Icewind Dale Complete - Released on GoG

GoG has released another classic. This time it's Icewind Dale. The game comes with it's two expansion packs-Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster, 2 manuals, 4 HD wallpapers, 2 soundtracks, 10 avatars, 24 artworks, a map and a screensaver. Icewind Dale Complete is $9.99 and a 1.5gb download. You can get it, here.
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Great! Never finished this one and lost the discs.

Already have the whole collection (including IWD2), and played through it not too long ago. Probably won't buy it on GOG.com for a while, but I might just do it the next time I feel like having a go at it (it's a lot easier to buy/download something from GOG than digging through the ol'pile of CD/DVDs).

I love the IWD games, even if the plot was a bit cliche. The visuals were fantastic from an artistic standpoint, and the music was epic..

I absolutely loved IWD (maybe even a bit more than BG at times), but the ending really annoyed me:

The screens look really nice what res does this one go up to?

That's true. I like the "and this happened" screens a bunch of games use - Arcanum, BG2, NWN1/2 and so on.

Originally Posted by woges
The screens look really nice what res does this one go up to?

Use the Infinity widescreen mod. No more problem.

Heh, looks like someone cheated with his stats.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Use the Infinity widescreen mod. No more problem.

Yeah thanks, I googled that up straight after typing that knowing I'd look foolish .

Now that I actually have a wide-screen monitor, after many poverty years of CRT gaming, I shall look into implementing that mod. I take it that's what the screen-shots are using because I don't remember IWD ever looking like that.

Originally Posted by Davion
Heh, looks like someone cheated with his stats.

Yet still managed to pick 18/99 and not /00 for str.

The IWD games weren't supposed to have much plot other than "get me to the next battle". They were supposedly meant to complete better with Diablo. They really had to twist things in order to keep the levels coming later in the games, though. I remember doing some quest in IWD that got a couple back together and I got a significant chunk of all the experience I had earned up to that point in the game. I was all "WTF?" at the time.

Supposedly the ending of IWD2 is an impossible battle. I know I played them all but I don't remember that. Maybe it was so frustrating that I purged it from my memory.

Look at the hit points, too. That "all 18s" guy with 1004 HP is the wimp of the group. It looks like the 4th one down has 8000.

I assume the one who cheated before taking the screenshots thought 18/99 was higher than 18/00, because he/she didn't realize 00 actually means 100.

Yep, the art direction is superb in these games. I loved all the combat and character building aspects. Getting to design your whole party is a big plus, too.

I couldn't get into the game (IWD1)… too combat-centric. No inter-character chat, no towns to visit, nothing, just go, combat, combat, combat.

Originally Posted by wolfing
I couldn't get into the game (IWD1)… too combat-centric. No inter-character chat, no towns to visit, nothing, just go, combat, combat, combat.

Normally that would bother me too, but combat in the IWD games (and BG games for that matter) is just so superlative that, for once, it didn't matter to me. Perhaps the games are little too long for the "all-combat" format, but since all content is of high quality it's not much of a problem.

It's not like a Diablo click fest, or a Mass Effect FPS interactive movie. You have to really like deep tactical turn- and party-based combat that can be simulated with RTwP. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend it.

Certainly an eventual purchase at some point for me. My complete collection of IWD and IWD2 can just continue sleeping peacefully on the shelf….never did find the time to sample them as many years late to the party as I was.

I will laugh if it turns out that nearly everything for the rest of the year to come on GoG winds up on my wishlist page….laugh and then at some point have that much lighter a wallet…

Originally Posted by wolfing
I couldn't get into the game (IWD1)… too combat-centric. No inter-character chat, no towns to visit, nothing, just go, combat, combat, combat.

I had a similar experience, and so I call IWD a "flawed gem" or a "gem with missed possibilities/chances".

Because the bathmosphere, the mood was really, really excellent for me - if the game had been filled with social interaction, then it would have been a masterpiece, imho !

But as it is now - a flawed gem. For me.