Icewind Dale (2000)

Whew. What a journey. Completed it today. Somewhere towards the end I had moved the difficulty to "Normal" from "Core Rules" to learn a bunch of spells without failing. I forgot to turn it back. So Ch 6 was all done on Normal. Otherwise it was all on Core Rules, except for when I accidentally stumbled into Trials of the Luremaster at level 12 and it was genuinely impossible (and you can't leave either!), so I put it on Easy for a couple rooms so I could progress. It was fun, but towards the end I got a little exhausted with Buff Party -> Save -> Battle - > Rest loop, but that's because I had a crappy party composition, I think. Still fun. I grew more attached to these characters than your standard allies from, say, Baldur's Gate. Ugh so much to say. Maybe I'll get around to it tomorrow.

OK I hit my stride. I bumbled into Heart of Winter (still in Ch 3 of main campaign) and was getting demolished, but I tweaked my spells and leaned into my summons and I've been having fun with it since. While in Heart of Winter, I subsequently bumbled into Trials of the Luremaster (a tertiary adventure), and it's been a challenge. Not impossible, though. Well, OK it had its difficulty spikes, but I'm finally inside the castle now with those Spectral Guards that will aggro and destroy me). Having fun, but I'm eager to get back to the Heart of Winter story.

Losing steam on this in Chapter 3. I will try my best to keep the momentum up so I don't drop it. But man, these dungeons are so long. Also I made a major mistake in the party construction in the name of some role-playing, and my wizard is totally gimped. I guess I forgot how rare spell scrolls are, and the specialization I chose can't learn fireball. Ever. I guess I just forgot how good that, and other Evocation spells, are. And in a game that's 99% combat...oof. Still, I'll do my best to chug along and finish it.

Finally got around to this, and it's finally sticking. Still in the prologue, but I hit that "just one more door...just one more room...just one more quest..." stride. This is how all infinity engine games work for me. "Start a new game, don't get anywhere, stop playing, try again in 24 months. Repeat 4-6 times." I have been trying to play this series since 2002 when I bought the boxed copy of Icewind Dale 2 at an EB games at the mall. The cover was so cool. But the game felt impenetrable to me. I tried again over the next 20 years to get into it. It's finally happening. High school me would be happy.