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The Infinity Engine - The best RPGs the world has ever known are only on IE
Pancake
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Registered User regular
The Infinity Engine
The Infinity Engine is a 2D engine built in-house by BioWare Corp to power the latest and greatest games running on the 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons ruleset and saw its first release on December 21, 1998. It drove five separate games and four expansion packs until it fell out of use in 2002.
Not an incredibly versatile engine, nor the easiest to work with, or even the prettiest, it has still managed to power some of the most compelling and complex role-playing experiences to date, from sprawling epics across the Sword Coast to heart wrenching and emotional planehopping adventures to discover one's self to slogs through dungeons fighting the fiercest creatures in Faerun's Frozen North, the Infinity Engine never failed to deliver an amazing experience that constantly built on what was done before.
The Best Games Ever Made
Baldur's Gate
It all began on December 21, 1998, when a small, largely unknown developer from Canada that happened to have been founded by two medical doctors released the game that singlehandedly revitalized the dying RPG genre.
Building upon what had been done in previous AD&D CRPGs, BioWare built Baldur's Gate, a large, sprawling game set around the Forgotten Realms city of Baldur's Gate.
You are a young orphan of your choice of gender, race, class, appearance, and voice that has been raised in the monastic fortress library of Candlekeep under the tutelage of the wizard Gorion. You and your foster father are to be leaving Candlekeep today, though he won't tell you why or where you're going. After leaving, it's only a short while before you're ambushed by a large man in dark and intimidating armor who speaks to Gorion about wanting his ward. Gorion yells for you to run and stays behind to delay pursuit.
In the morning you're met by your old childhood friend Imoen who followed you out of Candlekeep unbeknownst to Gorion and she joins you. Now you two are alone and stranded in the wilderness of the Sword Coast with only a letter left behind by Gorion suggesting you seek some of his friends at the Friendly Arms Inn.
Planescape: Torment
Almost a year later, on December 12, 1999, Planescape: Torment was released, making it the second game to have used the Infinity Engine and the third game total for Interplay-owned developer Black Isle Studios. It is constantly hailed as one of the deepest and most meaningful RPGs ever made if not the deepest and most meaningful RPG ever made. It's filled to the brim with interesting characters and interactions, rich role-playing possibilities, and a storyline interesting, twisting, and heart wrenching.
You are the Nameless One, a heavily scarred man who wakes up inside a mortuary after having been brought there as a corpse. You have no memory of who you are or where you've been and you seemingly cannot die. With a cryptic message carved into your back and a floating talking skull your only companion, you set off into the city of Sigil to discover who you are, what you've done, and why you cannot die, and one question above all will follow you on your quest.
What can change the nature of a man?
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale was Black Isle's second IE game and was released on June 20, 2000 and marked the first dungeon crawler on the Infinity Engine. It takes away the compelling plots and character interaction of the previous games and instead throws you into a hack and slash adventure across the Frozen North in a series of challenging and compelling encounters.
Your band of adventurers has found itself in Easthaven, one of the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale, the northernmost region of Faerun. It's a cold and inhospitable place populated with the some of the fiercest and most cunning creatures to walk the surface of the continent. You've taken to resting in the town's tavern when your party is approached by Hrothgar, leader of Easthaven, who asks you to take part in an expedition to the nearby town of Kuldahar. Word has come that strange things are afoot and Hrothgar wants to investigate.
The expedition starts as it should, but soon the caravan is ambushed by giants and you're waylaid in the wilderness of Icewind Dale.
Baldur's Gate 2
Baldur's Gate 2 marked the second and last BioWare game to be made with the Infinity Engine. It was released on September 24, 2000 to wide acclaim and commercial success, outdoing every single IE game thus far. The series remains large and sprawling and decidedly amazing and has moved down from Baldur's Gate to Amn and most specifically centering around the city of Athkatla, the City of Coin, a city built around mercantilism and all the scheming and backstabbing both literal and figurative that entails.
Having survived the events of the first game, you have been capture near the city of Baldur's Gate by unknown assailants. They have transported you to a dungeon in an unknown location along with your compatriots and you have been kept there for an indeterminant amount of time. You and Imoen have been tortured and broken and experimented upon by the crazed mage Irenicus.
It isn't long before his lair is assaulted by unknown attackers dressed in black and Imoen seizes the opportunity and escapes before releasing you. Finding a few old allies and one new, you must make your escape and reach the surface, wherever that may be.
Finally reaching the surface, you stumble out into Athkatla's Waukeen's Promenade and straight into a magical battle. Irenicus in his show of magical strength in dealing with his attackers has attracked the attention of Amn's Cowled Wizards who seek to capture and imprison him. He eventually relents and allows himself to be taken, but demands that if he is to be taken, so is Imoen.
And now the race is on to find Imoen and Jon Irenicus in the fortress prison of Spellhold and find what it is Irenicus wants and why he needs it so badly.
Icewind Dale 2
Icewind Dale is the third IE game to be made by Black Isle and overall the last IE game to ever be made and see commercial sales. Released on August 27, 2002, Icewind Dale 2 is a very similar experience to the first Icewind Dale but for one difference: Icewind Dale 2 is the first and only Infinity Engine game to use the 3rd Edition D&D ruleset.
Your party is a band of adventurers out of the city of Luskan responding to a plea for help from the town of Targos, another one of the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale. As our adventurers arrive at the town via ship, the find the docks and all its ships ablaze. Goblins are attacking and you have to put them down. While that's fairly easily done, soon the main force attacks and your party and a few ragtag defenders are all that stands between the goblin forces and Targos.
The Mods
The Infinity Engine was never designed for easy modding and was never really intended to be modded, but a few enterprising individuals have figured out how to do it quickly and easily and with a minimum of mod conflicts and game breaking problems.
As of now, there is a staggering number of mods for the IE games, all of varying quality, of course, but you can find nearly all of them at the Pocket Plane Group's modlist: http://modlist.pocketplane.net/
The Infinity Engine is a 2D engine built in-house by BioWare Corp to power the latest and greatest games running on the 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons ruleset and saw its first release on December 21, 1998. It drove five separate games and four expansion packs until it fell out of use in 2002.
Not an incredibly versatile engine, nor the easiest to work with, or even the prettiest, it has still managed to power some of the most compelling and complex role-playing experiences to date, from sprawling epics across the Sword Coast to heart wrenching and emotional planehopping adventures to discover one's self to slogs through dungeons fighting the fiercest creatures in Faerun's Frozen North, the Infinity Engine never failed to deliver an amazing experience that constantly built on what was done before.
The Best Games Ever Made
Baldur's Gate
It all began on December 21, 1998, when a small, largely unknown developer from Canada that happened to have been founded by two medical doctors released the game that singlehandedly revitalized the dying RPG genre.
Building upon what had been done in previous AD&D CRPGs, BioWare built Baldur's Gate, a large, sprawling game set around the Forgotten Realms city of Baldur's Gate.
You are a young orphan of your choice of gender, race, class, appearance, and voice that has been raised in the monastic fortress library of Candlekeep under the tutelage of the wizard Gorion. You and your foster father are to be leaving Candlekeep today, though he won't tell you why or where you're going. After leaving, it's only a short while before you're ambushed by a large man in dark and intimidating armor who speaks to Gorion about wanting his ward. Gorion yells for you to run and stays behind to delay pursuit.
In the morning you're met by your old childhood friend Imoen who followed you out of Candlekeep unbeknownst to Gorion and she joins you. Now you two are alone and stranded in the wilderness of the Sword Coast with only a letter left behind by Gorion suggesting you seek some of his friends at the Friendly Arms Inn.
Planescape: Torment
Almost a year later, on December 12, 1999, Planescape: Torment was released, making it the second game to have used the Infinity Engine and the third game total for Interplay-owned developer Black Isle Studios. It is constantly hailed as one of the deepest and most meaningful RPGs ever made if not the deepest and most meaningful RPG ever made. It's filled to the brim with interesting characters and interactions, rich role-playing possibilities, and a storyline interesting, twisting, and heart wrenching.
You are the Nameless One, a heavily scarred man who wakes up inside a mortuary after having been brought there as a corpse. You have no memory of who you are or where you've been and you seemingly cannot die. With a cryptic message carved into your back and a floating talking skull your only companion, you set off into the city of Sigil to discover who you are, what you've done, and why you cannot die, and one question above all will follow you on your quest.
What can change the nature of a man?
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale was Black Isle's second IE game and was released on June 20, 2000 and marked the first dungeon crawler on the Infinity Engine. It takes away the compelling plots and character interaction of the previous games and instead throws you into a hack and slash adventure across the Frozen North in a series of challenging and compelling encounters.
Your band of adventurers has found itself in Easthaven, one of the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale, the northernmost region of Faerun. It's a cold and inhospitable place populated with the some of the fiercest and most cunning creatures to walk the surface of the continent. You've taken to resting in the town's tavern when your party is approached by Hrothgar, leader of Easthaven, who asks you to take part in an expedition to the nearby town of Kuldahar. Word has come that strange things are afoot and Hrothgar wants to investigate.
The expedition starts as it should, but soon the caravan is ambushed by giants and you're waylaid in the wilderness of Icewind Dale.
Baldur's Gate 2
Baldur's Gate 2 marked the second and last BioWare game to be made with the Infinity Engine. It was released on September 24, 2000 to wide acclaim and commercial success, outdoing every single IE game thus far. The series remains large and sprawling and decidedly amazing and has moved down from Baldur's Gate to Amn and most specifically centering around the city of Athkatla, the City of Coin, a city built around mercantilism and all the scheming and backstabbing both literal and figurative that entails.
Having survived the events of the first game, you have been capture near the city of Baldur's Gate by unknown assailants. They have transported you to a dungeon in an unknown location along with your compatriots and you have been kept there for an indeterminant amount of time. You and Imoen have been tortured and broken and experimented upon by the crazed mage Irenicus.
It isn't long before his lair is assaulted by unknown attackers dressed in black and Imoen seizes the opportunity and escapes before releasing you. Finding a few old allies and one new, you must make your escape and reach the surface, wherever that may be.
Finally reaching the surface, you stumble out into Athkatla's Waukeen's Promenade and straight into a magical battle. Irenicus in his show of magical strength in dealing with his attackers has attracked the attention of Amn's Cowled Wizards who seek to capture and imprison him. He eventually relents and allows himself to be taken, but demands that if he is to be taken, so is Imoen.
And now the race is on to find Imoen and Jon Irenicus in the fortress prison of Spellhold and find what it is Irenicus wants and why he needs it so badly.
Icewind Dale 2
Icewind Dale is the third IE game to be made by Black Isle and overall the last IE game to ever be made and see commercial sales. Released on August 27, 2002, Icewind Dale 2 is a very similar experience to the first Icewind Dale but for one difference: Icewind Dale 2 is the first and only Infinity Engine game to use the 3rd Edition D&D ruleset.
Your party is a band of adventurers out of the city of Luskan responding to a plea for help from the town of Targos, another one of the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale. As our adventurers arrive at the town via ship, the find the docks and all its ships ablaze. Goblins are attacking and you have to put them down. While that's fairly easily done, soon the main force attacks and your party and a few ragtag defenders are all that stands between the goblin forces and Targos.
The Mods
The Infinity Engine was never designed for easy modding and was never really intended to be modded, but a few enterprising individuals have figured out how to do it quickly and easily and with a minimum of mod conflicts and game breaking problems.
As of now, there is a staggering number of mods for the IE games, all of varying quality, of course, but you can find nearly all of them at the Pocket Plane Group's modlist: http://modlist.pocketplane.net/
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PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Its really stunning how good the infinity engine looks.
Yeah, right.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
Tell that to all the game reviewers that constantly bashed the Infinity Engine games for being 2D with pre-rendered backgrounds rather than late 90's/early 00's 3D.
...
Now I have to go play it again.
Thats because Western gamers, unlike Japanese ones, have a hardon for polygons.
Infinity engine sprites were made the same way as Diablo's, they are based on 3d models. Which makes them look really, really good. Diablo 1 still looks amazing, too, though the lack of a run button makes the gameplay rather dated.
3d games like NWN 1 (which looked pretty damn bad at the time) look like ass now.
You're going up against a dragon and without breaking the game, it's going to be difficult but it's also going to be so awesome when you finally kill it and the music just fit so perfectly.
I know, I have it, but the dragon battle song was shuffled into the ambient track for the dragon lair and takes up the second half of it.
Is it still around, anyway? I got it off the Interplay website a long time ago when the Baldur's Gate/BG2 and all expansions boxed set came out and it didn't contain the soundtrack CD promised on the box. Interplay isn't exactly around anymore, though.
Never did get into BG2, and PS:Torment I ran into a glitch or something, where I couldn't find this succubus type NPC despite running around the same areas in the city you start once you escaped (IIRC) 3 times over.
Sometimes I wish I could find a bunch of people to fully complete BG1, but it requires too much time and commitment which I don't have these days
Did anyone else not really like Throne of Bhaal? It just seems like they went way overboard with everything. Every shitty guard had +2 swords on him, you couldn't go 5 steps without tripping over another Bhaalspawn, and killing gods and Demogorgon was a bit much. I guess I don't really enjoy epic levels all that much, since they tend to break the game. My interest in ToB faded pretty fairly quickly since it just seemed too ridiculous most of the time.
BG2 had all of these little things that really added to the game for me; the way you get your own stronghold - I had my own castle! Awesome! - the detailed (compared to other RPGs, both old and new) romances, cameos/recurring characters from the first game, etc. I really did feel a part of an epic world.
I did not like the pathfinding, though.
Under the config, you can set the memory alloted to pathfinding to an absurdly high number thanks to modern processors. Plus, friendly characters no long block each other, ala BG 1.
Also agree on the sound effects - lots of great background noise.
It is very hard for me to think of an interface being any clunkier
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
I tried to play a N64 game the other day, couldn't stand it. Pure ass.
Seriously? Try playing BG1 then.
After seeing those beautiful backrounds of Bioware's Sonic RPG, I'd really like to know what a new Baldur's Gate game would look like today (even if it'd be just on the DS).
Oh Bioware. How I love you. Now release more games on systems I have, losers.
But like, other than the Icewind Dale games I don't think there has been a BioWare game I haven't liked.
Not a fan of the ID games, either. Tried slogging through 2 (and I did get 3/4ths of the way, according to FAQs, before I found my party really lacking) and it was just...boring. No interesting characters. A plot that did not really involve my party in any direct manner. A cold, snowy world with no variation.
Play NWN 2. In fact, play any other RPG, since BG 2 has a very easy to use interface. One of the best. I have no idea what some of you people consider "good" though, since I've heard people complain about Fallout's, too. The buttons are all there, on the screen.
And to the above, yes, IWD was not Bioware. The first game fed you XP, too. I didn't like that. Didn't make me feel like I was levelling up fair and square.
I'm sorry, that statement is full of shit. 2D isn't timeless, good art design is timeless.
It's a logical fallacy you've just made, plain and simple. It has little to do with how many dimensions the game is programmed in. It's all about art design. It just so happens that games programmed in 2D, especially these days, have much more focus in the art department. But correlation does not equal causation.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
It wasn't even close to the first I played, and its still one of the best UI's I've seen.
First time I played it, though, I was like "what is all this shit?"
Maybe this time I'll actually finish it.
I can't remember how far I've gotten before, but I seem to remember getting Ignus to join me... At the very least, I remember I got to the point where I could change classes.
Minsc dual wielding that legendary hammer and the flail of ages, how can that not be awesome. But I always bring him in my party, and a change would be kind of cool.
Mazzy probably doesn't have the same insane killing power, and I will be down to one melee fighter. On the other hand she promises to be a hoot since Korgan is in the party. She will be rabid about my disliked reputation though...
Well..
I was level... 20 or so when I did spellhold because I did every damn side quest for every damn person all the damn time. I knew about Yoshi, but I totally forgot that I'd have to level up goddamn Immy until I actually had to. It's hard to tell where you are in the game, because you can take 40 hours on not the main story line, or you can plow through and the plot is much shorter. You've still got some fun stuff ahead though.
I think I was blessed, or something.