Icewind Dale II Reviews
Posted Thursday, November 7, 2002 - 9:58 CEST by Mollusken

NHGN (9/10)

Here are my nags and they are extremely minor. Path finding is still off. To be fair it has ALWAYS been off. Anyone who tells you the path finding in BG2 was better is wrong. It isn't that it was better, it's just that BG2's environments have a different flow entirely, offering more open spaces for combat and less twisty turns and crowded close quarter combat dungeons that can be found in the Icewind Dale titles. Then there's the multiplayer, which still isn't as friendly as most would like. As this kind of RPG is designed, I don't think it would ever really be suited for online play. In a controlled environment like a LAN maybe, but anything else really just requires too much effort for each player. I will also mention that I wish they had added a few more voice samples. The new Drow voice sample is awesome and just makes me wish they replaced all the holdovers from the previous Icewind Dale.

RPGamer (7/10)

Icewind Dale II is an exemplary vision of what the Infinity Engine has to offer. Unfortunately, as that tool itself is becoming older, the marvel that it can grab you with is decreasing. Although this game and many of its predecessors really show the powers of the Dungeons & Dragons rule set as it can be applied to video games, it might be time to design a newer, more amazing, engine to display it with.