Icewind dale 1

[Gay-Lussac]

I've been playing it over the weekend and was enjoying it a bit too but then I just got to the temple to look for the hearstone and played until getting to dragon's eye and that entire section was pretty dull. The combat is a bit too easy and when it's hard I mostly depend on luck and cheap tricks instead of real tactics and there has been virtualy no story so far.

Does it get better or is it like this till the end?

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Dragon's Eye, especially the fourth floor, is pretty much the high point of challenge. The Severed Hand is a ridiculous amount of shaded creatures rushing you, which can be difficult, but probably won't be. From there the difficultly takes a huge dip until the last chapter.

You could always go the ironman route....

 

[Wyrmlord]

Virtually no story? You are entitled to your opinion, but obviously we did not play the same game.

 

[Gay-Lussac]

Up until where I am all I've done was go to kuldahar to investigate disturbances and once there continue investigations by searching through caves in the mountains and then going to a temple to find an artifact simply because I have to investigate these disturbances cause I'm stuck in kuldahar.

So far nothing has got me interested but you are obviously implying that the story will pick up somewhere so I might as well play to find out.

Honestly my biggest disappointment so far was the combat, I expected it to be at least on par with BG 2.

 

[ghostdog]

In terms of story don't expect much more. But on the other hand IWD had some pretty good and challenging battles IIRC.

There is a new mod in development that will add a full predetermined party in the game with barter and quests. Check it out here

 

[Thalkirst]

Try it on insane difficulty - you get double XP and monsters do double damage.

Combat will be pretty challenging in certain locations and you really have to use some tactics to survive.

 

[nik2008ofs]

IWD is a classic dungeon romp, just enough of a story to keep you going in the endless search for loot and fame.

It's all about the battles, and if you don't find them engaging enough, then give up and play something else.

 

[aries202]

If you find the battles in IWD1 to easy, just up the diifficulty mode a bit. There's an option in that for sliding the difficulty slider all the way to the right.

This makes the combats way more interesting.

 

[Saxon1974]

Just started playing this one for the first time....I can't believe I haven't played this before.

I liked BG1 and BG2 quite a bit. I always skipped these because I heard they were all hack and slash slogfests.

After reading there are great environments and music and a decent story I thought I would give it a try.

I do have to admit the music is very good and the ice covered wasteland is a great setting. For some reason I have always been drawn to Icy wastelands.

Im not a huge fan of the IE's real time combat though, so Im not sure Im going to like the game.

I did enjoy the first part in the town of Easthaven though.

I like games that have somewhat hard combat so I think I will up the difficulty slider. If I want it just a bit hard but not impossible should I slide the difficulty bar just one spot to the right?

When BG and BGII first came out, I liked them but based on what they have released since then (NWN, NWN2), I think I love them, the recent releases make these games seem like masterpieces.

I just havent seen the same beautiful art in the 3D games yet that I saw in the 2D ones.

 

[Hamster]

I've been playing it over the weekend and was enjoying it a bit too but then I just got to the temple to look for the hearstone and played until getting to dragon's eye and that entire section was pretty dull. The combat is a bit too easy and when it's hard I mostly depend on luck and cheap tricks instead of real tactics and there has been virtualy no story so far.

Does it get better or is it like this till the end?

Dragon's Eye is the most boring dungeon in the game as far as i remember, dungeon design gets much better later on.

 

[JrK]

The Severed Hand is especially well designed, good cued musical moments and all that. History to the place.

Second is Upper Dorn's Deep.

 

[z3r'0']

Another vote for The Severed Hand. Elven ruins and decent backstory.
I play the game with HoW exp. plus TotL. Updates alot of items, spell-levels, exp-cap etc.

I used the option to play HoW with my level 9 Party. (Paladin, Druid, Ranger, Mage, Fghtr/Clrc, Bard) You talk to some barbarian druid in Kuldahar to go there.

I'd say the combat is pretty fuckin' interesting.

 

[z3r'0']

I just havent seen the same beautiful art in the 3D games yet that I saw in the 2D ones.

True that. The artwork of IWD makes up for the onslaught of hack-and-slash. Plus the soundtrack is probably my favourite. Creates a really great atmosphere.

 

[Lesifoere]

The Severed Hand is fantastic. Mind you, I thought the upper levels of Dragon's Eye were pretty good too, creepy little girl or not.

 

[elenai]

BTW to realy increase diff you need switch to play at easy difficulty. Hard diff only makes you stronger. Unless you play 3fighters,thief,cleric,mage stereotype party.

 

[Lightknight]

The combat is a bit too easy and when it's hard I mostly depend on luck and cheap tricks instead of real tactics

I dont quite remember the specifics on IWD1 anymore, but in IWD2 if you pump the difficulty all the way to the right - there is a screen, actually the first screen after you leave the city, where there is an ambush of sorts, made of orkish fire archers, and i have no idea how it is possible to defeat them. All my characters were level 3 from all the quests in the city, and my barbarian could only take 2 arrow hits. Others only needed one. After about 10 tries and using every special skill and item i had - i backed down and lowered the difficulty...there was no way past those orc on highest difficulty. None.

 

[Angthoron]

This thread made me want to play IWD as well... But I couldn't find the 1st game's disks (hid them well it seems) so went for IWD2 instead...

And I'm instantly hitting a wall there. Seems like the reverse compatibility of Vista is even more horrible than I thought. But here's this one problem bugging me the most, and I was wondering if anyone here knew a solution to it...

There's the floating text over the NPCs occasionally, the flavour text. It's supposed to have a transparent text so as to, well, basically float above the heads. Problem is, for some reason, I don't get the transparency, so it's white text over a huge block of blackness. Does anyone have any idea if this is fixable?


As for IWD, I'd also recommend the Heart of Winter addon. I found it rather fun, plus the Heart of Fury difficulty mode made things more interesting as well.

 

[Darth Roxor]

There's the floating text over the NPCs occasionally, the flavour text. It's supposed to have a transparent text so as to, well, basically float above the heads. Problem is, for some reason, I don't get the transparency, so it's white text over a huge block of blackness. Does anyone have any idea if this is fixable?

Sigh, I had the same problem some months ago, when I wanted to replay IWD2. It's not a problem with Vista, you just have a 'too new' graphics card. I don't think it's fixable in any way.

 

[DemonKing]

There's the floating text over the NPCs occasionally, the flavour text. It's supposed to have a transparent text so as to, well, basically float above the heads. Problem is, for some reason, I don't get the transparency, so it's white text over a huge block of blackness. Does anyone have any idea if this is fixable?

Go 16bit in the graphics options - I can't tell the difference between 32 and 16bit and it fixed similar problems for me in BG2 on Vista.

 

[Angthoron]

There's the floating text over the NPCs occasionally, the flavour text. It's supposed to have a transparent text so as to, well, basically float above the heads. Problem is, for some reason, I don't get the transparency, so it's white text over a huge block of blackness. Does anyone have any idea if this is fixable?

Go 16bit in the graphics options - I can't tell the difference between 32 and 16bit and it fixed similar problems for me in BG2 on Vista.

That worked great, thanks! Funny, that'd be the last thing to cross my mind really.

 

[Saxon1974]

As for IWD, I'd also recommend the Heart of Winter addon. I found it rather fun, plus the Heart of Fury difficulty mode made things more interesting as well.

Where would I find the Heart of Fury difficulty mode? What does it do?

 

[Saxon1974]

I just havent seen the same beautiful art in the 3D games yet that I saw in the 2D ones.

True that. The artwork of IWD makes up for the onslaught of hack-and-slash. Plus the soundtrack is probably my favourite. Creates a really great atmosphere.

Kind of sad really, I would be more excited if Bioware was making another IE engine game instead of Dragon Age, it just doesn't look that interesting to me.

 

[Lightknight]

Where would I find the Heart of Fury difficulty mode? What does it do?

Its in the autorun options, all it does is make every monster 15-20 times stronger, plus a half-dozen or so unique items are stashed in the game somewhere.

 

[aries202]

I remember playing Icvewind Dale i a long time ago. And I was very intrigued. I was expecting a game like Diablo I+II in which the story is (very) weak and you just run through enemies. No so. I've found Icewind Dale 1's story to be fun, entertaining and to just keep me in the dark long enough to keep me interested in how the story's going to end. If you have high enough wisdom and intelligence, I think, you can get a man in Kuldahar to give up drinking.

To make the game more difficult combat-wise, you can play it in 'the heart of fury' mode, where it is really difficult.

I will also recommend the Heart of Winter add-on. I think you can buy a compilation of IWD1+II+Heart of Winter somewhere. (or the Forgotten Realms collection). I also recommend getting the FREE expansion that is 'trials of the luremaster'. Your mind will be challenged as try to solve the luremaster's riddles...

The game's ending...tells you about how fanatics and religion don't mix...

 

[Angthoron]

As for IWD, I'd also recommend the Heart of Winter addon. I found it rather fun, plus the Heart of Fury difficulty mode made things more interesting as well.

Where would I find the Heart of Fury difficulty mode? What does it do?

In Heart of Winter addon and in IWD 2, they're found in the Config Manager; though I'm not entirely sure HoW has a config manager at the moment. The mobs get a huge boost to damage but I recall you get 4x XP per kill, and probably get higher quest XP as well.

It's been a while, can't recall more precisely what they do, I'm afraid. The notes say that it's recommended for L15+ parties, however.