Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition Announced

[Bester]

Made a party of four females, quadra-babes, paladin, fighter, thief, mage, and played through the prologue. It is monkey barrels of fun. I died probably a dozen times fighting orc shamans and ogres in the first cave (ogre cave ... wait, what). Like I mean one-hit kills on my first-level player-characters. Finally I reeled in the bastard, cast sleep, he failed his save for more than one round, got back up, barely took him down in time. Whew! I forgot how entertaining Icewind Dale is, thrust into the deep end right away.

 

The widescreen mod is actually useful. You have to pay close attention, and wear your reading glasses, but it looks good, not distracting at all.  

God damn it. You just made me reinstall the game. I've no time for this RIGHT NOW!

[Gromnir]

Oh, no doubt, I got the sword from the lady lake spirit, killed the basement bugs, the warehouse wolf, and a couple others. It's so weird now, having different characters level up at different speeds. Like my thief got to third level before the mage reached second. 

 

I'm loving this game, again. Healing is a pretty difficult thing to manage, but the payoff is a thrill when you survive a legion of undead with nine hit points left between two characters. 

our iwd party were almost invariably a 4-man group as it resulted in faster leveling: a paladin, specialist mage (elf or human), gnome thief-illusionist, and half-elf ranger-cleric... typical with the cadaverous or skeletal undead racial enemy. the only problem with this group is that it were a bit over-powered once the mages developed a meaningful spell repertoire. the ranger-cleric were a smidgen less effective at turning undead in dragon's eye than a vanilla cleric would be, but the addition o' druid spells and the dual-wielding dervish o' destruction melee efficacy more than made up for the early limitation. dual-classing could provide a more powerful group, but we never had the patience to babysit effectively under-powered party members til they hit the dual-class sweet spot. our 4-man iwd group (and frequent bg2 group) were allowing us access to pretty much all the potential content in the game, while giving us an extremely capable group.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[BruceVC]

 

Oh, no doubt, I got the sword from the lady lake spirit, killed the basement bugs, the warehouse wolf, and a couple others. It's so weird now, having different characters level up at different speeds. Like my thief got to third level before the mage reached second. 

 

I'm loving this game, again. Healing is a pretty difficult thing to manage, but the payoff is a thrill when you survive a legion of undead with nine hit points left between two characters. 

our iwd party were almost invariably a 4-man group as it resulted in faster leveling: a paladin, specialist mage (elf or human), gnome thief-illusionist, and half-elf ranger-cleric... typical with the cadaverous or skeletal undead racial enemy. the only problem with this group is that it were a bit over-powered once the mages developed a meaningful spell repertoire. the ranger-cleric were a smidgen less effective at turning undead in dragon's eye than a vanilla cleric would be, but the addition o' druid spells and the dual-wielding dervish o' destruction melee efficacy more than made up for the early limitation. dual-classing could provide a more powerful group, but we never had the patience to babysit effectively under-powered party members til they hit the dual-class sweet spot. our 4-man iwd group (and frequent bg2 group) were allowing us access to pretty much all the potential content in the game, while giving us an extremely capable group.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

Manifested let me know when you start noticing the fact that there is no meaningful interaction with your party members. That was my primary criticism with the game

[Nepenthe]

 

 

Oh, no doubt, I got the sword from the lady lake spirit, killed the basement bugs, the warehouse wolf, and a couple others. It's so weird now, having different characters level up at different speeds. Like my thief got to third level before the mage reached second. 

 

I'm loving this game, again. Healing is a pretty difficult thing to manage, but the payoff is a thrill when you survive a legion of undead with nine hit points left between two characters. 

our iwd party were almost invariably a 4-man group as it resulted in faster leveling: a paladin, specialist mage (elf or human), gnome thief-illusionist, and half-elf ranger-cleric... typical with the cadaverous or skeletal undead racial enemy. the only problem with this group is that it were a bit over-powered once the mages developed a meaningful spell repertoire. the ranger-cleric were a smidgen less effective at turning undead in dragon's eye than a vanilla cleric would be, but the addition o' druid spells and the dual-wielding dervish o' destruction melee efficacy more than made up for the early limitation. dual-classing could provide a more powerful group, but we never had the patience to babysit effectively under-powered party members til they hit the dual-class sweet spot. our 4-man iwd group (and frequent bg2 group) were allowing us access to pretty much all the potential content in the game, while giving us an extremely capable group.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

Manifested let me know when you start noticing the fact that there is no meaningful interaction with your party members. That was my primary criticism with the game

 

 

Frankly, if you'd never played bg2 (just the first one), you wouldn't notice a whole lot of difference.

[BruceVC]

 

 

 

Oh, no doubt, I got the sword from the lady lake spirit, killed the basement bugs, the warehouse wolf, and a couple others. It's so weird now, having different characters level up at different speeds. Like my thief got to third level before the mage reached second. 

 

I'm loving this game, again. Healing is a pretty difficult thing to manage, but the payoff is a thrill when you survive a legion of undead with nine hit points left between two characters. 

our iwd party were almost invariably a 4-man group as it resulted in faster leveling: a paladin, specialist mage (elf or human), gnome thief-illusionist, and half-elf ranger-cleric... typical with the cadaverous or skeletal undead racial enemy. the only problem with this group is that it were a bit over-powered once the mages developed a meaningful spell repertoire. the ranger-cleric were a smidgen less effective at turning undead in dragon's eye than a vanilla cleric would be, but the addition o' druid spells and the dual-wielding dervish o' destruction melee efficacy more than made up for the early limitation. dual-classing could provide a more powerful group, but we never had the patience to babysit effectively under-powered party members til they hit the dual-class sweet spot. our 4-man iwd group (and frequent bg2 group) were allowing us access to pretty much all the potential content in the game, while giving us an extremely capable group.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

Manifested let me know when you start noticing the fact that there is no meaningful interaction with your party members. That was my primary criticism with the game

 

 

Frankly, if you'd never played bg2 (just the first one), you wouldn't notice a whole lot of difference.

 

 

You see that's what I probably did wrong, I played BG2 and Planescape and then moved onto IWD. So I did have a certain expectation around how the party would interact

[Woldan]

Reminds of when I tried to make a playthrough in IWD with a 6-member party of blue-skinned green haired chaotic evil gnome priests that killed everything they saw, friend and foe. Fun, fun times. 

Edited September 2, 2014 by Woldan

[BruceVC]

Reminds of when I tried to make a playthrough in IWD with a 6-member party of blue-skinned green haired chaotic evil gnome priests that killed everything they saw, friend and foe. Fun, fun times. 

 

How far did you get in the game?

[Cluas]

I must have played this game for thousands of hours (hundreds certainly).

I was SO stuck in Dorn's Deep the first time around (before HOW was published). I had run out of all ammunition and had to go all the way back...
(Theese days i like to play with the ease-of-use-mod.)

 

My amazement of the quick level advancement compared to BG - (I was like :  )

I also remember playing this in multi-player. We had 2 characters each. It was so fun, except for ToTLM, we were beaten many times (even on easy). Eventually made through, and started playing IWD2, that had just come out. Good times indeed.

Anyone tried the quick loot yet? It is the most brilliant function added to the IE engine.... TRY IT :D

[Nepenthe]

My amazement of the quick level advancement compared to BG - (I was like :  )

Yeah, I remember that, too :D

[Woldan]

 

Reminds of when I tried to make a playthrough in IWD with a 6-member party of blue-skinned green haired chaotic evil gnome priests that killed everything they saw, friend and foe. Fun, fun times. 

 

How far did you get in the game?

 

 

Not very far, I think I played for 6-8 hours till frustration brought me to my knees. I forgot to mention that they had abysmal stats too, very low intelligence, charisma and constitution. 

[HoonDing]

PALE EFFIN JUSTICE > Carsomyr

[Tale]

Well crap. I was planning to do my first ever run of IWD after I finish BG2:EE. But if IWD:EE is coming out, I might end up waiting.

 

I wonder if they're going to just be finishing old quests and carrying over the BGEE classes.

 

IWD2's going to be interesting if they come to that. That'll be the first time for them using a new ruleset.

[Amentep]

Manifested let me know when you start noticing the fact that there is no meaningful interaction with your party members. That was my primary criticism with the game

 

 

Its just not that kind of game; a bit unfair IMO to criticize the game for something it never tried to do, or even pretended to have (in the same way that its unfair to criticize BG for not having PST's story).

[Monte Carlo]

Bruce did you read the description of the game? It was meant to be a straightforward Dungeon-Crawler. Nothing more and nothing less.

[HoonDing]

Does BG2:EE restore any of the content BioWare either cut from the game or never expanded upon? Like Rune Assassins, the Hidden, TorGal, etc.?

 

I am not interested in new waifus.

[Tale]

Does BG2:EE restore any of the content BioWare either cut from the game or never expanded upon? Like Rune Assassins, the Hidden, TorGal, etc.?

 

I am not interested in new waifus.

It doesn't advertise it, and they would if it did.

[BruceVC]

 

Manifested let me know when you start noticing the fact that there is no meaningful interaction with your party members. That was my primary criticism with the game

 

 

Its just not that kind of game; a bit unfair IMO to criticize the game for something it never tried to do, or even pretended to have (in the same way that its unfair to criticize BG for not having PST's story).

 

 

 

Bruce did you read the description of the game? It was meant to be a straightforward Dungeon-Crawler. Nothing more and nothing less.

 

No I didn't read the description, so therefore I am being unfair for finding fault in something that the game never claimed to offer. My bad

[Gromnir]

 

Manifested let me know when you start noticing the fact that there is no meaningful interaction with your party members. That was my primary criticism with the game

 

 

Its just not that kind of game; a bit unfair IMO to criticize the game for something it never tried to do, or even pretended to have (in the same way that its unfair to criticize BG for not having PST's story).

 

from our pov, actual story elements o' iwd were stronger than BG. as noted elsewhere, not only were bg2 released after iwd, but iwd were designed as kinda a low risk, quick development that were s'posed to sate bg fans before bg2 release. actual, a major goal were to get iwd out the door and on shelves with some meaningful time previous to diablo 2, and that didn't happen. what iwd were being marketed as, and sold as, were a limited and far more "linear" dungeon crawl than bg. truth-to-tell, we found iwd to be superior to bg in virtual all respects, and we missed the... companionship (HA!) o' the bg1 premade and joinable party members not at all. 

 

iwd looked better. it sounded better. iwd had better combats and more compelling locales. yeah, some level design did become a bit tedious in places, but as 'tween bg and iwd, we have very little difficulty identifying the superior game: iwd. the fact that iwd were so impressive is all the more amazing given the extreme limited and handicapped development iwd faced, but as a purchaser, we ultimate don't care 'bout obstacles. iwd were not a better game than bg 'cause developers were frequent rookies working with a wonky engine o' bioware's design. iwd were not better 'cause it had an abbreviated development cycle. iwd were a better game than bg, period. iwd did more right than did bg, regardless o' obstacles.

 

that being said, we note once more that an obvious and superior enhancement o' iwd would be to give it iwd2 mechanics. oh well, yet another great opportunity wasted.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[BruceVC]

 

 

Manifested let me know when you start noticing the fact that there is no meaningful interaction with your party members. That was my primary criticism with the game

 

 

Its just not that kind of game; a bit unfair IMO to criticize the game for something it never tried to do, or even pretended to have (in the same way that its unfair to criticize BG for not having PST's story).

 

from our pov, actual story elements o' iwd were stronger than BG. as noted elsewhere, not only were bg2 released after iwd, but iwd were designed as kinda a low risk, quick development that were s'posed to sate bg fans before bg2 release. actual, a major goal were to get iwd out the door and on shelves with some meaningful time previous to diablo 2, and that didn't happen. what iwd were being marketed as, and sold as, were a limited and far more "linear" dungeon crawl than bg. truth-to-tell, we found iwd to be superior to bg in virtual all respects, and we missed the... companionship (HA!) o' the bg1 premade and joinable party members not at all. 

 

iwd looked better. it sounded better. iwd had better combats and more compelling locales. yeah, some level design did become a bit tedious in places, but as 'tween bg and iwd, we have very little difficulty identifying the superior game: iwd. the fact that iwd were so impressive is all the more amazing given the extreme limited and handicapped development iwd faced, but as a purchaser, we ultimate don't care 'bout obstacles. iwd were not a better game than bg 'cause developers were frequent rookies working with a wonky engine o' bioware's design. iwd were not better 'cause it had an abbreviated development cycle. iwd were a better game than bg, period. iwd did more right than did bg, regardless o' obstacles.

 

that being said, we note once more that an obvious and superior enhancement o' iwd would be to give it iwd2 mechanics. oh well, yet another great opportunity wasted.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

That's an interesting assessment, I didn't know any of that

[Leferd]

I haven't had significant playtime with IWD since the box release and never completed it due to BG2. Just never went back to it. But I fully agree with Gromnir that it was technically a superior game to BG. Nostalgia definitely plays a significant factor though in my rating BG over IWD in terms of favorites.

 

The IWDEE release will give me an excuse to finally replay it again as an appetizer to Eternity. It actually bumped Wasteland 2 on my playlist.

[Amentep]

True story, I liked IWD better than BG and played it more times than BGII.

[Mamoulian War]

Just to kindly remind you, that if you have NWN2, you can already play your enhanced version of IWD and with 3.5 rules as well.

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/neverwinter2/mods/31/?

 

[Leferd]

Just to kindly remind you, that if you have NWN2, you can already play your enhanced version of IWD and with 3.5 rules as well.

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/neverwinter2/mods/31/?

 

Impressive. Except that Infinity Engine gameplay > Aurora/Electron Engine gameplay.

[rjshae]

Played IWD a couple of times; didn't enjoy it nearly as much as BG. I'll take a pass on this one.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

from our pov, actual story elements o' iwd were stronger than BG. as noted elsewhere, not only were bg2 released after iwd, but iwd were designed as kinda a low risk, quick development that were s'posed to sate bg fans before bg2 release. actual, a major goal were to get iwd out the door and on shelves with some meaningful time previous to diablo 2, and that didn't happen. what iwd were being marketed as, and sold as, were a limited and far more "linear" dungeon crawl than bg. truth-to-tell, we found iwd to be superior to bg in virtual all respects, and we missed the... companionship (HA!) o' the bg1 premade and joinable party members not at all. 

 

Yeah, I nearly played / finished all the IE games in order of release. The exception is PS:T even though I had bought PS:T when it was released. I initially couldn't get into PS:T (quite removed from BG) and put it aside and a few months later IWD was released which I found the game style more familiar with BG and was immediately hooked. It was always marketed as a dungeon crawl where you create your own party so companions weren't going to be in. And not long after that, some months later BG2 was released. So it was a while before I got around to playing PS:T again. My progression was BG, IWD, BG2, PS:T, IWD2.

 

When playing IWD after BG, there were a lot of technical improvements. So it was a natural progression to go from BG, IWD and then BG2 where you see IWD animations in BG2. It flowed really well for me.

 

I really enjoy IWD but not enough to buy it again as there's nothing wrong with my copy of the game and runs on my comp. The mods like unfinished business isn't a strong selling point when I can download that for free, and having been bitten once with the BG:EE with all the bugs, I'm quite wary of Beamdog.

 

Same with Amentep, that I've played IWD more than BG2.