Icewind Dale II

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Description

Just a generation after the events depicted in the first Icewind Dale, a new threat has appeared in the Northern region of Forgotten Realms. Something - or somebody - is trying to cut off the Ten Towns area from the rest of the world. Hordes of monsters invade peaceful towns and kill their citizens. A party of adventurers happens to be in the region, and upon their arrival they are requested to help to defend the town of Targos against monster invasion. But once they have accepted the quest, the adventurers realize it will only be the beginning of a long and perilous journey...

Icewind Dale II is a role-playing game that uses the Infinity Engine, first introduced in Baldur's Gate. Like its predecessor, it is more combat-oriented than Baldur's Gate games. The combat flows in real time, but the player is able to pause at any time to give orders to the controlled characters. In the beginning of the game, the player creates the entire party, up to six characters. The game uses the third edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. There are new character classes (such as monk or sorcerer), new races (e.g. drow) and many new spells. The game features isometric pre-rendered backgrounds, like its predecessors.

Screenshots

Promo Images

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Alternate Titles

• "冰风之谷2" -- Chinese Title (Simplified)
• "冰風之谷 2" -- Chinese Title (Tradition)
• "Bingfeng zhi Gu 2" -- Chinese Title

Part of the Following Groups

• Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Setting: Forgotten Realms
• Dungeons & Dragons (D&D / AD&D) licensees
• Fantasy Creatures: Dwarves
• Fantasy Creatures: Elves
• Gameplay feature: Journal
• Gameplay Feature: Pickpocketing
• Graphics Engine: Infinity Engine
• Icewind Dale series

User Reviews

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Critic Reviews

PC Games (Germany)	Windows	Oct 22, 2002	84 out of 100	84
GameSpot	Windows	Sep 06, 2002	8.3 out of 10	83
Peliplaneetta.net	Windows	Oct 03, 2002	80 out of 100	80
Game.EXE	Windows	Nov, 2002	4 out of 5	80
Withingames	Windows	Mar 11, 2003	4 out of 5	80
Gameplay (Benelux)	Windows	Aug 30, 2002	80 out of 100	80
FiringSquad	Windows	Oct 08, 2002	78 out of 100	78
Game Over Online	Windows	Sep 16, 2002	76 out of 100	76
Super Play (Sweden)	Windows	Oct, 2002	7 out of 10	70
Joystick (French)	Windows	Dec, 2002	6 out of 10	60

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Trivia

Development

According to lead designer Josh Sawyer, the game had a troubled development. It was started after Torn was cancelled and a few people had to be let go as a result. Originally the plan was to develop it in only four months and Sawyer had only two days to write the story and determine the general areas. In the end, development took ten months which is still remarkable because they ported the engine to the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons. They had to leave out some of the more extensive re-designs of that edition, but in hindsight the team was pleased with what they managed to accomplish. The only thing they regretted is that they had no time to polish the game which led to some unbalanced fights.

Main menu

The main menu, which shows a view of the Targos docks, cycles between a day and night version depending on the system time.

Music

The composer of the original Icewind Dale and Heart of Winter soundtracks, Jeremy Soule, is completely uncredited on Icewind Dale II, although several of the pieces of music credited to Inon Zur are actually re-orchestrated versions of Soule's music, including the main theme and the Kuldahar theme. The end credits music is not even re-orchestrated. The collector's edition soundtrack CD also includes all of Soule's Heart of Winter music, though again, Soule is completely uncredited.

Title

Black Isle Studios used to code-name its projects after U.S. presidents and vice-presidents, an idea by Josh Sawyer. The code-name for this game is Project Monroe.

Information also contributed by Sciere, Zovni and Patrick Bregger

Related Web Sites

• Clan DLAN - Icewind Dale II (Unofficial patch to translate the game to the Spanish official translation, hosted by Clan DLAN)
• Hints for Icewind Dale 2 (This strategy guide is arranged in question and answer format so you'll only get as much information as you need without spoiling the rest for you.)
• Planet Baldurs Gate (Official Icewind Dale II Fan Site)