To Battle the Goblinoid Hordes!

Six brave adventurers arrive at the docks of the port city of Targos, one of the Ten Towns in the once tranquil valley known as Icewind Dale. Disembarking from the ship The Wicked Wench, the intrepid warriors find themselves in the midst of an invasion of goblins, orcs and other miscellaneous, monstrous minions. The snowy landscape is stained with blood, and corpses both human and non-human litter the ground. When the heroes volunteered to assist the defenders, they had no idea that the situation was so dire. Decades have passed since an earlier group banished a demonic presence that had enveloped Icewind Dale, but the current menace may prove just as difficult to defeat. From where did the invaders come? How did they breach the town's defenses? And how can they be stopped? The group must battle wandering goblin skirmishers while rallying the beleaguered townsfolk and searching for answers.

Thus begins Icewind Dale II, a computer role-playing game released in 2002 by Black Isle Studios, a division of Interplay Entertainment Corporation. The game is a sequel to Icewind Dale, released two years prior, and utilizes the third edition rules of Dungeons & Dragons. The fictional Icewind Dale is located in the far northwest corner of the continent of Faerun, which in turn is part of The Forgotten Realms, a kind of alternate earth that serves as the setting for many D&D campaigns, computer games and fantasy novels. (Older role-playing gamers may recall the world of Greyhawk).

While IWD2 employs D&D 3.0 rules, there are some significant modifications. IWD2 has but a fraction of the skills listed in Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook Core Rulebook I: 16 compared to 45, and 62 feats compared to 74 in D&D. There are some overlapping feats between the two games, but IWD2 has some feats that D&D lacks, and vice versa. And a good number of the magic spells in IWD2 do not appear in D&D 3.0.

IWD2 players can create a party of adventurers from scratch, or begin the game with a ready-made group of characters. From among the five pre-made parties, three are of basically good alignment, one neutral, and one mostly evil. The motivation for coming to the defense of the Ten Towns is simple enough regardless of moral standing. A good party is altruistic, and sees their actions as a kind of noblesse oblige. A neutral party craves action and adventure. An evil party consists of mercenaries, caring not about the citizens whom they will "rescue," but what the citizens will pay them for their services. The ready-to-roll parties are fairly diverse in terms of character races (dwarf, elf, halfling, human) and classes (fighter, ranger, wizard). The Sisters of the Blood are all female, but a well-balanced bunch of ladies. Despite the name, they are of good alignment. Choosing an already-assembled party does not completely stifle player creativity, however. One could start out with the roguish Hands of Fury, delete the Chaotic Evil human barbarian Dahel Bloody-Four, and replace him with a paladin!

Creating six characters from scratch is time-consuming, but can be very satisfying. Attributes such as ability scores, skills and magic spells must be chosen wisely to ensure characters' survival. IWD2 allots the basic ability scores (Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma) 10 points apiece, plus or minus adjustments for character race. The player then has 16 extra points to assign to whichever scores he or she chooses. Available feats and skills vary depending on the character's class. Rogues, for instance, typically have a lot of skill points to distribute in many different categories. As characters increase in levels, they naturally gain more hit points, skill points, feats, spells and other special abilities dependent on class.

Creating characters' backgrounds and physical appearance is interesting, if not essential. IWD2's database contains 83 male and female character portraits from which to choose. If none of them resemble what the characters should look like, custom portraits can be imported. There is also a wide selection of male and female voices, with labels such as Female Sorcerer 1, Male Fighter 5 or Female Rogue 2. During game play, characters speak short, simple words and phrases when the players left-click on them, e.g. "Yeah?" "Whatcha want?" "What is it you require?" Voices cannot be customized, however. The color selection for the characters' skin, hair, and major and minor clothing is not particularly good, being limited to a few weakly-mixed pastels and boring shades of gray, brown and black. Of course, importing custom images solves this dilemma.

The pacing of IWD2 is slow compared to some computer games, but role-playing adventures by nature are seldom limited to hack-and-slash, and those that are tend to blunt the imagination. IWD2 requires players to pay attention to where the characters have been and where they are going in order to solve certain problems and complete the numerous minor quests on which the party will embark. Certain logistical conundrums present themselves, and all of the lesser adventures ultimately lead to the resolution of the main objective: to defeat the invaders and rescue Icewind Dale.

Movement is frequently hampered by obstacles such as steep hills, abandoned houses, and narrow alleys formed by buildings being too close together. In the latter case, characters can be individually selected by left-clicking on each one and marching him or her through the narrow opening single file. But this does not always work, and risks inherent in such maneuvering include separating weaker characters and leaving them susceptible to ambushes. Moving all of the party members together is generally safer: in the event of an enemy attack, having the party members in proximity to one another is strategically sounder than the alternative.

Combat occurs in real time, meaning that the clock is ticking as the actual icons battle on the screen. Clicking on the computer's space bar will pause the game, during which time players can determine what they want their characters to do. For example, the party breaks into a warehouse where a horde of goblins has holed up. Immediately upon entering, they are besieged by their adversaries. The game pauses while the player decides that Vraedna, the drow elf sorceress, will cast her Magic Missile spell on the goblin leader, and Geldin, the half-orc fighter, will cleave the closest foe with his long sword. Meanwhile Sheris, the human bard, begins singing, giving her comrades combat bonuses, and Laeris, the human cleric, summons a giant beetle to aid the party. Khatya, Geldin's better half, leaps into the fray with her great sword. Kylie, the halfling rogue, who was seriously injured in a recent battle and is down to his last hit point, decides to hide in shadows, where he will be virtually invisible. The space bar depresses, the characters spring to life, and the goblins are put to death!

When the bad guys bite it, they frequently disassemble into half a dozen scattered body parts- with head, arms, legs and torso flying in different directions, depending on which weapons are used to dispatch them. Other times they are disemboweled, or have their skulls squashed. Characters also bleed visibly when injured. By selecting Options on the main menu, then choosing Game Play, players can disable "gory combat animations," which is enabled by default. However, the on screen violence probably would not even traumatize a four year-old. IWD2 is rated T for teen by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) for "Blood, Mild Language, Use of Alcohol."

Dialogue between characters and various NPC's (Non-Player Characters) that they encounter is limited to a number of different selections, unlike in a traditional "real world" gaming experience where players can say whatever they want, and the game master has to come up with the NPCs' responses. Left-clicking on an NPC will bring up a dialogue on the game's HUD (Heads Up Display), and the number of possible responses to NPCs' statements and questions ranges from about two to five. NPCs' dialogue not only scrolls on the computer screen, but plays on accompanying audio.

The graphics in IWD2 are fairly good, if not spectacular, though a bit dated by 2009's video standards. The characters appear relatively small on screen, about one inch high, shorter if they are dwarves, gnomes or halflings, and occasionally, remembering which figure represents which character is challenging. Placing the mouse cursor inside the green circle surrounding each character identifies him or her. Conversely, hostile creatures are surrounded by red circles and NPC's by flashing blue circles. The backgrounds and landscapes are pretty well-defined, and players are able to adjust the game's brightness, contrast and color depth.

IWD2 can be played by up to six people, depending on the game mode selected. In the event of multiple players, a computer protocol must be selected -either IPX or TCP/IP- and one of the players chosen to act as the leader. Obvious connection issues, aside from coordinating gaming times, exist with the multi-player mode, but interacting with other gamers, even online, is closer to the true spirit of Dungeons & Dragons. Also, solo players can have difficulty remembering the traits and abilities of six different characters. Up to five separate games can be saved in IWD2.

IWD2 comes with two CD-ROM disks, the second of which must be in the drive while the game is running, a quick reference card listing the magic spells and what various icons represent, and a 152-page instruction manual with incredibly-small print. System Requirements are Windows 95 or higher, an Intel Pentium II 350 MHz or AMD K6(R) 400 MHz 64 MB RAM, DirectX compliant video and sound cards, 4x CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, 700 MB HD space, DirectX 8.0 or higher. (Information taken from box label).