Is this as good as I remember it?

[Jimothy]

I'm thinking of playing Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights again. You peeps think Icewind Dale aged well?

I liked it over Baldur's Gate because I found Baldur's Gate had way too much talking but haven't looked at these games since they were released, wonder what you think. I loved the exploration and action of Icewind Dale back in the day, always felt like a perfectly balanced RPG.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Well, Icewind Dale with the integrated Heart of Winter expansion is the more combat-heavy CRPG compared with the first Baldur's Gate game. It also doesn't end at level 8-10 (161,000 XP), so you can level up much higher - even more so, since the game increases XP for higher difficulty modes.

With regard to talking or reading, the overall word count isn't that much lower than Baldur's Gate 1. However, Icewind Dale isn't only more combat-heavy, it is also much more linear. Like you move forward from on area to the next when you're done with the current main quest - and you travel back and forth a bit only when there's a current quest hub, such as the villages Easthaven, Kuldahar or Lonelywood.

What also makes it interesting is the replay value, since by default you MUST create 1-6 characters yourself. You can do that in the Baldur's Gate games, too, with the "Create Party" button, but in IWD it's a strict requirement. There are no story companions. Take the opportunity and play with different teams, experiencing different classes/kits and possibly different strategies & tactics.

Finally, Heart of Winter is integrated into the base game, so you can do expansion content at level 9 onwards while continuing with the base game. Trials of the Luremaster, on the other hand, is integrated into Heart of Winter as another combat-heavy expansion.

[steven1mac]

As long as you don't mind the fact it is combat based, it is not to bad. Playing the most difficult difficulty can be vexing at times, and occasionally you will not know what the game wants you to do next which can be frustrating.

[Vambran]

Everything about this game has aged like wine. Except the ROLL's at character creation. I hate doing that each playthrough.

[rock.golem | trade.tf]

I hope you like killing undead!

[PIMPSwaG]

Probably. I played it for the first time yesterday on the Nintendo Switch & I was having a blast once you get out of the town after the first quest. I used a Dwarven Defender as my leader with wimpy Elf archers supporting his genocides. I know that I'll be replaying the crap out of IDW just trying out new builds, forced handicaps & party formations. On Switch, ID comes packaged with Planescape Torment for some reason when they couldn't be more different.

I vastly prefer playing IDW due to the combat (which is ass in PT. I can't even figure out how to script my companions to do something besides zerg rush like a sped.) but PT is still as good as I remembered it in the past. Well the writing is much better than I remembered, I was laughing a lot because the dialogue is legit funny which is rare in most crpgs where the writing is typically, unintentionally funny. I recall PT's writing being kinda hokey but I think that's more due to the pretentious fanbase (who swear to you how gud da philosophy is but can't even explain it to you lol.) making that game sound more lame than it actually is. I completely forgot how PT had such a dark horror vibe, with really cool looking horror-influenced characters. Lady of Pain looks like she came straight out of Hellraiser.

As for BG, I find BG1 immensely replayable since nearly the entire game is just free-roaming & killing crap. It's BG2 which constantly forces the (sometimes unskippable) story on to you like some jrpg.

[ryu_star]

The game is as good as it was back then. You get also both expansion: Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster.

If you like a quick dungeon crawler with a bit story and combat then you will be fine.

[Kryyn]

Mods are alot easier to install. Look up Lava IWDEE mods for lots of companions, new zones/quests, items, etc. There's also a bunch of kit mods and other things to spice it up. The beamdog forums have tons of mods, some that work across all EE games, some specifically for IWDEE, and most run perfectly fine. multiplayer works well. I bought the EE only recently and have replayed it a few times entirely with multiplayer. EE unfortunately changes some things, because of the way they rebuilt the game, and puritans hate it for those changes, but if you're not one to care too much then it's great. I prefer the IWD series over BG series myself, being less narrative focused and more combat focused. I can replay IWDEE over and over just because of the kit mods and build variety allowing for fun combat experiences.