Thread 719203439

Why hasn't Icewind Dale gotten the same love that Baldur's Gate has?

it has a really boring story and is pretty generic

Should I play this if I don't like Baldur's Gate combat that much

>>719203660
No. Only reason to play icewind dale is if you think there wasn't enough combat in baldurs gate and it was too easy. Total dogshit.

>>719203439 (OP)
No real companions and generic story

>>719203439 (OP)
Icewind dale is a way cooler and more atmospheric setting than Baldur's Gate or Amn

>>719203660
Yes but level your expectations because it's not on the same level. It's great in It's own way and it's heavily combat focus with some beautiful locations but it's got weird difficulty spikes where the game will become ball busting hard and then mindlessly easy. Dragon's Eye and The Temple underneath it are extremely hard but rewarding to beat. The Luremaster had some of the hardest fights out of all the Infinity Engine games in my experience. If you like BG 1 and 2's combat and you're hungry for more I would definitely recommend them. Just go in expecting more of a 7/10 instead of Baldur's Gate's 9/10.

Icewind Dale 2 I can't say because I'm in a middle of a playthrough of it and have only finished Chapter 1 but I can say it feels like an improvement for now as they actually have nore challenging spell casters and more tactical and better designed combat encounters (Please don't spoil the rest for me)

>>719203660
It should be mandatory for everyone who is a fan of Baldur's Gate or Planescape or old school CRPGs in general

>>719204361
>>719203660
My bad I thought you said you liked BG's combat. Then you should probably pass on it because that's the major focus. It does have some good exploration and light puzzles but that's only because Icewind Dale's art style and environments are beautiful and sovlful

One thing I really like about this game is that higher difficulties do more than just increase damage. It actually changes encounters, adding more enemies and even different enemy types.
Its pretty sick.

>>719203439 (OP)


>>719203492
>>719203796
This but to be more precise, it was supposed to be some kind of Diablo competitor but with AD&D cRPG gameplay.
The main purpose of the game wasn't the story, adventure or the character interaction, but building up your team and killing tons of monsters. However, because it was based on the BG engine, it had fixed dungeon layouts, fixed loot and the gameplay was slow as fuck.

I think it still a fun game, but the engine wasn't the right tool for the job and it failed to get mainstream following because of that.

>>719203796
I like creating my own party and experimenting with several different builds and party composition. I don't need several obnoxious companions yapping in my ear all the time about dumb shit like Arie. They would always pick the worst moments to initiate conversations during gameplay or fights or when I'm looking and trying id loot or rest to the point where it just made me rush and speed read their garbage. The game needed companion content to not be so intrusive. Like I'm already doing one timed quest to get Jan in my party and then while I'm doing that the bar location we have to go into forces us into one of Jaheria's stupid timed quests where she gets weaker and dumber. The game is just obsessed with shoving that content down your throat unlike Baldur's Gate 1 where it let you discover that content on your own

>>719203439 (OP)
It is more of a dungeon crawler

>>719203439 (OP)
Who even is Icewind Dale? He sounds lame as fuck.

>>719203439 (OP)
Because it's just not as cool. It's still a good game but it's more for sweaty mouthbreathing D&D enjoyers such as myself while the BG series has always been (Since somehow Larian pulled it off too) mainstream RPG excellence in that BG's not THE BEST at anything but it's good at everything so people can enjoy the stories, people can whack off over the characters, people can enjoy the combat and loot whoring. The IWD games are just 90% combat which is fine but limits how many nerds are talking about your game

after replaying infinity engine games a while back, i think i might have enjoyed iwd more than bg2. its fun to replay since it concentrates on the dungeon crawling

>>719203439 (OP)
Because it doesn't have much story, narrative or dialogue, it doesn't have a party, it's dreary, it's tough, its early scenarios are meandering, its most beautiful background and enemy art is backloaded and its ending isn't dramatic or striking. The coming full circle thing just doesn't hit, because they didn't give you a reason to give a shit about Easthaven..

>>719207970
but that expansion challenge dungeon is annoying as fuck at times

Icewind: Dale Gribble
>fwshaw pocket snow

>>719205768
>fixed loot
people will just go on /v/ and talk out of their ass.

>>719210379
Why?

>>719212067
https://icewinddale.fandom.com/wiki/Random_Treasures