Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale is a PC role-playing game developed by Black Isle Studios. It centers on area exploration, combat and party setup, and character progression, with controls and information arranged around keyboard and mouse, with a controller where the game supports one.
- AI score · out of 10
- 8.2 / 10
About this game
Icewind Dale is a PC role-playing game centered on area exploration, combat and party setup, and character progression. Story beats, exploration, and progression resources support a longer campaign, with progress divided into stages, tasks, matches, or growth milestones that make immediate goals understandable. Its value depends on whether these rules continue to create judgment and room for mastery rather than on length, sales, or series recognition. Short campaigns are judged by repeat-challenge value, while longer ones are judged by variety, pacing, and recovery after failure. Characters, world building, environments, and music carry most of the atmosphere, while resolution, graphics settings, frame rate, aspect ratio, audio, text scaling, and hardware performance need to preserve action, state, and text readability together. The genre-specific limitation is that dense text, menu layers, repeated battles, loading, or language dependence can slow progress. Platform conditions also include OS and hardware requirements, installation media, patches, drivers, DRM and launchers, key binding and controller support, save locations, mod compatibility, servers, and era-specific OS compatibility affect the current release. This description covers only this platform release and does not import features or conveniences from remasters, emulators, or other console editions.
Collected in series
Icewind Dale is a Dungeons & Dragons RPG series about leading a party through the frozen north of the Forgotten Realms. Build your adventurers, equip them for the journey and pause battles to coordinate spells and attacks; the challenge lies in making the whole party work together.
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Windows PC
AI review
AI reviews are subjective assessments, not player ratings. See each review for its evidence and limitations.Published date:
Strong party tactics with original-build rough edges.
The original PC Icewind Dale turns the Infinity Engine toward a focused, combat-heavy adventure. Players create a party of six, choose classes, spells and equipment, then solve dense encounters through real-time-with-pause tactics. The variety of fights and steady character growth make that structure satisfying. A linear story gives the expedition through the frozen north clear purpose, although it allows less party interaction or role-play flexibility than some related games. Scripted enemy triggers reduce surprise on replay and a few puzzles interrupt an otherwise brisk pace. Snowy painted areas and a strong orchestral score give the journey a distinct atmosphere despite reused small character sprites and equipment art. A contemporary direct PC review also documents practical launch problems: a convoluted journal, script bugs that may crash the game and dialogue loops. These are observations of the original release, not claims that all later patches still have them. Heart of Winter, Enhanced Edition and modern operating-system compatibility remain outside this score. Players who favor party tactics over broad role-playing freedom have a substantial classic here.
Strengths
- Party construction, battles and orchestral atmosphere.
Weaknesses
- Script and journal problems with limited party interaction.
Who it is for: Classic PC RPG fans who value tactical parties.
Play notes: Original 2000 PC game, not expansions or Enhanced Edition.
View scoring basis
| Dimension | Review state | Score | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dimension Focused pacing trades away some replay flexibility. | Reviewed | 8.2 / 10 | Not provided |
| Dimension Party construction gives the combat-driven journey depth. | Reviewed | 8.7 / 10 | Not provided |
| Dimension Music and frozen landscapes overcome some reused visuals. | Reviewed | 8.4 / 10 | Not provided |
| Dimension Original PC usability is hindered by documented bugs. | Reviewed | 6.4 / 10 | Not provided |
Review sources
Not provided
Core information
- Developer
- Black Isle Studios
- Publisher
- Interplay
- Release date
- 2000
- Platforms
- Windows PC
- Content kind
- Game
- Release state
- Released
- Region
- Worldwide
- Official website
- Not provided
- Offline minimum players
- Not provided
- Offline maximum players
- Not provided
- Online minimum players
- Not provided
- Online maximum players
- Not provided
- Categories
- Role-Playing · Primary genre
- Tags
- Solo-friendlyMain Story 20–50 HoursLong-term ProgressionLevel ProgressionTurn-based Combat3D GraphicsStory-drivenExplorationThird PersonFantasy
- Supported game languages
- Not provided
- Requires base game
- Not provided
- Standalone
- Not provided
- Age ratings
- Not provided
- Play modes
- Not provided
- Perspectives
- Not provided
Release editions
- Windows PCWorldwide2000
Game gallery
Sources
Not provided