ICEWIND DALE II

                 Reviewed by Stefan Herber

As I often do when a sequel appears I decided to play through this
game's predecessor to remind myself of the setting and plot.
Having played a number of very mediocre RPGs lately the sheer
quality of the game struck me immediately even if it was no match
for "Planescape" or "Baldur's Gate".  So what of Pt 2?

Criticisms of the first game included no character interaction and
combat heaviness. The first has not really been addressed in the
sequel but the second has. If you thought Pt 1 was combat heavy
you haven't seen anything until you've played Pt 2. In truth it
became very monotonous: the developers have decided that on
entering each and every level you'll be attacked by about 60 foe.
So the next hour consists of killing a few, exiting the level and
recuperating; returning and killing a few more; exiting and
recuperating and so on. Sometimes you'll have the pleasure of 4 or
5 pitched battles of this nature per level. One other pleasure -
while in Pt 1 missile weapons were vital and often allowed you to
advance more rapidly here they're just about useless. I think the
game lasted about 40 hours and I don't have to tell you what I was
doing for 35 of them. To add insult to injury the experience
points obtained from fighting are minimal so one can't even
justify the carnage by thinking it's developing your character.

It's a pity really as every other aspect of this is praiseworthy.
The fighting engine hasn't changed - it took me ages to master it
from the previous games but it works very well when that has been
done. The storyline and side quests are interesting and varied and
the graphics excellent. I only managed to lose one character until
the final battle where it's inevitable that some will perish while
your tanks are taking out the main nasty but as in the others of
this series characters can be resurrected without adverse effects
to their statistics. Overall I think it's at least as good as Pt 1
- maybe better.

According to the new D&D rules combat is now going to become a
minor part of character building - as in this game. So please
Black Isle - can we have a bit less of it in future? Or maybe
that's what the public wants - I think this is the only RPG to
make the top 10 best sellers in the last six months.
















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