Well, I've been looking around for a free demo for Icewind Dale 2 . . . haven't found it. Anybody have any ideas?

And by "free" I really mean "free", in other words no signing on to 3rd party sites and paying them for the pleasure. I'm just not into that sort of thing.

I just want to play the thing and see if it's worth getting. I guess the original Icewind Dale is supposed to be pretty much your basic hack & slash & loot & repeat, but the sequel is supposed to have an actual storyline and depth and also let you decide what your party actually looks like.

I think you can get those games real cheap on ebay or something. Think I got Icewind 2 for like 6$ or something.

I found them both very similar, almost all combat very little story. That being said the environments are fantastic. But ultimately the continues combat made me lose interest.

I dont think any free demos of these games were ever released.

There is no demo. There is an expansion if you already have the cds. It has never been released as a download to buy. You can buy it as a cd through various places. Maybe someday it will come out as a download. I think there are some rights issues floating around for Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale.

If you want a more story-driven RPG, find a copy of Planescape: Torment. It uses the same engine as Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, but is well known for less combat and more story/character dialogue.

Actually, I think I'd probably have Planescape: Torment already, were it not out of print.

Amazon has pretty inexpensive boxsets, now, of both the Icewind Dale series & the Baldur's Gate series (4 in 1 for the latter)... but I'm not really smitten with BG, yet, at least as far as I've played of Tales of the Sword Coast . . . the game actually seems too demanding in regard to how much attention you have to pay to your companions in order to make sure they don't die (one annoying wizard has already died on me because he decided to attack a creature in melee; I finally decided to leave his corpse behind and head on to the Friendly Arms Inn without him . . . good riddance), and... based on the level the characters are at in the game-embedded expansion-ready party: it looks like you gain too few levels too slowly.

...But I'm sure I'll go back into it soon, and maybe my feelings will change.

Incidentally: I just found out that Planescape: Torment has been re-released by Interplay. You can get it at Amazon UK for £10.47 (US$16).

I didn't want to order it from England (since they don't ship free to the U.S.), but: I was able to find an 'Amazon fulfilled' 3rd party offer at Amazon (US), 'new', so I just bought it with a book I also wanted, for the free shipping.

From Amazon UK the game would've cost me about 20¢ extra ($20.70 vs. $20.50), plus I don't know how long it'd take to arrive. Perhaps no longer than Amazon US, but... whatever.

IWD2 isn't really worth anything. The game uses a kind of utterly chopped up 3rd edition rules and is generally just too much of a trudge. IWD1 OTOH is one of the most polished dungeon romps ever (if you also get Heart of Winter which you really should). Put Trials of the Luremaster on top of it and you have great value for your money.

Note to UK players.
The lazy publishers just dumped these sets onto disc, without checking the versions.
They`re the US versions of the game, and refuse to run on a UK machine, but luckily, they can be patched to the UK version, links still available on the BG forum.

This.

I thought IWD1 was a lot better than IWD2 (well, I found IWD2 kinda boring if you play it more than once..) IWD2 uses the 3rd edition D&D rules, which is the same rules as NWN, but somehow the rules in IWD2 are more complicated, with more races, more classes and LACK OF PAPER DOLLS D: there are only sprites D: the storyline is kind of bland here too..IWD1 has more storyline and depth than IWD2, actually. I reckon you'd be better off playing IWD1 with expansions, rather than IWD2.