Interface

Familiar Comfort

If you played Baldur's Gate at all, you'll be totally at home with the IWD interface. It's as slick and crisp as ever, holding up quite well with age. There are a few differences, but it's mostly cosmetic changes that you will notice. The interface graphics have been changed to reflect the new game of course, and they are more appealing than either of the two previous Infinity Engine games. The interface is where, in fact, you start getting into the mood of the game. It's got a gloomy but sober feel to it.

Where am I?

Goblins! Baha, finally!

The controls aren't perfect however, as the interface is hampered by bugs. Sometimes it takes two or three clicks to select a character by his portrait, which is a very basic action. It's even worse when you are targeting a monster. Some of the puzzles are completely interface-related too. A few times in the game it's so dark that we found ourselves scanning the mouse over the entire screen, hoping that a selectable switch or door would light up under the cursor. It's more of an art/design or gameplay issue, but finding an entrance or switch this way is tedious. Similarly, dungeons look awesome - beautiful mazes - but they don't do anything for pathfinding. Characters are smarter than they were in BG by bumping others out of their way, but they still get lost.

Best kind of goblins too - dead ones!

Hey! The Unwashed Villagers!

Sound Off

The sound effects are stock Baldur's Gate. They were pretty good back then and have aged gracefully, not losing much over time. You can hear your characters walking, doors open, weapons clang and spells being cast. Ambient sound effects seem significantly improved and keep the believability up the few times you're outside of a dungeon.

Bitter man

Wipe the drool

Speech is passable. The voices are sometimes comically over the top, but generally they're just overdone. The female voices in particular feel amateur and childish - they take away from the mood a lot more than they bring it. Still, at least none of them are dull.

The music is fantastic. It pulls you in, helps set the tempo, and accompanies settings and fights like in no other RPG before it. The tunes only come in when necessary and do so without disturbing the mood. It is, predictably, orchestral music with a classical bent, but manages to be quite suitable even in the barbaric Dale.