Customer Reviews

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter is a wonderful add-on to Icewind Dale (see my review of Icewind Dale dated January 13, 2001 for further information). You must have the original game to play this add-on.

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter begins in the town of Lonelywood. It is a town in fear of invasion with little in the way of amenities. The story builds from there.

The following features of ID:HOW are great: 1) New Area's to adventure in. 2) Requires 9th level or higher characters to play in the expansion. These can be imported from a completed game of ID. Alternatively, you can move in to the expansion from Kuldahar if you have not completed ID. Finally, you can create a brand new party of characters to adventure in ID:HOW. 3) You get to create all the members of your party to give you exactly the kind of party you want. 4) Capability to advance to 30th level (though you will probably need to adjust the difficulty of the game to do this). 5) Wonderful graphics that make you feel like you are in a very cold painting. 6) Partial use of D&D 3rd Edition Rules. 6) Special Abilities as follows: a) Paladin (Smite Evil, Divine Courage, Immunity to Disease, Spell access at 6th level). b) Ranger (Tracking, Spell access at 6th level). c) Druid (Shape change at 5th level, Elemental form at 11th level, Immunity to poison at 9th level, Immunity to fatigue, New experience table allowing progression past 14th level). d) Thief (Sneak Attack, Evasion at 7th level, Crippling Strike at 5th level). e) Bard (New songs that affect the party in different ways. New songs appear at the following levels-3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th). 7) Transport items such as gem bag (holds 20 gems or jewelry), potion bag (20 potions) and scroll cases (20 scrolls). 8) Hot key to illuminate doors (does not show you secret doors) and any items on the ground. 9) New spells for Mage and Cleric. The mage has 17 new spells of the following levels (Level 2: 1 spell, Level 3: 1 spell, Level 4: 3 spells, Level 5: 3 spells, Level 6: 3 spells, Level 7: 2 spells, Level 8: 4 spells). A Priest has 42 new spells of the following levels (Level 1: 2 spells, Level 2: 3 spells, Level 3: 10 spells, Level 4: 9 spells, Level 5: 7 spells, Level 6: 4 spells, Level 7: 7 spells). 10) New high level monsters. 11) Improved screen resolution for computers that can support it.

I believe you will enjoy this add-on to Icewind Dale. Be prepared to sleep at the computer. Make sure you have a wife who is understanding (and forgiving).

Yes, as most reviewers have noted, Heart of Winter isn't a very long game (though it's not as brief as some would make it out to be). And, yes, for those who bought this title when it first came out and paid the full sticker price (30+ bucks), I can understand the frustration voiced by so many gamers.

Now, however, about a year after Heart of Winter first appeared, the price has dropped to bargain bin status: I bought HoW at my local mall for ten bucks! For this price, HoW doesn't disappoint. The game is on the shorter side, but I'd say it's the equivalent of 1 1/2 levels from the original Icewind Dale. Or, for those who prefer to measure their games in hours, HoW took me exactly one week to finish, approximately 20 hours. Those who have already played Baldur's Gate II will be familiar to the additions found in HoW: higher resolution, drop-away interface, gem bags, potion bags, scroll cases. There are some new enemies, new spells, and a final battle that is fairly challenging.

Lastly, most Icewind Dale fans know that for those who own Heart of Winter there is a free downloadable expansion, Trials of the Luremaster, which adds another 15+ hours of gameplay. In other words, the time to buy the Icewind Dale expansion is now: you'll essentially receive 30-40 hours of gameplay for (in my case) ten dollars or so. You can't beat that!

As for the game itself, HoW is mostly enjoyable. The enemies, overall, are much tougher, so you won't be able to mow through them like you did throughout Icewind Dale. Also, although you need 9th level characters or higher to play the expansion, I recommend not playing HoW until your characters have hit the maximum hit point level allowed by the original (1,800,000). My only complaint about HoW is that it's really linear. Sure, Icewind Dale was linear, too, but HoW forces you to literally trudge forward along, say, an icy cave path and smite the hordes of baddies that pop up (and there are a lot of them). And because the enemies are significantly tougher than most of the creatures in ID, the expansion at times can seem tedious: you feel as if you're logging in tiresome hours at the keyboard rather than enjoyable hours.

Still, for those who didn't satisfy their crave at the end of Icewind Dale, Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster should provide a decent fix.

If this expansion were ... cheaper I would go up a star. The fixes to the original engine were outstanding. If you haven't already played Icewind Dale and are playing it for the first time with the expansion, you'll get a lot more for your money. For those who already completed I.D. and are hungry for more, I don't think this will calm your hunger. It's more like a snack than a meal. The bonus missions were a lot of fun, but were brief and simple. At least one extra long term quest would have been appreciated after shelling out "my money". My advice: wait for the price to go down.

This is a great add-on to a great game, but way too short. One good thing though, is that if you set the difficulty to insane, monsters do double damage and give double experience. However, even with this feature, it is hard to reach level 30, as they SAY you can. I played through the entire game, including the expansion and then most of the original game again, all on insane mode, but still my highest character is level 25. Still, the new additions are incredible. The new abilities are cool (I play a paladin) and the monsters are cool too. Some of the old monsters got new looks, and then there are some new ones. Yes there is a dragon, and it is really cool. There are a lot more side quests in the expansion too, even better ones than the original game. There is one really neat feature of the original game that is really handy if you have the expansion. Since you create all the characters in your party, you can export chracters and then import them into other games. This helps for getting experience. Example: I import my level 19 paladin into an old saved game. There he meets an evil snake goddess, and kills her and her snake minions for a total of 108800 experience or so. Poof, he levels up. Repeat 20 times. With this feature you can essentially play through the game as many times as you want. All in all, a great game for any RPG fan, especially if you liked Baldur's Gate. THIS GAME IS MUCH BETTER THAN DIABLO 2. Get this game. -CoWgOd

The expansion was really fun, Icewind dale was great, Heart of winter was interesting, EXCEPT that it was incredibly short. They set the experience caps to level 30, and playing on hard mode I took my level 11s and 12s (imported) to level 16-17... I beat the game in 2 hours. It would take AGES to get to 30. 5000000+ exp.

It's good, But extremely short. If you want something more satisfing, Baldur's gate 2 is pretty good. Pretty long.

As an avid Baldurs Gate fan I was extremely disappointed with this expansion pack. Although I felt that the original Icewind Dale was too short I felt that the expansion pack was a total rip-off. I completed it after only about 5 hours. When the endgame movie started to play I thought it was the end of a chapter, until I saw the credits!

Don't waste you money.

Most expansion sets only give you new characters and some new maps, but Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter actually IMPROVES the gameplay system and interface of Icewind Dale!

How so? Inventory screens are now streamlined and allow you to carry more stuff by giving you scroll and gem bags to keep non-essential items out of your main inventory. The interface is great in that you can maximize your viewing screen by using BGII-style hot keys to drop away unnecessary status panels. More areas have been added as well as some tweaking of the AD&D rules and some more spells! If you want to max out your party's experience, you can configure the mode that allows you to score max experience at the expense of dealing with some really tough enemy AI.

What's cool is numerous ways you can start a game in the Heart of Winter universe. Installing the add on, you can enhance your current in-progress Icewind Dale game that you're still playing and immediately jump to HOW at the conclusion. Doing this gives you the benefits of the HOW enhancements while still playing the first game. You can opt to import your previous party ifyou've already beaten IWD and start right at the HOW story, or you can use your existing game and access HOW through the locked door in Kuldehar. Pretty cool, but in any event you'll need the first IWD game to use this! Not a standalone product!

Great game and well worth picking up. I happen to think IWD was the better of the BG series of games thanks to the heavy combat and minimal exploration. HOW will keep you busy until IWD II comes out very soon!

I really like what has been done with the overall graphics. The textures and monsters are much improved. The increased detail to the characters is spetacular. All of this is without a 3D card. Using a 3D card enhances the graphics even further making the textures even richer and adding to shadows as well. The main problem with HoW....bugs. HoW is really touchy, especially when trying to play multiplayer. You may have trouble getting it to run smoothly on your machine, but just mess with the settings a little and you can fix that. For example: I turned off ambient sounds and mine runs great. For multiplayer problems you might try turning off all your feedback options and you will want to check to make sure all the people you are playing with have the same version of directX installed.

I hope this helps. I know there are probably a lot of you out there having these problems.

Sometimes you get what you hope for... And sometimes you don't. This add-on to Icewind Dale from Interplay is simply too little, too late. The story line is extremely short. As barbarians mass to attack the tiny town of Lonelywood our heroes are approached by a barbarian shaman to intervene somehow and save both sides from disaster. A short investigation in Lonelywood and a meeting with the barbarian chief leave you basically clueless and in severe disfavor. The rest of the story is primarily composed of hacking your way across one desolate scene or another in your effort to resolve the mystery. Which, after several not quite titanic battles, you finally do. All in all, about 8 hours of gameplay at the most.

Perhaps the best parts of the add-in are the improvements it makes to Icewind Dale overall. The 800x600 resolution and improved 3D acceleration are beneficial. There are 59 new spells to master, and a bunch of new items. Best of all, you can take your characters up to the 20th level!

The short storyline I found singularly dissatisfying. Not so much due to weakness, but due to the fact that there was material in it for a full sized game with, perhaps, a more uplifting ending. For, to tell the truth, the villain of the piece is by far the most interesting character. It was with some regret that I won the final battle.

.... If you haven't played Icewind Dale, I suggest waiting to see what kind of combination deal Interplay Offers. If you have already played the original game and don't want to replay it, then you may find Heart of Winter a disappointment.

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter is the worthy companion to the best selling Icewind Dale role-playing game. The two together have everything one looks for in such a game; from an incredible setting, to a highly original plot, to excellent multiple roleplaying options, to outstanding graphics, to extraordinary accuracy in relation to Dungeons & Dragons, and much, much more!
There is something here for everyone as the variety of challenges is large indeed, including battles, puzzle solving, and dialogue among others.
The game is set on Toril and specifically in Faerun. It deals with a great evil that has arisen and descended upon the region bringing the people misery and despair.
The story as a whole is excellent! The plot is so incredibly well written and presented that the gamer feels that they have been transported to another plane of existence and are actually present among the characters, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel, sensing what they sense. Moreover, the game does a great job of presenting the distinct cultures and civilizations of the inhabitants/peoples of Fearun, and Icewind Dale in particular. This has, without a doubt, been achieved as a result of a great deal of research that has gone into learning and understanding the numerous and often complex characteristics of the Forgotten Realms world.
Don't forget to download Tales of the Luremaster and be transported to a desert (!) setting for a few more encounters (puzzles and hacking and slashing) and some pretty nice treasure!
Strongly recommended along with the Baldur's Gate series and Planescape: Torment.