Top 50 Video Games: Number 33

#33: Icewind Dale
System: PC
Publisher: Black Isle Studios/Interplay
Released: 2000
Players: 1-6


Every D&D player should recognize a Magic Missle spell when they see one.


Anyone who has ever tried Baldur's Gate on the PC will be instantly familiar with the Icewind Dale games. They use the Infinity Engine (which Black Isle certainly got their money's worth from.) Many of the items are same. The games both feature a broad, sweeping, epic story. The main difference is that BG involves the player more directly and personally in the story where IWD is all about tactical combat, levelling, and loot.

In Icewind Dale you create your entire 6-person party at the beginning of the game. This was my favorite part of the game. I spent a couple of hours at the character creation screen. The game gives you premade parties if you don't want to be bothered, but I definitely want to be bothered. You choose each character's race, class, skills, appearance and voice set. You choose how well rounded your party is to be. Want all clerics? Make it so. Prefer 3 rogues, a wizard, warrior and cleric? Go for it. If you want to recreate the party from your real-life Dungeons and Dragons campaign (if you're the kind of loser that plays D&D) you can do it here. Much like Dungeons and Dragons, your characters start off quite weak and it's a pleasure to see them grow into a formidable group.

Unlike Baldur's Gate, the focus here is on combat. You'll spend more time battling enemies than speaking to townsfolk. That makes Icewind Dale more multiplayer friendly, though I cannot imagine trying to play this game over the internet. It requires constant communication and planning. Jimbob and I used to play cooperatively over a network, each of us controlling 3 characters in the party. This was done with varying degrees of success. Combat happens in realtime, but it can be paused at any time to give your party members instructions. For me combat is a slow, precise tactical ordeal. Every action has a reaction. I tend to scout with my rogue as much as possible, using him to lure the enemies back to my ranged fighters. This is usually succesful, though the mortality rate for the rogue tends to be quite high. Saving frequently is key, as many battles must be reloaded and fought again. This is a challenge rather than a pain.


The Icewind Dale II character creation screen. I spent a good deal of time here.


The music score and voice acting in both games are outstanding. The graphics are beautifully drawn 2d environments, with nice looking spell effects. The game's challenge and fun make finding new equipment and levelling up nice little rewards during gameplay. The locales are taken from D&D Forgotten Realms, so they will be instantly familiar to many roleplayers. Icewind Dale is an outstanding strategy/RPG, and I suggest any RPG fan who hasn't picked up the Icewind Dale Ultimate Collection (IWD, Heart of Winter expansion, IWD2) do so. The Heart of Winter expansion pack is a little light content-wise, but in a display of decency, the game designers released some major free updates to make the expansion more worthwhile. IWD2 is more of the same as the first game, though it uses D&D 3rd Edition rules. Great action, great story, great games.