Icewind Dale and the Elusive Dungeon-Crawler

 Like many, my first introduction to the fantasy genre was through Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, followed a few months later by Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Second Edition (something of an anachronism as 3.5 was in the height of its popularity at that time). From there, I was introduced to the Elder Scrolls through Skyrim as it was then 2011. That game would come to define the RPG genre in video games for the next decade. It actually took until about the middle of the 2010's to actually play Skyrim because of my parents' age restrictions on video games (at least until I owned my own computer), but I was able to play Morrowind. Despite its jank being played on a 2008 MacBook Pro through a simulated windows operating system, I truly fell in love with the game, its world, and its rhythm of adventuring. 

Through Morrowind was introduced to the Infinity Engine games, namely Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, and Icewind Dale. I failed to connect with the story and gameplay of Baldur's Gate, and I'm sure that this was because I played Icewind Dale first (a bit odd timeline wise since it was actually the last of the original Infinity Engine D&D games to be released, but it's little different than someone starting with Skyrim instead of Arena). My preference for Icewind Dale's story (when I finally finished it in 2020) over Baldur's Gate largely came down to my own preference, but there's something more than that for why Icewind Dale keeps drawing me back in, despite its predetermined story, locations, figures, etc. I think it's the feeling of the dungeon-crawl in an ideal, something that I've been hard-pressed to find in other RPG's with party-based or dungeon-crawl formats. From this point on I'll be covering a few of these and why I believe the genre could use a successor to Icewind Dale.

First and most common in the present day is the roguelike, of which there are too many to count (including Barony, Hammerwatch, Slasher's Keep, etc). From its premise, it sounds like the pinnacle of dungeon adventuring. You have one life, and it's your job to get to the bottom of the dungeon to defeat the big bad and/or escape the dungeon, which is randomly generated each time. With each run, you as the player learn more tips and tricks about the game, which you apply to future characters, building a strategy to eventually triumph. There is no progression, saves are hit or miss, and this can be a frustration. Some enjoy the feeling of triumph after conquering the game, but like most, I fail to feel much reward playing a game where in a sense I am no closer to the end from where I began each session. Randomly-generated dungeons are a good idea, really, but I think they need a good deal of care and judiciousness in their use. Many of these rogue likes have their locations blend into samey delves where everything looks the same without variety or character. A subset of these try to sidestep this problem by adding soft progression systems like upgrade trees, ways to send good gear to future characters, unlocking new classes and locations, and so on. These are called roguelites, though I would argue that they largely miss the mark, as many of them render progress difficult without many repeat runs to unlock upgrades and grind currency. The point of the dungeon-crawl and the RPG genre as a whole is to go on an adventure, and in my estimation these types of games place too much emphasis on gamifying systems, becoming in a sense glorified arcade games. I want to be engaged in games by feeling like I'm going on an adventure that I can remember and feels like it was prepared for me the player, not randomly rolled up on tables by a game master who nakedly doesn't care about their job as a storyteller. 

A small genre of game that I feel overcome the issues of the roguelike and roguelite is what I will dub the grid-based dungeon-crawl, best captured the present by Legend of Grimrock 1 and 2, and a genre I revisited late last year in the mediocre Dungeon of Dragon Knight. In the past there were the Gold Box games to fill this niche. I don't think these are missteps per se, but they still miss the mark. They do capture a good feeling of creating a party to adventure, but often their environments are bland and samey, though they are purpose-built. The gameplay is where they fall short to me. I applaud their strength as adventure games with puzzles that go beyond lever-based ones, even if the nature of movement and the camera in these games limits the possibilities of puzzles. Combat is weird in these games though. Since you're controlling a party of four characters, combat is simple, generally pressing the icon for each character's attack to attack. The whole party occupies one square, a reminder of the original 10-foot square map standard of early dnd. There is a pause function as well, but where the system falls apart is that you cannot queue up attacks in pause mode, and spell casting is often a game of matching glyphs. How are you supposed to do this on the fly with four characters? Furthermore, the game seems like you're supposed to trade blows with enemies, but that's actually not the intended method for combat. What you're intended to do in these games is to maneuver around foes, attacking them from the flanks and rear in this strange blend of Dance Dance Revolution and adventure game.

I won't bring up party-based RPG's here such as Dragon Age or action RPG's such as Diablo, Grim Dawn, Torchlight, Dungeon Siege, etc. as I argue that they accomplish what they set out to do, and that is not to be a dungeon-crawl. If anything my only criticism of them is one of preference. I'd love a dungeon-crawler that allowed me to build bonds between my party like in Baldur's Gate 3 or Dragon Age, or to go with a party of my own creation, just as I'd love an action RPG that was more than casting abilities and attacks where the numbers go up and the explosions get bigger. JRPG's, often party-based RPG's themselves, are simply not my cup of tea. Trading blows with big numbers with static battles and random encounters (in the style of Pokemon) doesn't appeal to me.

Single-character RPG's (the Elder Scrolls) are complicated for me. On the one hand, they allow a high degree of customization and personal connection, allowing for hundreds of different characters to be made, but in terms of dungeon-crawling they usually suffer from their scale, their dungeons largely drawn from a few tile sets and archetypes. Their focus is also not really focused on the dungeons specifically, since these games are generally ensemble affairs.

Other novel approaches exist, with the card battler and dungeon-shooter being a recent phenomenon, both of which largely fall into the roguelike category.

In summary the dungeon-crawler genre of RPG is one that I feel hasn't been fully realized. Much of this obviously has to do with trends in the industry, but also the fact that much of my complaints stem from the desire to play TTRPG solitaire, which obviously is subject to many more subjective opinions. What player wouldn't want to play such a game, but who would make it?

So what would a good dungeon-crawler look like to me? Obviously, for reasons above, there needs to be a hand-crafted adventure that covers a number of different environments and dungeons that the party traverses, each with a distinct theme and appearance. A third-person view would likely be best. The game should have more than interiors, as any good adventure has a good wander in the wilderness. As Icewind Dale showed, the story doesn't need to be in the forefront, just to direct the progression from point A to B. Parties can either be pregenerated, player-created, or made up of companions with ties to the story. A large number of classes and races drawn from generic or inspired sources should be available, with a degree of randomness to stats to give a very large variety of compositions to choose from. I don't think the question of turn-based or real-time-with-pause matters, and I think such a game could utilize either effectively (maybe a toggle option like Owlcat used in Wrath of the Righteous and Kingmaker). Combat should be dangerous, but consistently so, and equally dangerous to player character and mob alike, with a combination of abilities, spells, and positioning being the key to victory, not button-mashing. Much would be determined by dice rolls, but I question the role, or even the need, for ability checks. Perhaps a system similar to Fallout, where a sufficient level in a skill would enable a new option. Race and class choice could also open up new options or interactions like in Icewind Dale. Equipment could be simple or complex, but care should be taken not to fall into the trap of "increases lightning resistance by 7%". Ultimately this is a fairly generic template that could be applied to any genre, though I would be lying if it wouldn't more or less resemble a remake of Icewind Dale.