Icewind Dale 2
Image: Interplay

Back in 2014, the developer Beamdog released Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, a well-received remake of the Black Isle Studios-developed RPG from the year 2000, which added new content, widescreen support, and other cool features to bring the experience up to date for modern audiences.

So, inevitably, fans of the 2002 sequel Icewind Dale II were hoping that Beamdog would soon get around to giving the follow-up the same treatment. Unfortunately, though, this wasn't the case, with Beamdog eventually revealing that the source code for the game was missing and that the company would therefore be unable to make the enhanced edition that people were dreaming of.

As a result, a bunch of fans (calling themselves the Red Chimera Group) has gotten together to assemble their very own "unofficial" Enhanced Edition for the game, finally releasing it to the public earlier this month (as spotted by @felipepepe!)

Icewind Dale II: Enhanced Edition, as the project is fittingly called, rebuilds the game with nothing more than WeiDU code and hex editing to introduce a bunch of new content and requested features. These include widescreen support; new spells, feats, and magic items; recruitable NPCs; quick looting and faster load times; and plenty of difficulty rebalancing.

If you want to give it a try, you can download the new Enhanced Edition for PC from the Beamdog forums now, which is where you'll also find more information on how to install it.

[source forums.beamdog.com, via twitter.com]