Opinions on Icewind Dale 2?

I was doing a little research and discovered that Icewind Dale 2 uses the 3.0 ruleset, so I'll be ordering that to check it out.

I figured for curiosity's sake I'd ask everyone how you think it compares to TOEE and what you like or don't like about it (besides that fact that it isn't TOEE, of course)?

 

Hated it; never finished it. Too much bullshit like "ninja kobolds". No strategy; all clicking & hoping you party won't die in some random manner 'cause everything is so powered up. Made for a really crappy game having to re-load all the time.

 

Personally, I loved it. It was the closest CRPG to D&D that existed until ToEE came out. The storyline was excellent in my opinion. The worst thing about it was that it was not really turn based, though you could set it to emulate turn based combat, and the pause function helped. For those of you who liked IWD2 and BG1 & 2, there is a modding community out there still working on porting BG2 to the IWD2 engine, much like they did with BG1 to the BG2 engine.

 

Looks like a love it or hate it thing

If it ends up being a creep and save, sudden die and reload kind of game, it will probably frustrate me the same way TOEE did. But I'll try out the nature party that worked so well for me in TOEE and see what happens!

Thanks

 

Can't stand the game, think it's only a smidgeon better than PoR2. The storyline sucked arse, what little music that wasn't just a remix from IWD1 was terrible, once it finally played, and the Infinity Engine was *really* showing it's age - it looked awful.

A real stinker. I pity your wallet.

 

I wasn't much for NWN myself, but sometimes I have to play something through and look back before I decide if I really like it. Usually while I'm in the middle of the game I'm busy facing the challenge so I'm just trying to get through it.

I do have hopes for NWN2, albeit cautious, and I like that they are opening up the outside adventuring to be more than a really wide hallway, but I'm just sick of seeing the romance options in the dialogue selections! Arrgh!!!

I never got through BG 2 - I had just escaped the prison and got outside when I stopped.

Thankfully IWD2 is available at a bargain price, so if it is just a play once and throw away experience, I didn't lose much.

 

Icewind Dale II has arrived

I'll have to get used to all this pseudo-turn-based play. So far I've only had to cast a sleep spell when I thought I was taking on too many goblins. No deaths yet! At least I can pause the game and give specific actions to each character instead of watching them run in as an unorganized mob.

Im a little disappointed that I have to search for decent equipment rather than be able to start with it. I really need more arrows!

Oh well, I'll plug along...

....

Ok, the goblin attack on the town is just a tad nasty... it would be nice if my druid had an animal companion or my cleric could spontaneously cast cure spells... (whoops, I can hold shift, well at least there is that).

...

No animal companion for the druid?
Death at 0 hp instead of -10?

I've just gotten past the prologue and I have to reload a lot just fighting the orcs just past the barrels. This will definitely take some getting used to...

 

This is a very hard game. I've had to reload MANY times so far, and I'm only level 5.

I'm getting more of the hang of it, though. There are still little qwirks, like not being able to cast Entangle in a cave, yet Spike Growth works? And when I want to throw some firewater at a troll and he moves, I hit the ground where he was instead? And if I don't notice a slight misclick with my archers, they end up walking through the battle.

The biggest thing I have trouble with is that I tend to focus on one particular area of my party at a time if a fight gets really hard. I completely forget about my sorceror sometimes. TOEE encouraged me to use everyone every turn since it stops right there until you do something.

It also doesn't help that I have to time where I place spells now, since enemies are always moving towards me unless we are meleeing - although I'm surprisingly adept at placing fireballs just within range I also don't like that if someone gets low on health, I might not get a heal spell off before they are hit a few more times and die, because while I'm casting, they are still being swung at.

When (if) I get all the way through the game, I'll have to go back and try to make a party best designed to handle the challenges - and have LOTS of crowd control spells - cripes!

Win fight - save - party member dies - load - party member dies - load - win fight save - approach new area - SAVE...

 

After I finally got up to level 6 and penetrated the fortress at the end of Chapter 1, the fights curiously got a lot easier. Maybe it's because my sorceror now has Fireball, my druid can become a cat and my ranger and fighter/barbarian have extra attacks, but the difficulty has taken a definite downswing. I really think the encounters have a much easier composition to them in the fortress. According to one review I read, there were complaints about how hard Chapter 1 was (hordes of humanoids in the caves and outside forces calling for reinforcements made those sections pretty rough).

Now I'm in a stuck-where-you-are-until-you-gather-some-items chapter - the groove has changed a bit. So I'll take a break and keep plugging tomorrow.

Oh well, so much for trying out party builds on easy encounters at level 1-5

 

Level 11 now, and just pressing into the Underdark.

My druid can become a polar bear now (still haven't figured out if there's a way to have an animal companion yet). I usually cast Magic Circle of Protection from Evil, my bard buffs up the group with Good Hope, then I give Barkskin and Bull's Strength to my Fighter/Barb and Druid (haven't noticed an Endurance spell yet). They tank along with my ranger (he spends the arrows too fast now so I just have him Dual wielding) and cleric. If I get swarmed from both directions, then my sorceror and bard both cast Mirror Image, and my sorceror casts Confusion and my Bard Enthralls until the tankers can kill their targets and help out. Haste helps a lot too - my Barbarian is the primary killer of the party, everyone else just keeps things occupied until he gets to them

I'm getting the hang of it, but I think TOEE is a better game rule simulator. A lot of IWD2's spells are strange the way they work (haste and slow are single target spells, there is no Scorching Ray - instead, an odd duration area effect spell, etc).

EDIT: Looking through my 3.0 PHB, turns out Scorching ray wasn't in 3E. Hmm, shame. That's a great spell.

 

I'm close to the end now. I figure I'll have beaten the game tomorrow.

I'll likely play through a bit of it again with a new party, to see if Chapter 1 is any easier because I learned anything.

But at this point, I'm kind of burned out from the hella-hard boss fights. In the end, I found myself referring to walkthroughs more than figuring out how to beat them on my own, which I usually prefer to do. My inventories are full of a bunch of crap, too.

My party got up to 15th. I was hoping they would have gotten higher. Maybe I'll experiment with Heart of Fury mode and see if the spells get any cooler.

What made the game hard was the casting times while creatures moved. I couldn't really be tactical about spell placement. What made some parts too easy was being able to run from creatures that got one of my PCs low on health, while the others beat it down.