The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Icewind Dale

Preamble

In a summer CRPG market that was dominated with the hype of Diablo II, Icewind Dale came in on a quieter, stronger note. Between the two titles Icewind Dale is the one I have played more and found much more enjoyable. Icewind Dale is an equal to its cousins Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment in graphics and quality and set apart with its different style of plot and character building. It is a fresh experience and has not fallen into practiced repetition like the Might and Magic series.

Character Building

Unlike the prior Interplay/Black Isle releases Icewind Dale allows the player total control of their party composition. There is no talking to every NPC hoping they will join your cause. The classes in Icewind Dale are your standard AD&D types: fighter, ranger, druid, mage, thief, bard, etc. Characters are rolled up in the traditional way: roll dice and pray, then roll again as needed. With the ability to create all party members, Icewind Dale gives the player ultimate control to shape of a party and thus greatly influence game-play. The party I used consisted of the following: ranger, fighter/thief, cleric, fighter/mage, mage and bard.

This seemed to work well, but Icewind Dale is flexible enough to cater to almost any party composition. Alignment does not count for much. Moral choices take a backseat for much of the game and will not effect PC interaction in any way.

Some players solo, some people use less than six characters in Icewind Dale. If your party is not filled or a PC is not working well, it is very easy to create a new character. Drop them into your party at any point and move on (which I wanted to do at one point early on in the game). This can be done via a character ported from another saved game or a new character.

Total customization and selection might not be good for every game, for Icewind Dale it works well. In Baldur's Gate or Planescape: Torment party customization would not have worked well, as NPC's who joined your party drove plot elements. The NPC's for Icewind Dale come in two basic archetypes: good guys that you talk to and bad guys you kill to advance the plot. None will join the party to help your cause.

The Plot

The setting for Icewind Dale is in the frozen, northern mountains of Forgotten Realms. It starts innocently enough with a few small quests to solve local problems in the small town you start in. But there is trouble afoot in the land and the party is called upon to help. The set up for Icewind Dale is decent, the plot goes from chapter to chapter with a good blend of accomplishment and mystery. I would love nothing more to highlight every plot point, but this is a review and not Cliff Notes.

Icewind Dale is oriented towards dungeon crawling: banging critters over the head then get their stuff. Within this context, Icewind Dale is well written, compelling and flows nicely. There are few distractions from the overall quest there are many tough spots, but few tough decisions. There are enough twists and turns to keep game play interesting. Even if the player is just connecting the dots.

Game Play

Icewind Dale is an AD&D game. For all it's good things and bad, that is what it is. While I have never been a fan of AD&D, it does work well for CRPG's. If AD&D is not your thing, then Icewind Dale may not be your game. That being said I think it is a great game and a good implementation of AD&D game mechanics.

There are some nasty puzzles in Icewind Dale and some really nasty critters to fight. Some of the puzzles are tough mostly due to hard-to-see graphics, such as well-disguised levers or hidden items. This caused some stalls in game play, but nothing that couldn't have been corrected by going over areas with a fine toothed comb.

Icewind Dale plays almost identically to Baldur's Gate and Planecape: Torment. It is the same game engine, though some improvements are noticeable. That being said, the AI is slightly stronger for the monsters, they appeared tougher and smarter. The only annoying trait the monsters had is a preponderance to focus on the PC they saw first. It can be worked to your advantage, especially early on, but at the same time one or two characters can get pounded into dust if you are not careful. The encounters in the game are well designed, often tough. While the monsters had good graphics, the PC's could have had been better. They are little different than the PC's in Baldur's Gate and are generic as compared to the great care put into the rest of Icewind Dale's monster graphics.

Visually, Icewind Dale is lush and holds up to Interplay's high standards. The game areas are thoughtfully done and despite the hostile arctic climate the are quite nice to look at. Some of the issues in the game were graphical in nature: the puzzles were overly or inadvertently difficult because it was nearly impossible to see something (such as a switch to open a door). These were few in numbers during the game and are only an irritant at worst.

Much of the magic in Icewind Dale is your basic cookie cutter AD&D spells. There have been a few spells added and your character can advance to higher levels and then get some very good spells. The quantity of spells in Icewind Dale are numerous and many are available so that you can have a number of spell casters in your party and each one be different from the others.

In the game I played the fighter/mage cast the utility spells (haste, knock, web), the bard cast a mix of offensive and summoning spells (chromatic orb, summon monster I, II, II) and the mage was a walking spell platform (fireball, flame arrow, cloudkill). On the flip side, the evil NPC's and monsters have good spell casting abilities and use them to their advantage. Cloud kill, web, fireball, confusion and fear being among the popular spells to cast on PC's. Talk about a taste of your own medicine.

The spell effects are well done, though sometimes spell casting gets very repetitive. Black Isle could have put more time adding a variety of spell casting graphics and sounds.

Treasure is a big part of Icewind Dale. There are plenty of +1 weapons and other low level items (though in the beginning this might seem hard to believe!). But the unique items in Icewind Dale are very well done, it might be only a +3 hammer but it has a history and maybe a few other minor perks. There are less miscellaneous items, but the ones that are in the game are often unique and useful. My personal favorite a ring that doubles the number of first and second level spells a mage may cast.

Interplay has been good with product support for Icewind Dale. Their updates have been timely and well explained. The game has been very stable. I can not say the same in either case for Diablo II. One very handy bug (that was corrected) was based entirely around items affecting constitution. Basically equipping and un-equiping the item would heal the character.

Quirks

Unlike Baldur's Gate when you go into inventory the game pauses. You can swap ammo, armor and other equipment instantly, much to the chagrin of monsters and reality.

Spell casting monsters will cast fireball on your party, which is bad. The good news is his minions could be fighting you at the time.

Changing weapons negates hide in shadows.

Beware of lightning ricochets, if your geometry is off: characters pay for it.

The random encounters when camping seem to be a little weighted to being ambushed (which seems to be a function of the Bioware engine or sadistic game designers).

Good NPC's often have handy items, the perfect (and only…) use for your bard or rogue to pick pockets.

There are almost too many magic items and not many good breaks in the game to go sell them and buy new stuff.

Synopsis

Icewind Dale may have been overshadowed by Diablo II, but that perception is not reality. It is a solid, enjoyable game that filled the gap nicely between Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate II. If I could buy only one CRPG this summer this would be the one, fall on the other hand could be a tougher decision.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Icewind Dale
Author: Bioware Category: CRPG Company/Publisher: Interplay Line: n/a (AD&D) Cost: $49.99 Page count: n/a Capsule Review by Wes Johnson on 08/28/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	Icewind Dale Preamble In a summer CRPG market that was dominated with the hype of Diablo II, Icewind Dale came in on a quieter, stronger note. Between the two titles Icewind Dale is the one I have played more and found much more enjoyable. Icewind Dale is an equal to its cousins Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment in graphics and quality and set apart with its different style of plot and character building. It is a fresh experience and has not fallen into practiced repetition like the Might and Magic series. Character Building Unlike the prior Interplay/Black Isle releases Icewind Dale allows the player total control of their party composition. There is no talking to every NPC hoping they will join your cause. The classes in Icewind Dale are your standard AD&D types: fighter, ranger, druid, mage, thief, bard, etc. Characters are rolled up in the traditional way: roll dice and pray, then roll again as needed. With the ability to create all party members, Icewind Dale gives the player ultimate control to shape of a party and thus greatly influence game-play. The party I used consisted of the following: ranger, fighter/thief, cleric, fighter/mage, mage and bard. This seemed to work well, but Icewind Dale is flexible enough to cater to almost any party composition. Alignment does not count for much. Moral choices take a backseat for much of the game and will not effect PC interaction in any way. Some players solo, some people use less than six characters in Icewind Dale. If your party is not filled or a PC is not working well, it is very easy to create a new character. Drop them into your party at any point and move on (which I wanted to do at one point early on in the game). This can be done via a character ported from another saved game or a new character. Total customization and selection might not be good for every game, for Icewind Dale it works well. In Baldur's Gate or Planescape: Torment party customization would not have worked well, as NPC's who joined your party drove plot elements. The NPC's for Icewind Dale come in two basic archetypes: good guys that you talk to and bad guys you kill to advance the plot. None will join the party to help your cause. The Plot The setting for Icewind Dale is in the frozen, northern mountains of Forgotten Realms. It starts innocently enough with a few small quests to solve local problems in the small town you start in. But there is trouble afoot in the land and the party is called upon to help. The set up for Icewind Dale is decent, the plot goes from chapter to chapter with a good blend of accomplishment and mystery. I would love nothing more to highlight every plot point, but this is a review and not Cliff Notes. Icewind Dale is oriented towards dungeon crawling: banging critters over the head then get their stuff. Within this context, Icewind Dale is well written, compelling and flows nicely. There are few distractions from the overall quest there are many tough spots, but few tough decisions. There are enough twists and turns to keep game play interesting. Even if the player is just connecting the dots. Game Play Icewind Dale is an AD&D game. For all it's good things and bad, that is what it is. While I have never been a fan of AD&D, it does work well for CRPG's. If AD&D is not your thing, then Icewind Dale may not be your game. That being said I think it is a great game and a good implementation of AD&D game mechanics. There are some nasty puzzles in Icewind Dale and some really nasty critters to fight. Some of the puzzles are tough mostly due to hard-to-see graphics, such as well-disguised levers or hidden items. This caused some stalls in game play, but nothing that couldn't have been corrected by going over areas with a fine toothed comb. Icewind Dale plays almost identically to Baldur's Gate and Planecape: Torment. It is the same game engine, though some improvements are noticeable. That being said, the AI is slightly stronger for the monsters, they appeared tougher and smarter. The only annoying trait the monsters had is a preponderance to focus on the PC they saw first. It can be worked to your advantage, especially early on, but at the same time one or two characters can get pounded into dust if you are not careful. The encounters in the game are well designed, often tough. While the monsters had good graphics, the PC's could have had been better. They are little different than the PC's in Baldur's Gate and are generic as compared to the great care put into the rest of Icewind Dale's monster graphics. Visually, Icewind Dale is lush and holds up to Interplay's high standards. The game areas are thoughtfully done and despite the hostile arctic climate the are quite nice to look at. Some of the issues in the game were graphical in nature: the puzzles were overly or inadvertently difficult because it was nearly impossible to see something (such as a switch to open a door). These were few in numbers during the game and are only an irritant at worst. Much of the magic in Icewind Dale is your basic cookie cutter AD&D spells. There have been a few spells added and your character can advance to higher levels and then get some very good spells. The quantity of spells in Icewind Dale are numerous and many are available so that you can have a number of spell casters in your party and each one be different from the others. In the game I played the fighter/mage cast the utility spells (haste, knock, web), the bard cast a mix of offensive and summoning spells (chromatic orb, summon monster I, II, II) and the mage was a walking spell platform (fireball, flame arrow, cloudkill). On the flip side, the evil NPC's and monsters have good spell casting abilities and use them to their advantage. Cloud kill, web, fireball, confusion and fear being among the popular spells to cast on PC's. Talk about a taste of your own medicine. The spell effects are well done, though sometimes spell casting gets very repetitive. Black Isle could have put more time adding a variety of spell casting graphics and sounds. Treasure is a big part of Icewind Dale. There are plenty of +1 weapons and other low level items (though in the beginning this might seem hard to believe!). But the unique items in Icewind Dale are very well done, it might be only a +3 hammer but it has a history and maybe a few other minor perks. There are less miscellaneous items, but the ones that are in the game are often unique and useful. My personal favorite a ring that doubles the number of first and second level spells a mage may cast. Interplay has been good with product support for Icewind Dale. Their updates have been timely and well explained. The game has been very stable. I can not say the same in either case for Diablo II. One very handy bug (that was corrected) was based entirely around items affecting constitution. Basically equipping and un-equiping the item would heal the character. Quirks Unlike Baldur's Gate when you go into inventory the game pauses. You can swap ammo, armor and other equipment instantly, much to the chagrin of monsters and reality. Spell casting monsters will cast fireball on your party, which is bad. The good news is his minions could be fighting you at the time. Changing weapons negates hide in shadows. Beware of lightning ricochets, if your geometry is off: characters pay for it. The random encounters when camping seem to be a little weighted to being ambushed (which seems to be a function of the Bioware engine or sadistic game designers). Good NPC's often have handy items, the perfect (and only…) use for your bard or rogue to pick pockets. There are almost too many magic items and not many good breaks in the game to go sell them and buy new stuff. Synopsis Icewind Dale may have been overshadowed by Diablo II, but that perception is not reality. It is a solid, enjoyable game that filled the gap nicely between Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate II. If I could buy only one CRPG this summer this would be the one, fall on the other hand could be a tougher decision. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)