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Tedious

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: August 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

After experiencing and enjoying the Baldur's Gate 2 series, I wanted more, so I tried the Icewind Dale series. I enjoyed Icewind Dale : Heart of Winter, but I found Icewind Dale II extremely disappointing.

As previous posters have said, the battles are extremely tough, but not only one battle, every battle in the game is very difficult. This affected the games continuity. For me I found the game increasingly frustrating, as the plot and enjoyment of the game was overtaken by the my Cleric having to sleep and reuse his Resurrection spells over and over again. The focus of the game quickly turns into a game of survival than an adventure game of exploration and mystery.

The lack of plot and linearity of the game was also disappointing. There is little strategy involved. After the enjoyment of the game had gone, I just wanted to finish the game for the sake of completion.

The game is also repetitive and and unoriginal. All the battles are similar, and after a while the game gets boring. Many of the dungeon levels are copied from Icewind Dale 1, and the Severed Hand in IW2 is no different from IW1.

Baldur's Gate 2 has a plot is by far the best and most intriguing RPG ever. Icewind Dale 2 by contrast is just a tiresome flop.

One of those unknown jewels....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Icewind Dale 2 is certainly a great game. It is absurd to say "2D graphs = boring". In fact, the 2D graphs are, like in all the Infinity Engine games, sublime, probably even more realistic and detailed, more lifelike than any 3D game up to date.

Story-wise, Black Isle has done better, but it is certainly a compelling, interesting story. The artwork is jawbreaking, the music very nice... It is definetely a game in which you plunge mind and soul.

A nice farewell to the Infinity Engine, which, for me and many friends, has constituted the Golden Age of Gaming.

Note : It is indeed a very difficult game. I wasn't very accustomed with 3rd edition and my characters had many major, major flaws, making major battles incredibly tough. A worth play but be prepared to save often and reload even more.

If you enjoyed the first one, you'll enjoy the sequel too

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: September 04, 2002
Author: Amazon User

It's more of the same .... and slash madness! If you miss the old infinity engine used in the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series, this is the last game that will be published with it. :-(

Just like the first Icewind Dale, the sequel is more of a ... and slash dungeon crawler compared to its sister game Baldur's Gate which concentrates on story and plot more than battles. The good part is the infinity engine is one of the best tactical planning systems for ... and slash roleplaying games and you'll have micromanagement control over all your henchmen as well as their inventory. The bad part is there are A LOT of battles that can get boring after a while. I personally prefer roleplaying games with a little more story although this game certainly has more of a story than ... and slash quasi-RPGs such as Dungeon Siege.

If you're one of the many people disappointed with the new D&D engine in Neverwinter Nights, I wouldn't recommend this game as an alternative unless you enjoy ... and slash games. One of the complaints with NWN was it felt too much like a Diablo ... and slash game and the Icewind Dale series has always been the Diablo alternative for people that want to play PC D&D games.

A mixed review

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: January 19, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I would start by saying that I enjoyed Icewind Dale 2. But even with that said, I was also disappointed by it. The game should be appreciated for what it is. It is a "hack and slash" game. Players who enjoyed the combat dimension to Baldur's Gate II will find the game entertaining. Players who fell in love with the deep character development, detailed plots, and breadth of Baldur's Gate II will be upset if they hope to witness even a hint of that in Icewind Dale II.

There is a decent plot, but no major cities, few side quests, and absolutely no character development. This was not a surprise (as the first installment of this series was the same way), but a disppointment of mine. I had hoped that it would attempt to include more these elements.

Still, the game's graphics and game play are satisfactory. Many of the back ground graphics are really wonderful, I thought. There are some interesting "dungeons" to expore. More importantly, while it certainly pales in comparison to Neverwinter Nights in many ways, it is nice to return to party play. While I found the plot of NWN much more interesting than Icewind Dale II, I found Icewind Dale II to be a much more challenging game. It requires some strategy, especially if you tackle it at high difficulty levels.

With all this said, the game is similar to the first one. If you enjoyed it, you will probably enjoy the second one. Make sure to download the patch as it improves AI quite a bit, so I've been told.

Computer Roleplay Gaming at its best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: September 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is definitely the game I have been waiting for. After the rather mediocre and highly disappointing Neverwinter Nights and the hadware-intense Morrowind, Icewind Dale 2 is classic CRPGaming at its best.

Beautiful 2D graphics (that easily surpass 3D-graphics in terms of detail and richness), a great story, tons of monsters, dungeons, loot and magical items, a lot of puzzles and riddles, a very decent implementation of the 3rd edition D&D rules, great music and an overall great atmosphere - what would a CRPG-fan want more?

This game is very well designed and balanced and plain fun to play and ranks in my Top-Five-CRPG list of all times (and I have been playing CRPG's for 20 years).

Icewind Dale 2 is highly recommendable for any true RPG-fan and IMO definitely the best CRPG this year. Go and buy it - you won't regret it.

Thoughts from my first night of playing the title...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 20
Date: August 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

First off, let me say that I'm an enormous fan of Bioware titles and Baldur's Gate II in particular. And that's probably why this title is (so far) a total disappointment.

There are lots of little problems, but they all pale in comparison to the one enormous, overwhelming problem with this title which almost makes it impossible to enjoy. The problem is with the 'Pathfinding'. By pathfinding I mean "You click somewhere on the map, and your characters figure out how to walk there". Pathfinding has been a problem with loads of games, from Warcraft 2, to the original Baldur's Gate. But for the most part, (partially because of processor speeds, and partially because of better programming) the problem of pathfinding has largely been solved.

That's why its so amazing, that a title built on a 3rd generation engine should be so incredibly flawed in the pathfinding department. You will spend hours correcting your characters "wrong-turns" and searching for them after they've "gotten lost".

I'm really pretty amazed that this problem is so bad. If Baldur's Gate II solved this problem, and this game is built with the same engine ... then how on earth could this have happened?

Anyway -- on top of that I have a couple more gripes:

The printed manual -- which I have to say is pretty much THE reason I buy Bioware products over similar products, is not as good as the BG II manual. Its not 'bad' per se, but it is much smaller, and the font is so small (since they tried to cram all that text into the smaller book-size) that its not really a pleasant read.

And lastly, the storyline is ... well maybe this isn't fair because I've only been playing for one evening, but .. its no BG II. Its just not very compelling.

On the upside though: The title looks beautiful. Visually I think its definitely superior to BG II. The music is great, and there are more character classes, etc.

I'm not sure if I'll keep playing this title because of the pathfinding issues though. (By the way I have a Pentium 1000 MHz with 128M RAM -- so its not a system resources problem).

Let's hope for a patch, and a press release from Interplay that starts out with "Woops! Boy are we sorry folks!"

-peace

Great game. Like fine wine...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: September 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

...the old Bioware Infinity engine improves with time. The core system (graphics, animation, sounds, etc) might be 4 years old, but this game more than makes up for it. Icewind Dale 2 is a great sequel and it delivers on everything that it promised. All of the wisdom of the previous Infinity Engine D&D games has been poured into this game. In addition, there are a handful of improvements. If you can get over the outdated graphics, then this game is more than worth picking up.

IWD2 uses the same real-time strategy setup as the other Infinity Engine D&D games. You have a party of up to 6 characters (unlike Neverwinter Nights), and you control them by giving them orders. Everything that you liked about the old games is still there. Great voice acting, the battle sounds (which now include taunts for a critical hit), great original music, an occasional dose of humor, cool spell effects, and lots of strategy. The Icewind Dale series is more combat-driven than Baldurs Gate and Planescape:Torment, and there is no "main character".

But this game is NOT just a repeat if Icewind Dale 1. This game is better. For starters, there is MUCH more dialog and role-playing. The dialog trees are huge. NPC's react differently to you, depending upon who is talking to them. You can talk to one NPC with 3 different characters, and get 3 unique responses. An NPC might offer a quest only to a character who is of a certain class or race. Diplomacy and Bluff play a significant part in the game.

The missions are more creative and interesting. The game has added a slightly new twist -- destructible objects, like barrels and doors, which makes for a few interesting problems to solve. There is one frantic scene where you have to battle across the screen quickly and stop some bad guys from demolishing a bridge (if you take too long, you fail). Some of your missions include destroying objects (a wall or a door, for instance).

In addition, IWD2 uses the 3rd Edition rules, and it is the best adaptation yet. Black Isle did a great job of incorporating the new rules and a few new races into the game, like the Aasimar and the Dark Elf. The game offers you more character variety than any D&D game to date, so it gives you the potential to replay the game (which is pretty long) a couple of times.

I found this game to be somewhat harder than the other Infinity Engine games, but without getting too frustrating. If you are new to this genre, then I advise picking up Icewind Dale 1 or Baldurs Gate 2 first to get the feel of these games, because Icewind Dale 2 is VERY hard. The battles require more brainpower to get through, so the fun factor is very high. The AI has been upgraded - enemies come at you differently than they used too. Enemy spell casters are smarter and more dangerous. The goblins, orcs, and other minions come in big bunches, which gives you the feeling that you are truly taking on an army of the enemy.

There isn't much to complain about in this game, except for the unfixable shortcomings of the old engine. The graphics and animation are getting very outdated, and some of the other little flaws like pathfinding are still there. The story is linear, and the game is still combat-oriented. However, you can look past those flaws to see a great game. This is the best D&D 3rd Edition game out there yet. Black Isle squeezed that old Infinity engine like an orange and got every last drop of fun that they could out of it.

I'm Not Complaining

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: September 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I really like this game. I've been waiting for a nice RPG that used the 3rd edition rules(that my computer could handle) and this game filled that hole quite nicely. Unlike the Pool of Radiance disaster, this game is worth the at least the box they put it in. It converts the new rules rather well even with a few suprizes to the experienced player. The Balders Gate Engine is the platinum in the pile of silver of RPGing, I wouldn't change a thing. The story starts out a little slow but thats probably to allow you to get the gist of the new style and catch your breath from the incredible character generation system. I made a Drow Wizard! No, really, he's a Drow elf, a subrace of the Moon Elf. That is not where the suprizes end though, oh no. Most of the races have their Forgotten Realms subraces straight from the Setting and some of the classes offer focused sub-choices (for lack of a better name), such as clerics from different patron deities or monks of different orders, like BG2. The side bar is rotated to the bottom of the screen and reorganized, but works the same. All in all, I consider this a great selection for any RPGer's repitiore as it's a solid game with some new twists. And it's fun!

The Perfect Ending to the Infinity Engine Saga

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Icewind Dale was a very overlooked game mainly due to the fact that it came out between Diablo II and Baldur's Gate II. However that doesn't stop the Icewind Dale Saga as my second favorite RPG series behind Baldur's Gate of course.
The game makes excellent use of the 3rd Edition AD&D rules with a simplier leveling up system and a new skills system. There are also new races like the Drow and Half-Orcs and various Elves and Dwarves. Gameplay wise the game is very similiar to the original with some minor changes. So if you enjoyed the original Icewind Dale you'll love this one as well. However some Baldur's Gate fans may be turned off with how incredibily linear this game is. You essentially move from battle to battle with few side quests. This may not be a bad thing as the gameplay will be very addictive. There is also some replay value here with the Heart of Fury mode.
There are a few complaints though. Novices to the Infinity Engine may find this game difficult so I suggest Easy difficulty. The straying of party members is still evident as some will run into enemies without you knowing it or they take the scenic route. But overall a fantastic game and sure to make any fan of the Infinity Engine happy.

Gameplay - 9.5
Graphics - 8
Sound - 9.5
Longetivity - 9.5
Overall - 9 out of 10

Sure to beat NWN hands down

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 19
Date: August 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Black Isle gives you once last chance to take a romp through the Dale using the Infinity Engine. I bought NWN with high expectations that were soon superceded by the amazing mediocrity of NWN's single player campaign. Where I looked for a detailed and enthralling story I found none. Instead I got a Diablo hack-fest that wasn't even as fun as Diablo. But with Icewind Dale 2, I know that story and combat are going to have their day in the sun. Do yourself a favor and order Icewind Dale 2. It's like snuggling up with a good book, or chatting with an old friend, and is sure to bring back fond memories.

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