Though based on the Infinity Engine, which powers the Baldur's Gate series, Icewind Dale is less focused on story and character development than those games. Even though it's mechanically identical to Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale is more spiritually similar to the Diablo series, in that the primary driver for the game is combat, leveling up the party, and collecting more-and-more powerful equipment.From the get-go, the player creates a party of up to six characters, which fall into the classes offered in the 2nd Edition AD&D Rules. There is little-to-no backstory for any of the characters, unless the player chooses to create one, and limited personality to each party member beyond their stats. In contrast, Baldur's Gate allowed the player to create one main character with all of the other party members being predefined and joining the party as they were encountered. There is little backstory to the entire game. The player's band of adventurers have arrived at Icewind Dale, looking for work, and are asked to investigate strange goings-on in a nearby town. This sets the party off to battle hundreds of different enemies and save the North. The party doesn't affect the outcome of the story much, as the only option is to cut down everything in their path. Thus, considerations like moral alignment are rendered moot. The party is a buzzsaw, cutting through anything it encounters.While Icewind Dale shares its name and location with the trilogy of books by R.A. Salvatore's, there is no overlap with its story beyond passing mention of a few events and characters, such as Drizzt Do'Urden. Because the game takes place during the Time of Troubles, the Drizzt character is busy elsewhere and not in the neighborhood of the locations in the Icewind Dale game. However, if you want to meet Drizzt in a game, check out Baldur's Gate.Soundtrack The award-winning soundtrack was composed by Jeremy Soule and arranged by Charles Deenen, Scott Everts, Adam Levenson and Ron Valdez. When asked about which scores he was most proud of, Soule mentioned Icewind Dale. GameSpot awarded it the 'Best Music' award in 2000 and saidEach game nominated this year has excellent music that works well, but the musical score for Icewind Dale is unmatched in both quality and scope.# - Track Name - Duration01 The Tale Of Icewind Dale (Movie 1) 4:5502 Icewind Dale Theme 1:4903 Easthaven In Peace 1:1404 Hrothgar's Home 0:5805 Temple Of Tempus 1:4806 The Lost Caravan 1:1407 Drums Of The Dead 1:1608 Avalanche At The Pass (Movie 2) 1:2209 Kuldahar Theme 1:2110 Arundel's Home 1:0411 Vale Of Shadows 1:2312 Lysan's Lair 1:2113 Kresselack's Tomb 1:0914 Kresselack's Lair 0:4815 Temple Of The Forgotten God Entrance 0:5216 Temple Of The Forgotten God Interior 0:4917 Heartstone Shrine 0:2118 The Dragon's Eye 1:3119 Yxunomei's Lair 0:3320 Severed Hand Entrance 0:4521 Severed Hand Interior 1:3122 The Mage Tower 0:5623 Lerrel's Daughter 0:1924 Lerrel's Astrolab 0:3925 The Heartstone Gem (Movie 3) 1:0726 Upper Dorn's Keep Entrance 1:0227 Upper Dorn's Keep Interior 1:1928 Drow & Orog Gate 1:2129 Umber Hulk Labyrinth 1:2930 The Wyrm's Tooth Entrance 0:4531 Aquarium Of Alkonos 1:3032 Frost Giant Cave 1:1933 Lower Dorn's Deep 1:2334 Svirfneblin Refugee Camp 1:0835 Marketh's Palace 1:0136 Artisan's District 0:4837 The Fallen Temple 1:0038 Belhifet's Doom 1:2039 Return To Easthaven 1:1740 Easthaven In Pieces 0:5841 Success 2:28In addition, the CD also contained 10 bonus tracks not listed on the back cover, bringing the total duration of the CD to 64:16.AvailabilityOn October 6, 2010 CD Projekt announced and released the game along with its two expansions, Heart of Winter and Trials of The Luremaster, for their digital distribution service GOG.com (Good Old Games) for .99 US. This version is guaranteed to be both Windows Vista and Windows 7 compatible.PC RequirementsOriginal RequirementsMinimumCPU Type: Pentium IICPU Speed in MHz: 233 MHzRAM: 32MBHard Drive Space: 600MBSound Card: DirectX certifiedCD Drive Speed: 4XGraphics Type: SVGAColor Depth: 16-bitGraphics Resolution(s): 640x480Compatible Devices: mouse, keyboardSoftware (DirectX 5.0, etc.): DirectX 7 or higherMulti-playerModem Speed: 28.8 KbpsGood Old Games versionWindows XP or Windows Vista1 GHz Processor (1.4 GHz recommended)256MB RAM (512 recommended)3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended), Mouse, Keyboard.
