Icewind Dale 2 - Now Available on Good Old Games

You bet your sweet bippy that BG II is next. They've been saving that one for last.

I'm curious what will be after that. They've had a run on my favorite games of all time lately with Age of Wonders and all of the Infinity Engine games.

Icewind Dale II caught a lot of flak and I still have no idea why. I liked it and played it for what it was. I don't remember anything from it like I do with Baldur's Gate I and II/Planescape, but I do remember that it was fun for what it was supposed to be, a hack and slash game.

I believe the Icewind Dale series was supposed to be the answer to the multi-player experience. BG 1 and 2 weren't that good for MP, but ID seemed like it was tailor made for that experience since you could create your whole party instead of finding them within the game.
 
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ID1 and ID2… Hmmm, *that* games again…

I cannot find proper recommendation for these games *for ages*, because it seems there are two big verz subjective camps:
- the first one says, that ID is rubbish compared to BG, so it should be avoided, (but I guess, this is an impossible comparison, because the two games are made for different purposes)
- the second says that ID1 is superior to ID2 (but I guess, this is because ID2 was AD&D3, while ID1 was AD&D2.5… thus, this is pure nostalgy matter)

Can anyone fill me up which game is the better of the two regarding newbie-friendliness, atmosphere, and plot?
 
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Depends on what you like. If you want a story then go with BG. If you want to hack and slash then go with ID. Both are good so you can put me in the third camp which enjoyed both of the games for what they were. Not what I wanted them to be.
 
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Can anyone fill me up which game is the better of the two regarding newbie-friendliness, atmosphere, and plot?

For me IWD1 was the best game in the series atmosphere- & plot-wise. For some reason IDW2's story felt a bit uninspired. That said, the latter has a bit more going for it technically: higher resolutions to play in, some very nice soundtracks and a game engine that uses AD&D 3.0 ruleset.

Regarding the plot and pacing of both games: they are far less epic than the Baldur's Gate series. Icewind Dale is more of a 'Dungeon-romp', wich I personally liked a lot.
 
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Depends on what you like. If you want a story then go with BG. If you want to hack and slash then go with ID. Both are good so you can put me in the third camp which enjoyed both of the games for what they were. Not what I wanted them to be.

Spot on, Skaven!! IW2 has always been a favorite to replay -- whatever "genre" you apply to it, it has that intangible thing called "fun." :)
 
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Music and "atmosphere" I found better in IWD1/2. There was something about exploring a desolate snowscape, with the wonderful haunting music in the background, that I liked. Graphics were marginally better in IWD1/2 than BG1/2 I thought.

Characters, plot etc - better in BG1/2. Building your character from a total weakling into demigod status was great (ToB introduced some cool high level abilities which didn't make it into IWD).
 
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just waiting for BG2 now...

I have the disks, but I just cant get it running right on my win7 machine here. There's no way I'm spending weeks on my old machine!
 
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They already have Neverwinter Nights 1. 2 came out in 2006 so it might be just within range for GoG but it also has several expansions. Mysteries of Westgate was just last year!

So yeah, I think about the only thing left in the Infinity line is BG2. Saving the best for last, of course.

Then they can look at Oblivion....
 
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While I like the IWD games, I was kind of dissapointed with them. I was looking forward to exploring the Icewind Dale area like I did with BG, so was dissapointed it was a mostly linear dungeon romp. It was still a good game with good atmosphere but I need more than just combat, combat and more combat.
 
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Is ID2 the game that has the "impossible" or "ridiculously difficult" battle at the end? I'm pretty sure I read about that here at some point. Any opinions on this? Or am I completely wrong?
 
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They already have Neverwinter Nights 1. 2 came out in 2006 so it might be just within range for GoG but it also has several expansions. Mysteries of Westgate was just last year!
If you notice, the more modern titles (King's Bounty, Fantasy Wars etc) are from smaller publishers/devs (With 1C publishing most of 'em) or have been relegated to budget/clearance prices. I don't have to look hard to get a disc copy of Fantasy Wars for £4, which is cheaper than Gog.com. Neverwinter Nights triple pack (minus Kingmaker) was recently reissued by Mastertronic (Distributor/Publisher of budget titles in the UK, I think they're part of the Focus group) for £5 on their Sold-Out range, which is also on the common promotion of 3-for-£10, i.e. £3.33 a title. They're basically giving copies away at that price.

NWN2 won't appear, IMHO, or at least not for a few years as it's never been released in a budget form - At least not in the UK, and we drown in them. It's appeared in multipacks but that's it, not to mention Atari still have it for a moderate fee (Albeit one it's worth) on their website, too.

I think it's almost certain that the next title is BG2. They've been building up to it and I think they'll suffer a huge community backlash if it's not BG2. There's nothing to stop Gog.com putting Demon Stone, Dragonshard, NWN2 etc up in the future. If my memory isn't failing me, this stream of D&D games has been to reign in the relaunch of Gog.com and they'll be concentrating on other titles for the near future. It doesn't mean that it's an end to D&D titles, though, and I do think we'll get more as the months (and years) go by.
 
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Is ID2 the game that has the "impossible" or "ridiculously difficult" battle at the end? I'm pretty sure I read about that here at some point. Any opinions on this? Or am I completely wrong?

I found it quite hard, and much harder than IWD1.

IIRC either Isair or Madae cast some spell which paralyzes your characters if they are of a certain alignment. When I first played through, I had most if not all of my characters frozen at which point it was game over. In my next game, I had a mix of alignments and that worked better.
 
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Music and "atmosphere" I found better in IWD1/2. There was something about exploring a desolate snowscape, with the wonderful haunting music in the background, that I liked. Graphics were marginally better in IWD1/2 than BG1/2 I thought.

Characters, plot etc - better in BG1/2. Building your character from a total weakling into demigod status was great (ToB introduced some cool high level abilities which didn't make it into IWD).


The graphics for BG2 & IWD1 are actually better than IWD2. They removed 3D acceleration for IWD2 and that caused the fog of war shadows and the graphics in general to be grainier.

Ill buy BG2 when it comes out and gladly do another play through! Also, I still have high hopes for a BGIII. I believe Atari has the D&D license. Hopefully we will get some news about that in the near future. I've read in a number of places that 2011 might be the year - at least for some info!
 
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After Baldur's Gate II they should do Quest for Glory.
 
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After Baldur's Gate II they should do Quest for Glory.

I could not agree with you more! Lot's of people should know the pure awesomeness that is The Quest For Glory series.
 
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QFG… now that takes me back. I guess the first in the series (wich was called Hero's Quest, iirc) was the first 'RPG-like' game I ever played, though it wasn't really complex. I should still have all those Sierra-boxes somewhere in my attic.

Anyway, I especially liked the first title and the fourth, wich had great atmosphere and sound-acting. For those interested, there's a remake of the second game available for free here
 
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