General Info

Developed by: Black Isle
Published by: Interplay
Official IWD site: http://www.interplay.com/icewind/index.html
More Icewind Dale resources

The Setting

Black Isle's Icewind Dale is their second game based on BioWare's Infinity Engine. Their earlier effort, the award winning Planescape: Torment was a tour-de-force in story, plot, character development and awesome quests set in a unique world. The Infinity Engine seemed totally torn up for Torment, but Icewind Dale has a more familiar "Baldur's Gate" look and feel. Despite the familiarity, IWD manages to offer a new experience. It isn't a grand epic like Baldur's Gate, where you are on the hunt for a great, hidden evil. It's not like Torment either, the story of a single character and his personal war. Icewind Dale is something completely different, and that is dictated in great part by the setting.

Time to make my men!

Holy Badass!

The game is named after an area in TSR's Forgotten Realms universe. Icewind Dale is a giant tundra at the very northern end of the continent of Faerun. A giant mountain range called the Spine of the World separates the Dale from more civilized lands to the South. The only easily accessible exit is along the coast by an arctic sea.

Being so far up North, civilization is scarce and vulnerable. Frost Giants, White Dragons, Yetis and all sorts of nasty, cold-loving creatures roam the tundra and mountains, set to pounce on the unwary, unready or weak.

Oh I know what I'm gonna call her

Meet Laetitia... and the gang

The human presence is limited to nomadic barbarian tribes and a group of villages collectively known as "Ten-Towns" which fish in several lakes on the tundra. All in all, the open space, the large variety of evil creatures and the weak civilized presence are a perfect spawning ground for a badass evil.

That's Where You Come In!

With Icewind Dale it's a little hard to have political intrigues or the story of one character to develop. There isn't enough civilization for either. What the setting does give you is a perfect excuse to go on a big dungeon romp and kill the evil of the week.