Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition

Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition is a fun game, but one that I probably should have just left as a memory. The game did not age well. For me especially, being that I already knew the story and the far outdated and messy user interface, controls, and design left me with a bogged down experience. This was not the fun nostalgia ride that I found in Baldur's Gate I & II.

The game was relatively trouble free, though I did have some minor issues time to time. Nothing that I experienced was game breaking.

Overall, Icewind Dale was a great game in its time, but did not survive the years as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. I would recommend skipping this one if you are hear for nostalgia. I would also recommend skipping this one for those new to the game, especially if you have not played the other mentioned games, which are far more of an enjoyable experience.

what r u waiting for

DnD at its best

After playing BG1 & 2. I'm now playing IWD EE (again) its a good game & has some different magic items & spells to the others. And some of the animation graphics are pretty cool. I'm also impressed with the music.
It starts off slow as your would expect but the difficulty in the battles is building. I managed to import my Chars from BG2EE with a little tweaking which also imported some items. So it feels like the adventure continues with the trusty old team of adventurers.

I have three Infinity Engine D&D games. Baldur's Gate II is easily the best. This one is too linear and Kuldahar sucks as a base.

Good to see an old school AD&D adventure, I think the difference is these storys on each adventure is crafted by a D&D DM or people who appreciates the interactions of of different groups and individuals in the storys they create their attitudes and directions of their history and to a certain extent its interaction up to present situation that you have to fathom wich is good because its all connected and theres people on the other end turning the 02 crank to give you the depth you need!
Overall the xp becomes a weave of interaction and strategy a craft that has in some way been forgotten and overturned for box drops and grind unlocks, but you know I dont give a shit about the mystery box keep it for your man/woman cave! I have more interesting sights to behold within the detail of these lands! That said all the towns people are essentially the same person in a different body like some mad gestalt lords over them as vessels of its corruption over the land.. but its just generic programming (wouldve felt abit more enhanced if these guys did some work on their personality's ya know!? Not advocating mind diluting drugs, shrinks or magic haggis?! But wouldve been nice!) anyway no big bad..

on a personal note I always preferred the icewind dale games to the baldurs gate ones cause I could completely custom my chars wich for me felt like more of the AD&D adventure I was used to having been a player and dm.

There are parts of this game that instantly remind me of watching classic cartoons (80s-90s) and sometimes I find my self finishing some voiced dialogue with “Taz Hate Water!!” / “Why for you push Taz??” if you are also a botanist of the 80s-90s tv faceplant youl probably instantly recognise afew of the over 400 (tv + game) different voice rolls of voice over artist Jim Cummings! These rolls usually have just the right amount of ham & cheese for comedy effect! Good rolls! you cant get em at any old vendor nu ah!!

like afew other customisable titles you can change the sound sets and the portraits unlike worms though they have not made it much easier than the original version, so creating specific sizes & sets out of game and dragging them into place in yr IWD docs folder. Good you still can though! I guess, just the long way round.

(pending completion)

an infinity engine RPG, a classic part of the Big 4 (IWD, IWD2, BG, BG2).
Of course it's a flawsless 10/10

Its beautiful. Memorable NPCs. Good story.

There are good reasons why only 10% of purchasers complete the game. It may have been something 25 years ago, but the gaming world has definitely moved on to better games. This game has some nostalgic interest for a niche audience, but that's about it;

Another adventure in the world of Faerun. This time we are sent to the frosty, northern lands, collectively known as Icewind Dale. Exploring the Ten Towns, we will face various adversities of fate. Beasts and humanoids, magic and sword, intrigue and open conflict - all this awaits you in Icewind Dale.

Unlike Baldur's Gate, in this game we create an entire, six-person team ourselves. There is no companion system in the game, known from other cRPG games. The experience that Icewind Dale offers focuses more on a typical dungeon crawler. The plot is present, it is woven into all the locations that you will visit. Along the way, you will be given several quest to complete, and all of this will lead you to an epic climax.

The game is linear and leads the player through the twists and turns of the story told in Icewind Dale. Most of the quests can be completed in several ways, and some of the missions are very easy to skip. NPCs do not have markers indicating that they want to give us a new mission. Therefore, it is important to talk to each one and repeat this action often when returning to a larger location.

If you like wintery vibes, like me, then Icewind Dale is definitely something you should give a chance to. The game is old, it relies on an outdated mechanics system, but the way the story is told and how the player is drawn into it and woven into it makes for an incredibly enjoyable cRPG experience.

If you want to expand your gameplay experience and add companions (like in Baldur's Gate), definitely check out this mod forum: https://weaselmods.net/

Pros:
- a great adventure in the Forgotten Realms universe
- freedom to create a group and select its members
- an interesting, gripping story about conflicts in the North of Faerun
- gameplay diversity in terms of classes, races and available character equipment
- eye-pleasing winter scenery
- interestingly composed, atmospheric music
- well made, atmospheric character portraits, familiar and typical of the Icewind Dale series

Cons:
- outdated system
- limitations in the character creator resulting from the old D&D rules (some races and classes are not compatible with each other at all)
- slow-pacing movement and combat
- fully linear stortline

Fina scole: 9.1/10

Nothing about this so called "Enhanced Edition" feels enhanced to me.

Classic hack n slash

Outside of buggy navigation and companions eating crayons and having to be micromanaged a bit too much for my liking it's still an outstanding game well deserved of its praise, and in general EE does the necessary QoL improvements without steering the game towards an entirely different thing.

Classic game for those who also love Baldurs Gate!
I'm playing it again after 24yrs! Love it

nostalgia hits

I liked this game when it came out like maybe 20 years ago?? Anyway, it hasn't aged well and the Steam version hasn't attempted to improve on the painful process of dead party members. I'm just not willing to learn the process of switching files in and out to play a game that is sup-par by today's standards. I tried, but it's just not worth the effort!

Great game, but tough.

Fun

Classic and very chill crpg made to run on modern hardware. Having a blast. Wish they made more games like this.

This is a nice CRPG game. You can find that you need a lot of strategies if you want to enjoy this game. However, the story is a bit dull. If you are here for some brain exercises, this is a game for you.

one if my favorite games of all time .

Great game! Challenging battles, a fun storyline, great voice-acting. Highly recommend to all DnD fans.

I really, really, really like the base campaign and its thoughtful dungeons and encounters. The expansions become really dumb and unfun quickly, not to mention pretty darn short. Still, I've been replaying the old D&D videogames making my way to Siege of Dragonspear and Elemental Evil as I've never played those before, and IWD1 was a good cleanser against how terrible Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous were.

Grew up with this. Still the best.

Love this game, ranks right up there as one of my all time favs, top ten best game I have ever played. If you like Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, you will love this geem.

Icewind Dale is in my top 20 best/favorite games without question or reservation. The story is light but evocative, the environments are beautiful and painterly, the combat takes a bit but is really fun. My six woman team lives forever in my heart, and I can't wait to play another campaign.

It is an excellent RPG and we need more in this format

I like the IWD games a lot. Somehow, for me at least, they hold up better than BG1 and BG2 (even though they are great). It has a strong directed story which works well for this kind of title. The art is awesome. It's old and so lacks the QoL features of modern games but they aren't too irritating once you adjust. Really strong game.

For all those with an addiction to Baldur's Gate and just want more.

Just as good as Baldur's Gate 1 and 2

Yes, it's not BG2 and some spells are nerfed but it's an interesting linear old school cast 'n slash game

You cannot go into this game expecting something like Baldur's Gate. It might look similar when comparing screenshots, but it's a different game. It's foremost a dungeon crawler focused on combat and a pretty hard one at that. If that is your thing, then go for it. I you come in for the storytelling and exploration of Baldur's Gate, you will be dissapointed.

i like it

Icewind Dale probably made a greater impression on my younger self than BG1 and BG2.

a timeless classic!

Great game !

This is a quintescential old school classic RPG - hard to get tired of it

five star game only problem is when i try to play multiplayer it boots me every now and then but overall amazing game

Fuck this game

One day later edit:

I wrote that previous review after dying on a tough fight due to pathfinding issues twice in a row and was "Big Mad".

I'm not sure about recommending this game, it isn't bad, but it's mostly just a combat focused dungeon crawler. If you've played Baldur's Gate 2 and really wanted less roleplaying and plot, and more fighting than this game is for you. I don't think it's bad, but it's got a lot of frustrating jank such as the aforementioned pathfinding issues. If you're not willing to save scum it's extremely difficult, especially early on when a couple of unlucky roles can immediately send your tankiest character to an early death. The difficulty definitely levels off after a while, but as someone who beat BG2 and is familiar with the genre, but is not an expert I found it pretty hard.

Overall, I don't think this game is bad, I just wouldn't recommend it unless you know what you're getting with it. For me, I think I miss the more exploratory parts of other RPG's and would prefer to play a dedicated tactics game for this type of combat. For retro RPG's I'd recommend checking out Baldur's Gate 2, or Planescape Torment, or Fallout 2 if you're looking for something more story focused. I'm leaving it at a thumbs up, because I did have fun with it and I'm pretty sure I got it for like $5 at one point and I got my money's worth

The game was boring. I was hoping it would be similar to Baldur's Gate, and while the interface and overall design resembled it, the experience fell short. The story wasn't as captivating, and I didn't feel connected to or drawn in by the characters.

Good classic D&D

Very fun!

...Tales follow you and tales await you, as they always do for those whose hearts yearn for adventure and glory ....

Recommending if you don't mind a very rough start. At least if you go in with no experience with other Infinity Engine games. Once the controls start making sense, there's lots of goblin-slaying to be had.

The character-creation menu is a nightmare and the pre-made characters seem to be a red herring. The pre-made mage doesn't have Magic Missile, which is the spell you actually want for deleting mobs early on.

The sage advice I got was to use a party of 4 instead of 6, focus-fire one target at a time, and spam Magic Missile. With that, I got unstuck and started figuring shit out.

Set the game to auto-pause whenever you spot an enemy and kill an enemy. Combat goes smoothly on Deck with A to pause/unpause and touch screen buttons along the right side of the screen. Tap each hero icon, set their weapon, then tap Select All and click a target to have them all focus-fire with that weapon.

The inventory system is still trash though. It feels asinine to have both a bag space limit AND a maximum weight. It's asinine for my Fighter to have 20 Yeti pelts while feeling cool as a cucumber, but then he suddenly can't fit a ring in his backpack.

love this game

Fun dungeon-crawling and monster-slaying.

Old school D&D whats not to love.

holy fuck holy fuck holy fuck it so so so so gooood

this is the game where RtP combat clicked for me

IWD is a classic power fantasy adventure about mindless killing, based on completely archaic, insanely clunky and straight up unplayable AD&D system, which for some reason, we absolutely love.

Cons of Enchanced Edition:
- still no spell range indicators after 20 years, although wiping your team every time you cast fireball is very true to original experience
- OG players would remember cleric scrolls and mage scrolls used to have different art, not anymore
- added katanas and other samurai nonsense for manga kids, but this also means more weapons so it's kinda a plus too, they're just out of place a bit

Pros of Enchanced Edition:
- it works
- UI improvements are good
- you can zoom out very far and seriously, it's a big change
- new classes add new depth but you can also keep things classic
- new eq is cool and sense of progression still seems balanced and well thought out; gear upgrades hit you in perfect timing, power spikes feel rewarding and satysfying and the whole adventure is quite addictive

Conclusion:
It could be improved, but I still gladly gather my party before venturing forward. If you like ADnD games, little inconveniences shouldn't bother you too much, 'cause you're a masochist anyway.

Old D&D classic game, same genre as Baldur's Gate 1. Third person view, combat is computer controlled once you order your characters to attack, allows pause during combat to prepare spells, change weapons, follows classic D&D structure for hit points, armor class, weapons damage, spells, etc. Allows frequent saves so that us wimps who can't stand to get all our characters killed by some unusually lucky goblins don't have to start over. Not open world, you get missions and need to focus on them to progress the game plot. A nice game for those of us lacking the dexterity to enjoy first person combat RPGs.