IWD or DiabloII???

[Maximus]

Hi guys,

OK, I'm thinking of buying a new RPG. I own Planescape:Torment, but haven't played it in a long time, for I thought it was a way bit too narrow in its adventure. Being centered around only one character. Yes it's storyline was super and all, but lost interest in its quests.

My question is: How is IWD, compared to DII or other Dungeon Creepers? I like the graphic detail in IWD, but the pre-rendered environment is somewhat of a turn-off as compared to the randomly generated levels of the Diablos.

No slam intended here, I just want to know what the fans of IWD think is a better genre of game system, the BioWare Infinity game engine or Blizzard's game engine?

Thanks,

[Maximus]

Thanks, the reason I asked is because I just went into my local software retailer and they had both games featured in an end-aisle display along with KISS: Psycho Circus (out of all things). And after comparing the two former games, IWD looks to have a deeper classic D&D gameplay. IMHO, Blizzard really screwed the pooch delaying DiabloII so long and only coming out with an out-dated game, which is what I was afraid of 8 months ago!

On a second note, I never bought Baldur's Gate, although I contemplated it several times. Tried to get the bundle pack with Tales of the Sword Coast but could never find it when I wanted it. Besides, I'll probably check out Baldur's Gate II and Neverwinter Nights when they come out.

IWD is great if u like forgotten realms stuff, though it is very different from the book.
don't play Diablo2, cus it sux. i dislike the 'save and exit' part where once u die u die and have to start all over again. though the randomly generated maps sound fun, it exactly not much, i really regreted wasting my time playing diablo2 when i could try IWD out, but that is up to u.

I just uninstalled Diablo 2 half-way through the second act. The game is atrocious. The levels are boring and repetitive -- kill monster. Kill bigger version of same monster. Kill REALLY big version of same monster. Wash rinse repeat. And the monsters -- in ID, you had two types of giants that looked dramatically different from one another, both in costume and detail. Diablo 2 just changes the color and slaps a new name on them and bingo! New monster! But the biggest crime is that there is NO way to simply save the game if you want to stop playing. Well, you can, but everything you just spent the last two hours killing will simply respawn, forcing you to kill everything AGAIN simply to get back to where you left off. When I complained about this on one of the Diablo 2 forums, I was told that 1) I was whining because I didn't want to enjoy the game, I just wanted to "rush through and finish it," 2) That re-killing these monsters was a good way to get higher levels so I could use the more powerful magic items in the game, and 3) That the save function was due to the difficuly of saving individual maps in multi-player mode. So basically, the game seems to be catered towards power players who want to show off their really cool magical items while playing online. And when I mentioned how superior I thought ID was to D2, all they could say was that "ID multi-player sucks!" BG2 can't get here fast enough...

AD&D have the best RPG game i know, with superb graphic (excatly handpainted) and good storyline. i heard KISS is pretty good too, maybe i will try that out but at the mean time i am occupy with IWD.

Diablo is cool first of all
secondly iwd sucks a bad repica of bg wich was good

I'll admit firsthand that I enjoyed Diablo, but I only played it once. I figured that I would have gotten bored with it later on. My friends have Diablo 2, but they said that it did nothing for them. There was no strategy involved. I liked IWD so much better than Diablo (and I microwaved that copy!). As for the graphics...IWD wins that battle hands down because the color is so much better! But nothing compares to Nox...man what colors in that game! Unreal colors!

Hmm, What do you guys think of an AD&D game using an Unreal Tournament engine? (Quake 3 sucked goat...is brown the only color that it can produce?!?)

i can tell u one thing, that Diablo2 sux big time. it follow one stupid concept and that is - go to A, find B and kill C - what the heck is this !!!!
i prefer IWD and BG as they have side quest unlike diablo where all the quest are necessary for u to go to the next act. furthermore AD&D is more logical. Diablo is one game that as long as your level is high u can kill everthing - BORING - when i first started it is pretty good but as i go along i realise how dumb that game was, that is how i feel i don't know about u all.

pretty good i guess but i still prefer those handpainted graphic, that is so beatiful.

Well, I thought I'd give a genuine comparison here, rather than say that one or the other "sux" and leave it at that. In fact, I've loved both games, for different reasons, which I'll share with you.

Diablo II, like the one before it, focuses more on action and fast-paced fighting rather than deep story, but people who say that there's no strategy to the game are the same ones who never beat the game. The fun in D2 comes from killing huge mobs of (admittedly semi-redundant) monsters, finding new and better items, and customizing your character to match your style of play by choosing your favorite class, and favorite set of skills within that class. Some choices are far superior to others, but that doesn't stop people from playing strange variants from Barbarians that use only throwing weapons to Sorceresses who use sword and shield instead of relying on magic.

Icewind Dale, on the other hand, is a true dungeon crawl for fans of AD&D and RPGs in general. You create a party of adventurers, and take on a tough quest filled with interesting dungeon locales and exciting tactical battles. The story here really isn't much deeper than that of Diablo II, but what gives this game the edge is that at least there's interactive dialogue, and it *feels* like you're making choices... though in fact, no matter what you say, the story progresses almost identically every time (there are a few exceptions, however).

Let's face it... graphically speaking, these two games are similar. They both use hand-painted sprites, and an isometric point of view. IWD, however, wins in that you can up it to 800x600, and also supports more colors.

As far as multi-player goes, Diablo II has it all over Icewind Dale. IWD's multi-player is not very stable at all, even when everyone involved has extremely fast connections and high-end hardware. D2's multi-player is alot cleaner, but altogether not worth it unless you're playing with a group of friends... otherwise, you end up basically playing single player with other characters that happen to be in the same game as you.

So truthfully, the choice shouldn't be on which game is better, because both these games are alot of fun. The choice you make should depend on which you like more... a fun RPG modeled very faithfully in the AD&D universe, or a visceral, fast-paced hack-fest? If you like both equally, then you can't go wrong no matter what you choose... or in my case, choose both and not have to buy another game 'till BG2 arrives!