Developer: Black Isle Studios
Publisher: Interplay
Reviewed by Jaytee
Article
Discussion Forum
First
Impressions:
Having
played the original immensely enjoyable Icewind
Dale, I had rather looked forward to this expansion pack. While
it did fall short of my expectations in terms of game length, the
story was somewhat unique and the new additions more than welcomed.
There's no doubt that much work has been put in to justify the USD30.
Like all of Bioware's Infinity Engine AD&D games, there's nothing
new in terms of the interface and how one navigates around the snow-filled
caverns of the Dale. However, as mentioned in my preamble, the storyline
in HoW is unique, in it that the premise is no more than the tragic
tale of vengeance, with a remote link to the original IWD. What
about it is so unique then? Well, I've never seen such a plot applied
to a game before. Since I'm not going to spoil it for you, let's
just say that that this premise, although a little short, was somewhat
more gripping than IWD's original story of two pompous enemies using
the Dale as their battleground.
In a nutshell, this is how it begins: Your party is approached by
a barbarian shaman to help prevent an impending attack from the
barbarians upon a nearby community of the Ten-Towns. Sensing a catastrophe,
this shaman asks you to mediate with his leader, to find some sort
of way to prevent an impending slaughter. Upon doing so, you discover
the ghostly presence of evil and you must exorcise it. This will
take you to, well, the Heart of Winter to meet a character of old
that has been watching your progress since the very beginning, who
will help you in your quest.
Graphics:
Strangely,
in light of all the new 3D games out in the market today, I do
enjoy an isometric view of the world from time to time, despite
flaws such as bad path-finding or comparatively lackluster graphics
and cinematics.
In all of its 800 x 600 glory (which wasn't available for IWD),
the colors in HoW are still washed-out and bland, but that's intentional
to create a cold world that's dreary and remote. However, the
attention to detail in the artwork is excellent, although they
only gave us a few portraits and new sounds to play with this
time. There is one new portrait of a female half-elf fighter up
- you can download it at Interplay's site at ftp://ftp.interplay.com/pub/misc/iwd_halfelffighter.zip
While there aren't many new areas to explore, those available
are worth it, with plenty of well-placed nooks and crannies. I
especially liked the barbarian campsite and their interiors, which
looked convincingly messy and lived-in. There is a bit of ice
dungeon crawling to do - quite an eerie experience. All in all,
the maps are superbly crafted with a few visual surprises for
the isometric fan.
Sound/Music:
As
in IWD, the sounds and musical score of HoW are excellent. Voice
acting, even for the NPCs, is done very convincingly. Environmental
audio enhances the game significantly, putting one squarely in
the mood for some crawling about through the frozen caverns in
search of a blind seer. You can download the musical scores at
Interplay's site at ftp://ftp.interplay.com/pub/mp3/theseer.mp3
and ftp://ftp.interplay.com/pub/mp3/dragonisle.mp3.
There are a few new female character sounds which I found to be
more suited to my female warriors (which do suggest understated
intelligence instead of a constant thirst for blood). Other than
that, the offering doesn't differ much from the original in this
aspect.
Gameplay:
HoW
rises the level cap to 30 for those who've played the original
before, but having used my existing characters, I could only level
them to around 18 - 20 at the most. I suppose that it would be
achievable were one to play the full game, with the EP installed,
at the new "heart of fury" mode. You can also start playing just
the expansion with pre-generated characters starting at level
9, but you can't create your own so you'll want to use those in
the disc. If that's not an option, then you'd need to play through
IWD again.
Raising the level cap means giving new spells, abilities and items.
In HoW, there are 50 new spells, new kinds of magic weapons to
match every weapon type, but no new weapon types. You get some
seventh-level priest spells and ninth-level wizard spells and
new ones are added at all levels. Some of the classes are offered
new powers, such as the ranger, who now has a tracking skill that
can detect nearby enemies and the druids now have some new shape-shifting
abilities. The new magic items are cool, those you get to pick
up and those available for sale. All weapon and armor types have
effective magical versions, but it seems that some proficiencies
may be more versatile than others. My dwarf didn't seem to be
doing too well with his halberd as he was with his single-handed
sword. Maybe it's just me?
As with all Black Isle games, navigating your coterie is as simple
as pointing and clicking, but this time, you can select to full
view as you can hide your console with just a key. Some nice new
additions taken from BGII are the gem, scroll and potion bags.
Although these are great space savers, emptying the contents for
trading purposes poses to be a constant problem, because you'd
have to take empty all your gems into your main inventory before
you can sell them, and if you had space there, you wouldn't need
the bag in the first place!
Monsters-wise, there aren't many new adversaries, apart from the
barbarian warriors, some new undead, something called a Sahuagin,
and a big worm called the Remorhaz. Many of these are from IWD,
so those who have played the original won't find many surprises
in this department. However, the lack of new creatures is somewhat
compensated by their improved intelligence. No longer can you
creep through the Fog of War slowly to reveal monsters one by
one, because once you attack one, the rest will follow. Nor can
you bank on them staying within a Cloudkill spell, slowly choking
to death. They will charge at your mage and your weaker characters.
As such, surviving such a horde takes some real strategy, which
initially did take me by surprise. Fortunately, I learn too.
Enjoyment:
I've
always been one to really appreciate outfitting my crew with new
armor, weapons and spells, so I tend to give more weight to such
additions than I do things like the raising of the level cap.
Hence, I did enjoy HoW for as long as it lasted. It also had a
good storyline, and HoW has this, albeit a short one.
Multiplayer:
I
haven't tried this but I've never really liked playing multiplayer
on Black Isle's RPGs. Still, I've read that there's not much difference
in this area in terms of multiplayer gameplay. Also, if you've
installed the HoW, you can only play with your friends who have
the HoW, even though it's to play through IWD.
Overall
Impression:
The
thing is, after having played BGII, which came out after IWD,
the feeling that HoW is not worth the USD30 Interplay is asking
for is somewhat magnified. Many fans will feel this way, I suspect.
Does the "heart of fury" mode balance up the scales a little more?
Maybe so, but only for those who want to take a break from their
BGII marathon.
Still, I feel that this doesn't mean that Interplay did a haphazard
job. As EPs go, HoW is one that encompasses all the right factors
to make IWD a more complete game. In that aspect, I think it's
worth my 30 bucks.
Marketing
Efforts Towards Women:
Well,
the antagonist and a large portion of the premise is surprisingly
relevant to our gender, not to mention the fact that your chief
aide in the game is also a woman. I can't say more without giving
away the story. Does the fact that they just did a beautiful portrait
of a female halfling count?
 Useful
Links:
1) Interplay's HoW site: http://www.interplay.com/icewind/.
There's a patch you can download - v.1.41 here. This patch will
fix quite a few bugs.
2) A comprehensive how-to cheat at Happypuppy.com - http://www.happypuppy.com/win/cheats/icewinddal%2Dwin%2D1a.html
3) Walkthrough also at Happypuppy.com - http://www.happypuppy.com/win/walkthrough/icewinddal-win-1a.txt
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