Icewind Dale I A Retrospective Review

[@artinhjollder4779]

That frozen tree inside the stone brick (The Great Oak of Kuldahar) on the game's cover is perhaps the most beautiful and original artwork I have ever seen in any video game. It was truly love at first sight back then when I saw it in the store.

[@charzakwinn1398]

It is indeed unique. I also loved the map that came with the game. It added so much to the atmosphere, just like Jeremy Soule’s soundtrack. I also loved the box art of Riven. Man those old games were immersive.

[@InuranusBrokoff]

It is wonderful.

[@johnisdead]

Real

[@MrEdders123]

Just wanted to let everyone know that work continues apace on the IWD2 retrospective. I'm about 30-45% through the video and expect it to be ready around the end of March or early April :)

[@sznurowadlo]

IWD is still so good. The art and feel is unique compared to other rpgs. I enjoyed it more than BG1.

[@Aengrod]

It has this 'Lord of the Rings - fellowship of the ring' feel to it.

[@ethosterros9430]

It's great but way too short and theres very little story. It feels like a single player warcraft where u grind dungeons

[@papiezguwniak]

Still good? It's a timeless classic.

[@Bajso84]

Theyre very different. I like BG1 for the wilderness exploration, engrossing story and slower paced immersion. But when it comes to dungeon crawling, combat and party building, IWD is king. The simpler, more driven story of IWD is also more akin to the actual IWD books by R A Salvatore.

[@ethosterros9430]

@@Bajso84 the problem is the static dm it feels like an emptier world. It's better for kids who will automatically do it themselves but someone older might want more of a dm created experience.

[@danielwommack1591]

Understandably a forgotten genre, thankfully preserved by its genuine intent. Very glad obsidian produced a crpg. I'm so happy I found this string of games.

[@EpicMinecraftFail]

With the release of bg3 maybe it's not so forgotten after all

[@mightywoll3]

@@EpicMinecraftFail I dont think that it will funnel many players into the genre be that to old games or newer ones like Pillars, i genuinely think that most are either playing it for the name, or because of funny bear sex.

[@j.2512]

@@mightywoll3 they are playing it because the increased focus on romancing options and social relations. Its bringing in the Critical Role crowd and shippers but not actual fans of the genre

[@FlourEater]

I love those all.. Planescape, BG1 and 2, both ID...as I love DnD in general. And the music is divine, nothing like playing Rime of the Frostmaiden with soundtrack from the ID and ID2

[@MrEdders123]

I believe I got quite a few views from people who were searching for Rime of the Frostmaiden stuff and accidentally ran into this vid instead ;)

[@chavesa5]

​@@MrEdders123 It's sadly needed. I ran Rime of the Frostmaiden front to back and it's a mess. It needs so much appendage work from the DM that any half-decent person is going to start combing for anything Icewind Dale-related out of desperation. Thankfully your video is excellent in its own right so it's not wasted effort.

[@sw97058]

Your crpg reviews are the best I've seen. It's crazy that you don't have more views. Keep it up and I'm sure this channel will be big

[@MrEdders123]

So long as people enjoy it, I'm happy :)

[@ToTheNines87368]

If he covered games like Elden Ring and whatever is the new shit on the block he’d probably blow up like Joseph Anderson. Instead he covers old boomer games for nerds like us, because that’s what he knows and loves (I assume). Bless this man!

[@AlexGorskov]

@@MrEdders123 We sure do enjoy it, brother! Keep em coming! Much love!

[@Bjorick]

i rewatch many of his videos every month or two, perfect for background when working - he'll get more views slowly but steadily :D

[@RobBot34]

maybe because he just referred to one as a hack n slash action rpg...

[@hemangchauhan2864]

Stumbled upon your channel randomly. Extremely high quality stuff, sir. You've earned a sub.

[@uanime1]

I liked how you could go into the villain's main base and talk to all his lieutenants. You could even get most of the badges without killing them. That's pretty rare in most RPGs.

[@operator8014]

When I played through as a kid, I didn't realize that different players with different stats had access to different dialogue options. Some people I killed without good cause, and some people I talked it out with. Waaay over my head.

[@uanime1]

​@@operator8014 And some are class-specific, for example in Marketh's Palace you can convince Flozem to become an artist if you're a bard. I knew you could complement his drawing of Marketh but I didn't know you could convince him to leave peacefully.

[@elliot2118]

I’ve played all of the enhanced editions of Baldur’s Gate, Icewind dale and neverwinter nights, and they’re amazing, I had so much fun. I really couldn’t imagine going back to try to get the originals running.

[@MrEdders123]

It takes 10m to download and install aqrit's wrapper and the unofficial patch though :(

[@elliot2118]

@@MrEdders123 I think at this point, icewind dale 2 would be all that’s worth it for me, I’d really like to play that game, but having them on the switch is kinda amazing.

[@MrEdders123]

@@elliot2118 Oh sorry, I assumed you meant on PC.

[@elliot2118]

@@MrEdders123 our pc is an iPad. Although I used to game a lot on my laptop, it’s from 2010’s and runs on windows 7.

[@Bjorick]

@@elliot2118I have a modded switch - believe it or not, it's simple to mod the game on switch (so long as you have a modded switch and a PC, couldn't imagine trying to do it on an iPad) - and fully modded BGT EE (bg 1/2 and trilogy) on switch is epic I find it impossible to play BG anymore without mods, but on steam deck, I run OG BGT, not the EE versions

[@cemberkay3046]

In my humble opinion, this is the best review of this game on yt.

[@majorgear1021]

Thank you, Commander Shepard.

[@operator8014]

This is the game rhat BLEW MY MIND as a kid and made me truly appreciate how excellent story telling and music can turn a really good game into a LEGENDARY game. Nothing will ever equal IWD for me, though IWD2 was really good too!

[@MrGabilonia]

Of all the long videos about the Infinity engine games, your series is the best. I am amazed on how good your videos are.

[@MrEdders123]

Thanks! This was the first video I ever made though, and at the time I wasn't aware of how to use stuff like archive.org properly (I was literally just skimming dozens of PC Gaming magazines to try and find any references to the game). Had I made it a year later, it probably would've been much better. Oh well ;P

[@florian-k]

Icewind Dale has "it". The undefinable something that makes it magically great. If you look at the sum of the parts it should be nothing special compared to Baldur's Gate 2. You could even say each single aspect is worse than BG2. BUT what they created is special, it's lightning in a bottle. Icewind Dale has the atmosphere, the magic to keep you hooked until the end. Even Brian Fargo, the founder of Interplay, said it's his favorite infinity engine game.

[@ethosterros9430]

It being someone important on the team had genuine passion for making the game.

[@sanserof7]

I still think both Baldur's Gate games are better

[@avatarion]

I don't even like comparing these games. They are all in the same setting using the same engine. All of the Infinity Engine games belong together, and you don't need a huge leap of faith to switch between them.

[@nicholasrova3698]

It's a cohesive vision come to life. The atmosphere, music, art direction, writing, methodical combat and dungeon delving. It's all the gears in a machine oiled and working perfectly. I like BG2 the most, but IWD is my second favorite. It's so damn good. Its cozy and horrifying and epic all at once.

[@JosephAlanMeador]

This game has a special place in my heart. Of Winter =) This is a great review, cheers!

[@battlestartoaster]

I love your videos! They are well thought out, written and filmed. Your insight/reviews never fail to fascinate and delight sir 🙂

[@MrEdders123]

Thanks! I wish I'd known how to archive.org properly at the time I made this video though - would've been able to add more details about the development and context.

[@noneofyourbusiness7965]

This is an excellent review, I'm now interested in playing this.

[@HansAlRachid]

Woderful review, thank you very much for this trip down memory lane!

[@stephen12holbrook]

I completely played this game wrong way back then as a 13 yr old because I didn't create a party, I only created one character, thinking it odd that I had the option to create more party members, but I thought nah I'm sure I'll find some characters along the way in the story just like in BG II. I cant believe how far I got in this game with just one character, just straight up cheesing with stealth, backstab, run away, then rinse and repeat, and it took freaking forever. Eventually I did create a party but I was still blown away by how difficult this game was, now thanks to this video I understand why.

[@ethosterros9430]

That's awesome I envy you getting that childhood experience. I've had games ive muddled ked through similar as a kid those were my fondest gaming memories.

[@rotten2thebit221]

I’ve never heard someone call POE dull I’ve been really liking your videos, as much as I love current CRPGs it’s nice to see a channel dedicated to the old shit we grew up with.

[@MariaIsabellaZNN]

Taking out the inter-party drama is my top reason why I love IWD more than any other Infinity engine game.

[@MrEdders123]

But it's like having friends... :(

[@ronnymueller1918]

If that's your main query, you can make 6 individual characters in Bg2 as well. Own made chars don't have any further interaction with each other.

[@DieKao]

For what it is, it's a great game. It's basically a combat focused DnD campaign. It does lack in character development, but you get to level up, play out a class, use cool spells on a variety of mobs and have really cool encounters and find loot. Lots of loot. I feel like a game like this has potential even now, since you could add content easily, or have the community make content for you. I wish someone would make a new game like this with a really good engine and then just put out new adventures regularly. Basically like DnDBeyond or Roll20, but as a game in some Infinity Engine 3.0

[@BriteRory]

Awesome review, and I agree with most of your assessments. Thank God for that mod that enables you to restore the original character sprites that were replaced with Heart of Winter, I can never understand how they are so widely perceived as superior but such is the case. The game is very reminiscent of early AD&D modules and that is precisely the state of mind I approach it with, I even think the story is fantastic and that the opening introduction segment is one of my very favorites.

[@MrEdders123]

I don't actually recall whether there were any objective technological improvements in the BG2 sprites (added in HoW) over the originals. I vaguely remember the BG2 sprites being advertized as having twice as many animation frames or something, but I might be mixing it up with Myth/Myth 2. There's obviously the fact that the BG1 sprites don't have any dual wield animations. But since this wasn't even properly implemented in HoW, it wasn't worth replacing the old ones imo.

[@BriteRory]

@@MrEdders123 I don't recall it either, and it had been so many years since I'd last seen them until somewhat recently that I'd forgotten just how different they actually were. Wearing plate mail or splint mail, you can actually see the the straps behind the leggings when turned around, the hauberks are clearly visible, &c. The one thing the originals had that in my opinion makes the replacements objectively inferior is the fact that they aren't mirrored, and as such contained more animations. This could very well have to do with the originals not supporting animations for dual-wielding, perhaps mirroring was the simplest solution. But the Baldur's Gate 2 sprites have always looked less appealing to me, and that game was for most of my youth and early adulthood my favorite game by far (it's only number 2 now, lol). Beamdog went with the 1PP mod and I never liked this one, but I can understand why so many do. For me it even outright ruins certain classes; for instance I cannot bring myself to create a half-elven multiclass thief because of the dependence on that hooded paper doll and sprite avatar, it just looks so awful and this class is almost a necessity for me in order to get through Icewind Dale with a rounded party. Some of the originals were kind of ridiculous like the male Monk or the Half Orcs but I actually still prefer them. Edit - Yet another thing about the originals just came to mind; how about how how they used to anticipate your characters major, minor, hair and skin colors based on your portrait? Like, somebody actually went through the trouble of predetermining those values for each and every portrait, for every single race and class, and yet in the enhanced editions not only is that gone, you have to select your colors from a hyper-sensitive click-and-drag bar, instead of the window that used to pop up (which admittedly was limited, only offering in-game those radical color variants if they were preassigned by the portrait selection, necessitating the use of Dale, Gate or Shadow Keeper or the console). The amount of time wasted on trying to get those colors just right particularly on tablets or phones really made me lament the loss of this feature, and wonder how anybody could have thought doing away with it was a good idea.

[@Sarval123]

Good video, music fits situation on the screen,splitting on chapters ,and aknowledgements at the end of video just what i sought for. In your future retrospectives,I would like to see references of sources when you got information. Anyway ,it was great pleasure to watch this,thank you.

[@MrEdders123]

I usually show the source in the image when I reference it, was there something specific you were looking for?

[@Sarval123]

@@MrEdders123 I meant the url in the description under video-)

[@Inwazzin]

i like your channel's description, i usually fall to sleep listening to these feature length reviews/sleeping aids, really helps with tinnitus, thanks for the content ❤

[@MrEdders123]

Sweet dreams bro

[@GreySectoid]

Stumbled upon the video thanks to the algorithm, and I'm glad I did, great content.

[@Metallex]

One of my favourite things about sound (still watching so not sure if it's in the review at the end!) is that if you continuously click on the same character over and over again eventually they will start backtalking to you for three or four lines. Love this game, great review!

[@MrEdders123]

That's actually present in BG1 for NPCs, though I mention it specifically in the IWD2 vid as some of the lines get especially weird (the drow player VA for example).

[@Metallex]

@@MrEdders123 Ah I'd forgotten it was in BG1. I did just watch your IWD2 video as well. Man, what a trip down memory lane. Might have to dig them out again soon!

[@karlklein2263]

Hey man, found your channel while looking for people talking about IWD while on my first playthrough. CRPG's are one of my favorite genres and it's always fun finding new folks to give a listen to. Cheers!

[@MrEdders123]

Thanks!

[@G.B...]

Easily one of the best reviews for Icewind Dale out there. I understand why people compare Icewind Dale to Baldur's Gate I or II, but why this almost always comes to the conclusion Icewind is "inferior"? We compare different things, if you ask me. They share several things in common, yes - but they are different games. Icewind Dale I is what you said, a dungeon crawler, for those who want less talk and more combat challenges, Baldur's Gate is all about exploration, interaction and, to an extent, combat. Icewind Dale II is something between. Personally, I like all of them, and I wouldn't bother asking "which one is better". They are all great games - for different reasons.

[@manuelrosenstiel5179]

Excellent review video. Very well-put together, professionally made and spoken in a voice that is pleasant to listen to. Continue making videos like this and only a question of time until you will break through. I would also be happy to support a Patreon if there was one. Hoping for a Baldur's Gate 2 video in the near future!

[@MrEdders123]

Working on a BG1 vid for summer, BG2 video is probably 6 months or more away though😉

[@OrangePale]

Wow great work! I love retro video games!

[@wolfgangkrupp]

IWD is retro? I must be getting old, I remember buying it when it first came out.

[@gonad84]

@@wolfgangkrupp Me too. Love this game.

[@SkyFly19853]

Thank you so much for this retro respective!

[@kenneth8873]

When game manuals were actually worth reading

[@mikkom7475]

This is such an in depth look, really impressive amount of research went to this.

[@elkarion]

Really great retrospective and probably the best IWD retrospective here on youtube. IWD is an extremely unappreciated game although, to me, it has the best ambience of all infinity engine games. The music surely helped, but it was not just that. For some reason i fell the setting to be more beautiful and story to be more mature. Fortunately, nowadays some shortcomings of IWD can be overcome with mods, like the lack of personality of party members (with iwdnpc project), lack of side quests (with Lava Del'Vortel quest packs), lack of combat music (with Musicforiwd), lack of npc sounds (with HouseTweaks) and so on.

[@samflood5631]

I remember playing this game on my Samsung Tablet during my College days. My party consisted of a male Half Elf Fighter with a long sword, a female Human Ranger with a bow and arrow, a female Elf Sorceress with a staff, a male Half Orc Barbarian with a two handed axe, a male Dwarf Rogue with daggers and a Male Elf Druid with a staff. I never got to play the sequel since it had some many customization options like playing as a Drow, a Teifliny and a Dark Dwarf.

[@MrPompadil]

I don't know why youtube algorithm decided to randomly recommend to me your channel today, man. One thing I am sure, though. I am damn glad it did. This is some high quality stuff. Subbed!

[@Metallex]

23:37 Coming to this video again as I'm down the IE engine rabbit hole again. I tell you what no one mentions, the Narrator twist in the spoken outro!

[@ultor7654]

Beautiful channel, so many quality content. Sir you are amazing. Thank you so much for your passion!

[@Vivifrombackhome]

Best retrospective I’ve seen on this game great research and analysis!

[@JanPrze]

The combat was really fun when playing on insane difficulty. I've played this game in my childhood and never completed it. After returning to it as an adult, reading up on the combat system and creating a well balanced party for whatever comes up, dual classing 2 party members and having the rest available to babysit them while they regained levels was an fun challenge. Finished my second achievement run earlier today, had a blast, will most definitely return in a few years

[@tomislavstanceric2370]

Awesome video! Really liked your review, also kudos for the screenshots used between sections, love them.

[@ianos88]

Loved the game and your very thorough review!

[@themarchinggoblin8294]

Icewind dale has alwaya been one of my fave soundtracks. Its hauntingly bueatiful. The intro prologue story music and that village in the trees, cant remember its name its been like 15 years since i last played. Those will always stick with me. So good

[@kshomshch]

Pillars od Eternity is a great game. Totally feels like a successor of Baldurs and Icewinds. I like it as much as all the Infinity engine games.

[@MrEdders123]

"Hero of the Heartlands" by Scott Buckley. He briefly removed a lot of his cover songs but last I checked they were all back on his site.

[@ND-mh5uz]

It took longer to make, than the usual review, but it was done in competent way and nicely edited.

[@Empowerless]

Underrated channel. Glad I found it.

[@MrEdders123]

Thanks, hope you enjoy future videos!

[@chickenhed]

Utterly amazing review. Fantastic stuff. Keep it up!

[@Mrityugata]

27:13 I think it's worth pointing out that "tiny handful of situations in which class or race is acknowledged" is actually more then what you get in Baldur's Gate, a game which never does that. Or even Shadows of Amn -- it has class-specific quest lines (which is great), but your class (not to mention race or alignment) doesn't matter outside of those, so Icewind Dale looks rather good in that particular aspect.

[@shenanitims4006]

As an ex-2AD&D player, back in the day, I preferred Icewind Dale to Balder’s Gate due to the lack of character connection. This allowed it to be played more like the source (D&D) game. Being introduced to RPGs by playing the original Final Fantasy on the NES, any RPG that gave characters to use, and an established “hero” is always seen as cop-out. You’re playing a role-playing game; you have to do the character work. Interesting to see the other perspective.

[@jamesstaley5611]

Great game. One of my all time favorites.

[@VS3d0v]

This was a pleasure, thanks.

[@redelephantsdotnl]

A little nuance on how the difficulty and the encounters were designed: IWD uses more or less the same spell protections and how-to-beat them as Baldur's Gate 1. There's a few added spells, like the Emotions and Seven Eyes, but like in BG1, there was Dispel Magic, nothing else, and it worked on everything, one hundred per cent of the time. It wasn't party friendly, either, so using it with your own characters would dispel their buffs too. It wasn't until BG2 that Dispel Magic was tied to your caster level, a party friendly Remove Magic was included, and the numerous layers of protections and ways around them were added.So, yeah. Daveorn in BG1 or Malavon in IWD were an absolute cakewalk if you knew to just Dispel the bastards. IWD also is very geared towards Melee combat for a reason. In the original BG1, the best tactic BAR NONE, was archers and someone summoning monsters. They mitigated that in the Tales of the Sword coast, where most enemies required enchanted weapons to be hurt outright, so summons didn't work anymore; or the addition of Cloudkill that flat out kills anything under level 5, so again, all your summons. In BG2, summons were restricted, nerfed and so did ranged combat to urge you to go in swinging more. IWD was the in-between and kind of did the same thing, but in a different matter. They just very much limited the amount of ammunition to be found, so archers could deliver damage, but in costly bursts, only. If you play on HoF mode, where everything has a metric ton of HP, you plink away thousands of arrows in a dungeon on an archer - but many enemies in IWD are again, resistant to non-enchanted weapons - and seventy per cent of all encoutners are undead, who are resistant to missile damage. Undead are also immune to the most devasating CC effects from BG1; sleep, fear and confusion. Xan in BG1 was absolutely devastating with just those spells. So in order to CC those enemies, your cleric was far more useful than your wizard, and you could use your Wizard slots for cool things like fireball and Morkekainens Force Missiles! On the Enhanced Edition; I find it a lot of fun to play it, but mostly for solo challenges - the balancing is completely out the window with additions like dual-wielding Defender Flails or Longswords of Action. The introduction of kits like Dwarven Defender are flat out overpowered, with those flails, getting 100% damage resistance of your Dwarf is a cakewalk and just, well, pretty much cheating, really. Beamdog's Shaman is entirely geared towards taking on this game in particular, getting abilities that entirely nullify the hardest enemies in the game [spectral undead].

[@DingoAteMeBaby]

Man those voice actors are like my childhood

[@Rarexpl]

Hello KZbin algorithm just give me your channel. Very interesting games on the channel. Keep up good work 😃

[@Azuris190]

I would say the Main Character in Icewind Dale is the Atmosphere, it is incredible good and this also forces the Mood for the Story. I am right now playing Icewind Dale 2 and until now, it is good, but has not the same "lost in a lost world" Atmosphere as the first one.

[@draconianmethods7110]

I'll be honest. I thought this was a meme. It isn't. It's actual good content. Nice job, Ed.

[@MrEdders123]

I only made it to show up Tweed's channel tbqh desu

[@johnreeves5152]

The Enhanced Editions (BG, BG2, IWD, PST, NWN) all get bad raps. Just as BG1 reinvigorated an entire industry, they reinvigorated interest in these gaming masterpieces.

[@StickmanA]

There was only so many times you could run through bg1 without wanting more. This was more.

[@dungeonsanddobbers2683]

Out of all the Infinity Engine games, IWD is tied with PT as my favourite. Both those games are _leagues_ ahead of the Baldur's Gate series (and, yes, I'm including BG3 in that list).

[@ravipeiris4388]

Great overview. I've been thinking about playing Balder's Gate l and ll, including Icewind Dale, to familiarize myself with the world before Baldur's Gate lll releases. Moving forward, if you could visit the Dungeon Siege series, that would be great as it was my first foray into RPG's, Ravi Peiris M.D.

[@MrEdders123]

I would actually have recommended playing BG1 first, as IWD is designed for players who already understand how the mechanics work. The BG and IWD series aren't really related beyond the same world, though from what I understand, Beamdog's Siege of Dragonspear tried to create a thin thread of narrative continuity between them.

[@BenFrayle]

I love these games. I have played through and completed Icewind Dale three full times, plus a lot of other play just to test things out.

[@Kindlesmith70]

Hehehe. THAC0. You know, this game was my first introduction to it, and I understood it pretty well. the lower your THAC0 the tankier you got. It would be many years later I got introduced to D&D 3.5, and a little after that where THAC0 came from. I think the giant game manual even states what To Hit Armor Class Zero meant. Oh yeah, those manuals were pretty big for a game manual. A small novel size. Still have those too. Damn this takes me back.

[@PsychoWedge]

Great video. Well structured, researched and presented. Kudos!

[@MrEdders123]

Thanks! Unfortunately it was my first video and I didn't have access to the same resources as I do now - if I'd made it today I would've probably added a fair bit to the making of/behind the scenes section with some quotes from Black Isle made during development :(

[@Hilipinapixili]

I recently stumbled upon your channel (with the Last Half of Darkness video) and I've got to say I'm really impressed with the quality of your retrospectives. You got yourself a subscriber. As for Icewind Dale, I actually played it for the first time two years ago. I personally have no problem with the party characters being blank slates. There's a lot of games that do this, specially with the dungeon-crawling sub-genre, and it's never been a problem for me. I will agree however that the game on the whole felt like a less interesting version of Baldur's Gate. I liked it well enough, but I guess my problem was that while I appreciate the Infinity Engine combat, I don't like it enough for it to be able to carry a whole game for me. As a result I find IWD kinda forgettable. I didn't even remember what the plot was about until the video started refreshing it, and many of it's dungeons and encounters get blurred with some of the other games in my mind, to the point I'm sometimes not even sure which one was of which game. It's a fine game, but still my least favorite of the Infinity Engine RPGs I've played so far (the others being both Baldur's Gates and Planescape). Then again I'm also one of the weirdos that prefer BG1 over 2, so what do I know?

[@MrEdders123]

I think a little bit more customization of the party would've gone a long way to improve the SP side, also if Infinity Engine games were friendlier to multiplayer that would probably have helped this kind of game a lot.

[@Fahrenheit38]

Still got my Icewind Dale big boxes on my shelf. As kids we always called Icewind Dale the real game with PS:T being the talking game

[@Raptor3Falcon]

12:05 :- The kind of scene that puts the thrill in dungeon crawl or the excitement in an RPG. Over the top RPGs are simply Real Time Strategy, rather than a Might and Magic or Dragon Age type adventure

[@nssSmooge]

I remember, I got stuck in first level of the ancient dwarf stronghold. I was very young and i couldn't speak English that much yet. Did not find a way to progress further XD

[@InuranusBrokoff]

Lot of good memories from that era.

[@murderbunnies]

Your videos are astoundingly well done, researched and presented. How do you only have 8K followers?

[@bjarkifreyrbjarnason9419]

When writers knew how to keep the dialogues short, interesting and on point.

[@jonathankhoo1718]

Beautifully.made. strong king

[@evil_chupacabra6364]

Great review!

[@irisheyes6781]

Well done on the review, brilliant 👏👏👏👏👍

[@MrEdders123]

Thank you! 👍

[@petehasplans]

Thanks for doing this.

[@Tacgnol9001]

Nice work Ed. Keep it up and you'll be more successful than Lilura.

[@MrEdders123]

That's the plan!

[@NightshadeX85]

Icewind Dale Mage Tower music is the best out of them even better than Kuldahar. Icewind Dale's ost was far far superior than Baldur's Gate. Icewind Dale just "lacked" a story. However I play ID just for atmosphere and the getting away part, it is literally just wandering the frozen north in secret, problem with BG it's always ends up being "end times" plotlines and world destiny struggles which I get tired of. I just want to make a party and go out seeing what is there. This is what made ID unique even today. It has more in common with Planescape Torment than Baldur's Gate. Neverwinter Nights tries to do both. I like all the Forgotten Realms games for the fact that each one is different and does not rely upon each other to stand up.

[@ilejovcevski79]

On top of what has already been said, it's worth mentioning that in many ways, IWD1 is a better and more faithful representation of a DnD adventure module, mostly because of its modular nature and the entire party actually being composed of player characters. Does that mean it is a better or worse game as such? As you said, it depends on what are you more into. As for the challenging nature of the encounters when compared to the OG BG1 as its main contemporary, i have two observations: 1. Just like you mentioned, because you make your own party, if you know what you're doing, you can make one heck of a party. Not only with regards to party composition, but also character optimization. The NPCs in BG1 and BG2 can't hold a candle to the PC's you can make here, if you are hell bent on power gaming. This in turn, has the effect of trivializing a good deal of the content in terms of combat difficulty, which may make the game seem easier. This and: 2. Overall game length and size. IWD1 is a much smaller game in every regard. Yes, it's fighting content is more concentrated that BG1, but even with that there's far less to do and fight with. Add to that the total lack of random encounters. Bind 1 and 2 together, and one can be tempted to think the game is easier and less challenging in the regard of encounter structure. And yet, at least for the original non enhanced version, i would beg to differ. Take the average BG1 party, replicate it in IWD, and see how you survive parts of Yxunomei's lair, Yxunomei's lair and Dorn's Deep. Heck, even the Vail of Shadows has some awful difficulty spikes. On the other hand, while there are certain boss fights and ambushes in BG1 that can be on the challenging side and that will make you think, the average enemy is a bandit, maybe a Black Talon Elite or a woodland creature. Especially when you really average out the number of enemies over the entire game. On the other hand in IWD1, the same level of creatures would only account for the very prologue level content. So i would argue, the average content is actually quite a bit more challenging, BUT you are given far better tools to combat it. First and foremost, a highly controlled and optimized party composition and PC build and second, far better loot, like just to mention all those "defender" variant of magical weapons that both add to your AC, saving throws and count as magical weapons of both their plus to attack and plus to AC. But you need those tools.

[@KalashnikovPaouzzi]

IWD gives the murder hobo experience, BG gives the epic journey experience. You can pick according to what you want which makes both games good.

[@StephenAnderson98403]

I was trying to figure out who Mark Hamill voiced and I think it's just the one voice set, "You'll soon sleep with the dead" Guy. Still wondering who does Icasaracht.

[@wabbit234]

Terrific review!

[@LightStreak567]

I got some interesting fun facts about the lore details Icewind Dale has. Fun fact: In the Heart of Winter expansion's story, a barbarian named Angaar the Brave, who guards the entrance to the village of Icewind Dale's barbarian tribes is the grandfather of Heafstaag, who in R.A. Salvatore's "The Crystal Shard" novel was the king of Icewind Dale's barbarian tribes and led them in a war against the Ten Towns. Fun fact #2: The incident of the orc hordes obtaining weapons made by the elves of Severed Hand and the dwarves of Dorn's Deep happened 46 years before the Icewind Dale game's story, and those orc hordes were the same ones who attacked Baldur's Gate, beginning the fall of Eldrith The Betrayer, the antagonist of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. The orc hordes that destroyed Severed Hand were called the "Black Horde", and they were known as the biggest horde of orcs known in the history of the Forgotten Realms. After destroying Severed Hand, the Black Horde marched south, destroying any settlement in their way. When they reached Silverymoon, they held the city under siege until the day they were beaten back by a Harper army led by Alustriel and Storm Silverhand, forcing them to leave Silverymoon and journey further south. When they reached Waterdeep, they laid siege to the city for nine months, but were forced to leave the city after being defeated by the human mage Ahghairon and his generals providing griffons as flying mounts for the army. The Lords' Alliance sent the Company of the Crescent Blade to help the Company of the Westering Sun, the militia of Baldur's Gate led by Eldrith the Betrayer confront the Black Horde before they arrived at Baldur's Gate. Despite being outnumbered, Eldrith and her Westering Sun army attacked and scattered the horde. However, looking to deal a fateful blow on the horde to ensure it never threatened Baldur's Gate again, as they would have besieged Baldur's Gate like Waterdeep, she defied the Grand Duke's orders and fought the horde for a second time. The horde, however, fought viciously and dealt Eldrith her first defeat, causing her to be disgraced by the Grand Dukes of Baldur's Gate, and chased Eldrith, her first captain Keledon and their remaining soldiers to the Marsh of Chelimber where they were slain, an action that would lead to Eldrith The Betrayer wanting revenge on Baldur's Gate, and the construction of the Onyx Tower. Keledon's wife, who was an elf, tirelessly sang for his safe return back in Baldur's Gate every night and day without eating or drinking until the night she died. Her ghost continues to sing to the present day in the Elfsong Tavern. When the Black Horde reached Amn, they killed King Belhinn II. In response, Amnian armies defeated much of the Black Horde and took the orcs that surrendered as POWs, brought them to Purskul, and put them to work as slaves in agriculture and stoneworking. Eventually, many of the former Black Horde orcs gained their freedom and peacefully settled in the city, taking humans as wives and husbands, and producing Purskul's sizeable half-orc population. The orcs that continued their bloodbath journeyed further south reaching Calimshan, where they killed the Syl-Pasha of Calimport and at least 43 key influential and underworld figures. This would mark the end of the Eighth Age of Calimshan. The Knights of the Shield mercantile consortium defeated what was left of the Black Horde once and for all.

[@MrEdders123]

Oh cool, I didn't know any of that. I remember back when I first played it I knew very little about FR and stuff like the Crystal Shard, Kraken Society and all that were just cool generic fantasy things. To be honest I didn't research Icewind Dale as thoroughly as I could have, as this was my first video and I didn't understand how to use things like Archive.org properly. I was just desperately trying to guess dates and stuff to find previews or reviews in old magazines :D All the same I managed to find some interesting titbits like the contract limiting what they could do with the graphcis and engine. If the video were made today the "behind the scenes" section would be much better.

[@LightStreak567]

I see. That explains why this video is a year old.

[@RealMisterDoge]

Great video. I was wondering why you dislike Pillars of Eternity so much. That game was my introduction to CRPGs and I thought it was mostly brilliant. I know many oldschool players disagree but I’m not sure why.

[@MrEdders123]

Short answer, feels like BG1 but worse, and it came after several disappointing Kickstarter projects (I backed pretty much everything from the first/second wave). I recommend neverknowsbest's video on PoE and Deadfire, as I shared quite a few of his criticisms.

[@ded2thaworld963]

NOSTALGIA!!!!!

[@markusbarten455]

This game is hard, on top of that I had no idea what I was doing the first time around. Bizarly I learned the rules by playing another D&D game called Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Dranor which was in a way just as unforgiving but gave you more option to cheese your way through. There I learned that every low level encounter can be trivialized by the sleep spell or turn undead and a single nat 20 can send your characters to an early grave.

[@Banefane]

Game is good and I recommend it.

[@OneTrueNobody]

The bits where the PCs ask an NPC to watch over them while they rest are there so you know you can rest in that location without any random encounters spawning, which is just a basic mechanic of all of these games. I don't think they meant anything complicated by it like it referencing a more complex resting system.

[@neilholmes8200]

Loving your videos, keep them coming

[@babitz0r]

Nice new channel Fluent.

[@bechtholdillustrator9378]

Still my Favorite Game of the Infinity ones. I never was a Fan of premade starts and Huge Storys.Atleast my Main Char shouldnt have a set Background,way more Immersive to me. For Example,it always bothered me in Baldurs Gate 1 that your start is in Candlekeep and everyone calls you Child. How does this work with playing a Savage Barbarian ? Icewind Dale 1 and 2 gave the own Fantasy way more Options to evolve in your mind if you dont need everything shown or written down.You can fill in the Blanks yourself. This also made me appreciate Neverwinter Night 1's Vanilla Campaign. Also i think Premade Followers with Storylines are heavily overrated,most turn out to be boring and everytime the same Formula,so there i also prefer to fill in the Blanks myself. Dont get me wrong,i still consider Bg1 and 2 the best Rpg's out there,but Icewind Dale is more like a Light Hearted DnD Campaign that sets Focus on the Fun Stuff in a Great Environment you can play a few Evenings with Friends if you wanna dive a bit into some Hours of Fantasy.But Solo for sure. With this Icewind Dale fills a need for Players i think that is sometimes way too much overlooked. As a Kid btw,creating a whole Group was way too much for me,thats why i prefered Bg1 back in the Days.Years later i learned to appreciate Id1 and 2 more. Still dont know what Thaco is btw :))) But imo its something you really dont need to know,as the Char Creation in all these Games is pretty intuitive if you played a Pen and Paper Game before. Great Video,i really like that you reviewed the Old Games,but i also like the Enhanced Edition. Really loved the Artworks they used in the Game.

[@RankAndFileGuy]

Awesome game. I always looked forward to playing it after work. I couldn't beat the final boss though it was somehow beyond me.

[@MrEdders123]

He was still pretty tough when I replayed it, yeah.

[@eueu4854]

This game contains more fighting than some beat'em up games and a similarly linear story.

[@zakkyummms]

Linear, yes, but still a good story and a well crafted series of dungeons. I liked it.

[@spacebb]

I hope the studio behind Baldur's Gate 3 will create new Icewind Dale game

[@MrEdders123]

Try "The White March" expansion for Pillars of Eternity, if you don't mind the original game. Some of those involved worked on the IWD games.

[@papiezguwniak]

True, Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale are not triple A games. They are quintuple A games.

[@commie5583]

Good work Ed!

[@user-tr4os8mc4v]

Good work Commie!

[@MrEdders123]

@@user-tr4os8mc4v Good work everyone

[@MsUUUUUUUUUU]

shocked at 15:42 from seeing the evidence of murdering Dynaheir with Edwin and picking up clueless Minsk

[@Laskuna]

Good game to play on multiplayer with friends

[@PurpleWarlock]

This Game was hard and I got stuck with the Salamanders. 2nd Game I got for PC after AoE2 and My first crpg. A shame Avellone got cancelled. :/

[@MrEdders123]

He's suing his accusers in California atm

[@Gr1dSh7ftR]

I absolutely loved this game, specifically for the feature of creating my entire party. I actually preferred it to baldurs gate at the time.

[@Kindlesmith70]

I still own the original CDs for this and it's expansion. the other expansion it had back in the day had to be downloaded. Damn that took me back to the days of dial-up modems. I will never forget "You must gather your party before venturing forth." which just got annoying in Baldur's Gate 2 as it was voiced. I liked this game, having played it through twice. Once the core game, and once with both expansions. Neverwinter Nights steered evolved my interest, so Neverwinter Nights is to blame why I struggle going back to older games like Icewind Dale. Having to micromanage a party of characters in a clunky tactics style way to get through the game alive and well isn't great. The main story was alright.