Video Games : Icewind Dale

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from: Vivendi Universal

: Icewind Dale
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List Price: $54.95
Price: $9.90
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Amazon Maximum Age: 20 years
Amazon Minimum Age: 144 months
Binding: CD-ROM
Brand: Vivendi Universal
EAN: 0040421007714
ESRB Age Rating: Teen
Format: CD-ROM
Label: Vivendi Universal
Manufacturer: Vivendi Universal
Model: FGC9511560
Publisher: Vivendi Universal
Release Date: June 30, 2000
Sales Rank: 9038
Studio: Vivendi Universal
Variation Description: Icewind Dale



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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Set in the granddaddy of all fantasy game worlds - the Forgotten Realms. It's classic dungeon adventuring where the overall success of your entire group is more important than being the sole hero.

Amazon.com Review:
Icewind Dale intentionally avoids a sophisticated role-playing-game plot in favor of classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons dungeoneering. The game is set in the frigid corner of the Forgotten Realms made famous by author R.A. Salvatore's novels. Many fantasy fans will be familiar with the popular setting, but this time you get to create the heroes, and the adventures are your own.

Veterans of Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment will find BioWare's Infinity game engine instantly recognizable and usable. AD&D fans will be pleased with the interpretation of AD&D 2nd Edition rules. With a few exceptions (no kits, no Drow player characters, no two-weapon fighting), you can assume that if it's in the rule books it's in Icewind Dale.

Players can create six characters from standard AD&D 2nd Edition races and classes as they set off to find an ancient evil buried in the Spine of the World. Combat occurs in real time (no turns), but the action can be paused at any time in order to issue new orders, prepare spells, or respond to a new threat. The designers keep combat fast by allowing players to assign an artificial-intelligence combat script to individual characters. Your party can encounter a minor monster, fire arrows as it approaches, attack it with fighters when it gets close, and then get healed by the cleric when the fighting is done--all without your intervention.

Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment kept players hooked with an engrossing story line and, in the case of Planescape, excellent writing. Specifically designed as a more action-oriented "hack and slash" RPG, Icewind Dale relies on combat and character advancement as its own reward. While it lacks the random dungeons and incredible magic items of Diablo, the high experience point cap and the ability to create all six of your party members make Icewind Dale a worthy addition to any AD&D fan's game library. --Michael Fehlauer

Pros:

Cons:

Amazon.com Product Description:
Icewind Dale incorporates the award-winning gameplay elements from Baldur's Gate, offering players a chance to hone their combat skills while exploring the enormous caverns and dungeons beneath the Forgotten Realms. Players create a party of adventurers in the frigid north. They must combat monstrous Cyclopes and frost giants that dwarf the player characters as they search for an evil lying deep within the Spine of the World. Icewind Dale offers character-advancement form levels 1-15 in the most recent adaptation of AD&D rule.



Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Still got it after all this time
So your bored of the newer RPGs as they seem to be carbon copies of one or another? Try this game then! It is very open, but not as much as sandbox games. There are quests and sub-quests. If you do get this i recommend getting the expansion for it "Heart of Winter". It adds more areas. Even more, there is another expansion set for it online that you download called "Trials of the Loremaster". It is free and available at "The Sorcerer's Place". Currently, im finding some newer RPG's stale and bored (and costly, since i cannot buy any of the new systems). I decided to go back and play some old games. Im still suprised how fun this game is after all this time. Now that i am older, i also notice some good writing in the storyline of the game. If you want a game where it is just a big adventure, with open maps like a sandbox method, try this game again.
Although by today's standards, the graphics are obsolete, you cannot say anything bad about a game that is this much fun! Note: Be wary of using it on Windows Vista. Many games that are older have problems with their software on that system. Well, im back to hunting and hacking-slashing. Have fun everyone!


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Overall good plot info...
Any game requiring cheats is flawed! There are some essential plot developements provided. If you enjoy reading the novels, especially the North of Faerun, this game is good. I like the pronunciation of elven words but found the Elven civiliztion out of context in the frozen North. Make sure you create strong characters as well as enable your cheats, or the game is impossible!!!

The design is great. Music, special effects, and the voice over hooks you from the beginning. The role playing is minimal, unlike Baldurs Gate. Hack and slash for those who like that style of play. The final scene is unbeateable, thus if you want to continue with the expantion, you must finish the original. Neverwinter Nights is much better in my opinion.


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Baldur's Gate minus the charm
As a fan of the Baldur's Gate series, I decided to give Icewind Dale (IWD) a try. Unfortunately, Black Isles did not strike gold twice. While Icewind Dale is a carbon copy of their excellent Baldur's Gate games in many ways, it lacks the personality that make the BG series great.

IWD actually has a number of things in its favor. The character creation system is very rich, allowing you to customize your party of six in true D&D fashion. Also, there is a long list of abilities, spells, and equipment that you'll run across, as well as visually appealing environments, solid voice acting, and compelling music. Some of the dungeons can be genuinely creepy, and there's a sense of accomplishment once you clear one out.

Unfortunately, the game is deeply flawed. IWD is a bit too hard, even for a person who has some experience with RPG dungeon-crawling. Even worse, it's an artificial toughness designed to lengthen the game by requiring you to repeatly reload saved games. Your characters will die countless times, and this simply can't be avoided. And since your cleric will not be able to resurrect dead party members until late in the game (Raise Dead scrolls are expensive too), you will not be able to continue the game with dead characters. It's really a shame that the developer did not pace the game better, since it's going to turn off a lot of people from the very beginning.

If you can get beyond the tedium and frustration of having to save the game every 2 minutes (and reload it almost as often), the gaming experience is still rather uninspired. The story is lackluster and cliche. There is none of the banter between party members that made Baldur's Gate so fun. All of this together becomes mind-numbing after a while, since the game profoundly lacks a sense of purpose or narrative power. It's all really unfortunate since some effort obviously went into creating the game.

Ultimately, if you haven't played Baldur's Gate, by all means play it (both BG1 & BG2). If you've already tasted the glory of the Baldur's Gate series, then IWD will probably be a disappointment.


Pros:
+rich D&D character creation
+good voice acting and music
+wide range of spells, items, etc.

Cons:
-unnecessarily tedious and difficult
-lackluster story
-Baldur's Gate clone without the personality


Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - A bi too linear and short- but great atmsopherics
I've just completed Icewind Dale after over a week of intensive gaming, and I have to say I greatly enjoyed it. But looking back on it and trying to be objective I have to admit there were a few things that were disappointing.

Firstly as my title suggest, the game is alsmot totally linear. Areas and quests can only be accessesed after you complete the previous ones.

Some monsters are nearly impossible to beat the first time you meet them and require knowledge that you gain from the first meeting to beat them later. For example it was unknown to me the first time I met them that Umber Hulks could confuse a party member. The fist time I met a group my entire party got confused and often starting attacking each other. But with such forwearning it's possible to take preventinve measures beforehand. Thus many encounters become a kind of puzzle that you have to figure out. Which may be rewarding in a way but is not really in the spirit of true roleplaying games, where you're expected to play through an encounter there and then, not replay it until you've completed it.

Quests can be completed before you actually meet the person who wants you to complete it. Best example is in the Frost Giants cave where in the middle of the map is a pen full of slaves. To get there you'll probably have slain all the trolls and Frost Giants and when you meet their leader he'll ask you to clear a path so that he can escape. It would have been much more sensible if you met him at the start of the level.

Combat can become a bit repetitive.

The actual gameplay area isn't all that big, despite what it might seem at first.


On the positive side though character advancement can be very rewarding, and you'll be almsot drooling in anticpation when you can learn some higher level spells.
Tne voice acting is of high quality an dis actually genuinely intentionally funny at times (why not try the fighter voice who's vocabulary consists of "Waaaaarrrghhh!!" , "Unngg" , "Huh?", and "Yeeaargghh!!")
But perhaps above all it's the atmospherics I loved about the game. The music by Jeremy Soule is possibly the best soundtrack I've heard for game, complementing the visuals pefectly. Whether it's a quietly epic sweeping theme signifying a quest about to begin in Easthaven, or a restrained yet sinister theme in the ettin caves or the heroic yet frightening them in Lower Dorn's Deep, the music can rouse your emotions.


I can recommend Icewind Dale, but just be aware that it has a few flaws.


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Riveting story and non-stop action
I've not played Icewind Dale in a few years, but since I never finished Heart of Winter, nor Icewind Dale II, I just decided to go back and reload them. The first game is 2D, using sprites to represent creatures and PCs with painted backgrounds. While this may sound primitive compared to the full-on 3D games out today, the artwork is beautiful (as are the character portraits), the story is truly engaging, and the action really doesn't let up from start to end. My favorite game genre is RPG, and even though this one puts more emphasis on action over role-playing, it's still up there with the Baldur's Gate series and Planescape: Torment as one of the best fantasy RPGs made.

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