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Platform: PC |
Developer: Black Isle Studios |
Publisher: Interplay |
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Genre: RPG |
ETA: May 28, 2002 |
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Icewind
Dale II What
a pleasant surprise it was to hear that RPG gurus Black Isle have a
sequel to Icewind Dale in the works. The original was quite arguably one of the best excursions
into hack n’ slash role-playing to hit the PC in quite some time.
Taking the combat elements from Planescape Torment and the
Baldur’s Gate series, while stripping the non-linear plot development,
the original Icewind Dale and its subsequent expansion packs provided
enough tactical combat to keep most fans of the genre occupied for a
very long time. Now with
Icewind Dale II on the way, it looks like Black Isle plans to take what
worked in the original and run with it. The
game will take place about one and a half generations after the events
of the original, continuing to allow players to run around the Spine of
the World, whacking and hacking Yeti, Ice Trolls, Orcs, and such to
their heart’s content. No
word on what, exactly, we can expect from the narrative in the game, but
that would be treading into spoiler territory anyway.
So far, players are simply told to go to the town of Targos, one
of the Ten Towns far to the North, where goblin hordes are up to no
good, from there the plot unfolds in a manner equally linear to that of
the first Icewind Dale. What
we do know is that none of the mythological Forgotten Realm characters
from the Spine will be in the game.
According to the game’s timeline, Drizzt Do’Urden is still in
the Underdark, and Wulgar has not yet been born. The
thing about Icewind Dale and the other games that share Bioware’s
Infinity Engine is that these titles really have an “If it ain’t
broke, don’t’ fix it” style of gameplay.
This mentality looks like it will be carried on into Icewind Dale
II, so instead of a completely re-tooled experience for the sequel,
expect Black Isle to add onto the existing formula, enhancing what
already exists. A lot of
what looks like will be done to achieve this is the tried and true
method of adding more, more, more. Let’s
start things off with the magic in this sequel. The
nature of the Infinity Engine’s battle system makes it so that how,
where, and when you cast your spells as well as what types of spells you
cast has a very strong impact on how to implement tactics.
Most of us have probably at least singed a comrade at one time or
another in a large, hectic battle.
With the last Icewind Dale we had a sizeable amount of
spells at our disposal, from offensive, to curative, to condition
altering. Now there will be
50 new spells added for the sequel.
These spells will be divided among the druidic, priestly, and the
sorceries schools of magic and will include spells such as a Delayed Blast
Fireball, Reflective Image, Wondrous Recall, and Negative Plane
Projection. Also
being beefed up is the number of races that players will have to choose
from when creating their party, adding more selection beyond the
standard Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Halfings, and Gnomes.
It won’t so much be that there are completely new races, as the
Half-Orc is the only wholly new race, but sub-races will be added to
quite an extent, as players are able to now use Drow Elves (dark elves),
Gold Dwarves, and Tieflings (a sort of human tip-toeing on the evil, or
at least not-so-straight-and-narrow, side of life).
As usual, all the races will have their strengths and weaknesses
affecting their core stats as well as giving them particular
offensive or defensive abilities / penalties. The
bestiary will be seeing some new additions too.
So far we know that the Bugbear, a giant, furry member of the
goblin race, who really pack a punch, and the Hook Horror, a large
denizen of the Underdark, resembling a vulture/humanoid hybrid with
large hooks for hands will be among the new additions.
Also new are the Worthog riding Goblins.
While I think I may be suffering from a bout of wishful thinking,
it would be nice to see these monsters actually act as cavalry,
constantly moving, forcing players to uses archery, slings, or magic to
stop them, or finding a way to corral them into the slower melee
fighters. The last of the
known newbies in Beasty Town is the Neo-Orog Shaman, so if you thought
it was annoying to be swarmed by regular Orog in the first game, better
get used to dealing with their magic using buddies now. Of
course, what would a game based in the Forgotten Realms be without a
wide range of character classes to choose from?
So far it’s looking like 3rd Edition fair.
We have three types of warrior (the Mercenary, Kensai, and Mage
Slayer), three different types of druid (the Avenger, Shapeshifter, and
Aes Dana), and three different types of cleric, one for each of three
major religions in the realms, in this case Tempus (god of war), Selune
(goddess of the moon), and Bane (god of strife, hatred, and tyranny).
Rangers will also be back, and will have the ability to pick a
new racial enemy every 5 levels as well as receive a +4 to Damage and
a +4 to Hit against their racial enemy.
For ranger types, there are, you guessed, three different types:
the Giant Killer, the Archer, and the Stalker.
The religious champion, the paladin, will be making a return with
three types of sub-classes to choose from (Cavaliers, Inquisitors, and
the Votary), while their social polar opposite, the thief, will also
return with three character classes (the Assassin, the Swashbuckler, and
the Arcane Rogue). But if
sinister deeds, and clobbering trolls with warhammers isn’t your
thing, there is also the bard as a daintier, musically inclined class,
with its three sub-classes to choose from (the Blade, Skald, and
Riddlemaster). There is
also extremely vague mention that barbarians, sorcerers, and monks will
be included as optional classes to choose from, so for the magic lovers
out there, while you may have more spells to play with, you may also
have less magic users to choose from, unless the specialist mages and
the often unpredictable Wild Mage are somehow snuck into the fray. One
unfortunate aspect of character creation that will appear in Icewind
Dale II is that players will not be able to import their characters from
the first game. Entirely
new characters will need to be made from scratch.
I suspect this is largely due to the potential for
inconsistencies in character classes, since 3rd edition characters are
present in the sequel, and some classes are gone all together, so it is
understandable, despite the bad taste it leaves. There
are also planned to be a number of new items thrown into the mix, though
what they are Black Isle won’t say just yet.
However, there appears to be some sort of random treasure
generator being implemented into Icewind Dale II that will add more
variety to what fallen monsters drop.
As small a thing as this may seem, I find this quite interesting
as I wonder whether it will mean getting my hands on more magical items,
uniques, and such. Whatever
the case it looks like we won’t have to be quite so disappointed about
defeating our umpteenth goblin horde, then say to ourselves, “Oh yay,
another 37 hand axes to weight me down, and sell for next to nothing at
the store.” The
game is looking like it will be a reasonably lengthy affair, clocking in
at about 30-40 hours of gameplay, and even more if you play in the
improved Heart of Fury mode (that’s the exceptionally high difficulty
mode, for those who don’t know).
The game is not only looking fairly large in terms of time
consumption, but in the sheer girth of the world to be explored.
The game is slated to be larger than that of the original Icewind
Dale. However, what is not
clarified is whether it is larger than Icewind Dale Proper, or if this
includes the size of the game once you factor in the Heart of Winter and
Trials of the Luremaster expansion packs.
The level cap will also be set at the 31st level for those in
Heart of Fury mode, and slightly lower for those playing at easier
difficulties. One final area of concern is the rumblings in interviews and such that battles will be more broken up, so to allow more interaction with NPCs and to perform puzzle solving. The problem I have with this is that these sort of things hardly seem in the spirit of Icewind Dale. It set itself apart by primarily being about beating the tar out of enemies, leveling up, and finding really nice weapons, armor, and items. What they propose to do by breaking up the battles a bit more sounds like the game will be made to play a lot like Baldur's Gate. While emulation is one of the finest forms of flattery, we already have a Baldur's Gate, why not enhance the battles, which thus far appear to play out in the standard manner found in the original game, or any other aspect of Icewind Dale that set it apart from its Infinity Engine brethren instead? Black
Isle certainly did a good job of keeping info on this keep hush-hush, as
it has apparently been in the works since the summer of 2001.
Of course what this means is that it is that much closer to
completion, at least in theory. So, if you’re just about through the epic juggernaut that is
the Baldur’s Gate series, it looks like you’ll have something fresh
to dig into soon enough. - Mr. Nash
Review: Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (PC) Review: Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal (PC) Review: Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (Playstation 2)
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