I've had BG2 for some time now, but never gone into it (still mucking about in Irenicus' dungeon).

I'm thinking of getting IWD and its expansion HoW. Could any kind soul tell me in brief what the differences are between IWD & BG2? Eg I've heard that IWD is more "combat intensive".

Thanks in advance.

Hello Lukas http://www.tgeweb.com/ironworks/cgi-...es/biggrin.gif, yeah IwD is much more dungeon exploring and less quests...but it is still a great game!

------------------
"Oh King to whom all birds are dear, speed now this feathered shaft, and recall some pity for the Noldor in their need."
-Fingon's prayer to Manwë as he prepared to shoot Maedhros

BTW...In IWD you focus more on the party than on a single hero...you can create all your partymembers yourself! And IWD is more multiplayer friendly than Baldurs Gate or ToTSC.

------------------
"Oh King to whom all birds are dear, speed now this feathered shaft, and recall some pity for the Noldor in their need."
-Fingon's prayer to Manwë as he prepared to shoot Maedhros

IWD is meant to be without a storyline for a main character - as far as they (the game people) are concerned, you are only an adventurer, nothing special. In Baldur's Gate - there is a definate storyline attached to the main character - you - so if you die it is a big deal. IWD you die, you go get resurrected.

IWD has no NPCs as such, so all the characters are you. It is also easier to multiplayer.

IWD is a bit more hack and slash, but it is fun stuff and amusing. Be prepared for undead and big monsters. Not as much mental combat as BG.

------------------
There are no right answers - only answers that won't bite you back.

That's why I bought IWD it's closer to the PNP style of story. Your just 6 regualar avanturers looking for a start. when the globlins attack for the first time it's was hard! IWD keep a part of the spirt of pnp, My caracters are around lv8 and they won't be lving up soon. At Lv8 monsters are tought solo fight but as a team they fight great! It a great dungeon crawl!

Bg2, Your the son of a god (can anyone say Hercules)in bg1 starting out was abit of a chalange but once you finished Nashakel Mines wham! So much Exp to be had you would level up in no time flat. In Bg2 your already a strong caracter and towards the end there was little team work. I usualy take four of my strongest cars on a runabout and sometimes just one was powerful enghou to fight or hold off the ennemy. Bg1&Bg2 is more an epic adventure!

Call me crazy, but I liked the feel and the whole atmosphere of IWD and HOW better than Baldur's Gate. I guess I just like the great outdoors http://www.tgeweb.com/ironworks/cgi-...iles/smile.gif
Its a really good game. I've just completed it again and Im restarting to get my characters on a high enough level to actually go through Heart of Winter with relative ease..Imagine a party around 11-14 levels and having trouble with 6 barbarians and a bunch of barrel wights.

------------------
Why?

I'm playing IWD for the first time right now, and I'm enjoying the focus on hack-n-slash. However, since the game is pretty much a series of dungeon crawls, I am getting a bit weary of the dark indoor scenes. Makes me long for the bright, wide-open spaces of BG1!

I also found the choice of spells at the first spell merchant in the game to be quite limited. His selection upgrades at one point in the game, but I think the upgrade should have occured earlier in the game.

Overall though, the game is great and it has the best music soundtrack of any game I've played. Enjoy!

Something to note with IWD. I reached the last encounter, but had NOT reached my xp cap. As a result, the end guy kicks my ass! So I recommend upping the difficulty until that point, just to spped up your XP gains in IWD

Lillie.

I think you'll find he upgrades his spells after every time you do a new area.

Lord Shield. I'm fairly close to the end but light years away from the XP cap. How does upping the difficulty increase XP gains, increased encounters? I'm above normal diff' anyway.

------------------
One love, peace.

yeeeha! play HoF mode, fun fun fun. but bored after chapter 4, because the encounter strategy is ALWAYS the same.