Icewind Dale II Reviews

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(Originally posted by Mollusken)

Worthplaying (8.6/10)

Black Isle employed the same top-quality level of aural goodness that you'll find in their other Forgotten Realms RPGS. Voice work is exceptional, only key characters are provided with voice-overs though. The sheer amount of dialogue in the game most likely forbids the option to make every piece of discourse audible but still, how cool would that be? The soundtrack consists of stirring orchestrations that fade in and out or ramp up to fast-paced war-like compositions when key combat sequences begin. The composer of Icewind Dale II, Inon Zur, does a very adequate job of giving the game an epic feel that is rivaled only by that of -- well, every other Black Isle Studios RPG.

FiringSquad (78/100)

Quite possibly the most annoying aspects of Icewind Dale II is the pathetic pathfinding. This reviewer had the number of nodes set to 400,000, the maximum the game would allow you to set, and characters, upon encountering any sort of obstacle, would suddenly turn around and begin walking away from their party, taking the longest, most roundabout route possible. In many cases this would have them stumble into inopportune monster ambushes, forcing frequent quickloads. This is especially surprising, given that Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal had such strong pathfinding. We’re confused as to why there would be such a regression.

Gone Gold (88/100)

Like other games its family tree, IWD2 bogs down in the middle a little for me. I found it extremely enjoyable in the beginning, but as the characters begin to level up less and less, I found myself anxiously longing for the finish of the game. This usually happens about thirty hours in, and as these games are quite long (IWD2 weighs in at over 50 hours), there is a dead period for me of about ten hours or so before things begin rolling towards the conclusion. Then its a lot of fun again, there’s just that little time of thinking to myself “Isn’t this game just a little too long?” I've felt that with all the Black Isle games, that if they were somehow 10-15 hours shorter I'd love them even more. But I shouldn't kid myself, right? If they were shorter I'd probably complain "if only they were a little longer". There's no satisfying gamers!