG and Torment, and enjoyed both, then you won't regret purchasing Icewind Dale.

Diablo Who?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 99 / 103
Date: July 11, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I got Diablo 2 and Icewind Dale in on the same day. After having played them both, here's my take:

If you're just frustrated and want nothing more than to kill imaginary thingies, then D2 is THE game. While I thoroughly enjoy the game, and nothing pleases me more than to watch my hordes of undead do all of my necromancer's work, D2 has re-confirmed that which I always maintained: Diablo & Diablo 2 are NOT role-playing games. That so many publications continue to label them as such frustrates me to no end. PLANESCAPE: TORMENT is an RPG, probably the best RPG I've ever played. Hey, I was shaking after I finished that game the plot was so incredible. Anyway, taken for what it is, D2 is an absolute blast to play. The numbers of magic items and such are awesome.

The only thing about the game I DON'T like? The graphics. I know, I know, but you would think that in almost FOUR YEARS Blizzard could have done more than they did. The game is pretty, no doubt, but considering the advances made in the last few years, there should be at least the option to change the resolution to 800x600 and tighten things up...

I could go one about a few other things, but that would take away from the real star of my past few nights.

Folks, RUN, do not walk to Amazon or whoever you get your games from and buy Icewind Dale. I loaded it up AFTER I had played Diablo 2 for nearly 2 straight days, and I will probably not play D2 again solo for another week or two. Why is IWD so great? Glad you asked. The publicity generated for IWD has been kinda misleading, making me think that perhaps the PR department and Black Isle Studios weren't communicating well. IWD is supposed to be a "back to roots" dungeon romp, but nothing could be further from the truth. There's quite a story here.

What I didn't like so much about Baldur's Gate was there it focused around this big plot that you were the son/daughter of a dead god thing. IWD is a lot simpler: a group of adventurers get bored with their respective lives in the big cities and go north, seeking something different. It's typical 1st level fare, with your characters falling into situations beyond your control and trying your best just to stay alive. And there are no illusions about your power level. I saved the game and attacked this fighter dude who was talking smack to me. A party member died almost every time he swung. Bad mojo.

A few other awesome things: Characters can go up to 1,800,000 XP. The spell lists are HUGE. Here's a great time saver though: there is an option to MAX HIT POINTS every time your characters level! No more 5th level fighters with 28 HP! :) It may be a form of cheating, but to anyone who spent an hour saving and reloading Baldur's Gate every time one of your characters leveled, this is a God-send. The graphics are much improved as well. Every enemy looks just a little different. The skeletons I fought last night were armed with everything imaginable, from clubs to two-handed swords (which I sold for a dandy profit). And the game also reminds you how terrifying "normal" enemies can be. I had all my characters up to 2nd level and was decimating an orcish encampment when their ogre leader shows up...with an ogre sized morning star. Two of my characters lived. :(

So, as I said at the beginning, D2 is a great stress reliever, but IWD has it beat in terms of involvement for a D&D fan.

Wondeful kill-almost-everyone-in-sight RPG !

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 37 / 38
Date: July 31, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Fans of Baldur's Gate will no doubt already have this game in their collection, since this game was made with the same BioWare engine that created BG. And my, that engine has been used wonderfully to create Icewind Dale.

If you're new to both RPG's I would hesitate to recommend this game to you, since it has advanced elements of role-playing (statistical, numerical) that may scare any newcomers. Anyone just vaguely attracted to RPG's will be in for a big-time treat, though. The game runs in 800x600 resolution, which is nice (yes, it looks very, very good), since you can see more of the surrounding area than you could in Baldur's Gate, and much more than you could in Planescape: Torment. That's nice when decimating the ranks of your enemies with fireballs, since you have enough distance to cast area-damaging spells without hurting your own people.

You create six player characters, which are made from (almost) the same parameters as those in Baldur's Gate. BG2 features class kits, but Icewind Dale does not! This doesn't really matter, since the game is diverse enough as is. You start in a small town as 'puny' level 1 people, and can accumulate 1.800.000 exp. points, putting you in levels 14-19, depending on which class you choose. Druids only ascend to level 14.....!

The people who made Icewind Dale have, I think, let themselves be affected by Planescape:Torment, for there are SO many strange and differently wonderful magical items than in BG1. Daggers that inflict 1d4 extra points of fire damage 15% of the time, +3 axes that increase your saving throws and your Constitution. Anyway, as a long-time DM I found all those unusual magic items to be a breath of fresh air, instead of 'just' having +1 weapons, armor and so on. I have a level 8 paladin with an AC of -5, due to all sorts of strange items that improve his armor class, one is a +2 axe (defender) which also improves AC by 2. Great and varied magical items don't make a marvelous game, though. That's why there are monsters !

Enemies in Icewind Dale look as you would expect them to, the nice thing of course being that there are really huge monsters and creatures to be found. The first time I met a verbeeg giant, which is probably the smallest of the giant-kin, I was astounded and scared at the same time. Having been a DM, I knew that the verbeeg wouldn't pose a very big threat, but just seing such a GIANT made me shiver with awe. And I've shivered many times so far, for battles are sometimes VERY nasty, hard and unpredictable. That's great, but remember to save often, or you're going to kill yourself in frustration. I'd give my right arm to see someone not familiar with AD&D trolls 'kill' one such troll, only to have it come after them later because they didn't b... it, which is the only way to really get rid of it.

Actually background and monsters blend in nicely together, without anything looking out of place. That is more than you can say for some spells in the game! Sadly, some spells look strange, as if they don't fit into the game's background and texture. Stinking Cloud and Cloud Kill are the worst I've seen so far, but I've 'only' reached the 5th level spells. Where I am in the game now, I suspect occasional bad spell graphic implementation will be the only thing I'll have to complain about in this game. The rest is just plain RPG heaven.

As Interplay stated long before Icewind Dale's release, it was going to be more action-oriented than BG, and that is also very easy to feel, since you fight much more than you talk, and to complete most quests you have to fight your way through caves and dungeons filled with monsters and people, and the only solution, after a brief and often futile conversation, is battle. After Torment it's nice to have an RPG of that kind, which is mostly a battle-everything-to-win RPG. Kill unless someone speaks to you first, is almost what I find. That's fine by me, and although you fight a lot, it doesn't become too much! NO, I'm not sickly addicted to watching monsters get hacked to death. I just like a good battle, and can't wait to chop off some beholder eye-stalks in BG2.

The music in the game is really the cruncher. WOW, is all I can say for the people who have made such atmospheric and often spooky music. I couldn't help feeling that the music set exactly the right mood for cold mountains and frozen forests. It's too bad you can't put it in your CD-player and listen to the music while reading or just relaxing. As a fan of R.A. Salvatore's books I was delighted to see many of the visual images of Icewind Dale I carried around in my mind, so well-made in a computer RPG. Just for your information, the game takes place about 80 years before any mention of Drizzt, so NO, you won't meet him in the game. As to whether you meet Bruenor Battlehammer or not, well..... I can't say !

This blows away anything else of it's kind, so if you feel attracted to RPG's, buy this and hurry to play through it before Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn comes out later this year.

Fun Game, But Frustrating at Times

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 27 / 27
Date: August 12, 2001
Author: Amazon User

If you had asked me--when I was about halfway through Icewind Dale--whether or not I recommended this game, I would have given you a resounding, "No!" I would have told you that the game was battle intensive to the point of being absurd. I would have told you that Icewind Dale was more frustrating than fun. I would have told you to save your bucks and buy another game instead (or else reload your copy of Baldur's Gate on your PC). And although I don't think that Icewind Dale completely absolves itself of these concerns, I do have to admit that the second half of the game was pretty darned fun.

The problem I initially found was that the early levels (or chapters, as they're called in this game) were a bit too difficult given the levels of your characters. Don't misunderstand me. I don't want easy battles and cheap experience points. Nevertheless, I found the first three chapters a bit frustrating. I don't know how many times I experienced the monotonous "encounter big battle, die, reload, die, reload, die, reload." This is fine, occasionally, when you encounter a "boss" at the end of a chapter, but in Icewind Dale you'll encounter very difficult battles with every step your party takes. Many fine reviewers have mentioned how Icewind Dale was released to compete with Diablo II, and I cannot help but agree. Icewind Dale--unlike Baldur's Gate or Planescape: Torment (my personal fave)--is all about battle; you'll encounter hordes of baddies and basically kick their butts. The problem: it's difficult to balance AD&D rules with a monster count the size of Diablo. And if you ARE going to try and achieve this balance, well, then I think the battles your party encounters should be reasonable in regard to your party's experience.

Let me give an example in order to make my point concrete. There are some possible spoilers here, so if you haven't played the game you may want to skim past this. In both chapters 1 and 2, you'll encounter a plethora of enemies who can only be damaged with magic (magical weapons or spells). The problem is, this early in the game, your party members have found only a few magical weapons and they're not very powerful (oooh, a +1 dagger!!!). Likewise, your spellcasters don't wield very powerful spells yet (ooooh, Magic Missile). Yet Icewind Dale still hurls tons of such magic-resistant creatures at you. Super frustrating!!! (although reviewers brag about how this game will last 100 hours or so, about 75 of those hours are spent reloading saved games).

Yet sometime around chapter three your party will finally become powerful enough that the game will run a bit more smoothly. The game still isn't a breeze, though. You'll encounter difficult battles where the "die, reload, die, reload" factor comes into play. And, yes, this does ruin the role-playing aspect of the game (for instance, my party probably "rested" a lot more than it adventured because after every difficult battle I'd have to sleep and heal--even if I'd just slept five minutes prior!!! This, needless to say, kind of ruins the spirit of the game).

But lest I be accused of being too negative about Icewind Dale, let me comment briefly on what IS working well: 1) The voice acting and music are excellent, helping to create some serious atmosphere, 2) Although the story is fairly simple and straightforward, there are nevertheless some nice plot touches within the individual chapters, 3) Awesome number of magical items and spells (I remember not even dealing with melee combat in BG because it simply wasn't worthy to do so, but in Icewind Dale, believe me, those +4 swords, hammers, flails, etc., do some sweet damage), 4) nice battle changes over BG (now you can pause a battle and make changes in your inventory without that annoying "the game is no longer paused on this screen stuff," 5) great locales (elven stronghold, dwarven smithy, etc.), 6) lastly, once your characters become powerful enough this game becomes very addictive.

In short, this game is very, very close to being an excellent game. With a little more attention paid to balancing out the difficulty of battles, I think this could be a perfect game (for your information, I'm now playing Icewind Dale again, using my high-level party that completed the game, and I'm finding the adventure much more enjoyable). As it stands, however, I think it's best for each person to decide whether or not Icewind Dale is for him/her. Perhaps it will be useful for prospective customers to look at the recent Black Isle games on a spectrum with Planescape: Torment on one end (plot-intensive, battle de-emphasized), Icewind Dale on the complete opposite end (battle-intensive, basic-plot), and the original BG falling somewhere in between. My own preferences steer, I admit, towards Planescape and BG, but that doesn't mean that your preferences--dear reader--need mirror mine. If you're a fan of battles and wished that BG featured more intense skirmishes, well, you'll LOVE Icewind Dale. If, however, you appreciate plot and detail above fighting, you may want to pass this title by--or else wait until the price drops significantly. I hope this helps. Good Luck in your adventuring!!!

Gives me shivers

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 28 / 30
Date: July 19, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Great improvement from Baldur's Gate. The sounds and music are fantastic although many areas were too quiet at times and it would have been better had there been more background noise or music.

The game contains so much more action than BG and players should enjoy the times when they are not in an overwhelming battle! SAVE YOUR GAME OFTEN! I found BG to be very long at times, wondering through the f.o.w. for nothing and accomplishing nothing. IWD is so much more. The creatures are much more fun to watch (and slay!) and level advancement is quick. You'll actually get to make use of your mage! Plus, the spells are excellent although I found myself using many of the more popular spells (magic missile, fireball, etc.) than some of the mind control or confusion spells which tend to be irrelevent in large battles or against powerful creatures.

The graphics are brilliant and beautiful and they make you feel like you are in a fantasy setting at ALL times. Great attention to detail.

Group movement is still "buggy" but MUCH improved from BG. Characters "push" other characters out of the way (depending on the surroundings) to get to their position in the party formations.

The greatest feature of the game is the ability to create your entire party the way you like them. You could have 6 mages, or 3 theives and 3 clerics, or a juggernaut line of 6 fighters!

I was a little concerned about the amount of game play with IWD but I have been VERY impressed thus far. Every time I've thought I was close to the end of the game there was plenty more to do. I have not yet finished the game and I've been playing it roughly 2-3 hours a day for over 2 weeks now (including weekends). Despite how powerful your characters are (mine are all 11th level or above) you will be faced with good puzzles and ever increasingly fierce creatures which will test your battle skills and AD&D abilities to the limit.

A definite buy!

Hack 'n' slash fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 26
Date: July 09, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game takes me back to the old Gold Box D&D games I'd play on my Commodore 64.

With the frantic dungeon combat and engaging (albeit linear) plot of those classic games, coupled with the Infinity engine that made Baldur's Gate such a joy to play, along with gorgeous graphics (especially spell effects), this game is an unmitigated success. Creating your party of up to 6 characters gives you greater ownership of your game and a greater opportunity for role-playing (rather than the single-player Diablo, Diablo 2, or Baldur's Gate), and the lengthy in-depth plot gives you plenty of hours of game play to move that party up the experience point ladder.

Overall, a great gaming experience for D&D gamers and RPG fans alike.

Simply Spectacular

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 28 / 31
Date: July 02, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is absolutely awesome. The spell effects are far and away better than Baldur's Gate. The action is fast and furious and the music is perfect for the settings. The portraits for the characters are eery and spooky, just right for Icewind Dale. I heartily recommend the purchase of this game.

Great for Newcomers to the RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 23 / 25
Date: August 01, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is a must buy!! I am personally new to playing role playing computer games myself, -the only other one that I own is Betrayal in Antara, which has nothing to do with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D)- although I read reviews and reports about them all the time. I must say that playing these games are far different from just reading them however. Icewind Dale takes place part of the AD&D Forgotten Realms World, as does the older game created by TSR known as Baldur's Gate. I knew even less about AD&D than I did about RPG computer games at the time of my purchase which was about 2 days ago. I might as well glue my hand to the mouse because I have been playing this game non-stop. I get up in the morning, turn on the computer, eventually come downstairs for lunch and dinner, -yes, I skip breakfast-, and then I begin playing again until about 4:00 in the morning. I enjoyed the fact that there is detailed creation of characters in this game. For instance, you can pick the gender, race, and class of your character, then add his attributes, the color of his clothes and skin and the tone of his voice, not to mention that you can pick whether your character is good or evil. These details affect the gameplay alot. For example, there is a small quest in the town that you start in that requires you to pick a lock on a door. If you do not have a thief in your party or anyone with the ability to pick locks, then you miss out on the opportunity to gain the experience from helping the person requiring you to open the door. This is not good because the game is a little tough in the beginning, where all of your characters are at the first level, with very low hit points and only enough gold to purchase weak weapons and armor. The main point of the game is to complete large quests -you will know if it is a large quest because the character issuing it to you can speak and you are not just reading subtitles- which eventually lead you on the next quest until you reach the end of the game. All of these larger quests are part of a story read by a narrator. Within each town that you have visited, however, are smaller quests which can give you large amounts of experience -they only seem that way in the beginning- for doing small tasks and this can be very helpful. I spent an entire day in the first town, and I found every small quest possible, and I gain enough experience to have my thief level up -gain a level- and he hardly attacked little more than two creatures. I have spent probably 15-20 hours these last three days playing this game and it is the most fun I have had in a long time. My characters are all at least level 3 and above and I have reached the second town. Using the max hit point capability -found in the options section- my warrior must have about 49 hit points, and my characters seem immortal because of it (use it). There must be 200 spells in total -between the mage and the cleric- and it is fun watching them cast it. I feel as if I am a part of this world, leading the party, and the music astounds me. There are a million more pros I could ramble about, but you will probably read about them in the other reviews. The last thing I have to say to newcomers is to not give up hope if this game is too complicated, it comes with a thick book containing everything that you need to know to get yourself started with this game.

5 stars on everything, You have to get this game.

very linear, but entertaining and has evolved since Baldur's

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 22
Date: July 30, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I'm starting to think that anything Bioware does is going to please me. They have yet to burn me. This, the second Forgotten Realms game from Bioware, takes you to the frozen north. User interface is almost indistinguishable from Baldur's.

On the downside, if you don't like a much more linear adventure than the original Baldur's Gate, this may not appeal too much. If you don't mind a pretty linear adventure with interesting side quests, you will probably like this. There is a lot of hack-and-slash (which I like) but if you are alert there are a number of side quests that you might miss if you mindlessly click your way through NPC conversations. Definitely prepare for a lot of old-fashioned dungeon crawls and the ability to attain levels of 11 and better. Randomization of magic items (of which there are arguably too many) will enhance replay value.

Graphically, spell effects in particular have come far, and the maps are breathtaking--lots of dazzling white snowscapes, glacial rift, that sort of thing. Lots of new monsters here that weren't in BG; in particular, they've improved the handling of large size creatures such as ettins and frost giants.

Stability is a little iffy even with the patch (which is recommended, since without it they took away the auto-pause when attacked), which fixes some broken quests and sands off some rough edges.

Simply put: if you want to play D&D on your computer by yourself, this is great fun. I don't know that I would say it's necessarily 'role-playing' in the strict sense, but it's great as a D&D tactical, goal-oriented adventure game.

Great introduction into Forgotten Realms Gameplay!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 22
Date: January 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This review is probably best for beginner players...

My husband, a Planescape and Baldur's Gate player, convinced me to play Icewind Dale multiplayer with him. As someone who prefers computer games like Jeopardy and Monopoly, I was definitely intimidated. I had three characters and had to control ALL of them at the SAME time. Needless to say, the first few days were not the most enjoyable.

But once I got used to the controls, options and spells, it became a lot of fun! It's a lot more hack-n-slash than the typical RPG (so I'm told), but the storyline is great. Playing the game encouraged me to even read the Shadowdale trilogy by Richard Awlinson.

Now that we're starting with Baldur's Gate 2, I'm looking forward to comparing the two and seeing what my preferences become. For the parents considering this game as a gift, the material is not that graphic and shouldn't be an issue for the teens... Overall I highly recommend it, even for the wives!

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