Icewind Dale 2

9 more product images	Platform: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP Vivendi Universal, 2002, CD-ROM Customer Rating: 86 reviews   Recommend This product is currently not available and cannot be purchased. It means that we have no merchant offers for this product at the moment or it was discontinued by the manufacturer.

Return to the frigid north of the Forgotten Realms in the sequel to the critically acclaimed Icewind Dale. Will you heed the call to arms and face the greatest threat to the Spine of the World?

Return to the Spine of the World, that famous mountain range deep within Dungeons & Dragon's official world, the Forgotten Realms, for party-based adventure par excellence. Icewind Dale II is a throwback to an earlier time when D&D simulation meant six party members, 2-D graphics, and a heavy focus on story and real-time strategy game tactics.

Icewind Dale II plays like Baldur's Gate with one major difference: you create and control your entire party, which leaves you free to experiment with the huge array of options D&D 3rd Edition makes possible. Halfling paladins, wizards with thieving skills, it's all possible because Black Isle dutifully added all the new skills, rules, options, and feats given to D&D characters in the tabletop game.

The story line is long and epic and maybe too focused for its own good. You can experiment with any character combination you want, but you can't really range far and wide, adventuring as you wish. The story concerns a goblin army that is threatening human settlements far to the north. Infernal implications quickly surface as you learn that the goblins' masters might not be of this prime-material plane. The combat is fast, furious, constant, and extremely challenging. One of the reasons Baldur's Gate II worked so well was that your priest always had enough healing powers and Raise Dead spells handy. In Icewind Dale II, you begin at first level, so for half the game you must trudge homeward whenever somebody dies, which is frequent. The enemy appears in large numbers, usually with a spell caster in tow — and just beyond one group of enemies is another one. It's relentless and strategically satisfying, if more than a little frustrating too.

Fans of the earlier games who were perhaps a bit unsatisfied with the single-PC focus of Neverwinter Nights will delight in another chance to play party-based D&D. — Bob Andrews

Pros:

• Full implementation of D&D 3rd Edition rules
• Same old glorious tactical gameplay as the Baldur's Gate series

• Retro looking in this 3-D age of Neverwinter Nights
• Often too difficult for its own good

Title: Icewind Dale 2
Sales Rank: 9091 in Software
Publisher: Vivendi Universal
Platform: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP, CD-ROM
Recommended Age: From 12 years to 20 years
Package Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.3 x 1.4 inches, 0.65 pounds

• PC Gamer (1-year)

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