Should I play Icewind Dale 1 or 2 first? :confused: ?

They are independent one from the other in the sense that whatever characters you used or items you got in the first one cannot be exported to the second one. The little IWD story that you may not know if you play IWD2 first it's explained in IWD2. However, I would play them in order, it's cool when you are going through an area that you already visited in IWD and you see the changes in IWD2.

IWD I is played under 2E rules.
IWD II is played under 3E rules.

There is hardly any relation between these two games gameplay wise. The layout of controls too is different.You can play one without playing the other. You can't even import your charecters from one into the other.

However since IWD II occurs only 30 years after the first, you will find a number of NPCs returning in the new game. You can better identify the roles of various NPCs and relate to the story in the second game if you have already played IWD 1.

Can someone who played IWD1 put down a summary of the story for the players who only have IWD2?

I guess that ill play them in order then

@Menion: You should buy Icewind Dale, it's one of the best games ever, and it would be a shame not to see the story for yourself. It's even better than Icewind Dale 2, in my opinion.


If you really want to know the story instead of playing it, I suppose you could read a walkthrough, but you need to experience it, to really understand it.

@ Jesper898

Do not know about the first part, but the sequel has hardly any story at all and the battles are just hack'n'slash. Thus I can "blindly" recommend playing ONLY IWD1. ;)

I have never played IWD but I quite like IWD II so it's not too much of a problem if you don't play the first part. You don't miss what you've never seen.

You should play IwD 1 first. This is the most logical way, and if you would play IwD 2 first you would be pissed off about the game system. and stuff...

It's strange Jesper. I'm the opposite. I like IWD2 a hell of lot more, to the point where IWD1 just infuriates me now.

Here, i will give a summary of IWD 1 off the top of my head. BUT I WARN ALL READERS THAT THERE ARE MOJOR STORY LINE SPOILERS IN THIS! You start in the small village of Easthaven (you are a small band of adventuerers, you create all caracters from 1-6 before you start). The villages local protector Hrothgar, invites you to ocompany him and some of the village militia to the troubled town of kuldahar (i think i am spelling that right, but please let me know if im not). however Hrothgar along with all the militia are buried in an avalanche just before you reach Kuldahar. Your company are the only surviors. Anyway, when you get to Kulhahar you meet Arundel, the Arch-Druid. from there you visist several locales in search of the Evil that is causing the town problems. The artwork put into these places is truly beautiful even though it certainly isn't sate of the art graphics. The story begins to heat up when you reach the volcanic mountain of Dragon's Eye. You must battle through hoards of lizard and snake men to recover the artifact known as the Hearstone Gem (also a big part of the IWD2 story). As it turns out Yuxonomi (i'm positive i didn't spell that right). Anyway she is a big snake demon that is passing herself off as a goddess of the Yuan-ti (snake men). when you meet her in her temple at the bottom of Dragon's Eye she hints that she is at war with another demon and she needs the Heartstone Gem to use against him (just like you do). Unfortunatly there is no reasoning with this woman, and you must kill her (it is an exciting battle, and difficult if you don't know what you are doing). Finally you have the artifact, you've won, right? Wrong! when you get back to kuldahar the town is being invaded by Orgogs (excuse my spelling if it is off). you drive the Orgogs back to Arudel's house, but it is not Arudel that waits for you inside, it is Belifit, the demon Yukonomi was at war with. Luckily her flees, you find Arudel upstairs, the demon has slain him to keep him from using the gem. He directs you to travel to the second major area in both games: The Hand of Sledarine, more commonly called The Severed Hand. In IWD1 it is a house of undead horrors. you fight your way through the keep (basically although the story involved is a bit deeper). to find Larrel, the undead Elven Arch-Mage that can use the stone. Larrel directs you to Dorn's Deep, an ancient dwarven stronghold. The story with the elves and the dwarves are intersting and you can learn a lot about it if you search around the hand. The curse (or mythal enchantment gone wrong) plays a huge part in the end of IWD2. Anyway you fight through several areas of Dorn's Deep eventually comming face to face with not Belifit but a priest of Ilmater named Poquelin. You fight the priest, and it turns out that he has been using Crennshinbon to control the weather and creatures (anyone read the IWD Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore, he also uses Crennshinibon and im not sure who came up with the idea first). Anyway the end boss is Belifit, and he is terribly easy compared to Yuxonomi. I was disapointed, as recently i was able to beat him without losing a sinle party member (pretty bad for an end boss).

Good overview. The boss is Belhifet and I didn't find him easy with my solo FMC, but that's another story ;)

I really like IWD for the atmosphere and theme in it. IWD2 has some very nice artworks (the map and some other things) that IWD doesn't have. IWD2 seems more hack and slash to me than IWD does.

So I would definitely play IWD first as it is imo the best of these two

The best thing about the IwD games is the music, its so good!

I disagree. Well, the music is good, when it actually plays, but usually the game (IWD2) is just silent. I really hate that and I think it kills the admosphere.

Play IWD1 first. There are a ton of "oh cool! I remember that" moments in IWD2 that won't make sense or be as meaningful if you play them backwards. It's one of the few redeaming qualities in the otherwise crappy story of IWD2. Play them in order - it's much better.

The thing I dislike most in the IwD games is the lack of subquests and intresting conversations. Talking is not important in the game at all (although it yields some XP)

But the huge variety of character choices and tactics makes up for any deficiencies in plot or conversation. If only there were more games that operated on the IWD2 rules and engine.

This is what I would like to see:

IwD II rules, music and engine

Ps:T dialogues, magics and stat distribution (meaning you will get a set number of stats at first level, then one more each level. Also, the game dialogues should rely ALOT on how much Int, Wis and Cha you have)

BG II battles and story


And an extended character creation with more options

I agree with Bahir.
Unfortunately, it seems the games industry has gone off the RPG/D&D-style game of late, meaning the likelihood of something like this ever happening can be likened to that of an Orc learning to appreciate the finer points of tea.

(A cookie to anyone who recognizes the reference) :D

it doesnt really matter. i would play IWD1 first just because there are little tidbits of info on the story line of one in IWD2.

I would play them in order - I always find it hard to go back to a lesser version of a game. If you play IWD1 first then when you get to IWD2 it will seem so much better. If you go back IWD1 may be a bit disapointing

Playing them in order is the best way, definitely.
I actually thought that the battles in IWD2 were better than BG, because of the scope and the importance of positioning and strategy, as opposed to BG where there were usually just a few baddies and once their weakness was exploited they fell easily. The endfight for IWD2 really annoyed me though.

:yot: Thais Paradox's reference is to Shaalth the Orc King in Might and Magic 5. Cookie?

<Off-topic>Xei, Cookie withheld. Keep trying. :p </off-topic>

Edit: Competition's over, I pronounce Firestorm the winner.

[ August 06, 2004, 14:36: Message edited by: Thais Paradox ]