Icewind Dale II

Developer: Black Isle Studios
Platform: Windows
Release: 2002
Genres: RPG

Icewind Dale II was the last game built with the original Infinity Engine (one of my personal favourite game engines of all time, along with the Ultima VII engine).

Basic Plot

The game is set in the Northern part of Faerûn, focusing on the city of Icewind Dale.

The player party are a group of mercenaries who arrive at the town of Targos to help defends against an assault by goblins. They defend the city and begin an investigation into the Legion of the Chimera; an army of outcast races and religious factions terrorising Northern Faerûn.

Ultimately the player's goal is to resolve the conflict between the Ten Towns and the Legion of the Chimera and bring peace to the North.

Gameplay

Icewind Dale II is a top down role playing adventure game set in the Forgotten Realms universe using a variant of the D&D system.

The player takes control of a party of six characters, all of which are created and customised by the player. This is different to the Baldur's Gate series where (in single player) you created a single character and met additional characters throughout the game who could join you.

Character Creation

Being able to create a completely customised party is both a blessing and a curse. It's great for being able to choose exactly what character classes and stats you'd like each team member to have. When I played Baldur's Gate I sometimes created a multi-player game and copied my save-game file across to single player just so I could have a customised team. 

On the other side of the coin, because your characters are custom made they don't have a back-story linked in with the game world (well not *really*) and they aren't voiced like the party members in Baldur's Gate. To me this was a drastic change in the dynamic of the game; the humour and light-heartedness of Baldur's Gate was gone, instead you felt more alone in the game.

The other big change in the game mechanics since Baldur's Gate was the skill system. Whereas Baldur's Gate handled a lot of skill and stat changes automatically behind the scenes as you levelled up, in Icewind Dale II you had a lot more choices to make when you levelled up. Not only did you allocate stat points and choose skills and spells, but there were also "feats". I personally found this to be a burden I didn't enjoy, I longed for the simplicity of Baldur's Gate.

There were additional options for character creation as well including "sub" races such as Drow if you chose Elf, and sub-classes such as a Priest of Illmater rather than a generic priest.

Fighting a Frost Giant

Positives

Any game that uses the Infinity Engine is fun. The combat and skill progression is satisfying and engaging.

Negatives

The story isn't nearly as strong as it could have been. I've had two big attempts to complete this game and both times I've run out of steam due to the lack of story to carry me through to the end.

The skill system wasn't as satisfying. It wasn't obvious which skills to pick or what the outcome would be down the line, and it added additional complexity where it wasn't required.

A party in town.

Memorable Moments

I've played this game twice and gotten quite far but never managed to get to the end.