Opinions on Icewind Dale 2?

Game finally beaten, about 106 days of game time.

Once I found out what I needed to do in the final battle, it was pretty easy (as long as I was buffed up). If I didn't know what to do, we got wasted pretty fast. Summoners are the pits.

I'm playing the game through again, this time with a 4-member party, each a star in their own right (fighter/barbarian, fighter/rogue, sorceror, cleric), and the game is playing much easier. Strange that with fewer characters, it's actually an easier game... I'm sure it's because I'm more used to the game and know what to expect, too.

 

Game beaten with only 4 characters. 76 days of game time. Those characters ripped through most encounters like they were nothing. Either I knew more about the game and prepared better, or there's something about a 4 member party that just makes them better to play with. They got up to 17th level before the final battle, and I even forgot to complete one quest that made the final bosses weaker. There were quite a few areas where we didn't get any experience at all because we were too high level already. Otherwise we probably would have been 18-19.

When I played with 6 characters, it took 106 game days, and they hit 16th in the middle of the final battle.

Perhaps I should try one more time with 6 characters, just to see if the game is in fact harder...

I'm thinking a 5-member party might be good, too. I might be able to gain the experience I missed out on with a 4-member party and still be 17th for the final fight.

I really wish the game had mighty composite longbows and the Point Blank Shot bow feat to make the ranger more fun to play.

 

I'm a big InfinityEngine fan from way back. Well, not as far back as BG1. I actually got into it when IWD1 came out. I liked that game and the sequel quite a lot (Heart of Winter) when they came out. But in terms of cRPG (inter-party banter, joinable NPC's, "non-linear" quests and such) BG2 is the best of these games. And there's just tons of cheese to exploit if you like that sort of thing

IWD2 uses the last and most advanced version of the InfinityEngine. The interface is much better than the IWD1/BG2 games and IMO the 3E implementation is much better than the previous 2E implementation was. But IMO the game content pales in comparison to IWD1. In fact, a lot of it is recycled from IWD1 :/

There was an attempt to port BG2 to IWD2 which didn't work out (you really can't get joinably NPC's to work in IWD2). I've grabbed the code from that project and I'm trying to hack an IWD1 -> IWD2 conversion. I'm no master modder and it's going to take me a long time (if I ever get it done, a lot will be hand coded instead of converted).