Game Info:

Category : RPG
Publisher : Interplay
Feveloper : Black Isle Studios
Release : 08-29-2002
MSRP (US): $49.99
ESRB: Teen

Minimum Requirements:

CPU : 400 MHz Athlon or Pentium 2 Processor
RAM : 64 MB
HD Space : 620 MB
Video : DirectX compliant video card
Operating System : Windows 9X/2K/ME/XP (DirectX 8.0)

Icewind Dale II (from here forth known as IDII) is the sequel to the much acclaimed Black Isle Studios' RPG, Icewind Dale and its expansion pack, The Heart of Winter. Icewind Dale was an RPG different from the standards set by its cousin, Baldur's Gate. Icewind Dale II focuses more on the hack and slash combat that Dungeons and Dragons fans love. IDII does not stray far from the path set by its predecessor. IDII is a story driven RPG that focuses most of the time on dungeon crawling and combat which is not necessarily a bad thing.

If you are looking for a complex, epic storyline along the lines of Baldur's Gate or Planescape: Torment, then IDII will be below your expectations. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a combat-intense, dungeon crawling experience with plenty of monsters, items, and gold to discover, then read on and see why IDII might just be your cup of tea (or elvish wine, which ever you prefer).

Gameplay:

If you ever played the pen and paper version of AD&D, then you will remember what it is like to spend a couple of hours generating a character that you would play. At least I did. IDII gives you a lot of options when generating your character. And with IDII incorporating the AD&D 3rd edition rule set, you now have the option of using the barbarian, monk, and sorcerer classes. There are many more character races/subraces to choose from. Everyone's favorite, the dark elves (the Drow) are here. Also included are the half-orcs, tieflings, and the gold dwarves. The 3rd edition rule set allows for some of these character/class combos to be really powerful from the start of the game. But it is balanced out by having an experience penalty so that they will not be overly powerful towards the end of the game. IDII also includes new priest, druid, and wizard spells, new character portraits and sounds, and a new random treasure generator for enemies.

You can create up to 5 more characters to join you on your mission through IDII. If you choose to make one, you can recruit more characters from ones that are pregenerated for you. They will help you form a balanced party to venture through the game. But I always find it more enjoyable when I have a personal attachment to the characters I make. Thus, I recommend that you generate the next 5 characters yourself instead of using the pre-generated once to form your party. The key to survival in IDII is to have a balanced party. You won't get anywhere fast with 6 fighters and no priests to heal. And on the flip side, you may be able to blast some monsters with 6 wizards but no fighters to back them up and you will be reloading your saved games way too often.

As said before, IDII is a combat oriented game. But it is not like Diablo II where you can just go into a given dungeon and hack and slash your way through things. IDII is a thinking man's RPG. You have to know which spells to use at which times. You have to make sure that your party is in a formation that is best suited to the environment you are in. The last thing you want is to have your wizards and priests in the front of the battle where your fighters should be. You can utilize a pause feature (defaults to the spacebar) to organize your group, brandish your weapons, get healing potions ready, and prepare your casters to launch their spells when needed. As the game progresses, it gets progressively more difficult. There were some battles that took me a few (read 23) times to pass. One battle had me so frustrated that I needed to take a break from the game as I was about ready to throw my mouse through the window. But once I beat that battle, I knew I could take on the rest of the game. This example illustrates the fact that sometimes you will have to reload a game several times just gain some knowledge of what will and won't work in a given situation. Quick save and quick load will become your best friends with IDII.

IDII is a mostly linear game. Although it does allow role-play a little better then IDI did. The addition of skills like diplomacy and intimidation work itself into the conversations you have with the NPCs in the game. For instance, if you lead off the conversation with a given NPC and your lawfully good fighter or your evil dark elf rogue, the interactions will be vastly different. Some times the responses you will get will catch you off guard and every now and then make you laugh.

Now even though I said that IDII is not as story driven or epic as Baldur's Gate or Planescape: Torment, it still does have a story and it is done really well. The story allows you to keep motivated and just fuels the desire to see how the game turns out. I don't think that I would have enjoyed the game nearly as much if the story had not been able to flesh things out for me as well as it did. The story helped to drive my characters along a given path that made sense. Without it, IDII would be just a lame hack and slash dungeon crawl with no heart.

One big complaint I do have is the pathfinding of my group is really poor. Many times it would require micromanaging my party which took time away from what I wanted to focus on. This becomes way to cumbersome and tedious when dungeon crawling. I would find myself leaving a couple of party members alone while I navigated the lost party members to the rest of the party. I hated doing this as it forced me to leave party members unattended in a dungeon where a monster and his friends could stroll on by and take out their frustrations out on them. Fix the pathfinding and the dungeon crawling would be so much more fun.

Graphics/Sound:

If you have played any of the previous Black Isle games (Baldur's Gate I or II, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale I), then you are familiar with the Infinity Engine that IDII uses. When the Infinity Engine first came out, it was beautiful and blew my mind away with the detail of its environments that it conveyed to me through my monitor. But, over time, the Infinity engine has changed very little. And if you have played any of the recent graphically impressive games such as Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind, or Dungeon Siege, IDII might be a little hard on the eyes. The Infinity engine works well for IDII as most people will be used to it. IDII can support 800x600 resolution with unsupported resolutions all the way up to 2048x1536. I chose to run with the 800x600 resolution and things looked fine. But then again, I wasn't expecting anything graphically impressive when playing this game.

One big enhancement that I was excited about was the interface rearrangement. The old interface used to take up so much screen space that I felt I was missing things going on. Now the interface is more "compact" with it all being located on the bottom. It feels more open and spacious that I can actually see a lot of the combat that is going on. Everything is still accessible but just more compact. This is a welcome change and one I am glad they implemented.

IDII has some of the best music I have had the pleasure of playing a game to. The music is perfectly suited to the game. The action music when combat starts gets your adrenaline going while when just strolling around town the music is calm and soothing. The soundtrack is very well done and I am glad that Black Isle Studios decided not to stray from the proven formula that they have employed successfully.

Character voices and the sound effects are all similar to IDI and the BG/Planscape games. But they do work and they work well. The voice acting is done well. I did not expect anything less from Black Isle. The voice acting in their previous games was always well done. I was hoping for some new sound effects to go with the new spells. But I guess I can't fault them too much for recycling the sound effects. It just would have been a nice to hear new effects in the game.

The Wrap-up:

IDII is a good game if you are looking for a story driven, action-based RPG. The combat in the game requires not only for you to have a balanced party but to know when to cast certain spells, which character(s) should be engaging which monster, and when to cast certain spells. It is a thinking person's RPG that has style and interesting story. The use of the 3rd edition rule set makes IDII feel somewhat new as there are new races/subraces, spells, items, weapons, etc. that you can use to create and equip your party with. Even though the graphics might seem "dated" when compared to games like Morrowind or Neverwinter Nights, it does work for IDII.

The game designers know what role-players want to see in an RPG. If you liked IDI or any of the previous Black Isle Studios games, then it is really not hard to recommend this game to you. If you haven't played any of those previously mentioned games, then there will be a learning curve as you figure out what a balanced party is, what spells to use, and what member of your party should be on which monster. But once you get comfortable with the interface, hotkeys, and 3rd edition rule set, you will no doubt be engrossed in IDII as I was.