Black isle game review

The Good Use of live actors, complex gameplay, incredible attention to detail. The Bad A somewhat artificial cliffhanger ending, an incomplete objective map. Hidden Object Puzzle Time Management. Hidden Folks Walkthrough. Hidden Object. Bertram Fiddle Episode 2, Chapter 6 guide: All puzzle solutions. Android iOS.

I had problems with other Infinite Engine games, not directly related to the games themselves, but with the underlying system. Not only does this make IWD2 the strongest Infinity Engine game simply by virtue of having a better game system, it gives the system more depth, as Feats and Skills both 3rd ed additions help character customization.

The second was an early decision to switch the game to uncontested rolls. The idea was that if you made random events nonrandon, it would discourage players from reloading games until something went their way. The application for IWD2, was intended to be more broad. If you failed a stealth check, you couldn't reload and hope for a better roll. If you failed a pick pocket, you coudln't reload and hope to get lucky on the next try. Unfortunately in my opinion , Black Isle decided not to stick with this, but the impact is still evident.

All role-playing skills are uncontestable and your basic stats are uncontestable instead of generating your stats by rolling simulated d6's, you have a point buy system so you can precisely determine each character's statistics. This leads to a much better balanced and meaningful game system. Now, not only did "soft" skills like Diplomacy, Bluff, and Intimidate actually influence what you could or could not accomplish within the game, but now class Paladins and Monks are the most obvious and race now impact your in-game capabilities.

Having a party of 6 multiclassed Paladins might be absurdly powerful, but you're going to get piddling rewards due to your chivalrous ways, for example. This is some nice stuff, but its expected since this is from the same people who brought you Fallout. All being said, the game is immensely fun to play. Combat is still the same as ever, except now with 3rd ed rules, improved interface management, better AI, and more interesting creatures and scenarios.

There are several scripting bugs that may crash the game if you don't do things in the same order the designers intended; you can get into nonsensical dialogue loops with many of the game's nonplayer characters; and the automatic journal-entry feature produces too many convoluted or contradictory entries for it to be useful.

Also, the game's handful of puzzles can be frustrating to solve and can slow the game's otherwise brisk pace. Since most of the game's combat sequences are scripted, enemy creatures will attack only once you've triggered them by approaching close enough. Thus you'll find that the game holds few surprises the second time around and also that it's easy to lure just a few enemies at a time in many situations. Furthermore, your characters' moral alignments don't seem to play any part in the game, except to limit them from using certain powerful artifacts - and similarly, your six characters will never actually interact with one another.

Although Icewind Dale's gameplay is combat-intensive, the game's interesting story will make you wish your individual characters played a larger role in it. Ultimately, its story makes Icewind Dale all the more satisfying, and its exciting action makes its occasional problems negligible. There's always a purpose behind all the hacking and slashing, which makes the gameplay seem rewarding and challenging, rather than like a cheap thrill.

In this sense, Icewind Dale is surprisingly effective, much like Planescape: Torment managed to be impressive largely on account of its involving plot. Likewise, Icewind Dale proves to be another great addition to Black Isle Studios' roster of high-quality role-playing games. Upvote 5 Leave Blank. About the Author. Greg Kasavin. More GameSpot Reviews. Publisher Big Fish Games. Play Unlimited Join All Access.

Most Recent Reviews Rate this game No user reviews exist yet for this game. Play now and be the first to let us know what you think! Load More. All Rights Reserved. The email address you entered is already in use. Please specify a different one or sign in as a returning user. The email address you provided is not valid. Please enter a valid email address and try again.

Your password must be a minimum of 6 characters without spaces. Your password must be a minimum of 6 characters and a maximum of characters, without spaces. There was a problem when you tried to sign up. Please try again. We are experiencing some technical issues, please try again in a few minutes.

The email address you entered is not valid. Show Password. Continue with Facebook.