LADYDRAGON.COM - BLACK ISLE STUDIOS ANNOUNCES ICEWIND DALE II

Monday February 04, 2002

BLACK ISLE STUDIOS ANNOUNCES ICEWIND DALE II

Black Isle Studios, the role-playing game division of Interplay Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: IPLY), announced today that a sequel to the award-winning computer role-playing game Icewind Dale(tm) is currently in development and will be distributed by Vivendi Universal Games in North America. Icewind Dale(tm) II is scheduled to ship to retail on May 28, 2002.

Icewind Dale II is being created internally at Black Isle Studios and offers more of the classic dungeon crawl experience, using the Dungeons & Dragons® license from Wizards of the Coast. Based in part on the series of books by New York Times best-selling author R.A. Salvatore, Icewind Dale II will amaze players with new monsters, spells, and areas to explore within the popular FORGOTTEN REALMS® campaign setting.

Icewind Dale II expands upon gameplay elements found in Icewind Dale, offering players the ability to hone their combat skills and achieve even more powerful possessions, spells, and experience. Icewind Dale II hosts a large variety of new weapons, armor and magical items and features all the spells from Icewind Dale and its expansion Icewind Dale(tm): Heart of Winter(tm). Additionally, Icewind Dale II includes over 50 new spells such as Executioner's Eyes and Aegis, bringing the total to over 300 spells.

In addition, over 100 new special items can be found in Icewind Dale II's elevated "Heart of Fury" mode, first introduced in Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter. This challenging mode enhances the game's replayability by allowing players to face intensely difficult and strategic battles with their high level, battle-hardened characters.

A generation after the events in Icewind Dale, a grave new threat has arisen in the North; a threat that seeks to cut off the Ten-Towns from the rest of Faerûn in a bitter power struggle. A vicious horde of goblins, orcs, and bugbears have gathered beneath the mysterious banner of the Chimera and are attacking the port town of Targos. The town of Bremen has fallen, goblin raiders ride the plains, and a stream of refugees are fleeing southwards to Bryn Shander and beyond.

Fearing that they will be overrun, Targos has sent out a call for all able-bodied adventurers, soldiers, and mercenaries to sail north to stand with the town's defenders against the encroaching horde, and it's up to the players' small band of adventurers to save Targos from destruction. Yet nothing is as it appears and as the shadow of the horde falls on Targos, the players find themselves drawn into an escalating conflict that plunges the region of Icewind Dale once again, into war.

Icewind Dale II makes use of a heavily modified version of the award-winning BioWare(tm) Infinity Engine, originally developed for the Baldur's Gate(tm) series. Modifications to the engine include a variety of features originally developed for Baldur's Gate(tm) II: Shadows of Amn(tm), including dual-wielding, class kits, new classes such as the Sorcerer and Monk as well as 3D technology developed by BioWare. Icewind Dale II introduces new class kits like the Mercenary, Giant Killer and the Dreadmaster of Bane among others, plus new sub-races including the Drow and Tiefling.