Icewind Dale 1 & 2

[stormlord]

Anybody played? I'm kind of interested in buying a copy, sort of. Maybe Baldur's Gate 1/2 as well. Right now I'm giving Planescape: Tormet a run, but so far it's looking too strange for me. I've read that it takes a while to get interested. At this rate, I'm afraid I won't get interested in it. Crossing my fingers.

I'd specifically like to hear about Icewind Dale, if anyone has played.

If you don't know already, these're Black Isle games. Go here:
http://www.planetbaldursgate.com/iwd/

And:
http://www.tgeweb.com/ironworks/baldursgate2/index.shtml

That also lists Wizardry 8, another rpg that looks like it's worth exploring.

So many great single player crpgs to play.

Here is someone's top 10 for DnD-based crpgs:
http://www.dungeonmastering.com/gaming-life/top-10-dd-crpgs

I could add to that list, for sure! Daggerfall was great. Albion is not bad. Many more.

[Lill-Leif]

I liked both icewind dale games. It was fun to create a group of characters at start so you could make a party that suited your own playstyle.

[Daywolf]

Not sure about ID but the BG's were great. Get the book too :) (fiction section)
Played Torment, yes, was pretty good.
I'd recommend the NWN's over them if you haven't yet. NWN2 box is still found most places along with expansions. Just make sure to patch if you only get Gold, it's buggy broken w/o patch or expansion.

[Honus]

I still play them, awesome games. I liked them better than Baldur's Gate, to be honest. Just started a new game on IWD II with the intent on finishing on normal and HoF levels with 6, 5 and 4 chars. Couldn't get into Torment.

[Aeolwind]

NWN2 has one of the best stories I've encountered in RPGs in a LONG time. And the game play is phenom. MOTB has a great story, but several of the characters are "weak" by comparison to the characters in the OC. Storm of Zehir is meh at best.

[Xenephex]

The 3 Krynn games (mentioned in the link), Champions of..., Death Knights of... and Dark Queen of... were the first rpgs I ever played on a computer. I know I started at least the first of those on a DOS only computer. I loved those games.

The only game that ever rivaled my addiction to EQ was Might and Magic VI, which I still have a copy of and which I will still play from time to time.

The Dark Queen sneers at your meaningless demise, for now nothing can stop her! NOTHING!

[StinkyGreenBud]

Planescape: torment is pretty sick man. Keep playing through.

[Loretta]

I loved NWN2, playing through that with friends is simply awesome - But if you are going solo I would also suggest Dragon Age: Origins, if your looking to go for a more new-school single player RPG experience. Its similar to NWN2 due to same company developer, but they made some improvements to the combat system which I enjoyed - I liked both games a lot, but NWN2 is probably superior due to its multiplayer / DM capabilities and some of the things like owning your own keep which was fun :).

[Cars]

BG1 is the very first computer RPG I have ever played and to be honest i was so young I didnt get it. After I let it sit on my shelves and get dusty for a few years I picked it up and had one of the most amazing roleplaying experiences of my life. BG1 and BG2 definitely deserve to be in the top list of RPG's ever made and anyone saying different is crazy. The ID games seriously do not even come close to touching what the BG series did and thats the same as any game that was made by a company that leached off of bioware. BG1 and 2 were awesome but interplay tried to recreate it with icewind dale and failed. Bioware makes KOTR and obsidion (the company that came from the interplay split) makes KOTR 2 and it sucks a donkey dick. Then neverwinter nights comes out and kills it, Obsidion makes NWN2 and all the work was already done for them, they just replaced the engine, added a handful of placeables and focused on a story. NWN2 did have a good story but thats because all the leg work was done in NWN which is for sure the better game. anyways thats all for my rant. Play BG1,BG2, KOTR, Jade Empire, and never winter knights and you will be playing quality games from a quality company.

[Mournblade]

IWD had an amazing soundtrack, even if it doesn't stack up to BG2. I still enjoyed playing them all.

[Dantes]

I got bored with Icewind Dale because the game just seemed to be a hack n slash walk from encounter to encounter with no story other than having some other reason to go kill more monsters. In Baldur's Gate, part of the fun was encountering potential group members and deciding whether or not they could join your party. Another fun part of that was seeing how they interacted with each other. Icewind Dale was just linear, you had one path to go on. I really enjoyed BG1 and 2 and I still play them a bit from time to time, but Icewind didn't hold my interest for long.

[Daywolf]

Yeah I recall the poor reviews for ID, I mean at least lesser the game compared to BG. So I never played it since I already had major time sink with EQ and UO subs at the time. ID was released I think shortly after Kunark which was the best EQ expansion. Most RPG’s are boring though, not many good releases over the years imo, compared to mmo’s. Sadly, mmo’s are becoming more like RPG’s now… and all it’s stagnate forms.

So yeah, probably best three of the RPG’s I’ve played past 10 years have been Elder Scrolls, NWN and BG, at least the best of them. And countering what someone else said, NWN2 was better than the first. But if you like busting boxes... lol NWN1 is the way to go.

[stormlord]

IWD review scores are very high, up there with the other black isle games (bg, bgII, torment, etc). The developers said BG was 50/50 story/fighting, torment was 75/50 story/fighting, and IWD was 75/50 fighting/story. Personally, I kind of like the combat aspects. I've always considered myself an RPGamer, but diablo-like gameplay has its special place in me. It reminds me of rogue-likes. Stories are fun, but they're hard for me to get into early on. That's why I'm having so much trouble with Torment.

Right now I'm in the mortuary. I know that this would be a horrible time to stop playing. I've read several reviews on Torment so I know better, but it's still hard to get myself into it. It has a lot of philosophy and quests so far, but since I know so little about the world I'm in, a lot of it passes right by me. To be honest, I wish I could crank up the combat difficulty more (it's max). I'd probably regret it later (i've read it gets harder in the second half of the game). I think it's just habit. I'm doing a lot more talking in this game.

And... the world in torment is not what I'm used to. It's not dwarves and elves and castles. That should be a good thing because it's original, but that means I have to start from scratch to familiarize. Lol.

BG2 has crossed my mind. That looks very interesting to me as well. 50/50 story/fighting is ok to me.

[stormlord]

I got bored with Icewind Dale because the game just seemed to be a hack n slash walk from encounter to encounter with no story other than having some other reason to go kill more monsters. In Baldur's Gate, part of the fun was encountering potential group members and deciding whether or not they could join your party. Another fun part of that was seeing how they interacted with each other. Icewind Dale was just linear, you had one path to go on. I really enjoyed BG1 and 2 and I still play them a bit from time to time, but Icewind didn't hold my interest for long.

Ya, the characters are probably more in depth in BG than in IWD, since IWD is so combat focused. For example, i think BG had some romances even? I don't think IWD has that, among other things. Then again, there're some very tough combat areas in IWD that you wouldn't likely find in the BG series (and no chance in torment).

At some point you can draw a line between story focused rpgs and fighting focused rpgs. It takes a lot of developer time to make a good fight, and even more time to make a lot of them. Same thing applies to story and quests. It takes time to add deep relationships between npcs. Long quest lines and extensive conversation scripts. Everything takes time. You have to assign priority. Can't do everything.

Now having said that diablo fights can be very boring. You kill thousands of monsters. If you don't got good mouse fingers, you'll wear them out in a hurry. I mean that to! A LOT of clicking. I think games can take it too far. There's a different between killing a thousand monsters and a good challenging fight. However, sometimes killing a thousand monsters can be part of the challenge, if done right.

It's debatable whether diablo 1/2 (and 3, coming out soon?) is a true roleplaying game, but I would call it an action roleplaying game. Or a hybrid of the two. It has very little persistance so I hesitate to call it an MMORPG. It's more like an MMOG with single player aspects. I don't think these things detract from enjoyment because people enjoy it for what it's, not what it's not. It's a competitive environment. Blizzard makes great games.

Anyone played Jagged Alliance 2? With the new 1.13 patch it looks like a new game. It has elements of role playing in it. Characters have stats and levels. It's turn-based combat. The character all have voice overs and they interact with eachother in unique ways. It's a fun addictive game with great fights. Ya the enemy can be dumb and you sometimes take advantage of that, but it's hard for something like that not to happen in a game. I find that it doesn't ruin my sense of accomplishment because the ai does some things better than I do.

[Starklen]

IWD 2 is a very good game.

[Crover_CT99]

IWD review scores are very high, up there with the other black isle games (bg, bgII, torment, etc). The developers said BG was 50/50 story/fighting, torment was 75/50 story/fighting, and IWD was 75/50 fighting/story. Personally, I kind of like the combat aspects. I've always considered myself an RPGamer, but diablo-like gameplay has its special place in me. It reminds me of rogue-likes. Stories are fun, but they're hard for me to get into early on. That's why I'm having so much trouble with Torment.

That analogy pretty well sums it up.

I've played the Icewind Dale games over the years more than the Baldur's Gate series, but that's just because BG2 is such a huge time investment. You can knock out IWD games pretty quick, just don't expect very rewarding stories/twists.

[NizmerThafen]

I played Icewind Dale and Icewind Dale II I thoroughly enjoyed both games. I actually prefer the first Icewind Dale, despite the graphics not being as fancy as IWD II, because the multiple ongoing stories were so engaging.
The Key to fully enjoying Icewind Dale is complete all the side quests and appreciate all the subtleties in the game.

Great soundtrack, voice acting, etc. The gameplay is a little sloppy though and the characters often path poorly, so you MUST manually control the characters most of the time.

[stormlord]

I played Icewind Dale and Icewind Dale II I thoroughly enjoyed both games. I actually prefer the first Icewind Dale, despite the graphics not being as fancy as IWD II, because the multiple ongoing stories were so engaging.
The Key to fully enjoying Icewind Dale is complete all the side quests and appreciate all the subtleties in the game.

Great soundtrack, voice acting, etc. The gameplay is a little sloppy though and the characters often path poorly, so you MUST manually control the characters most of the time.

Someone said it has a nice soundtrack. I like that. I've heard some nice ones so far in torment.