Icewind Dale (series)
Icewind Dale | |
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First release | Icewind Dale June 29, 2000 |
Latest release | Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition October 30, 2014 |
Icewind Dale is a
The games use
The player begins each of the games by generating a party of up to six characters, but is unable to recruit non-player characters (as was possible in other games using the Infinity Engine). Also, as the entire party is generated by the player, the player-characters do not have preset personalities, and are all equally capable of assuming the role of "protagonist" with minor differences at most.
In 2000, Icewind Dale was released to mostly positive reviews,
Icewind Dale
The gameplay of Icewind Dale is similar to that of
One of the most noticeable differences compared to Baldur's Gate is the much larger bestiary: ettins, orcs, goblins, and orogs, for example, are all major foes in this game, whereas they were not present in the original Baldur's Gate. Some other differences include: the raised experience level-cap; bigger battles, sometimes involving 20 or more foes at once; and far larger spell selection - used by or against the player's party. 6th level spells and above make frequent appearances throughout the game.
Also unlike Baldur's Gate, the game makes use of a semi-random item generation system. In Baldur's Gate most items were pre-placed - meaning that the same items were in the same places every time the game was played. In Icewind Dale, however, most quest-earned items are randomly picked out of a handful of pre-generated ones, and items taken from the corpses of foes are similar in that regard, although slightly more random.
Icewind Dale was received by mostly positive reviews. Most critics cited the game's musical score and fast pacing as high-points, although others faulted the game for its time-consuming character creation and numerous bugs.
Expansions
Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter is an expansion pack to Icewind Dale that introduced many changes and additions to the original game. Some notable changes included such things as the addition of several types of classic Dungeons & Dragons enemies that were missing from the original (e.g., barrow wights), a much higher experience point cap, new magical items to find or purchase, a special "Heart of Fury" difficulty setting for increased enemy power and higher experience point-gain, and the ability to set the resolution higher than 640x480. The game is still based on the
Another addition is the inclusion of several more areas to explore, although to access them, the player must enter a previously locked door in the town of Kuldahar while possessing a party of level 9 characters or above.
Although the game contained numerous changes that most felt were for the better, it was heavily criticised for the length of the campaign, which was much shorter than the original game's. Despite this, the game still achieved fairly positive reviews.
Trials of the Luremaster is a free, downloadable expansion pack to Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter. It was released by Black Isle Studios due to criticism that, on its own, Heart of Winter was too short. It contains several new areas to explore, and a handful of new enemies to fight.
Icewind Dale II
Icewind Dale II is the sequel to Icewind Dale, which is based on the
Another significant change is the increased bestiary, which now includes such creatures as bugbears,
The game was praised by many critics for its pacing, music, numerous improvements over the original game and its expansions, although most found fault with the game's graphics, which consisted of sprite characters and 2d prerendered backgrounds, and were considerably less impressive than those of other CRPGs released that year, such as Neverwinter Nights and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Regardless, Icewind Dale II achieved mostly positive reviews.
Further releases
Upon the announcement of
References
- ^ "Icewind Dale Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 2007-04-01.
- ^ "GameSpy: Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition Devs Eyeing Icewind Dale - Page 1".
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/Wikiquote-logo.svg/34px-Wikiquote-logo.svg.png)
- Icewind Dale II at IMDb
- "Trials of the Luremaster download page". Archived from the original on 2005-12-31.
- Icewind Dale series at MobyGames