The Infinity Engine is a very old engine that relies on hand-drawn art to look good; this much will be apparent to veterans of games that previously utilized it when they play Icewind Dale II.
It hadn't exactly aged very well by the time of Icewind Dale II, especially when it is played on latter-day machines; graphical tearing can occur a lot and the mouse cursor can cause even more if it is not hardware-accelerated. There are even worse graphical problems in this game, which will be elaborated on later.
On the other hand, the Infinity Engine has always been very friendly to probability- and computing-dependent gameplay mechanics. It can crunch numbers with gusto, resolving many actions in combat that occur almost simultaneously with little hitches and bugs while also printing out every instruction processed for a discerning player to examine.
In other words, a player can expect a game that has great hand-drawn art marred with sprites of wildly-varying quality and a powerful calculator maintaining the statistics that are governing the game behind the scenes.
Icewind Dale II is a sequel to Icewind Dale, which was considered a "filler" game between the two Baldur's Gate games but turned out to be a full-fledged game in its own right. Icewind Dale II continues this AD&D product line's tradition of battles after battles with a wide variety of enemies and circumstances, but with new mechanics and additions thanks to the utilization of AD&D edition 3.5 rules.
The edition 3.5 rules would be apparent to those familiar to AD&D right from character creation. All of this edition's primary classes are available for selection, the armor class rating system is revamped, the saving throws mechanics are overhauled, there are Feats that player characters can take, a slew of races and sub-races that characters can belong to, even sub-classes of primary classes etc.; an AD&D enthusiast would not find the systems that govern the making of characters too lacking.
(However, those hoping for very advanced rules like Prestige Classes would be disappointed though.)
Another change that would be welcome is the overhaul of the inventory screen. In the previous Icewind Dale (and Baldur's Gate) games, the inventory screen used static and ugly figures to represent the visual changes in the player character whose gear is being switched around. The inventory screen in the sequel uses the in-game sprite of the player character instead. Of course, the sprites are not exactly pretty to look at (more on this later), but at least the player will be able to know which player character this is when he/she exits the inventory screen.
The game also comes with detailed in-game tool-tips that help reduce the need to look up the manual, which is good as it preserves immersion.
The player still controls a party of up to six adventurers in the same way as in the previous game (and any earlier game that uses the Infinity Engine); the controls are mainly of the point-and-click sort, with context-sensitive scripts deciding which default action that a player character can perform on a target. Although the cursor icons have issues like tearing when not hardware-accelerated, they do have significant contrast with the environments and models in the game, which helps a lot considering that the action in the sequel is tremendously more frenetic than in the predecessor. Many of the cursor icons also flash they are hovered over a target on which an action can be legally performed.
The story is somewhat a continuation of the one in the previous game. While the crisis in the previous game has been resolved, there were lasting consequences and collateral damage that eventually festered into another crisis that threatens Northern Faerûn. Another call for adventurers and volunteer armies has rung out across the alliance of the Ten Towns, and the player character's party happens to have come from the fractious city of Luskan.
(In a neat move, the game includes surprisingly well-written default histories for player characters of any class, which may impress players who are really into role-playing.)
They arrive in the harbor town of Targos to find it already under severe siege from a horde of barbaric creatures that range from goblins and orcs to ogres and bugbears. In fact, the party is immediately thrown into a skirmish with no tutorial whatsoever. This may not please players who would rather have a gradual build-up of excitement.
On the other hand, such an intro emphasizes the focus on battles in Icewind Dale II, and conveniently the first battle that the party will get involved in is the easiest in the game (assuming that he/she is playing on normal settings); a bunch of confused and angry goblins make for very easy fodder for a party of level 1 characters.
Targos' status as a harbor town and the front-line in the war against said horde also means that it is filled with some supplies that had been overlooked in the chaos and are free for the player to loot. Coincidentally, these are very basic items that are meant to introduce the general functions of the different categories of items and gear that the player will find.
The confusion brought about by the sporadic goblin attacks also makes a great excuse to have the player embark on some early-game quests, which also happen to be associated with the procuring of these basic items. These early quests also serve to deliver the far-higher than average caliber of writing in this game and also the developers' sense of humor and amusement at typical RPG quests.
For example, there are healing draughts located in supply stashes throughout Targos, and the player will be tasked to locate these to aid the defense of Targos. Upon completion of said quest, the party will be rewarded with some extra items as well as hilarious pokes at how unpalatable alchemical products like potions really are (in-universe, that is).
The player's party may start out technically weak, but the challenges that the official campaign of the game will throw at the player are designed such that the progress of the player's party feels seemingly natural, i.e. there are scant few battles throughout the game where the player would feel hopelessly outmatched or would deem a battle of attrition, which is a good change from those in the previous game and - especially - the latter ones of the Baldur's Gate series.
Of course, that is only applicable if the player's party has prepared solutions for these battles or has the capability to prepare such solutions (if the player has to resort to a game reload). The game manual and the hints/tips that the game shows during party creation insist on having a balanced party that has a wide scope of capabilities. If the player would not have this, the game does provide item-based solutions that are conveniently found in supply stashes (abandoned or otherwise) before locations with tricky battles, e.g. fire arrows/bullets in a half-buried crate that is situated some distance away from a lair of ice trolls. Yet, these are not ample and can be easily squandered by a careless player.
This can seem disappointing to players who want to play the game the way they like, and not follow the norms set about by AD&D conventions. On the other hand, determining and executing a solution that one or two party members can execute to quickly resolve a battle can be a very satisfying experience.
(However, it has to be noted here that a party that includes the three main spell-caster archetypes, who are the Druid, Cleric and Wizard, can have so much magical versatility that a playthrough with a party that consists of these three characters is significantly easier than party permutations that do not include all three.)
Like in the previous Infinity Engine games, levels are technically 2D scaffolds draped over with hand-drawn and -painted images, while the models for creatures and characters are inserted into them as animated sprites with very simple shadowing that is not affected by any apparent light sources in the level. This is where the game engine shows its age the most.
However, Black Isle Studios has invested effort into fixing previously existing issues with the Infinity Engine. One of these was that the hitboxes for friendly creatures and characters can get in the way of player characters; Icewind Dale II has addressed this by having any controllable character that is passing through friendly characters "push" away the sprites of the latter as soon as their hitboxes collide. This allows the former to have a clear, almost uninterrupted path through his/her/its allies, and after he/she/it has passed through, the sprites for the latter characters simply move back into their previous places.
Another important improvement has to do with the level designs. Whereas previous Infinity Engine games often have the player's party in somewhat open environments and pretty much open to attacks from many directions with little in the way of hard cover in between them and their enemies, Icewind Dale II's levels have a mixture of open spaces and tight corridors that the player can use to his/her advantage.
Considering that the third edition rules give numerically superior enemies a tangible advantage if they can manage to swarm over their victims, this is a good design decision as it gives players more tactical options for approaching enemy mobs with, even if they have just encountered the mobs for the first time.
The options that the edition 3.5 rules give player characters also help even the odds against the enemies in Icewind Dale II. Of course, the same rules also make enemies more difficult to battle compared to enemies in the previous editions because they happen to be more versatile, but the player's party is composed of characters whose progression can be tweaked and controlled, and not of NPCs with fixed skills, stats and abilities or monsters taken from a bestiary archive.
With all of the aforementioned designs that affect combat, Icewind Dale II is an Infinity Engine game that would not have the player reloading a saved game one too many times, which is a pleasant difference when compared to the other games that used the Engine (especially Throne of Bhaal).
There are many Feats that player characters can take, and the player can see all of these when a character gains a level that allows him/her to take a Feat (though he/she cannot take them if he/she had yet to achieve the requirements). While this does take away any enjoyment that can be had from seeing a new feat pop up, the revealing of all these feats also helps a player plan and track the progress of said character. Some of these can be surprisingly powerful, such as late-game elemental perks that give spell-casters substantial bonuses to their spells and resistances.
In addition to feats, player characters can also be developed in terms of skills. These would be familiar to those who are not a stranger to the new additions that the 3rd. edition rules had introduced and would know that they are meant to supplement the gameplay experience. There are skills that are used in battle, such as Concentration, which spell-casters especially need to make sure that they can cast spells without being interrupted. Then, there are those that help acts of subterfuge, like unlocking doors (and locking them, if possible), and skills that help to determine the nature of unidentified items. (It is worth noting here that there are two major skills that do this: Alchemy, which is needed to identify potions, elixirs and poisons, and Arcane Knowledge, which is used to identify everything else.)
After these, there are skills that are meant for actual role-playing, such as Diplomacy and Intimidate, which are checked against when the player character strikes a conversation with an NPC to see if there are any additional dialogue paths other than the default ones. These can lead to some hilarious writing, such as a certain conversation in the game that has a Bluff-capable character swindling another NPC with honeyed words and double-speak.
Although there are skills that are dedicated towards role-playing, the other skills can also be checked against in some scenarios, which would be a pleasant surprise to players who had been expecting that only the dedicated skills would matter; using these skills to resolve situations will also lead to different outcomes. For example, there are a few moments in the game where the Arcane Knowledge skill would matter, and this may result in the party gaining items or other kinds of benefits that could not be obtained otherwise.
Loot and gear have always been the staple form of reward for any adventurers going on an AD&D campaign. Icewind Dale II delivers this with doles of new magical gear that had yet to be seen in previous AD&D games that run on the Infinity Engine, some of which are deemed so unique that they have significantly long canonical history. Perhaps the best example of these is a certain holy weapon, which while looking humble and unassuming, apparently has a background that is practically a saga unto itself and even has a side-quest associated with it.
Some of these items can be surprisingly powerful, making use of the edition 3.5 rules to have formidable statistics, such as the aforementioned holy weapon that have many properties that are especially nasty towards evil creatures and characters and a certain halberd which has a hate-ridden history and a peculiarly high maximum base damage (for a halberd). They also have rather impressive icons to represent them in the inventory screen.
Unfortunately, while the aging Infinity Engine may do the mechanics and statistics behind these feats, skills and items lots of justice, it does not give them visual or aesthetic splendor. For example, regardless of how many feats that a player character takes, he/she will never change in appearance in any way. Also, passing skill checks that trigger in-game cutscenes will at most only trigger the display of text above characters' heads and some simple animations, but that is just about it. Another example is that a very unique sword will not look much different from any other sword on the sprite of the character that is wielding it.
However, players with ardent imaginations won't find this too much of an issue.
Yet, players that do not and are especially discerning will not only notice these, but also plenty other of what can be deemed graphical setbacks. Understandably, many of them stem from the use of the Infinity Engine, but the developers' attempt to utilize it to produce visual illusions of graphical effects that the Infinity Engine just cannot perform can be quite disappointing to watch.
One of these efforts is the illusion of having character falling from high places. While the artwork for levels may give a sense of verticality, the Infinity Engine has and always been only able to create 2-D environments; attempts to give the impression that a character is falling from higher places or tripping down stairs are really no more than having his/her/its sprite sliding or bobbing across the screen. The same occurs when characters are supposedly being flung across distances.
The very limited animation frames for humanoid player characters further damage the sense of belief of a discerning player. Black Isle apparently has done little to widen the variety of animations for these player characters, instead opting for animations that had been in the libraries of the Infinity Engine since Baldur's Gate II. There may be new sprites to represent new shapes for new equipment items, but the sprites are still animated in the same manner as the sprites of yore.
However, Black Isle has included new sprites for new creatures, such as re-defined sprites for the Ogre-like Bugbears and the snake-like Yuan-ti and their Lizardmen cohorts. Perhaps the most impressive of these are the sprites for metal Golems, which look very imposing. These new sprites are also quite well-animated, having a few sets of animations for any action that they perform. Unfortunately, while these new sprites may be impressive, they also happen to highlight how old and uninspired the sprites for humanoid characters are.
Some of Black Isle's attempts to utilize the Infinity Engine's graphics to the fullest pay off in more convincing manners though. For one, spell effects are more spectacular than those seen in previous Infinity Engine games. The Magic Missile spell, being an early game spell that remains useful throughout much of the game, is the best example of this; the sorcerous bolts that it creates are more brilliant than they had ever been seen in said earlier games. There are also new spells that haven't been in previous Infinity Engine games, and some of these probably would not have even crossed the minds of AD&D veterans that they can be designed for within the Infinity Engine. An example is the Delayed Fireball spell, which is a very, very powerful variant of the Fireball spell that can be used like a magical mine; there were area effect spells in previous Infinity Engine games, but a spell that uses different area effect zones for the separate purposes of proximity sensing and explosion radius had not been done before.
And of course, there is the artwork that is used to furnish levels with. Many of these are impressive, such as a very crude dam that portrays well the rag-tag efforts of the barely organized aforementioned enemy horde to siege Targos. Another notable piece of artwork is the one that is used for the interior of a fortress that has been constructed from magically sculpted ice.
Unfortunately, the aging Infinity Engine has to get in the way of the enjoyment of these visual delights. The game loads quickly and saving and reloading games are a breeze, computing-wise, but getting into the game proper requires a fading-in-from-black, which can sometimes stall and especially so when there are many sprites with graphical effects on-screen (namely player characters with many buffs).
Sound-wise, Black Isle has added onto the library of audio clips that BioWare had used for the sound effects and the utterances of creatures in Throne of Bhaal, though for much of Icewind Dale II's official campaign, its own sounds are heavily recycled, which can be disappointing (more so when they are used on the new sprites). One example would be Giants, which sound like they share the same audio clips with Ogres and Bugbears. The same complaint can be made about spells, though these do benefit from the aforementioned new additions to the library.
The soundtracks are perhaps the most original of the sound designs, the voice-acting notwithstanding (more on this briefly). The music is mainly orchestral, ranging from the thrilling main theme in the main menu and tracks that elicit wonderment and raise the hair on the back of the neck to tracks that warn of impending danger and yet instill grit in the listener. Many of these complement the combat in Icewind Dale II well, and also somewhat compensate for the reduction in immersion caused by the graphics, as mentioned earlier.
The first Icewind Dale was not exactly vaunted for its voice-acting. While there are surprisingly well-written lines in the previous game, only a few characters benefited from voice-acting, and even these are not exactly stellar. Icewind Dall II does not suffer from the same lack of quality voice-acting - quite the contrary, in fact.
Every transition from chapter to chapter is narrated by a certain character that has a small role in the game, but apparently has a voice-actress who is very versatile at delivering the lines of many characters; in fact, she voices several female characters in the game, including some voice-over packages for player characters. Many important villains in the game, especially those that act as the antagonists for chapters and sub-chapters, are voiced; hence, they have the personalities that are needed for the player to feel satisfied from having defeated them.
The infamous/famous Heart of Fury mode returns, generally making combat harder by simply having the game throw much tougher and stronger enemies that still use the same AI scripts at the player. This can seem disappointing at first, especially if the player has already devised working strategies that take advantage of the terrain and flaws in the AI scripting of enemies in the official campaign, which remain the same regardless of difficulty. That is, until the player notices that the loot and gear that this mode offers are different from those that can be obtained through regular difficulties.
In addition to higher experience point gains, the Heart of Fury also offers powerful versions of items that can be looted from enemies and treasure piles or obtained through quests in the same manner as that in a regular campaign. Returning to the example of the aforementioned holy weapon, its version in Heart of Fury is tremendously more powerful and has a more complete backstory in addition.
The game can also be played in multiplayer, accommodating up to six players who play over LAN or over the Internet. Other than each player controlling their character(s), depending on control privileges given to them, the game plays like the single-player mode. This can mean that a bunch of incoherent players may damage the multiplayer experience, what with no programming rules or methods to prevent the party from separating in any level and individual characters triggering scripts that they should not alone. The multiplayer mode certainly isn't meant for groups of strangers.
In conclusion, Icewind Dale II may have been evidential of Black Isle's refusal to let go of the aging Infinity Engine, but the implementation of edition 3.5 AD&D rules and a slew of minor enhancements also showcased Black Isle's ingenuity at working with whatever they had at the time. Icewind Dale II can thus be considered one of the more well-crafted games that use the Infinity Engine.