Icewind Dale (PC)
(Original version [GOG])
Finished! I've now completed Icewind Dale and both expansions (Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster). I played through the game on "Normal" (core AD&D rules) and it took just over 60 hours to get through it all.
Although I did miss the freedom of BG, ID was definitely less frustrating. ID is thankfully free of the BG "trick" of having you walk upstairs and being immediately incinerated with fireballs and lightning bolts from multiple enemy magic users just waiting for you. It was very satisfying to reach what seemed like a hopeless point in a tough battle and then, through clever use of spells and items, end up with a victory. It has really made me appreciate real-time w/pause combat, and I just might go revisit Pillars of Eternity (after completing BG2 and ID2 of course).
I really can't say enough good things about this game. It still looks and sounds great, and it's got some of the greatest dungeons I've ever experienced in an RPG. There are some truly massive complexes to explore, and some of these are very nonlinear with multiple goals to accomplish in any order. The combat design is excellent, too.
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Sadly, you can't take your winning party from ID1 into ID2, so with this it's farewell to the heroes of Icewind Dale: Pious leader Alnan who often turned a blind eye to some very questionable behavior "for the sake of the quest", hardy brawler Jake, Tomo the cleric who was not above smashing the brains out of hundreds of living things, Heather the expert archer and thief, and masters of the arcane the twin brothers Bongo1 and Bongo2. Sadly, Bongo1 and Bongo2 fell during the final battle, but they were not completely eradicated and I'm sure the rest of the party had them resurrected once all the celebrations were over.