| Product: |
Icewind Dale (PC) |
| Date: |
19.05.01 (14 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: good plot
Disadvantages: , err...
Icewind Dale is an excellent game whose release was, unfortunately, overshadowed by bigger titles such as Diablo II and Baldur's Gate II. If you like RPGs though, this game definitely deserves a spot on your shelf.
At first glance, it might entirely be possible to confuse Icewind Dale with Baldur's Gate II. Both games were published by Interplay and both games are based on the story lines of Forgotten Realms, within the Advanced Dugeons and Dragons Universe. Icewind Dale, however, is a quality game in its own right and is sufficiently different from Baldur's Gate II to warrant a place for both games in your collection.
Graphics
It is now common practice for large development houses to reuse various graphic engines in a multitude of their games to attempt to recoup some of their initial investments. Given the similarities between Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate, it is no surprise that Icewind Dale uses the graphical engine of Baldur's Gate. In addition to this, many of the graphics and sprites in Icewind Dale are also borrowed from the original Baldur's Gate.
This has the added benefit of allowing players of any of the games in the BG series to feel immediately comfortable when playing Icewind Dale. It won't be necessary to learn any new arcane commands if have already become accustomed to the interface of BG. Everything from the game's isometric perspective to its inventory management system is exactly as it is in BG.
Despite this, it would have been nice if Icewind Dale did make an attempt to try and differentiate itself a bit more by including a greater amount of original graphics. The video game industry has become increasingly competitive and it is no longer acceptable for a publisher to release intermediary titles just to tide gamers over between the releases of major games. Icewind Dale is able to stand on its own two
feet in almost every other aspect of the game so there is no reason to expect why it cannot do so graphically.
Sound
Despite the game's lack of graphical originality, its soundtrack immediately blew me away as soon as it began to creep out of my speakers. Interplay commissioned composer Jeremy Soule to create an original classical soundtrack for the title and it was an expense that has had an enormous and extrmely positive contribution to the game. The soundtrack is gentle, yet subtlety powerful and accurately reflects the feel of the game.
Icewind Dale is broken into six chapters and each chapter has a unique graphical score to accompany it. The delicate changes in the atmosphere and objectives of each chapter are enhanced and brought to life by this powerful score. Interplay, Black Isle Studios and all of Jeremy Soule should all be commended for integrating this swooping soundtrack into the game.
Although it is nowhere near as powerful, the voice acting in Icewind Dale is certainly credible. Interplay has manage to recruit a stable cast of voice actors and actresses over the years and this is reflected in some of its most recent releases. At times, certain voices did sound miscast or certain lines had emotions intoned in them that maybe shouldn't have been. However, on the whole, the voice acting was well done and it really helped me become interested in the game.
Gameplay
Gameplay is one aspect where Icewind Dale really does separate itself from its BG cronies. If you're expecting to spend hours solving complex puzzles and travelling wide expanses to locate hidden treasures, then you should probably look to another game. Taking a hint from Diablo II, the kind developers at Black Isle Studios decided to pack a great deal more action into this title. Rather than spending time solving puzzles, you'll probably be occupying yourself with killing as many monsters
as possible. It's not a complete frag fest like Diablo II but if it's action you're looking for, you'll definitely find it here.
During the course of your game, you'll encounter many characters such as giants, dwarves, golems and trolls. The animations of these characters are detailed and impressive to behold, however, rather than admiring them, you will probably just want to make them dead as soon as possible.
To aid you in this task, Icewind Dale features a balanced system of character power-ups so that during the course of the game, your characters will gradually become more powerful so that they can deal with increasingly powerful enemies. The nice thing about Icewind Dale is that your characters never become too powerful or are too weak to face the enemy at hand. There is always a sense of equilibrium to the game that makes you feel that your characters are exactly where they should be.
If you've played any BG games before, you'll also be familiar with the game in which Icewind Dale is played. If not, Icewind Dale is based on the real-time Infinity engine that allows one to pause the game at strategic intervals. Although this may sound strange if you've never played a game like this before, it is extremely useful during battles. When you're controlling a pack of six characters, you'll quickly learn to appreciate being able to pause the game to issue orders and then un-pausing it and watching your team unleash hell on their opponents.
The game also runs at fixed resolution of 640x480. This is somewhat disappointing since BG II offers support for much higher resolutions and it would have been nice if this technology was transferred over to Icewind Dale. On a standard 17" monitor this causes certain graphics to look pixellated during certain portions of the game. However, for the most part the game is fairly fast paced so you really won't notic
e this too much.
Depth
When you first install the game, your first task will be to customize six characters using the various options for race and class that are specified in AD&D. These characters will be with you throughout most of the game so it is important to choose them wisely. Although the game offers precious few hints at this point the key is to select a team that is diverse and able to handle as many situations as powerful. For instance, a team full of warriors may be good during certain situations but you will surely suffer in other stages of the game.
Initially, this rag tag group of characters will be embarrassingly scrawny and weak. As you quickly progress through battles and gain experience, however, you will be able to increase their abilities and make them seem more like the bunch of heroes that they're supposed to be.
One pleasant surprise about Icewind Dale is that despite the prodigious amount of action that is present in the game, the game does feature a fairly involving plot. This more than made up for some of the game's graphical deficiencies and actually made it feel like there was a purpose to the events that took place.
Presentation
The presentation of Icewind Dale is mostly quite similar to that of Baldurs Gate. The box art and manuals are quite similar and you do get the feeling that you are purchasing a part of the AD&D franchise rather than a simple computer game.
Combining the elements of Baldur's Gate that made it a success with the hacking and slashing of Diablo II appears to be the formula that works for Icewind Dale. It's actually suprising that no one had thought of it earlier, but regardless of this, it certainly is fun just to sit back, not think too much and play Icewind Dale!
This feeling is confirmed once you start playing the game. The interface, the perspectives and v
arious other aspects of the game all have a familiar feeling to them and this may be a positive or negative aspect depending on your point of view.
Regardless of the similarities, an enormous amount of effort was put into this title and this is reflected in its presentation. If you do decide to purchase Icewind Dale, you can be assured that you will be getting a quality title and not just the baby brother of BG II.
Overall
Icewind Dale is a solid title that proved to be a lot of fun to play. After taking the approximately 200 hours to beat Baldur's Gate II, it was nice to sit down to a game that had simpler objectives and took less time to beat. If you were scared off by some of the puzzle-solving elements of BG II you might find the action-oriented aspects of Icewind Dale more to your liking. On the other hand, if you were part of that multitude of gamers that made BGII the success that it was and ignored Icewind Dale in the process, now might be the time to pick up this quality title and have a bit of fun while doing so!
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