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Icewind Dale:
Platform: Win 95 / 98 Publisher: Interplay Developer: Black Isle Projected Release Date: Late Q2 2000
Those of you who read Robert Salvatore's series of books centered around Drizz't Do'urden, Breunor Battlehammer, and the rest of their band of adventurers have probably been eyeing Icewind Dale with more than a touch of curiosity. A chance to romp around in their stomping grounds makes for one heck of an opportunity. But before you start thinking about the possible quests that could be had with Drizz't and the gang, know that the game is set to take place 60 years before their adventures. So while your out and about in the icy cold, Drizz't is still stuck in dank, dark Menzoberranza.
The game starts out in the town of Easthaven where the party helps out Rothgar, a veteran warrior, to investigate the goings on in the town of Kuldahar, the main city of the game. From here the story unfolds as the party sets forth to explore dungeons, ruins, and, perhaps, paddle the rumps of some of the local frost giants along the way.
Running on a modified version of the Baldur's Gate engine, Icewind Dale is setup to be more of a fast-paced RPG in the same vein as Diablo. A very strong emphasis has been placed on the monster smashing elements of the game. As such don't expect as deep, complex, or drawn-out of a story as in Baldur's Gate. The name of the game here is to get into many, many encounters with monsters. Hopefully this will be somewhat balanced; console RPGs have been notorious for inundating players with one battle after the next, and after a while it can get very annoying.
Even though the development team didn't have a lot of time to make a lot of tweaks to the Baldur's Gate engine, they were able to make a few improvements. Most importantly pathfinding has been addressed. Now when a fighter needs to get past a mage who is the way all he or she does is lightly nudges the person out of the way and passes by. No more going on epic marathons just to get close enough for melee battle. Another area of improvement has been the graphics. Although not vastly enhanced over Baldur's Gate, images have enjoyed a nice little bit extra.
Also of note is that the experience point cap has been increased to approximately 1.8 million, allowing for a little more umph from characters. With a higher cap also comes additional abilities and plenty more spells for casting. Icewind Dale will feature 30 more spells than its cousin.
The Forgotten Realms has been a mainstay in RPGs for years now. Baldur's Gate gained the interest of a lot of people foreign to that realm, and Icewind Dale, with its peppier gameplay could very well elevate the popular series to new heights.
Preview by Kaspian May 5, 2000
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