Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition

As others have said, this one leans into dungeon crawling & combat lots more than Baldur's Gates. Less choices & scheming, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You still get to complete an epic quest picking up phat loot on the way. As always, one should install their favourite selection of patches from Gibberlings' Tweaks Anthology before launching an Infinity Engine game. This is an excellent guide as it sets you up to having characters that can unlock basically every nook & cranny: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2790419743

I'm a casual gamer—I don’t usually dive deep into game mechanics, read guides, or build optimized characters unless I really love the game. I prefer to play my own way to get a feel for the experience. That’s why I never bothered learning the DnD rules and have never finished a single game based on them. I started on normal difficulty, but by Chapter 2, I switched to story mode because clearing locations one after another became tedious. Around that time, combat encounters started getting tougher, and simply rushing in wasn’t working anymore. I realized I’d need to study the game’s mechanics and tactics, but I didn’t enjoy the game enough to invest that kind of effort. Eventually, it became clear that the game’s main focus is combat. Since I wasn’t enjoying that aspect, there was no point in continuing. The story didn’t grab me, the game felt linear, and most of the time, I was just moving from one area to the next, clearing enemies.

I remember playing the original Icewind Dale when it released all those years ago as a boy. I never got past chapter 1, I just always seemed to get bored towards the end of that chapter. I decided that I would finally commit to seeing this game through, which I've finally managed to do, some 25 years later. It's a complete mixed bag to be honest. First point of contention is difficulty scaling. For the record I played on the Core Rules difficulty (for 99% of the game - see below). There were parts of this game where fights were tough and you had to really think or prepare to get through them. I have no real issue with that generally but the scaling just seemed to shoot up out of nowhere at times. You'd be chilling through an area then one fight would just wipe you out, there were times where I was really just relying on lucky rolls to pop the big threat before they either obliterated me or I got swarmed by their adds. A mob/mini-boss was able to just 4-tap my -11 AC fighter, h...

Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition is a revitalized version of the classic 2000 RPG developed by Black Isle Studios, faithfully updated and expanded by Beamdog for modern platforms including Steam. As an Enhanced Edition, it offers not only the original’s deep tactical combat and rich narrative set in the unforgiving, frozen tundra of the Forgotten Realms but also quality-of-life improvements, graphical polish, and new content. For fans of old-school party-based RPGs, this edition serves as both a nostalgic journey and a refined entry point for new players interested in classic Dungeons & Dragons style adventures. At its heart, Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition remains a testament to the tactical depth and character customization that defined the early 2000s RPG scene. Unlike other D&D adaptations that focused heavily on story, Icewind Dale emphasizes combat encounters and dungeon crawling, with sprawling caves, ancient ruins, and snowbound towns serving as backdrops for continuous battles...

Icewind Dale is one of the original Infinity Engine CRPG's that helped popularize this genre of game, and one of my favourite games of all time. It's well worth playing if you haven't already given it a shot. Icewind Dale is designed as more of a dungeon crawling experience with a focus on the game content. The overall game is more linear than Baldur's Gate 1 or 2, but the linearity helps ensure that players are unlikely to get in over their heads as can commonly happen in more open world or exploration focused games. It also allows players to create their entire party right from the start, rather than being restricted to a single character and having to search around to find party members that they like - This can make starting a game feel a bit more daunting, but the Enhanced Edition does come with a set of pre-made characters that you can use to make that a bit easier. You may not enjoy this game if you're looking for something that has a stronger emphasis on story and role...

fun bit tuff but fun

Certified Hood Classic

Favorite game, one of the oldies