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I was wondering which do you guys like better Baldur's Gate 2 or Icewind Dale. I myself have never played IWD and was wondering if I should buy it.

No question, BG2. IWD/HoW is a straight-up combat RPG, just one battle after another. That's its purpose, and it does that, well. I'm also inclined to give it the palm for better music.

On the other hand, BG2 is far less linear, with a more interesting plot, and a great sense of personal character interaction. If you like BG2, I'd suggest considering Planescape: Torment. Some folks find it too talky, but it's definitely in the same vein as our current obsession.

Icewind Dale is a very linear game: You clear area A, then move on to area B, etc. It has very little NPC interaction, compared to BGII. However, on the plus side, it has beautiful graphics and a great musical score. There are a lot of cool items to be found in the game - which you will need because this game is tough. You have to generate the whole party at the start. If you get IWD, get the HoW expansion, too, as it gives several of the classes cool new abilities. For example, at higher levels, bards get to play a song which causes the party to regenerate, and the druids are virtually on steroids.

These are two amazing games.
And... Baldur`s Gate II is a bit linear too. From Asylum through Sahuagin Sity to Underdark there is only one path to follow

BG2! Icewind Dale was a bit boring, you just kill everything in sight, go to Kuldahar, get told to go somewhere else, kill everything in sight and so on...
BG has a good(better)story, though I like PS:T better, and is just overall more fun IMO...

BG2.

After finishing Baldur's Gate, I started both BGII and IWD. I'm currently in ch.5 of BGII, having abandoned IWD for the moment. I prefer the character interaction of BGII, but I will be going back to IWD when I finish... I'd say it's worth getting if you like a lot of battles! (And the music is awesome!)

Originally posted by Promethion:
<STRONG>These are two amazing games.
And... Baldur`s Gate II is a bit linear too. From Asylum through Sahuagin Sity to Underdark there is only one path to follow</STRONG>

Actually you can choose to go straight to underdark or through sahuagin city to get there... (only a moron would miss the eq in there, or a player who doesn't want the stuff anyways, i agree on the half that you should be able to prevent getting to sahuagin city by trying to get to mainland on ship, by defeating the githyankis? sahuagins? i dunno (better question, why did i wrote this note?)

IWD is a combat intensive game. There isn't much character development since you make all the characters yourself. Since all the characters are yours it means that the game itself is harder. Truthfully there weren't many areas in BG II where I had difficulty beating an area except for areas where it involved a little luck with saving throws like the mindflayers. Hell you can SOLO BG II so that there says something about its difficulty.

Both excellent games but I'd give the nod to BG II.

No question.....IWD is a good game; BGII is a masterpiece!!!!
BGII FOREVER

So I should buy IWD.

Having played both, BG2 is THE BEST GAME. IWD is insanely hard and is pretty boring.

I started playing IWD and eventually got tired of the battle after battle routine. I stopped playing and when BG2 came out started playing it. I've gone through BG2 many times, I would even think about doing that with IWD. Although I did like the Character reactions in IWD if you constantly click on them ala Blizzards Warcraft/Starcraft series.

BG2 is a better game. This is true. However...,

IWD had beautiful graphics compared to BG2, and a wonderful score to boot. It is linear and you miss the NPC interaction, but it does still have a good plot. The battles are challenging, though not insanely so as mentioned earlier. Some of the classes are implemented differently (i.e. druids are better, kits don't exist), so be prepared for a learning curve. I enjoyed the game immensely. I'd certainly recommend it. IWD is different from the BG series, but just different, and certainly worthy of your time.