If you've never played Icewind Dale at all, see the second section of my review for an explanation of what to expect from the game. First, I'll start with a review of the Enhanced Edition.

This is a beautiful enhancement to an awesome game. It contains all of the expansions and content from Icewind Dale, plus more. I know that many critics and users will complain, as always, that it doesn't add enough content to warrant the $20 price tag. I disagree. $20 is not expensive for a game and IWD adds even more than BG1 and BG2 enhanced editions did. It's very similar to the latter two games but since Icewind Dale originally didn't have very many class choices, you're given all of the kits from BG2 plus a few new ones. The new quests and content add about ~6 hours of play (there are $20 games out there that take this amount of time to beat) and much of it is drawn from deleted content that never launched with the original game, which is awesome to see if you're a fan of the original.

The UI is beautiful. I have experienced no bugs at all and everything is running flawlessly. The release of the game came quickly and as a surprise. I was a little worried that this meant there could be serious issues but so far I haven't seen evidence of that.

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IWD AS A GAME, WHAT TO EXPECT: Icewind Dale is a Dungeons and Dragons-based, isometric RPG that uses the Infinity Engine with a combat system similar to Dragon Age: Origins. It is like Baldur's Gate but at the same time, very different. Icewind Dale is not dialogue heavy. In fact, there's very little dialogue, although the small amount that exists is well-written. The plot IS good but it is rather straightforward and basic, with a couple of twists towards the end. The game has no city exploration or party banter. What it does have is the following: superb music, incredible atmosphere, top-notch level/dungeon design, beautiful artwork, extremely high replay value, a sense of adventure and wonder, and strategic, fun, challenging combat.

The beauty of the game comes from the music, art and design. The fun of the game comes from two things: (1) combat - including well-designed fights that require placement, strategy and planning and can be very rewarding on higher difficulties; (2) party creation - if you HATE creating full parties and spending hours thinking about how your party will work, this is probably not the game for you. If you don't hate that, it's a lot of fun and adds a ton of replay value. If you're one of those people who hates being given "premade" characters that you can't customize or build from scratch, THIS is the game for you.

You get 6 party member slots. You can decide how to play the game in whatever way you want. Solo with a sorcerer? Play with 6 archers? Duo with a 'decoy'/'tank' and healer? Make an all-evil party? An all-good party? A mixed party? Sure, you don't get the party banter of Baldur's Gate, but there's a lot of freedom. You can name all of your characters and make them from scratch, gear them up, give them different stats so that they work well together, etc. I have spent hours devising ways to create an effective party, e.g., 2 melee, 2 casters, 2 decoy/tanks, or a mix of classes (multiclassing/dual classing is one of the best parts of D&D), or 6 of the same class, if you want. If this appeals to you, it can be extremely fun.

The first thing you need to know about Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition is that it's Icewind Dale. Beamdog's update of Black Isle's 2000 classic Dungeons and Dragons high fantasy adventure is still as deep and tricky as it ever was. This version is a patched up and polished joint package of Icewind Dale and both of its expansions, Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster. If that means something to you, odds are you've already decided whether or not to buy it. If it doesn't (or if it does but you're still unsure), then read on.

Icewind Dale is based on 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons, and if you've played any of the other infinity engine games, you know exactly what to expect mechanics wise. This time, however, you'll be building your own party from scratch. While veterans have a good idea of where to go, you absolutely can gimp your party during character creation and wind up headbutting your way through a playthrough that is more difficulty than it needed to be, so if you're a complete novice I'd recommend you look for a guide on the internet. A little hand holding might have been nice here, and it feels like a missed opportunity by beamdog, but its still no great object.

The main game, Icewind Dale (as opposed to its two expansions) is more fast paced than your average swords and sorcery campaign, and you'll do relatively little carousing with the villagers or solving problems with tools other than axes and fireballs. Battles feel very large, and you'll often breathe a sigh of relief when one floor of a dungeon turns out to contain friendly faces (something the game does fairly often owing to its long dungeon crawls). The game also basically throws you to the wolves, and early on you might find yourself doing a little bit of rope-a-dope by luring one or two enemies at a time - that's bad enough, but it feels as if the developers intended it, which is worse. There are relatively few sidequests to boot, and Kuldahar, the town that serves as a hub of sorts, feels a little too small at times. Still, the story whisks along and actually manages to get pretty interesting at times, and although your characters will be more or less mute for the duration of the game, the voice acting from the game's NPCs ranges from good to excellent.

Overall, the game runs pretty nicely. It's a testament to both how good the original game looked and how nicely Beamdog has cleaned it up that it is still pretty aesthetically pleasing today, and it ran natively on my laptop's bizarro universe 1366x768 monitor. I never experienced a crash to desktop and experienced only one bug that required a reload (to an autosave taken about 60 seconds prior to the bug) during my entire 32 hour playthrough. By the standards of high concept fantasy games, this just about represents a mirror sheen. My one complaint is that fire effects (which are literally low resolution sprites) would often cause the framerate to inexplicably collapse, and more than any other Infinity Engine game, the beautiful painted backgrounds in Icewind Dale often do a lousy job of differentiating between places your characters can go and territory that is unpathable like deep chasms or walls.

The expansion, Heart of Winter, was criticized at launch for feeling too short (leading to the subsequent release of the downloadable Trials of the Luremaster, which is included here), but after reflecting on my playthrough I disagree pretty strongly here. Instead, the expansion has two entirely different problems that made it feel too long!

The first of these two issues is that by the time you wrap up Icewind Dale you're dealing with a seriously powerful party of adventures using some major endgame equipment. Save for a few items that actually get upgraded by doing certain (insubstantial) questlines, by the end of both expansions I'd replaced almost none of the equipment that my party was using at the end of Icewind Dale. While the game isn't meant to be a loot treadmill, it's a real bummer everytime you identify a new shield only to think "ah, well I'll be selling this." The only area where I felt any improvement was in my spellcasters, and by that time managing so many spells becomes so difficult that its effectively impossible, so I just relied on my big high level bangers every fight.

Additionally, while the battles in Icewind Dale sometimes felt a little exhausting, by the time you're through Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster, you might well be bored of fighting, and since that's basically 100% of what you'll be doing, that will put a damper on your enjoyment. On Core difficulty (the default difficulty, which can really be quite tricky) all battles devolved into the same slog of sending my fighters to hack away at enemies while I used my casters to cast as many area of effect spells as possible. The contrast here between the expansions and the base game could not be stronger, as in Icewind Dale you constantly have access to new and interesting options as your characters get more powerful. You probably wont spend more than a cumulative 12 hours on the two expansions, but they feel like a really long 12 hours, and not always in a good way.

Fans of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition and Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition should take note that there is no extra game content whatsoever, nor any mini-expansions equivalent to the Trials of the Black Pits, so once you've finished Heart of Winter, you're done. Still, even though the base game is much better than its expansions, and it feels like Beamdog went a little light on the feature inclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Icewind Dale: Enchanced Edition, even if it ran a little longer than it maybe should have. The game is a ton of value for money to boot (at a paltry $20USD), so if you're feeling like a rollicking good time in the wind blasted north of Faerun, then you owe it to yourself to give IWD a go.

By my avatar I am sure you can tell I am asian of sort. I am in fact a chinese canadian that immigrated to canada when I was 12 years old. At the time I didn't know any English except basic greeting such as hello, hi, Yes, no and sorry.

It was a difficult time that I had to result to drawing picture of a cow with a knife on a napkin in a restaurant to order a steak. For me I learned english mostly not in class but though fun and interest. Such as Magic the Garthering, vampire the masquerade, Mech warrior and of course DND3.

Dungeons and Dragons version 3 was full of fun and exciting english words that describe a new world, new creature and everything was so foreign which is exactly how I feel when I arrived in north america. The regular friday night DND wasn't enough, all the rule book and character/creature book wasn't enough. I got my hand on 3 games. Baldur's gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment. I love all 3 of them and I played all 3 of them with all the expansion that i can get my hands on and even finished main story many time though different party members.

It's super fun and exciting to replay Icewind dale after so many years. Just when my memory was start to fade about this game replaying it brought it all back. I found it have way more different class choice then I remembered and I had to once again read though some of the rule book to help adjust my party and choose spells. The space to pause and arrange my turn of engagment is a must to play this game and I love every moment of it.

Personnaly I really wish there are more game like these but sadly no one has made one for many years now.

9.5/10 for one of my all time favorite DND games.

When Baldur's Gate came out it was heralded as an awesome achievement of gameplay and story. Some fans demanded a deeper more robust story, for this they made the classic gem Planescape: Torment, and yet others clamoured for a more intense combat and gameplay experience. Icewind Dale is the result of that.

While the story is by no means poor in this game, it is a tad shallow as that is not the point. Icewind Dale is meant for those who wish to have total control over a party. In this game you create a party of six characters choosing their race, class, skills, and gear and take them on an epic adventure with a very deep and enjoyable combat system.

The original game included 6 races, 8 main classes, 8 specialist mages, and 8 multiclasses, with the option for several classes to dual class. in the ENHANCED EDITION the class kits from Baldur's Gate 2 have been added as well as all new kits and a new race (Half-Orc). These new kits add another 3 class options for the 8 base classes, plus you now have the Sorceror and Barbarian class to play as. This makes Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition probably the game with the MOST amount of class options of any RPG ever!

The appeal of this game is in making your own party and taking them through the adventures, while you won't experience much in the way of alternate story paths to take, this game offers huge amounts of replayability in terms of party setup. You can go full on with 6 very well built and complimentary characters or try self-imposed challenges like solo runs with a thief, or a party of all mages, there's even an official forum dedicated to challenge runs!

Finally in addition to the entire base game and both expansions, previously unreleased content has been added to the game. Add in that with the updated UI that supports modern platforms and this is the definitive Icewind Dale experience.

You simply won't find a better game to drop $20 on, so don't hesitate! I also highly reccomend checking out Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition and Baldur's Gate II Enhanced Edition if you enjoy the infinity engine style!

Did I mention it has 6 player crossplatform multiplayer?

An exceptional remake of an exceptional game. I feel like Beamdog learned from some of its earlier mis-steps in the release of Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, because Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition is a finely polished presentation.

Here's what you can expect from Beamdog's remake:

+ The original Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition kits, plus two new kits (Priest of Tyr, Priest of Tempus) means far more variety in your party building. Building your party is a meta-game in and of itself, with hundreds of different permutations and combinations of classes that lead to a different experience every time.

+ A clean, lightweight game that runs exceptionally well on most resolutions.

+ Heart of Fury/Insane difficulty modes for veteran players, as well as Story Mode for beginners who just want to experience the game, or learn the ropes. For Civ fans, Story Mode is essentially the Settler difficulty of IWD--a simple, low-challenge difficulty level that helps new players understand the D&D rules.

+ The introduction of Sneak Attack/Crippling Strike for thieves. Thieves (and also Stalker rangers) now have the option of dealing Sneak Attack damage rather than backstab, which vastly improves a thief's viability in combat and adds an interesting tactical dimension to the class. If you were underwhelmed by Thieves in the original IWD, try using the Sneak Attack feature.

+A bunch of additional content, including updated quests and a few dozen brand new items. The itemization in the original IWD was always a little problematic, but Beamdog's remake brings in plenty of powerful new gear.

+ Improved multiplayer. IWD is, in my opinion, a game far better suited to multiplayer than Baldur's Gate. Because IWD has no central protagonist, and is built on team dynamics, the game naturally encourages co-op multiplayer.

Conclusion

Pick this up if:

• You're a D&D fan and haven't yet tried the Icewind Dale series, probably because it's fifteen years old.
  
• You enjoy old school computer RPGs, and want to try something that feels reminiscent of old tabletop games.
  
• You loved Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition or any of the earlier Infinity Engine games.
  
• You enjoy Bioware/Obsidian RPGs, and want to check out some of their earliest work, when they were still Black Isle.
  
• The game is on sale, and you're kind of curious, and you think you might enjoy a fun RPG.

The action-oriented sibling of Baldur's Gate has been given an engine enhancement that allows it to run smoothly on a modern system. The expansion Heart of Winter and the free mini-expansion Trials of the Luremaster are included.
Unlike Baldur's Gate Enhanced edition there are no added new areas to the game. However spells from Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 have been imported into Icewind Dale, but since enemy casters feature a much less prominent role in this game, it doesn't make a huge impact. However, you could exploit the additions if you really wanted to.

I don't care all that much for the combat offered by Icewind Dale compared to Baldur's Gate. It contains way too many swarming melee enemies for it to be tactically interesting for my tastes. But I like it all the same (just can't get enough of the infinity engine games!)

If you like the originals you probably don't need a recommendation. It's the same game.
It's a different thing to recommend it to the newcomer. If you haven't played Baldur's Gate before this, play that instead. If you don't like Baldur's Gate, then you proably won't like this game either, but if you like Baldur's Gate and are desperate for more - then Icewind Dale is a good place to go.

Back in prehistoric days when computer games were not installed on hard drives but run from floppy discs (that were actualy "floppy"). A series of games in gold colored boxes changed my world.

I cut my Ad&D teeth on the wonderful "Pool of Radience" I spent most of summer vacation staring at my Zenith TV and listening to a 1541 disc drive click and crunch its way through the numbers I no longer had to touch dice to benefit from.

Luckily when I discovered there was another gold box that dealt with "The Curse of the Azure" bonds it was time for Christmas vacation. Managed to remove those damned tattoos just in time for school to start up.

These games consumed me fully. Many a night lost inside a gold box ended in panic as I turned of the TV and pretended to be asleep because my Dad's alarm clock was ringing.

Now I'm the dad and the kid thanks to Icewind Dale:enhanced edition.

I installed it and started running the adventure with the premades to get a feel for the engine while I decided what multi-classed chars I wanted to start over with when my damn clock started ringing .( 2) 1/2E Fighter/Magic User, 2) 1/2E Fighter/cleric/magic user, 1) 1/2E FIghter/magic user/thief, and 1) 1/2E cleric/magic user).

If you want crazy ubertextured eyecandy move along, If you want to rent your adolescence for a few hours a day while forgetting to eat and spending most of your work day tired and cranky this is the game for you.

I highly recomend it. My only complaint is the total lack of a gold box.

Whether or not you'll enjoy Icewind Dale depends on how much you enjoy AD&D 2nd Edition rules, and the Infinity Engine's isometric real-time with pause combat.

This game is very linear, and the plot is more like an excuse to keep the dungeon crawl going. Customize a party of up to six characters, and don't expect any party banter, romance options, or companion side quests either. The combat scenarios are where the games shines, along with a soundtrack composed by Jeremy Soule.

So Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 are like the middle ground, while Planescape: Torment focuses mostly on the story, and Icewind Dale focuses almost entirely on the combat.

What do I like?

It's freakin' Icewind Dale. One of the best dungeon crawlers ever made. Why is it one of the best?

Good Characters
Good System
Good Action
Challenging Fights
Great Art and Atmosphere
Good Writing
Neat Loot

What don't I like about this?

A lot of the enhancements seem to be a bit slap-dash, they're not really consistent in tone or setting with the original (I have it to compare) and I think the game suffers for it. Randomized loot is an interesting idea but really not pleasant to work with most days and a lot of the new loot that is present is not that great (Bearing in mind I've yet to clear Vale).

My opinion may change as I get further in but I give this a tentative "Yes". Enough of the original has been preserved and the enhancements add -enough- that this is worth your time and money.

Also, dear publishers and game makers, I WANT MORE OF THIS. NPCs I care about, voices I love, music that hits the tone just right. This game does more with black and white paper-cutout intros and a great voice than a thousand unskippable "interactive cutscenes." Screw the "Awesome Technology and Cutting Edge Graphics" and make a legitimately artistic and beautiful game again.

If you are a fan of Dungeon & Dragons, like myself, and are old enough to remember when answering machines and Caller ID were both separate devices apart from your phone that just annoyed the hell out of you and took up space on your kitchen counter, then you probably aren't reading this. And if you are, it's not because you're trying to figure out if this game is any good; you already know. When this was released back in 2000, I had already become addicted to the Baldur's Gate series of games (which I also HIGHLY recommend), and wasted no time in diving into this. I immediately fell in love with the differences between the games, with the most prominent being that Icewind Dale allowed you to create all six members of your party, instead of just the main hero who then picks up the rest of their party as they go through the game. There were additional character classes, as well as a much higher level/EXP cap than the first Baldur's Gate, which was awesome. Also, in order to "cheat", you had to have enough computer savvy to know how to input lines of code into the .ini (initialization) file, and how to puzzle out the proper nomenclature for the debugging mode, which was both highly entertaining and educational.
When I found out that an enhanced edition had been released on Steam, I almost sneezed with joy. Updated with new mechanisms for character creation (Beamdog literally fixed everything I didn't care for about the original, in exactly the right way, and didn't get rid of anything that I had liked), new voices, new portraits (while keeping all the originals), and new magical items, they didn't change ONE SINGLE THING about the plot or game direction. Bravissimo. They have released a couple significant updates, with additional portraits and voices, and the fact that they are still spending time creating new content for this game is just incredible.
Please. Help me keep this franchise alive. Play Icewind Dale. Play Baldur's Gate. You won't regret it. And for the love of God, if somebody reading this knows how to retrieve the source code for Icewind Dale II, pass that along to Beamdog.