History VideoGame / IcewindDale

!'''Both games provide examples of:'''

* AffectionateParody: It may be just this troper's opinion, but... the villains [[LargeHam trying way too hard]] [[PurpleProse to be dramatic]], the completely deadpan journal entries, the hilariously sarcastic dialogue choices, the {{Narm}} in the keg and support beam "deaths"... not to mention that keg-slaying axe... is this a mockery of the seriousness of [[BaldursGate]] or what ?

* LegionOfDoom: The Legion of the Chimera made alliances with Kuldahar's enemies: the Yuan-ti of Dragon Eye to the Aurilites.

* TheBladeAlwaysLandsPointyEndIn: An inversion. There is an axe that will always land ''hilt'' first.

* DeadpanSnarker: Whoever happens to be writing your journal, and possibly whoever does the talking as well.

* AllStarCast: The voicing acting credits include TonyJay, Creator/MichaelBell, JimCummings, Creator/TaraStrong, and John Kassir aka [[TalesFromTheCrypt The Cryptkeeper]]. And that's just the first game's major characters.

* HeyItsThatVoice: Kresselack is voiced by TonyJay, who also played the BigBad in Planescape Torment.

''Icewind Dale'' is a pair of games set in the ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' and made by Black Isle using the Infinity Engine. As you may guess from the title, they occur primarily in the Icewind Dale region, a windy, snowing valley in an area called the Ten Towns in the Spine of the World mountain, far to the north of towns like Neverwinter and Luskan.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The designers initially wanted the game to follow the 2nd edition rules. In the end, they changed it to the 3rd.

* BadassBaritone: Kresselack, voiced by Tony Jay, combines this with BarbarianHero, WarriorPrince, TheCaligula and BlackKnight.

* AnAxeToGrind: Unlike Baldur's Gate, ice-wind Dale has two-handed axes.

** When asked about her gift of sight, the Gloomfrost Seer makes a cryptic reference to a "[[PlanescapeTorment black-brambled garden]]", [[spoiler:thus proving herself to be one of Ravel Puzzlewell's avatars.]]

** The Razorvine Extract subquest given by Bandoth is a reference to PlanescapeTorment.

** The elven bladesinger Lethias in the Severed Hand can sometimes be found muttering ''"The needs of the many..."'', a likely reference to Leonard Nimoy's Spock in StarTrekII.

* ArtifactOfDoom: [[spoiler:The Crenshinibon, taken from ''Literature/TheIcewindDaleTrilogy.'']]

* CrowningMusicofAwesome: Holy. Freaking. Cow. Man! The Music!! THE MUSIC!!!

** RandomlyDrops

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: [[spoiler: Ilmadia join [[BigBad Belhifet]]'s army in the first game so her elven ancestral home, the Severed Hand, would be restored to its former glory. She got her wish in the second game: she gave birth to Belhifet's children. 30 years later they rebuilt the Severed Hand, only it's now a haven for [[EvilSorcerer Red Wizards]], slavers, demons, general outcasts, and the rebuilt tower is dedicated to the worship of [[ReligionOfEvil Iyachtu Xvim.]]]]

* ButICantBePregnant: [[spoiler: The backstory of Ilmadia, [[BigBad Big Bads]]' mother.]]

* EasilyAngeredShopkeeper: That one bi-lady who runs the shop in Targos. No wonder she was sent far away by the family.

** During the introduction you can come across a dead cat. Any experienced player would probably pick the thing up and keep it with him hoping it's be the solution to some quest and he'd get some easy experience. After solving the, err, "mystery" of how the cat died, the "culprit" asks you why the hells are you carrying a dead cat around, to which your response is that you [[GenreSavvy were kind of hoping it'd be the solution to somebody's problem and that I could learn something from the experience.]] [[strike:[[RedHerring It's not, and you don't]]]]. And sure enough, the cat's owner ''is'' wondering about what happened to it, and you can get 300 XP for bringing the carcass to her and telling her who the culprit is after you have obtained his confession.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: In the backstory, it's explained that a priestess from the previous game, Mother Egenia, buried EVERYONE that were killed in the first game. However, she resurrected Ilmadia, one of [[BigBad Big Bad's]] general's, out of sorrow. This led to the birth of [[DualBoss Isair and Madae]], the Big Bads for this game.]]

** One random item found is "[[LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe The Death Adder's Dragon-Shield]]". Its description matches story elements from [[GoldenAxe Golden Axe]] and [[GoldenAxe The Revenge of Death Adder]].

''Icewind Dale'' is a pair of games set in the ForgottenRealms and made by Black Isle using the Infinity Engine. As you may guess from the title, they occur primarily in the Icewind Dale region, a windy, snowing valley in an area called the Ten Towns in the Spine of the World mountain, far to the north of towns like Neverwinter and Luskan.

Interestingly, Icewind Dale (and its sequel) has the player create an entire party (rather than one character), lending the games more of a 'dungeon crawl' theme than Black Isle's previous Infinity Engine titles: BaldursGate and PlanescapeTorment. Plot is sparse, but not 'shoehorned in'; rather, the game is written in such a way that the player can follow the plot as tightly as he desires, or ignore it entirely in favor of some quick monster-bashing.

* ArtifactOfDoom: [[spoiler:The Crenshinibon, taken from ''[[TheIcewindDaleTrilogy The Icewind Dale Trilogy.]]'']]

* BonusBoss: Icewind Dale II has two of these, both within the same chapter. The first is a [[spoiler:black dragon in the "Crossroads", which can be killed to close the teleport to Kuldahar.]] Players don't actually have to fight it, and can achieve their goal in a much easier way, but the difficulty of the battle alone makes it worth it for many players. The other boss is [[spoiler:the Six Lost Followers, in the Kuldahar graveyard. This is regarded by many to be the hardest fight in the game, because A) there are six different enemies to fight at once, B) they are several levels higher than your party, and C) because each has only a few specific weaknesses, being immune to all other forms of attack, and with the weaknesses being different between each member.]] Victory gives the player the Holy Avenger, arguably the best weapon in the game. Unfortunately, this pisses off quite a few people itself, as the weapon can only be wielded by a Paladin, meaning that there is no reward for anyone without a Paladin in their party.

* ShoutOut: Most obviously, you will find plenty of leftover stories and tales about the original party in ''Icewind Dale I''.

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