Is it just me, or is Icewind Dale relentlessly sucky?

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Jeez, seems that some of you are getting pretty hostile over this. I don't understand the point of flaming a guy out because he holds an opinion contrary to your own. Of course, if you go onto an IWD message board to talk about how much you dislike IWD, you're going to get SOME sort of negative reaction, but hey, if he's not enjoying it, then it's not necessarily because he's a powergaming munchkin, crappy D&D player, mentally "special", or something else.

I've played IWD2, and I didn't find that game all that great, for the same reasons sandstar's mentioned; it's just a hack and slash game where you chop your way through legions of enemies for no reason I really cared about. I mean, sure, some people really enjoy the tactical aspects of Infinity Engine games, and I'm sure IWD is very satisfying from that perspective, but some people need a little bit extra before they can enjoy a game. I consider BG2 the greatest game ever made, but I can't play BG1, because it doesn't have an engrossing storyline or character interactions, which I consider necessary to sustain my interest in an RPG. BG2 also had some pretty well thought out encounters which felt like the designers put thought into. Fighting mind flayers is tough, but fun. Fighting a couple of dozen orcs is tough, and boring.

So just because he disagrees with you, doesn't mean it's "just him". So Velve, try not to sound so childish next time. A lot of people in this post have provided relevant reasons for why they enjoy the game; when you just attack somebody for being "a cheeser", i.e playing the game in a style different from your own, you just come off as immature.

 

Okie, I am sorry, it was a tad inmature to post that, wont happen again.

But I just cant find out how to find the game hard in Core difficulty. Hell, BG was ten times harder than IWD. Maybe you played it in HoF, because otherwise it shouldn't be so hard if except if you use the timestop, traps where enemies will spawn and spell triggers. Well, you could also ask for tips on some of the fights that is the hardest, and some of the nicer members here will help you out.

 

I guess my final point is that in the first 2 chapters, my charactors are at the same level as my baldur's gate charactors after I beat the game, with tales of the sword coast installed. That would seem to indicate that there's a higher level of bad guys in IWD then there were in BG, so maybe IWD is a lot different then BG, and maybe that's why I'm not having any fun.

 

Boy...

One bad word about IWD and the thread gets more replies in two days than almost every other in this forum in the last two years!

Maybe I should install IWD2 right now and play it for a few hours then go post in that forum how the game stinks. I love attention...

 

How can you have played through to the end of BG1 and 2 and NOT know about traps and time stop?

 

Hey Sandstar
IWD is a melee heavy game. If you have 2 guys who can: "Swing Hard!Swing Harder!SWING HARDER!"
They will take you very far into the game.
And this is one game where Druids rock from the word go (Unlike IWD II where you need the mod if you want a useful Druid).

So try finding out more about the game before you say it sucks.
Ive played the game more than a couple of times on Insane and it is tough but IS a great game.

 

BG1 and BG2 take some of the shine off IWD IMO. Maybe I'll play it again, but probably not. Compared to the depth of the story line in BG1&2, it doesn't stack up. So it's all in what you compare it to. Is it a good game? Yes. Is it a great game? No.

 

Is it a game you want to play time and again the way you did with BG1 and 2? No.

 

Of course it is, you'll just have to work on it with a whole new perspective. I think I've played it at least 10-15 times already.

EDIT: Weee!! With this post my post count is at the same number as the current year in 3e.

 

I keep starting the game over again. I've never gotten past Dorn's Deep...just keep getting derailed. I find it fun, but I guess it's not quite as mesmerizing to me. I couldn't stop playing PS:T or either BG.

 

IWD 1 & 2 are both pretty bad games, well compared to Baldur's Gate.

 

I have fond memories playing Icewind Dale, and am not sure why people dislike it. I remember spending days just trying to get things working (having no knowledge of D&D whatsoever), and the challenges were great - I remember thinking that in this game, compared to games such as C&C, tactics actually mattered.

 

The other thing about IWD - how it really departs from BG1&2 is that it is set up to favor powergamers. With BG1&2, you inevitably have a couple of NPC's with you who have stats that are less than stellar, and you need to work on them to get them to be worthwhile NPC's. Because you can do things in BG1&2 to keep that character out of harm's way, and the fact that mage spells are MUCH easier to come by, you don't have to powergame to get through it. On the other hand, IWD is all about powergaming. Try making a party with:

Paladin
Bard
Fighter/Cleric
Fighter/Druid
Fighter/Illusionist
Fighter/Thief

Seriously. The more fighter-types you have the better to kill with. And all the fighter types should have exceptional strength (except maybe the fighter-illusionist who I usually have armed with a missile weapon), 18 constitution and 18 dexterity. There are so few mage spells available - especially early on - that having a mage that is multi-classed is no disadvantage at all, because you aren't going to have many spells in your spell book anyway! In fact, I may go so far as to say you really don't even NEED a mage. The more people you have that can slap on plate mail and put a solid sword, mace or battle axe in their hand, the better off you're going to be...

 

True that it aint as good as BG1 or 2.
But it´s still a wicked nice game.
This may sound weird, but I get tired of the bG games from time to time. Then I play IWD for a day or two and voila, the BG games are fun again


Aldeth > Imagine the trouble I had trying to complete IWD with a party of 6 specialist mages...

 

I think part of the appeal with IWD is that it's just pure mindless violence. There's no deep and meaningful storyline to get your head around, no cunning twists in the plot (or not ones you'd notice anyway), just fight after fight after fight after... but you get the picture. It's a powergamers dream.

I get a yearning to play it from time to time but it's not very often I get all the way through it. Sooner or later the sheer sameness of it gets to me and I start wanting another crack at BG1 or 2 instead.

 

Interesting, crazy-hostile thread.

Let me doubly offend the people here by saying this:

I liked IWD quite a lot, in fact I liked it about 1000x better than BG2. However I understand the original posters reservations about it. It is sort of pure powergaming, from the *developers* point of view. That first "screen" after the avalanche that was just jam packed with goblins nearly made me just turn the game off.

But once you get into the swing of things in it, its a blast. The key seemed to be having characters with overlapping abilities for the first half, then being able to branch off and specialize once they could survive for a while.

Now IWD2, that game was awful

 

well i personally thought this game was pretty good, and im a huge fan of bg1 and bg2, however i think noone in any of these threads should trust my opinion because i also thought diabloII was a great game for about 2 straight years, then i found bg1 and bg2, as well as iwd1 and iwd2, and then "accidentally" broke my d2 cd in half "oops". but i also get tired of bg and bg2 so i guess if you overplay or dont understand a game you are playing it can give your mind a negative opinion about it. thats why i read forgotten realms books

 

IWD is a bit harder starting out than BG2 and even BG, and it's a different kind of game. (NOTHING has given me as many problems as BG2 mindflayers.) That said, if you want to totally heal your party after a non-easy battle in BG, and much of BG2, you generally have to use up all your healing spells. Unless you took 3 clerics for some reason, in which case you'd still have to use all the healing spells cuz you'd get trounced.

You do need to powergame it to some extent, but not all that much. I won it with this party and stats that looked something like this:

Paladin 18/**ST, 18 Dex, 18 Con, 14 WIS, 18 CHA

Fighter 18/00 ST, 17 Dex, 19 Con

MC Fighter/druid 16 ST, 18 Dex, 18 Con, 18 Wis

Ranger 18/**ST, 18 Dex, 18 Con, 15 Wis

Thief dual-classed to Mage 18 Dex, 16 Con, 18 Int

MC Cleric/Mage 18 Dex, 16 Con, 18 Int, 18 Wis

Perhaps you gave yourself a tougher time than you needed to with your character selection?

All this is making me want to play again... too bad I lost the game from moving three times .

 

What?! no bard?! You gotta have a bard just for the Jedi war song!