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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.

YOU WANT THIS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 71 / 190
Date: May 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

If you have searched this title down and are thinking of getting it there is no doubt in my mind that YOU SHOULD GET THIS GAME. Excellent interaction graphics and playablity will enthrall you for weeks on end!

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.

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.

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.

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.

The only thing missing is a pencil and a 20 sided die

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: July 14, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I first started playing D&D about 20 years ago as a 12 year-old in grade school. When I became "too cool" to play I had forgotten about it for a while. Recently, a friend of mine and I were talking about how great it would be to play again (of course we have lives and jobs and no time to get together - much less play D&D until 4:00 am!).

This game brings all the great things about table and dice D&D together in one really fun to play package. There's not a lot of puzzle solving or errand running that has become the norm in PC D&D games. When we used to play it was go into the dungeon, grow your character, find some goodies, kill a whole lot of baddies then go home. This is it. Tons of cool dungeons to explore, lots of great effects and all of your characters are needed to win - no one man parties here!

The only thing missing is a dragon to slay - but, hey, you can't have everything... maybe IWD2!

To sum it up, this is a lot of fun to play. It brings back all the great elements of D&D you may remember without the need to get 6 guys together, a lot of coffee and a table in the basement so you wouldn't wake Mom & Dad. If you are a D&D fan who hasn't picked up a Monster Manual in a long time (like me), you will love this game. Prepare to go to work with bags under your eyes!

Totally different from Planescape: Torment.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: November 21, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Black Isle first made Planescape: Torment, which was a plot driven game without any focus on combat. Now, they made Icewind Dale, which is the exact opposite.

The plot in this game is thin, just an excuse to go through massive dungeons killing hordes of monsters and findings tons of goodies. Whereas, in PS:T, combat was just there to drive the plot.

This game is one of the best in character creation fun, second only to Baldur's Gate 2. But, in this game, you can create six characters of your own without losing out on NPC interaction. In BG 2, you had the option of getting prefabricated NPCs to join you, who had personality and charm. There was guilt if you made your own six characters. In IWD, no such dilemma exists, so one is free to make whatever sort of party that suits one's playing style.

Another bonus is the nice atmosphere. Jeremy Soule's music is beautiful and the artwork from Black Isle is great.

All in all, excellent Infinity Engine game. Buy it now!

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