Icewind Dale (2000)
RPG

Publisher	Black Isle Studios
Developer	BioWare Corp.
Series	Dungeons & Dragons

The game takes place in the frozen northern part of the Forgotten Realms known as Icewind Dale. This harsh and cold area is separated from the rest of the world from a very rough mountain range called the Spine of the World. The game starts out in one of the ten towns of the Dale, and you must make your way into the Spine of the World mountain range (and under it) for a classic hack and slash dungeon crawl.

It may be a good idea to take a strong, balanced group through this adventure because the environments are harsh and unforgiving and you will be in a lot of battles throughout the course of the game. The amount of combat in this game makes the last couple AD&D titles seem like Hello Kitty games in comparison. Nearly every area is infested with hordes of critters to kill, and they get progressively more difficult as you get deeper and deeper into the dungeons. While that may take a little while to get used to, it fits the theme of the game perfectly, and gives combat a whole other level.

As in Baldur's Gate, there is an extensive multiplayer mode supporting networks, Internet, and the now rarely used modem and serial cable options. Multiplayer is slightly more stable than in Baldur's, but there are still some bugs to iron out. The Black Isle team is already working on a patch that focuses on multiplay (the beta version has been released as of this writing) so these problems should be addressed pretty quickly.