Icewind Dale 2

Rating:
Summary: It is very complicated gameplay, and MOTS with regard to
Review: the icewind dale series.

They still haven't fixed the inability of characters to walk to a point as a group. This caused me to lose at a certain part of the game (after a looooong battle) where you have to get to a certain place in a certain time, and I had to refight it.

I also got bitten yet again trying to load, seeing I hadn't saved when I thought I had, trying to go back into the game and seeing it would not let me.

Both of these are irritating and stupid design flaws which should not be hard to take care of assuming the structure of the program is at all credible.

The 3rd generation stuff and feats are really cool and seem just like fallout in many ways. It is really neat, but easy to create useless or nearly useless characters so you have to read quite a bit since it is such a departure from the previous stuff.

Also, the monk class has gone from being unfairly unbalanced and strong to worthless, which is odd.

Fighters have gone from good to really good/almost godlike compared to others in fighting ability.

The story and fights are not as badly done as in icewind dale 1, and I am enjoying it much more, though I have restarted twice now due to screwing up the characters I chose.

Rating:
Summary: Fun but a bit annoying
Review: I have played every game in the Baldur's Gate engine and enjoyed them all. However this one (and IWD part one) was the least fun. It had the same spells and classes, sometimes even more, but there weren't very many NPCs (people you can walk up and talk to), and it's really hard to multiclass later in the game if you screw up building your party since they added an experience penalty to characters that are dual-class but more than 1 level apart (like 10th level fighter/5th level mage would be penalized 20% exp until the mage part got up to level 9).

The thing that I disliked the most was quite simply the running around trying to figure out stupid [stuff.] And by stupid [stuff] I mean stuff that didn't really advance the plot very much, if at all, and in some cases took a really long time. For example in the Dragon's Eye portion of the game there are 4 levels. I ran back and forth about 100 times between the first 3 before reading a cheat guide and figuring out how to open the...door to the 4th level. At that point I simply wanted to punch the monitor.

I would not recommend this game to someone unless they needed one more fix of Bioware's old D&D engine before moving on to Neverwinter Nights or something else. That's why I got this (also to kill time until I could afford a new video card) but I would have been better off replaying Baldur's Gate II, which had more character interaction and a much more engrossing storyline, not to mention a much less linear and restrictive pattern.

Rating:
Summary: Great game when is iwd3 and 4
Review: I like iwd2 more than nwn, although both are great. iwd2 is more complex, which to me, is more fun. I like playing six people at once instead of just one, wish it allowed 7 or 8.

Rating:
Summary: The Biggest waste of money EVEN!
Review: At first the game was really fun! But once your air ship cashs it gets WAY TO HARD! Also theres way to much fighting you almost never get to talk your way out of a fight. There it not enough side quests too theres only about 30 or something and most of them you have to kill something! You can't go back to an old region once you leave it to. I mean if your air shipped crashed on a mountain what would you do fight your way to you goal wich is about a few 100 or 1000 miles away or going back to Targos wich is only about 600 miles away which you know for sure as medical care. Also your world map shows places in the world that you can't GO TO! I saw on my world map when I first started a place called Good Mead but the game never lets you go there. Also the all the quests in the game have to do with the main quest but something like 4 or 5. One more thing its very easy to find quests but almost impossible to do soem with out a walk thourgh. Also once you beat the game once it gets WAY TO BORING! And last but not least the "Hearts Fury Mode" is way to hard I mean when I started a group of 3 goblins (the weakest character in the game...I think or almso the worst) killed 4 of my parties members and I had jsut gotten off the boat into town. I think this game is only fun for about 20 hours then is drags on and on because jsut when you think you win a battle more people come to kill you.

Rating:
Summary: A mixed review
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: IceWind Dale II is best! And R. A Salvatore is best!
Review: IceWind Dale II rulez! It's the best game in the world!!
R. A Salvatore is very good writer! Good book series!
Rate it! (5 points)!

Rating:
Summary: Deserving of Better than Five Stars
Review: I honestly hope that people who read these reviews pay more attention to those praising Icewind Dale II than those that in my mind belittle a great game. Icewind Dale II is similar to the other Forgotten Realms games, but it is unique in its own right.

Icewind Dale II seems to have found the balance between the heavily quest-based Baldur's Gate II and the hack-your-way-to-fame Icewind Dale. The new third edition rules make Icewind Dale different from the other games as well, and they add a whole new challenge to the game, making the perfect characters. The vast amount of skills and feats all characters can choose from, not to mention all the new races (Drow, tieflings, deep gnomes, gray dwarves, among many others) and subclasses offered, make characters unique, and each level almost makes a player giddy when they try to decide whether they should give their rogue more hide skill for the ever useful sneak attack or maybe more to pick pocket or open locks for the always fun five-finger discount shopping. The addition of the bluff, diplomacy, and intimidate skills also make for a nice variety in NPC dialogue, and deciding whether you want to use your nice little paladin to go negotiate or an evil dreadmaster of bane to threaten an undead life to your enemies can put a player into a moral dilemma. A player's character class can affect NPC dialogue as well, the most obvious class being a cleric which has something to say whenever you run up against a different order or cult. The joys of threatening to kill half the members of a village of druids with my dreadmaster of bane, raise their corpses as undead, and then laugh as they tear into their surviving friends remains potent in my memory. The creation of characters and a well balanced party might dissuade some from this game and the lack of character interaction is disappointing, but characters are far from stale and part of the fun in my mind.

Although the graphics remain the same as all of the recent Forgotten Realms games, players should still appreciate the beauty of the artwork within the game. The one thing I've seen on most reviews, even ones by people who test games as a job, that remains constant is that the fighting in Icewind Dale II is hard, or even impossible according to some. I've played the game on the normal D&D rules throughout and I understand why people describe it as hard. Sure I've had to reload the game a few times after having a character or two die, but I remember spending a hour or two on the final battle of Baldur's Gate II and reloading on all the other games as well. Then again some reloads were just because I wanted a better-looking battle. The reason people probably complain about Icewind Dale II being too difficult in fighting is because battles need to be planned for once, and yes monsters will spawn behind you and try to surround you, a problem perhaps, realistic definitely. I won't discuss strategy in a review, but I will say it's required in most fights in Icewind Dale II and can make fights quite easy. As the makers said, the game has a feature that varies the difficulty depending on your party's skill, not the skill of the player, so plan your battles carefully or turn down the difficulty if you need (a feature all the recent Forgotten Realms games offer) because you're in for one difficult good time.

The story in Icewind Dale II is not anywhere near the level of Baldur's Gate II, but it was not intended to be. You are not a hero that has the blood of the god of murder in your veins, you're a band of mercenaries out for some coin who just happen to save the North in the process. When Icewind Dale II is looked at by itself rather than a comparison to the other Forgotten Realms games, the story will draw you in and is very well done. The big baddies of the story aren't the devilish Irenicus from Baldur's Gate II who seemed to be pulling at the very core of your character's self, but two outcasts who seek revenge. If they seem to come off as childish and vengeful but immensely powerful, then that is because of the story behind their creation which is quite sad and not for me to tell.

The one complaint I can offer about the game comes from a very common cliché, to the victor go the spoils. I find myself spending anywhere from ten minutes to an hour planning out my spending and selling. Charisma as well as some skills can affect the price of goods or the price which you can sell your goods, and in addition to that, supply and demand plays a role as well, sell all things of one type (a good example being gems) at one time from the same character or prices will go down. Although it's a complaint, it's realistic that a charismatic character could barter better prices especially if trained in that area, and besides, who can complain about coming back to town with sacks bulging with gold and gems, bags full of all sorts of potions, and characters laden with all sorts of magical means of destruction ranging from nondescript weapons of immense power to armors of such a design as to have an effect by themselves. Just remember to buy all the potion bags, scroll cases, and gem bags that you see, and always hold onto bags of holding when they're found.

Rating:
Summary: Sadly Mediocre
Review: I bought this game mostly because of the great reviews it got. Sadly, this was for naught. The second I turned on the game it seemed exactly like Icewind Dale I, but without all the extremely fun battles. Firstly, you have to create your entire party. To some this might be fun, but to me it isn't. This is mainly becuase the game takes away any party interaction. You have to move through the game with the same six boring characters, that to me seem more like zombies that people. In Baldurs Gate and Torment your characters talked to each other and had emotions. In the case of IWII, this is taken away. Your characters never talk and simply walk around slaughtering enemies. That's it for the characters. Secondly, the storyline is weak and extremely linear. The voice acting is badly done and at times the dialogue sounds like something out of a bad kung-fu movie. You are continously given menial taks like fetching items or something. When you are told to do something important it sounds like this, "I am afraid so go ahead and kill everyone while I am hiding away in my fortress." Moreover, the enemies are just not realsitic. They never seem really evil, like Irenicus from BGII. They just walk around developing plans for revenge and then become so powerful you have to reload a million times before you can kill them. The enemies altogether are just not placed at the right level. I eventually had to export and reimport all my characters and start a new game so I could move forward. At times, the game lacks logic. You have to pull levers in a special order to get a key. It osunds like those Indiana Jones or Tomb Raiders, rather than RPGs. AT times, the enemies are too powerfl or there are too many. The 3rd Edition rules are the worst part. You only have so little points and your characters are either too weak or too powerful. The dual-classing option is now available to everyone, and so no one plays the ever so powerful half-elf. Also, the paladins and monks are now too weak and no one plays them anymore either. The sotryline is also as I said linear. You have to move forward and there is nothing to do rather than Kill, Kill, KILL. There is nothing worse to do in the world. I would at least have expected better graphics. They are the same as in BGII, but those graphics suited real RPGs. If they fixed the graphics, it would at least fill the game better. To finish, I wouldn't recommend this game. The only reason I gave this game 2 stars is because I at least had an hour or so of fun. Then it just got awful and I just stopped playing.

Rating:
Summary: Great game
Review: First, the character customization is excellent. I've created about 30 characters so far, though I'm only playing with 6 of them. The dungeons are fun. The items are awesome. The graphics are extremely good, and the music is phenomenal. The two main enemies are not cheesy; they certainly aren't up to the level of Jon Irenicus, but they don't have to be. This is hack n'slash, not "child of Bhaal's crisis". The voice acting is great.

Warning: the battles get HARD around Chapter 3-4. They're tougher than any other Infinity engine game -- maybe any other CRPG, period -- nearly the whole way through, actually. But you'll get used to it. You really have to strategize, and winning is that much sweeter. Sure enemies occasionally pop up behind you, and you sometimes find yourself fighting 20 instead of 5. That's why you save. And in "real" life you wouldn't know exactly what was in that dangerous cave, no matter how much you explored it. (Would you walk around in platemail with an ambidextrous half-orc, a half-demon woman who could throw fireballs, and a moon worshiper who could RAISE THE DEAD in real life? If your answer is "yes", your life is more interesting than mine.)

There are more towns than in the first Icewind Dale, but plan on spending your time fighting meanies in their horrible lairs. Your characters are as good as your imagination can make them. Balance your party carefully and you will win. If you're like me, and can't afford a new computer every year, a wonderful new game like this that doesn't need a[n expensive]video card and a gagillion MB of RAM is a godsend. If you're lucky enough to have that fancy new computer, you'll be able to run Icewind Dale II with lots of flash and dazzle.

If you're not afraid of a challenge, get this game. When you win, you'll feel you've really accomplished something. Also, there are a lot of fan-created patches out there already that make the game a bit easier if you want to go that route.

Rating:
Summary: Hmm good and bad
Review: The role is good. The character cration is fun. The graphics Suck!!! All the other playas say who cares about the graphics. But i still say it sucks up alot of fun out of da game. If the person who helped make it was reading it Id tell him the resason the grpahics were award winning was because the Baulders gate which first used them came out along time ago when grpahics sucked and thats when the got the award. the graphics are gettign outdated fast. But the game play is still fun. You jsut gotta try inoring the fact the graphics suck thou. I prefer Dungeon Siege, Everquest, World of warcraft, and Everquest II. So much more fun.