Icewind Dale The Icewind Dale Series Thread

[Lilura]

I haven't played IWD2 in ages but I don't recall it having anything to do with 1 except being in a frozen wasteland again.

Egenia & Lysan? Hrothgar's Glen? Kuldahar and Dragon's Eye are revisited, too.

 

[Somberlain]

The plot is a direct continuation from IWD 1 too.

 

[Lacrymas]

Egenia & Lysan? Hrothgar's Glen? Kuldahar and Dragon's Eye are revisited, too.

I.e. I have to replay IWD2 :p

 

[Reinhardt]

I.e. I have to replay IWD2 :p

 

[Lacrymas]

I do remember it not being any good, that's maybe why I don't remember anything else about it.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Hey, I'm currently replaying ID in the exact same conditions : vanilla 1.06, no HoW or TotL (I like the original sprites better than the HoW ones).

Les grands esprits se rencontrent !

Anyway, since you're into ApR... during my current playthrough, I noticed the messenger of Sseth not giving any extra attack, whereas in the HoW installed version it did. See this post : http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...e-enhanced-edition.93898/page-16#post-3626593 where I took screenshots to show attacks going from 3,5 to 4,5 with the messenger equiped. This was with HoW installed but in this vanilla configuration it does not appear to increase number of attacks. So, is it broken Lilura , is it ?

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

I do remember it not being any good, that's maybe why I don't remember anything else about it.

I'm quite a fan of the first game and played the second a couple of times and I wouldn't really say the story follows on in any meaningful way. Some locations and characters are reused but not much more than that, maybe the odd reference here and there that wasn't worth taking in.

 

[Tigranes]

Story doesn't really follow on, there's just the whole humans vs barbs/deviants in the North and a few reused tropes. IWD1 is a more cohesive and superior game while IWD2 suffers from its hypercrunched development time, but I occasionally enjoy IWD2 for its unique features - it tried some new stuff with the IE engine like war drums and exploding barrels, it is the only 3e IE romp, etc.

 

[Lacrymas]

Aren't there mods to fix it?

 

[Somberlain]

Hey, I'm currently replaying ID in the exact same conditions : vanilla 1.06, no HoW or TotL (I like the original sprites better than the HoW ones).

Les grands esprits se rencontrent !

Anyway, since you're into ApR... during my current playthrough, I noticed the messenger of Sseth not giving any extra attack, whereas in the HoW installed version it did. See this post : http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...e-enhanced-edition.93898/page-16#post-3626593 where I took screenshots to show attacks going from 3,5 to 4,5 with the messenger equiped. This was with HoW installed but in this vanilla configuration it does not appear to increase number of attacks. So, is it broken Lilura , is it ?

You should be able to use Near Infinity to manually fix it, without installing HoW.

 

[Barnabas]

Icewind dale 2 was made for veteran i.e. players. That's why only the elite (such as myself) can withstand it's trials.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

IWD2 has high highs (chapter 1, Chult, greatly improved AI and encounter design from other IE games) and low lows (ice temple, that fucking forest maze, black raven monastery). It's by no means a great game, but it's nowhere near the shitfest that a lot of codexers make it out to be. I'd rather have gotten an iwd2 every year than the dreck we got for most of the last decade.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

IWD2 has high highs (chapter 1, Chult, greatly improved AI and encounter design from other IE games) and low lows (ice temple, that fucking forest maze, black raven monastery). It's by no means a great game, but it's nowhere near the shitfest that a lot of codexers make it out to be. I'd rather have gotten an iwd2 every year than the dreck we got for most of the last decade.

I agree with your conclusion, but I disagree about the game's boring spots. The Ice Temple, forest maze and raven monastery were engaging enough, I guess it depends on your capacity for puzzling in RPGs and all that kind of stuff. The bits that drag for me, literally, are the Orc castle, which also involves one battle with chronic lag, just when you enter the second cave and fighting the Chult dragon, which also lagged my computer to an almost standstill. Also the whole Orc section is way too laboured and too much of too much. I'm not a fan of the opening part of the game, again, its too laboured compared to just nipping round Easthaven, its like an unskippable tutorial section that goes on waaay to long. I'm not interested in revisiting Dragon's Eye or Seldradine (sp?) again either, even though I enjoyed many of the encounters in them.

 

[roshan]

The Ice Temple is shit not because of puzzles, but because of repetitive, easy and boring encounters. It's not bad before you enter, but the entire inside is made of copypasted bears, priests, wolves and such, and it goes on forever. On top of that you have repetitive art and music which just amplifies the tedium.

I wonder if it was Sjwyer who personally designed it? It's easily the worst part of the game by a vast margin. I think out of perhaps 7 times I have seriously played IWD, the Ice Temple probably cut short 5 of them.

 

[Neanderthal]

Suffers in comparison to Aquarium o Alkonos from first game especially. One good thing about it were findin Nathaniel there, little lad Nate from first game who welcomed you to Kuldahar all grown up an a Druid now, nice continuity.

 

[Nuclear Explosion]

I wonder if it was Sjwyer who personally designed it? It's easily the worst part of the game by a vast margin. I think out of perhaps 7 times I have seriously played IWD, the Ice Temple probably cut short 5 of them.

Roguey

 

[Roguey]

I wonder if it was Sjwyer who personally designed it? It's easily the worst part of the game by a vast margin. I think out of perhaps 7 times I have seriously played IWD, the Ice Temple probably cut short 5 of them.

Rob Holloway designed the Ice Temple and was not particularly happy about how it turned out.

Josh said any areas he was initially responsible for were given to Avellone and Dave Maldonado. I know Kuldahar (which Avellone inherited) is one.

 

[Jazz_]

I'm replaying this after EONS (prompted by Lilura's retrospective) and I had forgotten how beautiful the art looks:

and when this plays in Kuldahar it really brings out them warm nostalgic feels:



Anyway, does anyone know if there's a way to complete the hostel owner quest in Kuldahar without a thief that can lockpick the drawer upstairs? I tried bashing it open with my barbarian but it doesn't work, my party is sorcerer, druid, monk, ranger, barbarian.

 

[Somberlain]

Knock spell?

 

[Comte]

I managed to bash it open with my F/M/C in a solo HoF run I am playing right now.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Kuldahar theme has to be in the top 10, if not top 3, if not top 1, of all time best tracks in a game.

 

[MilesBeyond]

Kuldahar theme has to be in the top 10, if not top 3, if not top 1, of all time best tracks in a game.

Word. You know, I'm actually not a huge fan of a lot of Jeremy Soule's stuff, but Icewind Dale is a huge exception. Also Total Annihilation.

EDIT: Actually, I'm not so sure. The more I think of it, the more I'd say IWD suffers from the same problem as a lot of Soule's soundtracks: A couple of standout tracks, and a whole lotta meh. Kuldahar theme is amazing and Easthaven theme is pretty great but I feel like most of the rest of IWD's music was pretty forgettable.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Vale of Shadows theme really fits the place perfectly.


Can't forget this one either, one of the best character creation themes.

But yeah, none of it is as memorable as the Kuldahar theme, which is not saying it's bad, it's good, but it's standard good competent stuff that you'd expect from someone like Soule.

 

[roshan]

I happen to think that everything Soule has done since IWD is pure trash tier generic garbage.

But, Icewind Dale has incredible music. From the bombastic, warlike combat themes to the haunting, nostalgic and lonely tracks in the dungeons - Soule has never created such music since then. The thing is though, Icewind Dale was actually pretty sparse in music. The relatively short themes usually played only once upon entry of a new area, then after that, it would just be the ambient sounds of the dungeon.

Here are some other nice pieces that I find very memorable:

Arundel's Home:


Lysan's Lair (combat track):


Dragon's Eye:

 

[purpleblob]

Yeah, I love Arundel's home music. I can just listen to IWD soundtrack all day.