Worth getting icewind dale 2?

[TruePurple]

If you would please, what are the current bugs/ issues left unresolved in the .. final .. icewind gate mod? Any of the story transfer left incomplete? Anyone know about compatibility with other mods, issues? Such a listing would not only help me, but anyone who's interested in but uncertain about the state of icewind gate 2.

I need to know so I know whether I should buy icewind dale 2 or not.

Do you think theres a chance someone might pick this project up again?

[jester]

AFAIK Icewind Gate is abandoned. So the main issue is that it does not exist.

If the question was wether to get IWD2, then yes, definitely.

[Borsook]

Anyway getting IWD2 for itself is really worth it in my opinion. 3e rules, user-friendly interfece (finally) and some nice implemented ideas (for the first time in computer rpg I've seen a forest in which one can get lost), nicely paced difficultly and great battles.

[irenicus]

icewind dale 2 is REALLY hard to play theres no actual plot, or so i find i was close to throwing it out of the window

[Da_venom]

hard? IWD2 is boring no hard fights at all
and since you can make your own party it's just not fun because you don't get any banters from your party members :/

the only reaons i could think of to buy IWD2
were
Better graphics
my IWD collection complete
got bored of the rest of interplay's rpg
subraces to pick
continue of the end of iwd1;)

[Borsook]

Seems we differ here a lot, though I admit the plot is weak, on the level of NWN . As for IWD2 not being hard, it's the first (and last) of IE games were difficulty setting changes are noticible, before it raised amount of damage done by enemies, which was silly cause they still couldn't hit you, in IWD2 it gives also to hit and resistances boost, if you played on very hard Da_venom without cheating and it still was too easy than hats off to you.

[TruePurple]

Thats all fine and stuff but like I said I'd really appreciate a list of bugs and issues with the last version of icewind gate 2. I understand that its abandoned but you can still download it right? Surely some of you have played it and can tell me at least a few, right? Any untransfered areas/quests?

[Borsook]

I don't think a comprehensive list of issues exist... trouble is you cannot play it as such, there are many things that just don't work so in order to advance you have to use CLUA commands, IMO using IWG is possible only if you know BG2 by heart and know what's going to happen, it's rather experimenting then playing, I don't think there's anyone out there who manage to reach the last chapter in iwg.

[Da_venom]

Seems we differ here a lot, though I admit the plot is weak, on the level of NWN . As for IWD2 not being hard, it's the first (and last) of IE games were difficulty setting changes are noticible, before it raised amount of damage done by enemies, which was silly cause they still couldn't hit you, in IWD2 it gives also to hit and resistances boost, if you played on very hard Da_venom without cheating and it still was too easy than hats off to you.

just don't take more than 4 charachters in beginning

2 tanks spellcaster and one random shit

requires alot of sleep though

[Borsook]

I always use 6, I like big parties

[Da_venom]

well then it's going too be hard

since you won't get enough XP

and in the beginning you don't need more than 3

just kill

[Azazello]

I wouldn't touch IWD2 even if I could have it for free, not until Icewind Gate project is re-activated and enters into beta. IWD1 was enough of a disappointment (not a big one, I kind of liked it, but...).

[Borsook]

I wouldn't really count on IWG reactivation, there are too many things in BG2 code that don't work in IWD2, one would have to rewrite "manually" too much. If you're keen on seeing BG in 3e rules with IWD2 interface (you may not like the game, but you gotta like configurable buttons) the only hope is GemRB, which should make the conversion much easier by providing a common engine supporting the functions from all the IE games.
PS. Just as a personal note, don't want to sound blasphemious but of late I prefer IWD2 to BG2.

[The_Swordalizer]

I found Icewind Dale 2 just lacked... soul. It was technically impressive and the graphics were good and all but the party seemed like such a bunch of no-names compared to BG2. I was used to larger- than-life berserk hamster-loving rangers and scheming muttering Red Wizards, and I got a bunch of quiet faceless chess pieces who took a "level of Paladin" when it suited them.
<rant/>I'm sorry if I'm showing my 2nd Ed. roots but when I played DnD rolling good enough stats to get a Paladin was a once in a lifetime experience. They were often talked of but rarely seen, legendary characters who had devoted their lives to the slaying of evil. And now my deep gnome monk takes a "level of Paladin" to boost his saving throws.

Where did the magic go? </rant>

I have never actually completed IWD2. After getting bored running around some tunnels full of goblins I took a break to play BG2. I came back to it before getting bored running around some ice tunnel temple thing. I come back again and finally I get to the bad guys castle thing, fight my way up the entire thing before realising at the top that to get to the end I need an item that was dropped by some random bad guy half way up that I threw into a random container somewhere among the 6 or 7 levels of the place. So its search the entire last section of the game for some item I didn't even know i needed or I can't finish the game. So I learnt to mod BG2 and left IWD2 in its box in the bedroom

The_Swordalizer

[Borsook]

You're right multiclassing in 3e kills all the "feeling" of being someone... Now everybody takes 2 levels of fighter (for feats) or one ranger (for dual-weilding)...but you don't have to do it, I always play IWD2 with single class characters. As for NPCs, to me IWD2 is a tactical combat game with elements of RPG, so I welcome the ability to create all the characters. BTW I hate Minsc... and most of Bioware NPC, even if interesting, have silly stats/proficiencies. PS. whole fun in IWD2 begins after ice temple (so second half of the game), as for it being bored, maybe too many people try to play it as an RPG, it's a combat game, nobody grumbled that Diablo was boring and in comparison you have tons of RPG in iwd2, just don't compare it to BG, it's a different game genre, just the same world and engine. And some RPG elements are done better than in bg2 (paladins refusing to take money, npc refusing a drinking contest with a PC dwarf, etc)

[TruePurple]

 

nobody grumbled that Diablo was boring

If your talking about diablo 1, id say its relatively boring.

If a game doesn't have good storyline or great puzzles or flexiable outcomes or buildable towns or something thats specifically really interesting(improved BD interface does not qualify, you can't even go into turn base, can you in IWD?)  I generally don't like playing it. Some exceptions are a number of mario games, net hack to a certain degree, and campaign games.

Story makes a huge difference to me, thats just me though. Got too many other games to play if IWD doesn't have a interesting storyline. Its a shame IWG might never see the light of day

 

the only hope is GemRB, which should make the conversion much easier by providing a common engine supporting the functions from all the IE games.

Please tell me more of this GemRB. You think someone might start making it convert for BG sometime semisoon?

[Borsook]

You have to end quotes with

 
I meant rather Diablo2, I don't say they (both d2 and IWD2) can't be see as boring, I meant that if you find them boring you don't like hack'n'slash games probably. BTW IWD2 has better story and more RPG than TOB and has some interesting stuff later on (enhanced forest, time travel). As for turn combat, yes that's a pity, but you can use pseudo-turn with auto-pause function.

http://gemrb.sourceforge.net/ - it's GEMrb site, the project is 50% finish. though the latter half may be more time consuming. They're practically writting a new engine for IE games, you'll be alble to run them all on the same engine, so since all functions from all five games will be supported tutu/iwg type conversion should be really easy, but no to my knowledge nobody plans it right now (gemrb has to be finished first), but I'd say that if hopefully GEMrb will be finished than such a conversion is higly probable. Almost certain .

[Azazello]

... IWD2 has better story and more RPG than TOB...

This may be true - as I wrote earlier, I have never played IWD2 and probably never will. But is it better than ToB+Ascension+Redemption, a combination that is nearly de facto standard if you're going to play ToB? I'm gonna guess, not.

The fact is that those who feel the IWD2 is better than BG2 are in a subculture vastly dwarfed by the main BG culture. To be in this subculture, a person is admitting to being a certain type of gamer; one that prefers "hack'n'slash" over story content and character development. Personally I cannot understand how anyone could be in this subculture, but to each his own. It is not a bad thing, since game designers gotta eat too, so if they can sell such games to such gamers, oh well.

They won't be selling to me.

[jester]

@ToB+Ascension+Redemption better than IWD2

I am not in any subculture, but the very good story of the twins and the plot device to revisit places you fought for adds a lot of fun to the game. Replayability is perhaps a problem, but all the new races, class combinations in 3Ed can keep you busy for a while. I prefer settings where you are more of an accidental hero than someone destined for something big. After all the Vault Dweller, the Chosen one and the group which assembled in the cold regions of the North almost by chance to save the day are a far cry from the godchild theme of BG. ToB just showed me the major suckage of high-level-campaigns. What makes BG1 and 2 better than the IWD series is the vast amount of additional material. The Carmina Burana style soundtrack, the artwork and the creatures are definitely on par or above BG2 or ToB. I still wonder where people found the story of IWD lacking.

[Borsook]

Well, tob with mods is probably better... The story is very important to me, but after playing bg x times I know it by heart and combat in bg series is so easy... Story in IWD2 is just a pretext to get you deal with some nice battles... Is like playing Myth series, if you rember it.

[Borsook]

@jester - the story of IWD2 is simply... rushed, I rembember an interview with a dev who said they were planning an "evil" ending but didn't have time to finish it... currently the story suffers from the fact that you have to fight the twins no matter what, this undermines the attempts of showing the player that there is no one "bad" side here, from a certain point of view the twins are as good'n'evil as their enemies, but still this does not change anything... this makes one feel that the story is lacking...

[jester]

Actually it is not an evil ending that the game lacks, but it misses the evil side entirely. Not even a cleric of Bane could side with the twins. If I had been given the choice I would have loved to fight alongside the legion, but no.

Somewhere lost in time someone suggested a mod, which of course would have been an entirely new game, to make it possible to play the game from Sarevok's perspective. It could have been much shorter as in comparison he would have ascended after BG1 or maybe not. They left out the evil ending? These dimwits developers  couldn't write an evil storyline if their life depended on it (admittedly either a weak spot in every game I have played safe Fallout or pure gamer sociology). To claim to 'just have left out the final evil choices' is laughable at best.