Editorial RPG Codex Retrospective: Roguey smashes the patriarchy in Josh Sawyer's Icewind Dale

[Blaine]

Blaine, have you pre-ordered Chaos Chronicles yet?

Y-you can't p-p-provoke me, Infinitron.

 

[Blaine]

I'll just read it for a second though I'm sure it's fine—

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

...

So what does this justify?

Spoiler

 

[Rake]

 

[Exar Kun]

Please tell me that isn't real...


Cool review Roguey, enjoyed reading as I am in the middle of my first playthrough.

 

[evdk]

Spoiler

View attachment 1576

Why, a 4chan greentext story - your arguments have swayed me, I'm off to take back the night (by which I mean RAPE).

 

[Alex]

So, is there a TL;DR version of the review? I wanted to know if there are any main points I would want to argue about...

 

[Tigranes]

So, is there a TL;DR version of the review? I wanted to know if there are any main points I would want to argue about...

IWD sucks, Josh Sawyer.

 

[Alex]

So, is there a TL;DR version of the review? I wanted to know if there are any main points I would want to argue about...

IWD sucks, Josh Sawyer.

Oh, no then.

Still, thank you kindly!

 

[Roguey]

I'm somewhat upset over the resizing of my images but I guess it's understandable for bandwidth reasons.

While I was writing this I made a mental note to myself to write "sex" instead of "gender" when it came to dialogue checks... and wrote gender anyway. And somehow missed it all the times I reread it. I only realized my mistake after I had already sent an amended version so I decided to let it go. This is my albatross.

As I mentioned in the IWD thread, I know which areas Sawyer designed because he mentioned them in his 2012 Matt Chat interview but I didn't feel like asterisk-sourcing that charlatan.

I couldn't really fit it in the review but one of the things that give away Avellone's writing in the Wylfdene conversation is how every possible dialogue option you have is given a harsh and thorough rebuttal so you're railroaded into being wrong about everything. He did it again with Kreia in kotor2.

I was exaggerating a bit about Sawyer being completely responsible for post-HoW difficulty tweaks. Here's the list from the strategy guide, non-Sawyer areas bolded:

In the Orc Cave, an extra ogre appears next to the first and an extra orc archer appears
next to the others. If you’re playing on “Insane” difficulty, you’ll face three extra ogres
and three more orc archers.

When you battle Presio on the third level of Dragon’s Eye, her apprentice, a 6th-level
mage, appears with the poison zombies in the north. The mage attacks if any of the
zombies or imbued wights inside the lair are disturbed. Also, a 5th-level fighter named
Warrior appears next to Presio. If Presio or her team is disturbed, the fighter emerges
with a crossbow, fires a few times, and then attacks in melee.

When you face Yxunomei on the bottom level of Dragon’s Eye, three 9th-level yuan-ti
mages appear behind the party when the battle starts. The mages cast protective spells
and then close for offensive spellcasting.

Four 9th-level yuan-ti mages appear on the fourth level throughout the eastern half of
the caves in Dragon’s Eye. They cast protective spells and then move into melee. Six
yuan-ti archers also appear and attack with bows until they have exhausted their
arrows. Once out of ammunition, they too will fight hand-to-hand.

The Wyrm’s Tooth glacier has extra enemies scattered throughout the area.

In the aquarium in Wyrm’s Tooth, Kerish is joined by four more frost salamanders.

Joril in the frost giant caves in Wyrm’s Tooth is defended by two extra frost giant
guards.

In the greater forge in Lower Dorn’s Deep, a few 13th-level drow priest-mages of
Vhaeraun are next to Maiden Ilmadia. The drows cast tons of protective spells and
then close in for melee.

On the third level of Marketh’s Palace in Lower Dorn’s Deep, four 15th-level kraken
society mages appear in the halls and near the great bell when Marketh is attacked.
The mages first cast protective spells and then attack with powerful offensive spells.

When you fight the (real) Malavon in Malavon’s Dome in Lower Dorn’s Deep, a 16th-
level dark elf mage named Ilair appears in the northeastern dome. He casts protective
spells and then wanders around attempting to find and kill the party. Be careful not to
get caught between him and Malavon’s area-effect spells! Also watch out for six invis-
ible stalkers on the level that intend to kill the party.

In the end game, Belhifet is joined in the final battle by two cornugons that emerge
from the opened portal during the cut scene.

So aside from the tutorial boss it's still practically nothing. More trash mobs, whoopie.

For those too lazy to highlight-search here's the review playlist:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Machine
Bloodhound Gang - Mope (with one obvious adjustment)
The Unicorns - Ghost Mountain
Of Montreal - The Party's Crashing Us
Charlotte Gainsbourg - In the End

So, is there a TL;DR version of the review? I wanted to know if there are any main points I would want to argue about...

Joshparts good (except Kresselack's Tomb), otherparts bad (except Trials of the Luremaster)

off-topic gd shit

Typical.

Fixed.

*still holding in a mouth full of blood*

Retweeted by a feminist: https://twitter.com/Noffsnoffs

Roguey's got fans.

Nice. An EA developer too.

Josh Sawyer, who moved on to greater, worse, and many canceled things

Fixed that for you.

New Vegas.

Also I'm 99% sure Eternity will be a better game than Icewind Dale even if it turns out to be IWD3 in-all-but-name in regards to content.

The word 'Sawyer' only comes up 10 times in the article. I dunno about you guys but it doesn't look legit to me.

Don't forget to include the Joshes without the surname.

 

[Grunker]

People: do yourselves a favour and read the review. Besides a few Sawyer-trolls, it's a very good IWD review, though I disagree with many parts of it. Well-researched and well-written.

Don't miss out on a good review because of the boring drama surrounding it.

 

[winterraptor]

I'll just read it for a second though I'm sure it's fine—

View attachment 1575

'Comments' sections in general justify the elimination of at least 90% of humanity, man and woman, the intensity of the justification in close parallel to the popularity of the page and subject.

 

[winterraptor]

 

[felipepepe]

Heart of Winter content starts off with a surprising amount of talking and ridiculously large xp bribes for choosing non-critical path dialogue options; feels very much like Chris Avellone at play.

I lol'ed.

And it's true, great review. Going for a per-combat review made sense with the game, I just miss a bit more talk about the design of the dungeons and maps.

Waiting for IWD II review.

 

[evdk]

Hmm, this makes me feel nostalgic - maybe I should fire up IWD1 and finally finish the bloody game.

 

[jiujitsu]

IWD2 is one of my favorite games. I've only played IWD twice I think. Good review, Roguey. Despite your criticisms it made me want to play it again.

 

[Infinitron]

IWD2 is one of my favorite games. I've only played IWD twice I think. Good review, Roguey. Despite your criticisms it made me want to play it again.

IWD2 is underrated IMO. It may have been less polished in some ways, but I felt that it had better pacing, which is really important in this type of game. Not to mention 3E.

 

[Roguey]

Adam Brennecke retweeted. That's two! Two developers! Ah ah ah

Going for a per-combat review made sense with the game, I just miss a bit more talk about the design of the dungeons and maps.

I dunno what to say. They're nice looking for the most part. When you see a trap, disarm it. I guess I could have mentioned the multiple entrances in lower Dorn's Deep and Burial Isle and how Sawyer is ashamed of the former because it broke the linearity ("In general, though, the goal was to make each area have its own brand of combat, interesting creatures, balanced items, an easy-to-follow narrative, and be relatively linear. The last goal is something I personally failed when I was designing Lower Dorn's Deep. It wound up being very difficult to test and balance... I would have designed Lower Dorn's Deep in a more linear fashion.) I did mention how the extreme linearity of Gloomfrost bothered me. I probably should have written down and/or taken screenshots of environmental storytelling but I didn't go into this with the intention of writing an official review so I wasn't as thorough as I could have been.

 

[evdk]

Adam Brennecke retweeted. That's two! Two developers! Ah ah ah

And now the devs are stalking you.

 

[Rake]

Adam Brennecke retweeted. That's two! Two developers! Ah ah ah

We all know that you are holding your breath for Sawyer to notice.

 

[slackerwizrd]

I can no longer look at that title without feeling like a dirty old man. I hate you.

 

[DemonKing]

You know A woman is paper-bag ugly when she is a feminist and her twitter profile pic is a dog.

Fixed.

Looks like it's chainmail bikinis all round for female characters in Chaos Chronicles then.

Back on topic, while I appreciate Roguey's opinion I found the original IWD perfectly paced with a remarkably intricate storyline for a game which was supposed to be all about exploration and combat. I'll acknowledge that HoW was less well designed (although TotL was pretty decent) in general, but overall it's definitely one of the best CRPGs out there. Basically it just captures the nostalgic spirit of what it felt like to be a newbie 10-year old D&Der for me - arming up, heading out to dungeons, bashing monsters and taking their fat loot.

I found the sequel less well-structured and much more disjointed - it was much clearer there that the design had been split between different developers than in the original IMO

 

[Krash]

Haven't read the review yet, but I've glanced at the pics (decline, etc) and I approve the choice of names Rogey.

 

[Surf Solar]

Infinitron - you are the worst "news" poster on this site.

 

[Maiandros]

actually, congratulations Roguey
Well done, thoroughly researched and not shying away from showcasing your infatuation preconceptions so as to work over them. Proper effort, productive an article, as it causes some re-evaluating at the very least.

Me? I have neither the time, nor the knowledge to write something half as good. How about the other 'wiseguys' commenting here?

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Roguey is the journalist the Codex deserves, but not the one it needs. That would be grotsnik.