Icewind Dale Icewind Dale is a very boring, bad game

[Nuclear Explosion]

Which version were you playing & at what difficulty?

The Enhanced Edition at core rules, which is the same setting I played BG 1, BG 2 and IWD 2 at, so it is a fair comparision. I didn't use any of the added spells or classes.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Dat OST tho

 

[Trashos]

So its a derail into IWD vs SoA after just and handful of posts? Wow, so sad.

You have a very eccentric definition of what a derail is.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

The Enhanced Edition at core rules, which is the same setting I played BG 1, BG 2 and IWD 2 at, so it is a fair comparision. I didn't use any of the added spells or classes.

Ok. Now, excluding your own personal opinion of what difficulty is and your own personal skill level with d&d & infinty games: did you appreciate the variety of encounters, the size and depth of the beastiary & all the unique abilities each new encounter provided?

 

[Jokzore]

I've had a very different experience. I played all of the EEs as they were coming out and IWD was definitely the hardest of the lot. Those bombardier beetles kicked my ass.

 

[FeelTheRads]

IWD was the first game that allowed me to customize my party and add custom portraits for all my characters, so I remember it fondly. There's no sense in playing it today though.

No? And what does make sense to play TODAY, then? What games have so definitely improved on what IWD offered that it's pointless to even try it?

Wasteland perhaps because it's so innovative that it not only allows you to choose a custom portrait it also allows you to select your clothing? Any other similar masterpieces that put IWD to shame to play TODAY?

 

[Kruno]

Josh Sawyer is about to announce, any day now, that he is making IWD3, which will be even better than the best game in the world, IWD. Even Grimoire can not compete.

 

[Mustawd]

Porky ur a very boring retarded poster. Doesn't stop me from loving you.

 

[Prime Junta]

Bros, if you don't like RTwP combat, either learn to like it, or don't play the IE games.* Unless you just enjoy bitching of course, no shame in that.

There are a lot of people here who do like RTwP combat and are at least moderately competent with it, so if you do want to learn it, ask around, I'm sure somebody will step in to help out.

*Except PS:T. Just turn difficulty all the way down and fast-forward through the fights. That one does have more to it than hitting goblins in the neck.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Why do people play the "enhanced" edition?

 

[Nuclear Explosion]

Why do people play the "enhanced" edition?

Being able to zoom is a nice feature and quick saving is faster, but yes other than that it is mostly just IWD with mods.

 

[AwesomeButton]

As far as I'm aware, you can configure a quicksave key in the "classic" IWD, as for zooming, never needed it.

The only serious reason for me to play the EE would be to make a setting-inspired party with a Barbarian and Skald members.

 

[Carrion]

I got tired of IWD sometime after the halfway point. The linearity was what killed it for me — the dungeon design wasn't too bad, and IE combat can be alright if an encounter is well-designed, but neither part was particularly great either, and dungeon crawling alone wasn't enough to carry the game. I wanted some side quests, more exploration, a big puzzle of two, less straightforward dungeon layouts, anything to break the monotony and shake things up a bit. A really good combat system would've fixed the problem as well, but IE is IE. In the end the game felt like an overlong expansion pack to some bigger, better game out there...

 

[The Great ThunThun*]

Bros, if you don't like RTwP combat, either learn to like it, or don't play the IE games.*

This is what is wrong with you people.

You think there is just one way to do things.

RtwP certainly can be done well and has been done well. River of Time is the glorious example, where despite having a mediocre storytelling the combat pacing and feel is pitch perfect. Why can't other RtwP games be like that?

Instead of telling people to "learn to eat the same shit I do" ask developers to be better designers.

 

[Mustawd]

Bros, if you don't like RTwP combat, either learn to like it, or don't play the IE games

RTwP is trash PJ. Give me a break.

Lol, learn to like it. Christ.

 

[Brancaleone]

Since the Codex' consensus seems to be that Throne of Bhaal sucks (which I agree with) and that Icewind Dale is the best thing ever (which I don't agree with that much), I'd like to hear what Icewind Dale has that makes it so different from Throne of Bhaal (apart from art direction and atmosphere, which are undoubtedly superior in IWD).

 

[purpleblob]

RTwP is trash PJ. Give me a break.

Uh.. then why did you back Black Geyser?

 

[Mustawd]

Uh.. then why did you back Black Geyser?

Black Geyser devs have passion. Huge fan boy of that. I'm Latino; Love me some hot blooded passion.

Also, just cuz something is trash doesn't mean it can't be fun.

For the record IWD is my fav IE game.

EDIT: My butthurt about RTwP is less about RTwP and more that IE games would have been so good with TB combat.

 

[Zombra]

The linearity was what killed it for me. I wanted some side quests, more exploration, a big puzzle of two, less straightforward dungeon layouts, anything to break the monotony and shake things up a bit.

Personally, I liked the linearity. Not saying every game should be linear, but it felt good to have a strong focus instead of blundering around finding distracting little quests on every street corner. I think this is why I finished IWD and the sequel, whereas I never got around to completing BG or BG2 despite their better (?) main stories.

 

[Mustawd]

^huh

 

[Brancaleone]

IWD has some really good flavour, music and art. These things to do matter in a nuanced discussion. A game is a sum of its parts in the least and more than that oftentimes. IWD is a *good* game. But that does mean we have agreed that all its parts (encounter design, RtwP for example) are good.

That's true: IWD has better art, music, and atmosphere. Another plus can be the customizability of the party, as opposed to ToB pre-made companions (especially since ToB doesn't do much with them).
Apart from this, theyre both extremely linear and monotonous, and with a poor excuse for a plot.
Encounter design is actually worse in IWD, with the same stock groups of creatures pasted over and over again across the same dungeon level(s) (although ToB is pretty stale as well).
Spell selection is also worse in IWD, I'd see we start to see Sawyer's "death from a thousand paper-cuts" approach (which of course makes everything easier to balance).
In both games the itemization tends to be all over the place, suffering from excel-spreadsheet design, and degenerating into many small, heterogeneous characteristics/bonus for a weapon, instead of a single, distinctive one.

As much as I don't like to, I would have to give ToB a small justification in terms of encounters, spells and itemization, since it is constrained by the need of having everything at epic levels (which makes things very difficult), while IWD does not have that excuse.

I'd say art, music, atmosphere and party customization go a long way in shaping the perception of IWD as a vastly superior game, while we are actually talking about two games the cores of which are very similar. And no wonder about that, since they were cranked out in similar conditions, being aimed at getting a quick buck in a very short production time.

 

[Infinitron]

I think IWD is probably a much more boring experience if you aren't familiar enough with the systems to build a good party. You need to have a finely honed team of trash mob exterminators or it'll just drag. The Baldur's Gate games are more tolerant in that respect, you can have kind of a crap party and not know how to utilize it to its full extent but still have a decent pacing most of the time.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

For the 100th time, IWD has barely any trash encounters. There are no random encounters, barely any repetition of monsters and all of them are where they're supposed to be. IWD is one of the least trash combat games on the cRPG market.

 

[Brancaleone]

I think IWD is probably a much more boring experience if you aren't familiar enough with the systems to build a good party. You need to have a finely honed team of trash mob exterminators or it'll just drag. The Baldur's Gate games are more tolerant in that respect, you can have kind of a crap party and not know how to utilize it to its full extent but still have a decent pacing most of the time.

In other words, "IWD becomes much more boring unless you go for a specialized bum-slaying party in order to trivialize most of its combat and get over the nuisance that it is as quickly as possible."

That's the most damning indictment against the encounter design (of a game that is mostly about combat, too) that I can imagine.

Although I don't think IWD is THAT bad in that respect.

 

[Cael]

For the 100th time, IWD has barely any trash encounters. There are no random encounters, barely any repetition of monsters and all of them are where they're supposed to be. IWD is one of the least trash combat games on the cRPG market.

To the tryhards, any mob other than the final boss are "trash mobs".