First Impressions (spoilers)

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Wed Aug 28, 2002 10:42 pm

Having picked up my copy of IWD2 earlier tonight (Happy Birthday to me!) and installed it while the rest of my family wasted their lives watching American Idol, I'd like to make a couple of brief comments about the game.

I've generated a party of six and played through the first area. Just to let you know, I've got a higher-end machine (Athlon XP, GeForce4 Ti 4200, SoundBlaster Live! 5.1) and had no difficulties with either installation or compatibility (yet).

First, my likes:

After playing NWN for a while, the Infinity Engine is a welcome return to everything that is right with D&D CRPGs. Nothing pisses me off more than when people use the word "aging" with the Infinity Engine. I love the isometric view and I don't really miss being able to rotate the camera view around the party.

The game looks and sounds fantastic, but you knew that since Black Isle Studios was putting it together.

The interface has been touched up and improved for the better. Instead of the character portraits and game keys being on the sides, everything is on the bottom of the screen which means that you get a larger panoramic view of the game area. You can also hide the interface entirely.

You now get to haul around more stuff. Each charcter gets four weapon quickslots which can be filled with stuff in addition to what they can carry in the packs, quick item slots and quivers. I thought the previous itinerations of the BG engine was terribly limiting if you wanted to keep a couple of characters around as pack mules.

All in all, the D&D3 ruleset implementation is done fairly well and easily. Some compromises for gameplay and game balance were made, but these do not detract from the game.

Now, my dislikes:

The single biggest thing I dislike about IWD2 is the point buy system. I've vented on this before, but I think that point buy blows. You'll never convince me otherwise.

Some of the subraces seem kind of overkill (Aasimir, Drow, Svirfneblin, etc.). I don't know if they were necessary, and I see the potential for them to put the game out of balance (even with the 1-3 XP level penalty).

That's about, so far. I'm about to call it a night, but I'll post some more of my comments later. Feel free to add your own or call me a hack at any time.

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Thu Aug 29, 2002 1:54 am

I'd like to get my hands on a copy to have a first impression, but unfortunately, I live in one of those locations where suddenly getting one has become difficult - it seems no one wants to ship us anything except Interplay, and I laugh at their proposed $6-10 shipping charge, knowing better (as in try $50).

Onyx · Post by **Onyx** » Thu Aug 29, 2002 6:40 am

@HighLordDave
First of all, happy birthday to you

Second , i'm one of those too that's wait for the game to be released over here in europe. But it wiil be some time next month, so i'll just quietly wait.
Third. I can't tell you how much i agree with you about the whole issue the the "aging infinity engine". From what i've seen, the game looks great, and if the gameplay and story are great, all the better.
But dude, try not to give too much away, just so you don't spoile it for us over hre still waiting for the game.
Anyway, have fun.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Aug 29, 2002 7:52 am

I've missed the point-buy argument, so I don't see what's wrong with it in IWD2. Seems to work quite well. Could someone summarize it for me?

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Thu Aug 29, 2002 8:12 am

Check it out here.

Dice Rule!!!!!!

@Onyx:
Thanks for the birthday wishes; I'll try not to post anything about the story of the game or give out any real spoilers but my initial impressions are that if you liked IWD, you're really going to like the sequel.

smass · Post by **smass** » Thu Aug 29, 2002 8:13 am

IMHO the point buy argument is a power gamers vs. roleplayers argument.

In IWD2 the point buy seems to work fine for me - I have created a diverse party with strengths and weaknesses and I actually enjoy the character creation process more because more thinking is necessary to distribute the ability points.

I am a roleplayer - I always felt somehow guilty when I re-rolled more than ten times in BGII to get optimal stats - the point buy system eases my conscience - man do I sound pathetic

- hopefully you get my point.

By the way - my first impressions of IWD2 are very positive and I echo HLD in his positive points. If you liked IWD at all you will feel right at home in this game - I only wish I could play it on my work NT system.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Aug 29, 2002 8:31 am

I'll be curious on reactions when you all reach Fell Wood. This, to me, is a real turnoff in the game. You'll know at once why I feel that way when you reach it.

Coren · Post by **Coren** » Thu Aug 29, 2002 9:17 am

Another European here....sob, snif

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Fri Aug 30, 2002 5:47 am

Originally posted by Coren
Another European here....sob, snif

I feel for you, knowing full well that I won't see a copy for 6 months, if at all.

Onyx · Post by **Onyx** » Fri Aug 30, 2002 6:46 am

@ Sojourner.
What!!! I thought it was going to be released in europe sometime in September. What's this about 6 months, (if at all)?

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Fri Aug 30, 2002 7:07 am

One minor gripe:

It seems they've added an extra step to casting cleric spells; when you click the spell button, you have to click another button to choose between clerical spells and domain spells before getting to your list of memorise spells While this is a minor inconvenience, if you're playing a multiplayer game you may have to set up hotkeys for all of your favourite spells to keep from being left behind in combat.

Demis · Post by **Demis** » Fri Aug 30, 2002 7:57 am

According to Amazon.co.uk the game will be released at 13 of September(Europe), i have it ordered and it will be in my hands around the 18th of Sept.

@HLD thanks for the first impressions.

and i agree completely about the Inf Engine, i just hope to see a couple of more games coming from it.

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Fri Aug 30, 2002 3:17 pm

LOL! My wife just called me from Best Buy - she was thinking of buying a digital camera, but was amazed at the range in prices. She had me do some quick internet research and we eventually decided that it was too big a purchase to go into it blind. Just for the fun of it, I asked her if IWD2 was available, and she found it. So, she's buying it for me, though complaining bitterly about it the whole time! LOL!

Kayless · Post by **Kayless** » Fri Aug 30, 2002 6:29 pm

Well so far I love Icewind Dale 2. I’ve only had it about a day though, so I haven’t reached Fell Wood yet (I’ll let you know how I feel about it when I come to it, Fable).

Everyone who participated in the old Point Buy debate knows that I'm its strongest supporter (click on HLD's link to see the pros/cons brought up).

So far my party is a little underpowered, though that's probably because most of them are either multi-classed (which takes a little while to come into it's own) or characters with ECL (like drow or aasimar). They're starting to come into their own though, and that's an encouraging sight.

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Aug 30, 2002 6:35 pm

@Kayless, Fell Wood is either chapter 3, or 4. The monsters you face are not overwhelming (they get that way, later on--gods, those dragons!) but I really have major reservations about Fell Wood.

Put briefly, you go through a lot of rooms that appear identical, with 3-5 exits. The kicker is, you can't make a map, because if you leave the room by the way you entered, you end up in a new room. As far as I'm concerned, that's not a puzzle. That's a desire to sell a strategy guide.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Fri Aug 30, 2002 7:02 pm

One minor gripe:

This isn't a gripe with the game, but the packaging. I hate the mini-boxes that they're shipping computer games in now. Yes, I know they kill fewer trees and are easier to ship, but they also mean that the size of the game manuals has to match the smaller boxes.

I don't know if the games that ship in the full-size boxes get larger manuals, but I can hardly read the the small print in the mini-manual, and it's killing me (I had too many lonely nights in college . . . )

Oh, well, if that's all I have to complain about, it means the game's pretty darn good.

cjdevito · Post by **cjdevito** » Fri Aug 30, 2002 7:15 pm

As far as I'm concerned, that's not a puzzle. That's a desire to sell a strategy guide.

Heh. Fable, I mapped the maze in Zork I. There hasn't been a non-linear maze in a game since that's even close to the headache that was

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Aug 30, 2002 7:55 pm

Originally posted by cjdevito
As far as I'm concerned, that's not a puzzle. That's a desire to sell a strategy guide.

Heh. Fable, I mapped the maze in Zork I. There hasn't been a non-linear maze in a game since that's even close to the headache that was

Yes, but you lost half your available brain cells doing that. Care to try for the other half?

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Sat Aug 31, 2002 1:05 am

Originally posted by HighLordDave
One minor gripe:

This isn't a gripe with the game, but the packaging. I hate the mini-boxes that they're shipping computer games in now. Yes, I know they kill fewer trees and are easier to ship, but they also mean that the size of the game manuals has to match the smaller boxes.

I don't know if the games that ship in the full-size boxes get larger manuals, but I can hardly read the the small print in the mini-manual, and it's killing me (I had too many lonely nights in college . . . )

I actually like them - it means less waste to cram my recycle bins. I found Morrowind's manual more than adequate and quite readable, so it sounds like somebody did a rather poor job on IWD2's manual.

Chanak · Post by **Chanak** » Sat Aug 31, 2002 1:46 am

I, for one, have been drooling at the prospect of playing IWD2. @Sojourner: you don't have to be in Europe to miss getting the game for a while. You can also live in a small US town.

I'm quite a fan of the Inifinity Engine, myself - it's stable (huge plus there), and more than adequate to handle the task of powering the best CRPGs I have ever been involved with to date. I was also confident that Black Isle would do a slick job of dressing it up.

*Sigh* What NWN could have been if Black Isle and Bioware had remained together...