Developer: Bioware
Platform: PC
Release Year: 2000
Stephen's Rating: 5/10
Basic Plot
The player controls a player-created party of adventurers who get caught up in the evil happenings of the Icewind Dale.
The party is sent to investigate evil powers which are altering the weather and threatening the town of Kuldahar. The story progresses until a plot is uncovered involving open a portal to the gates of hell to overthrow the North.
Gameplay
Icewind Dale used the Infinity Engine and so was almost identical to Baldur's Gate 2 in the look and feel of the game.
One thing which made this game different to the Baldur's Gate series was that you got to create all the characters in your party, even in a single player game. There were positives and negatives to this decision. I liked how I could customise my party to be supremely powerful and well balanced, but as a drawback you no longer had the humour and company of the NPC's in your party (such as Minsc or Edwin in Baldur's Gate).
Frost Giant's were almost comically large.
Positives
For anyone who played Baldur's Gate and wanted some more action this game was ideal. The Infinity Engine was pretty special, and definitely worth utilising.
What will keep you going in this game is the engine itself and the progression of your characters and their abilities, which is just as good as Baldur's Gate.
Negatives
The lack of NPC character's with their own agenda and story was really missed in the game. It lacked a lot of the humour and humanity seen in Baldur's Gate.
In general the game as a whole was dry in comparison with the previous series. The story wasn't as interesting or epic, the characters less engaging, the world less detailed, everything about this game was sub-par to the work of art that Baldur's Gate was.
Memorable Moments
I tried to complete this game twice and got quite far, but just didn't get sucked in enough to finish it. In fact one time I believe I lost a quest item, and without it I couldn't progress any further.
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