We must thank Beamdog to continue the work of updating the classics of Black Isle for a relaunch in our days. Although you can question
the added value compared to what it would be to buy the originals and install mods -with a considerable difference in money between both options-,
we must not forget that these efforts allow to enjoy authentic classics such as Baldur’s Gate in tablets, opening the experience to a new generation of players. In addition, it is appreciated to have a version perfectly ready to start playing, with all the essential mods and improvements plus some new details that expand the experience.
Before starting to detail what this enhanced version offers, we must talk about what the original is. It is curious to see that those less familiar with the role-playing games of that time associate it with Baldur’s Gate as if it were a kind of spin off, but the reality is quite different. Yes, they are games of the same company, with the same engine and based on AD & D,
but they are completely different subgenres and are played very differently. Baldur’s Gate is a traditional cRPG framed in the tradition of the role of table, with a great history, different characters that can be integrated into your group, morality system and limited
possibilities of role-playing with your character. In contrast, Icewind Dale is a dungeon crawler in the strictest sense of the word, only isometric. By tradition,
most of the children of Dungeon Master are first-person, but here Black Isle opted for something different using the Infinity Engine, more familiar to the user then and to attract the post-Devil audience.
Therefore, Icewind Dale is a very simple game in its structure: to reach a nexus that is used as a base of operations and take advantage of the scarce history as a background to open and discover all kinds of dungeons and dangerous places with which to enter with our group. One of the essential elements of the adventure is the group of six heroes since once the campaign is started
we can not change its members, so it is important to have a balanced group able to respond in any situation (at least in one first game, then there are the classic
experiments to see who can overcome the game with the most surreal combinations). Carefully choose the members of your groupAnd organizing your classes, attributes and starting skills is essential and something that most enthusiasts can spend hours doing, but good planning is key.
Once in the game, we find a clear approach to combat whose strength lies in the various strategic possibilities that we can develop with our six members in order to overcome the diverse and very measured encounters that are coming our way.
One of the keys of a game oriented to combat is that the mixture of the enemies that we find is rich and varied, that can pose interesting strategic situations that force us to make the best possible use of our own options. The same real-time system with own stop of
the Infinity Engine games is used, so sometimes it becomes quite chaotic, but also being a game oriented to that, we find combats and creatures much more interesting than the original Baldur’s Gate. We also have to be careful with the traps and find ways to advance through the mysterious places that we will find on our way.
To dress it all up, this Enhanced version comes equipped with the base improvements you can expect from this class of enhanced versions. Beamdog this time has chosen to focus on the fundamental and avoid the experiments and new additions of draft – which also have less place here to be a game of scope and history more limited than the Baldur’s Gate -.
So we have chosen to polish bugs, improve the route layout, incorporate the resolution options to full screen and zoom and integrate everything in a harmonic way to get a game originally executed as an impeccable version of the original and its expansions
Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster,Perfectly combined in a great campaign of several tens of hours depending on our pace of play – It has also restored content cut from the original, making some missions longer and with more context, which is not a massive difference but helps to extend a little bit of experience
