Hey gang, So something I have been wanting to do for a little bit now is write a game review and well here it is, although it will not be as in depth as some of my other ones.

                                            OVERVIEW

Icewind Dale2 or ID2 is a RPG (role playing game) based off of the Dungeons and Dragons 3^rd edition system. This game is a Bioware game that has been a favorite of mine and my family for a long long time. In this game you can either choose too make a party of up too six characters or choose a pre made group which is hand for those who nothing about Dungeons and Dragons. I don’t know how many times I was little and couldn’t figure out why my sorcerers never were any good compared too my wizards (if you didn’t know it is because sorcerers rely on charisma and wizards rely on wisdom to cast spells).

                                              STORY

          So the story of this game is hard for me to explain without totally giving away the whole plot so I will give you just a bit of what is happening.

          You start out in a somewhat rundown town called Targos. Unless you write a biography of course, all of your team members are from another town called Luskan and you have came too Targos as sell-swords. Once you arrive off the boat “The Wicked Wench” you soon discover from two town guards that the docks have been raided by a band of goblins who have run amuck too say the least. You soon discover that the goblins got in from some old smugglers tunnels from sapping. This is troubling new too the lord of Targos, Lord Ulbrec and hopes that you will help prepare the town for an attack of course though it can be for a hefty price depending on your moral alignment. Doing these tasks reveal too you that there is a entire goblin horde aiming too raise Targos and kill all of its citizens. Luckily you just “happen” to be there when it happens and you stop all of these goblins and from there you adventure out into the wilderness. Though a series of tasks that Lord Ulbrec sends you on, you learn more and more about the real scale of what is happening in the world. You discover that the legion of the Chimera are moving across the land, trying too destroy the human race (what angry band of monsters don’t?) in the spine of the world where most of this game takes place. That is all I can really tell you with out ruining it. and I probably did just a little bit though. For myself, being a total DnD nerd, I love the story line and everything about it.

                                              GAMEPLAY

          The game play of this game was AWSOME which is something usually associated with Bioware games. Although people who don’t know the slightest bit of D&D may be frustrated with the game because of the dependence off the rules of it. Of course there are things that explain everything and that give pointers as too what things do but they take such a long time too read and even still some people wouldn’t even understand what is happening. This game offers so many options for what you can do it is actually a bit intimidating. Playing the game it usually runs quite smoothly although in difficult battles and such you will often finding yourself pausing the game to give commands too your spell casters which can make the game actually seem quite choppy. A lot of the time when you give a move command though, most of your party will go one way and one or two of them will go the VERY long way which is really annoying because then you have to find where they got too and then tell them to go back and go the short way and…. Ugh. Anyways other than those two little problems the game runs smoothly in action. The beginning is very boring though because the quests are usually just you running around the town to fetch things. One other thing that makes me mad is when you let your party rest and then you are ambushed by monsters so you aren’t actually healed and they will pit you up against some of the most frustrating creatures. Despite how much I complain though, I actually really like the gameplay because it stays very true to the D&D gameplay and if you don’t trust the computer, you can even set the message bar to a roll counter that will display all of the attack rolls and saving throw and blah blah blah. There is also a lot of loot that makes the game very fun because you never know what you are going to find (well sometimes you do) but when you find the perfect spear or suit of leather armor for you character, it makes you feel like Christmas all over again.

                                        PERSONAL THOUGHTS!

          I know I have complained a lot about this game, but really it is fun, I swear! The games has an awesome story line and some replay value. It may be an oldie but it is classic and it honestly gets better with age. You won’t find copies of it in stores so you would likely have too order off of ebay which I did.

Overall mark of the game…. 9/10

Pros-True too the Dungeons and Dragons system, awesome story line, long game that keeps you on your toes throughout, Wide variety of character components and items.

Cons- True too the D&D rules (good or bad depending on how familiar you are with it),  A few little nitpicky problems with it.

Thanks gang! Goliath out