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Icewind Dale

aka: Bingfeng zhi Gu, IWD
Moby ID: 1898

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Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 81% (based on 47 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 123 ratings with 6 reviews)

Old times recaptured in a straight line

The Good
Released roughly at the same time as Diablo II, Icewind Dale was Black Isle's effort to present a deeper alternative to simplistic action-based combat in role-playing games, at the same time not shying away from basing a game on simple dungeon crawling. In reality, Icewind Dale is much closer to old AD&D Gold Box games than to Diablo: it focuses on party management and tactical combat much more heavily than on character customization and item-collecting.

The game deliberately distances itself from its "older brother" Baldur's Gate, being much less story-driven and much more combat-heavy. While it's easy to dismiss it at first as a dull plot-less version of Baldur's Gate, the fact is that Icewind Dale excels in other areas. It is closer to Might and Magic in that party creation and subsequent management is in the spotlight, and the addictive fun comes from all those countless combinations you can achieve by creating your ultimate band of heroes. Neither Baldur's Gate, nor any other RPG of the "Renaissance" era (or any other that was based on Ultima, for that matter) allowed you to do that. You lose character sub-plots and inter-party bantering, but gain more control and deeper role-playing of your own characters.

AD&D rules are quite restrictive, so character creation cannot compare to, say, that of post-sixth Wizardry games, let alone the obsessive depth of Darklands, which makes Icewind Dale a less intimidating, but still reasonably hardcore RPG. It is very easy to get into and start playing. You won't be humiliatingly beaten during your first battle just because you failed to do some complex math while creating your spellcaster, but your ability to manage your party will be challenged at all times.

The main fun in the game comes from combat. Hands down, Icewind Dale has one of the best combat systems around, mixing tactical thinking and reflexes in just the right proportions. The balancing is frankly better than in any other Infinity engine game, and the difficulty level is just right. Preparation, positioning, movement, delicate balance of buffing, status ailments, offensive and defensive spells - everything plays a role, and is a joy to experiment with.

While Icewind Dale is a linear game, its dungeons, where most of it takes place, are quite large. The game also has marvelous old-fashioned 2D graphics that convey plenty of atmosphere. You won't be stuck in depressing mazes that look all the same - you'll be gradually advancing through haunting, lovingly detailed areas, accompanied by a sweet soundtrack starting with the unforgettable "Nordic" theme of the game's opening location.

Even though there are very few friendly areas or characters to talk to in the game, what little there is of the dialogue is surprisingly well-written, and almost every conversation is a pleasure to read.

The Bad
If you expect a large world, exploration, plenty of choices, interaction with many NPCs, etc., you won't find any of that here. This is a simple dungeon crawler with forgiving dungeons; it's not a game of exploration, but rather a game that throws lots of enemies at you and not much else. It's as basic as it gets: receive a quest, clear area A, proceed to area B, receive another quest, rinse and repeat. You must do everything in a particular order and only go where you are told to.

The game is very linear, the main quests are always the same and you have very few sub-quests - actually, no sub-quests worth mentioning. The story is paper-thin: there are a couple of nice twists, but the plot isn't very involving and is also quite slow-moving. You can't decide almost anything during the game, you'll have to kill everybody you are supposed to kill, and you can't kill anybody you are not supposed to kill.

In short, Icewind Dale is a throwback - a well-executed one, but a throwback nevertheless. Your final evaluation of this game would entirely depend on how much you like to see a fairly primitive, simple crawler revitalized with a superb engine.

The Bottom Line
Ease of playing, fantastically balanced combat, and addictive party-building make Icewind Dale a good, solid RPG; but it still feels somewhat too streamlined, too accommodated to the preferences of modern impatient players. I find Baldur's Gate games much more compelling in every way.

Windows · by Unicorn Lynx (181775) · 2017

Ooohh ā€¦ now I remember this! An adventure gal revisits the RPG genre

The Good
Reading the other reviews here on Moby influenced me to pick this particular game as my first attempt to return to the RPG genre. So, this review of the single-player game is not biased by comparisons to other recent games in its class or genre since I havenā€™t played any of them ā€¦ yet!

I havenā€™t played a ā€œrealā€ role playing game since my old DOS days. Back in the ā€˜80s, I enjoyed playing AD&Ds during adventure game ā€œdry spellsā€, usually while waiting for Sierraā€™s next release. But during the past decade or so, my games of choice have been ā€œadventureā€ games, thinking that I couldnā€™t hack it (pardon the pun!) in the role playing genre or that Iā€™d be disappointed because of lack of story. Playing more recent ā€œcross-overā€ titles like Outcast and Omikron made me braver to try ā€œtrueā€ RPGs once more. That said, hereā€™s what this adventure girl discovered ā€¦

Icewind Dale has some great features, including:

  • No 3D Video Accelerator required. A really good thing ā€˜cause I donā€™t have one.
  • Easy Save and Load. Ample room to type in Saved Game Descriptions; Quick Save and Load hotkeys; Auto Save at predesignated spots.
  • No Disk Swapping. 1 CD is for install only; the other for all gameplay.
  • Well-written, in-depth manual (which I read from cover to cover).
  • Character Creation is intuitive and comprehensive. 9 Races; 18 Classes; Character Import/Export; Attractive Picture choices (and Image Import option); Voice Choices and Biography scripts, etc.
  • Music ā€“ Turn up the volume ā€“ itā€™s absolutely wonderful!
  • Voices ā€“ The most important NPCs speak out loud. David Ogden Stiers (ā€œMashā€) does a marvelous job as Narrator. Subtitles on or off option.
  • Sound Effects ā€“ footsteps, fire crackling, monster roars, bubbling brews
  • Graphics ā€“ Atmospheric; enhancements can be adjusted for your system.
  • Maps ā€“ self-mapping; An easy travel ā€œWorld Mapā€
  • Descriptions of inventory items are very well written and complete. They even tell you what races or classes cannot use a particular piece of equipment.
  • Journal ā€“ Written as you play for easy reference.
  • Last but by all means not least ā€“ An Actual Story with an engaging plot, interesting conversations and numerous characters.
  • Relearning the Genre (itā€™s been a long, long time):
    It didnā€™t take me long to realize just how rusty I was. Two hours into the game and I was still setting up my party! I had forgotten everything about the races and classes, their special abilities as well as limitations. That finally done, I spent the next full day exploring the town of East Haven, where the game starts. (Yes ā€“ I sat here in front of this monitor glued to my computer, so engrossed I couldnā€™t move, all day and half into the night!) I found the overhead view reminiscent of the Ultima games from my past. I had fun poking my Thief into places he shouldnā€™t be, talking to the townsfolk and filling out the map. I was pleased to discover my Bard was not forgotten with specialized, high class musical objects and NPCs only he could understand. My characters equipped as best I could afford, it was time to see what they were made of.

    Attack!
    My first battle took me several hours and numerous reloads until victory was finally mine. (Whew! And those were little, bitsy goblins!) There are so many choices! Party member order and position, weapons and spell selection, enemy targeting and learning the iconology of the game screen. According to the manual, itā€™s a mix of both real-time and turn-based combat. Whatever it is, I liked it and got accustomed to the interface pretty quickly. My second conflicts took place inside winding caves full of fearsome giant Orcs. These combat sequences helped me perfect my strategies and I felt triumphant when I emerged from the caves victorious. My confidence high and my appetite sufficiently whetted, I was ready for whatever lie ahead. (Gulp!)

    Onward ho!
    There are so many great spells, scrolls, equipment and magical objects. Somehow or other I must figure out how to spend my money more wisely. At this rate, Iā€™ll never be able to afford the Bardic Horn of Valhalla! Must find more gold ā€¦ must increase levels ā€¦ must fight and pilfer ā€¦ must ā€¦ must ā€“ er, um ā€“ I guess Iā€™m hooked. Why have I stayed away so long?

    The Bad
    It would have been nice to have close-up views of NPCs when you meet them, at least the most important ones. When you meet a minor NPC, a member of the town for instance, the majority of them have the same, identical things to say as the previous person you talked to. This could have been varied for more interest and personality.

    While shopping, you canā€™t switch to and from a characterā€™s inventory screen to see what he/she has already equipped. I found it cumbersome to exit the ā€œbuy/sellā€ screen and then to open the inventory to look at each characterā€™s equipment. I donā€™t know if this is a common trait of other RPGs.

    The Bottom Line
    Now I remember ā€¦ This is fun stuff! Since I am so out of practice, Iā€™m sure this will take a long while to finish. Good! Why rush a good thing? The story is leading me along, unfolding a bit at a time, just the way I like it. Iā€™m having a jolly good time combating the various (and numerous) evil meanies, collecting booty and raising my partyā€™s experience levels. Iā€™m glad I picked Icewind Dale for my return to the genre. RPGs .. this adventure girl is back!

    Windows · by Jeanne (75944) · 2011

    Excellent break from the Baldur's Gate series.

    The Good
    The first thing I noticed about this game was that there is much more fighting and much less talking going on. I thought it might just be part of the beginning of the game but I was wrong, its basically an all-out hack-n-slash fest through the whole game. Its packed with tons of magical weapons, armors and items to aid you in battle, which you almost always seem to be in. It was a nice break from the 2000 page novel that you basically read by the time you finished Baldur's Gate 2. It had a decent story line where it basically left you chasing evil through out Icewind Dale searching for the source of the evil consuming the region. Lots of weird twists and turns, allows you to play an evil character with a fair degree of accuracy. Some choices such as allowing the girl-thief to escape the ice salamander lair with the slaves results in a large amount of EXP but if you side with the salamanders and kill her and the slaves, you can get a ton more EXP. Lots of good choices to keep the replay value high. Many good spells, allows you to advance your mages from 1st to 9th level casting.

    The Bad
    The fact that it was an all out kill fest meant that there wasn't going to be many towns. Even near the end of the game you found yourself having to wander 8 days back to Kuldahar to buy weapons that were barely good at first level. There is a good weapons dealer near Upper Dorns Deep but you have to walk through many screens to get there, it takes too long. The shops always sell the same thing and eventually become useless except for a place to get rid of junk. I hate the way in Kuldahar (which is basically the only town besides Easthaven) you have to wander from shop to shop because each shop only buys specific items. It becomes a hassle, I started just dropping equipment just to save myself the hassle of trying to sell the junk.

    A thief is a must in these games, I can't stand the way that this game doesn't give your thief EXP for disarming traps. Of Course a thief should get EXP for it.

    Like all of the Infinity-Engine games from Black Isle, the AI makes your characters border-line retarded. Sometimes they walk in to each other, even obvious paths to a destination cause them to get confused and end up walking a completely longer path. It gets a little better if you find a few boots of speed to separate them a little bit but the AI is still pretty bad. The scripting is a joke, I set my cleric to a Passive-Fighter and my cleric just stood there and casted bless over and over and over. I don't like the scripting. Gold is basically worthless in the game, except you spend so long saving for 1 really expensive item thats not that good anyways. You find pretty much everything that is good in the game. No resolution adjustment either, crappy 640X480 only. I couldn't figure out how to reassign the "SELECT ALL" key which is the Plus key, out of all the keys you could reassign, it won't let you reassign the most important hotkey in my opinion.
    The game is fairly short compared to Baldur's Gate 2 but its still long enough though.

    The Bottom Line
    Definitely worth a try if you like the BG series. A great buy for only about 20 bucks not days too!

    Windows · by OlSkool_Gamer (88) · 2004

    Wonderful RPG with a twist

    The Good
    Let me just say that I have finished IWD twice and re-started it about 5 times. I was new to D&D when I started and it while you can get the main concepts easily you gain a lot by understanding the stuff that happens behind the curtains.

    Once you do get to know the mechanics of D&D and the world of IWD, the game really shines. The story is interesting and the fights are fun. There are a lot of treasures to find and bodies to loot. The spells are awesome and the effects are cool as well.

    The game will give you plenty of time to finish as there are many battles and as I said it takes time to learn the world of IWD. If you want to play on the easy level and just hack & slash you way through the game you will miss a lot.

    I strongly advice you plan your party carefully and read all the tips about party creation online. It really makes a difference to have the right party.

    Also the tools from TeamBG for IWD are cool to have, but don't use them to cheat!

    There is an unofficial patch for IWD that removes a lot of the annoying things that I also recommend installing.

    Also, if you get to read the books of R.A Salvatore it also adds whole new depths to the game.

    The Bad
    Well, the game is a few years old and it shows a bit, but don't let it effect you.

    Sometimes through all the battles it is hard to see the "big" picture.

    There is a steep learning curve to fully enjoy and benefit the game.

    When there are many spells effects the game can slow to a crawl. This may be fixable.

    The Bottom Line
    Wonderful that can serve as a way to enter the wonderful of RPG and D&D. Can be finished easily but played again and again once you learn more about how the game works. A real gem!

    Windows · by The Gay Elf (12) · 2005

    Not just another overrated RPG

    The Good
    The entire reason that I bought this game in the first was that when I looked at the system requirements, I saw that it would not take up my entire hard drive and could be played on my computer rather well, which is more than I can say for most fun-looking RPGs that I find in the computer stores. Such factors led me to severe disappointment with games such as "Ultima IX" and American McGee's "Alice." Also, the fact that it has traditionally gotten good reviews, such as by the cashier who approvingly stated: "Icewind Dale." as I handed him the box. When I got around to actually playing the game, I was impressed with the sharpness and customizability of the graphics (i.e. you characters look different which each different item you equip on them). Also, the combat system, though it may seem rather confusing at first, was to my enjoyment because it is simple enough to get the hand of after a few battles while being complex enough to avoid the monotony of games like "Diablo." The challenge appealed to me as well. This game is a bit more difficult than most other modern RPGs, with enemy ambushes, cleverly placed traps and the like. On a more personal note, I find the game's isometric graphic interface easier to play on.

    The Bad
    This game, as good as it is, comes with one major catch. It takes FREAKIN' FOREVER to figure out how to play it. It took me nearly 2 hours to read the instruction manual, and starting a new game can take up to an hour as well, which beginners will find themselves doing quite often in order to find a good balance in character creation. Those unfamiliar with Dungeons and Dragons style games (i.e. me) will need a while to get used to it. But hey, if you've got the patience and the time then go for it.

    The Bottom Line
    While Icewind Dale uses a Dungeons and Dragons style of play, it is not a requirement that you have played D&D before to be able to play Icewind Dale. Players take a highly customizable party (six characters, the player sets everything from gender to occupation to personality) into a cold, icy, northern environment filled with a diverse assortment of locations, characters and enemy creatures. The game will test the player's wit and imagination as well as combat skills, so you won't just go around clicking on stuff (I'm not a big fan of Diablo, in case you can't tell). I definite must-play for the RPG fan.

    Windows · by Sam Tinianow (113) · 2001

    Superb RPG - But it lacks the soul of AD&D

    The Good
    For players that have been around since the first AD&D rpg's, a dream come true is when you actually see what those spells are good for in battle. This game is one of the long lists of that made that happen (finally burning touch has its uses..hehehe).

    The real-time combat was excellent, fast and rough (you'll discover later that there are some real-time combat of of future AD&D stink...ehem...like the 3D Pool of Radiance).

    The graphics were astounding, although I don't recall there was a very good intro, like Diablo? Then again, who can compare the graphics of Diablo...HA!

    The Bad
    There was something that I was EXTREMELY disturbed about the game, which is probably the only reason I bothered to review this game anyway.

    THE LANGUAGE! My God, I do recall some kind nasty lines (although optional), that some of the characters (your) leader could say, if you chose that. Hey, I know, your characters could be chaotic evil, but this is a GAME, where KIDS play, and this is not something a AD&D game should introduce: Foul Language, its bad for the morals, mate. An -E grade for "Soul" for the creators of this game!

    The Bottom Line
    Nice, if you don't mind the language...

    Windows · by Indra was here (20755) · 2002

    Contributors to this Entry

    Critic reviews added by Jeanne, Juan ArgaƱaraz, oct, jean-louis, Patrick Bregger, Riamus, CalaisianMindthief, Big John WV, Tim Janssen, Wizo, vedder, Caliner, nyccrg, Flapco, Sciere, coenak, Rebound Boy, Xoleras, Klaster_1, Scaryfun, Cavalary, ti00rki, Mr Creosote, Emmanuel de Chezelles, Alsy.