Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter Reviews

• Its Cold Again!!!

  
  By A2D18LLEY40P2A on 2001-02-28
  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).
  
  

• Not Really The Game I Wanted

  
  By A1M4NJYP0WNL8Q on 2001-03-11
  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.
  
  

• Too Short, Too Easy, Too expensive

  
  By on 2001-05-11
  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.
  
  

• Another "too short" review

  
  By ATL84JW0KKIMJ on 2001-03-08
  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.
  
  

• Not As Bad as Most People Think

  
  By A26IQ71XV0AZ1D on 2001-11-12
  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.
  
  

• The Ice gods are cutting through my constitution!
  By A1N2D7LLBAY25B on 2001-12-28
  If you play this game(Icewind Dale) as well as Heart of Winter you may forget 'important' things like eating, sleeping and laundry. You may start hating your lousy job even more than you already do. This expansion adds a new town on the map, Lonlywood and many new locales. Your characters can become more powerful. In the case of Paladins and Rangers, they get spells early on and extra special abilities. Rangers get tracking but can only do it once per day(regardless of level) Wis of 18 can gain a lot of info but the day is long and you can only use it once. Don't use tracking in a smaller dungeon or outside towne unless you plan to rest up for a while(24 hours) Druids can attain the highest levels and can be the most powerful of characters. If you have a Paladin don't use a druid, or you'll have a morale failure. Druids can only be Neutral. If you have too high a reputaion your Druid gets weak(he thinks your a goody-two-shoes). Too low and the Paladin gets weak(er) anything above 16 will raise your Paladin's morale but lower your Druid. You never see this in IWD or HoW but it's there. There is a rep to maintain just like Baldur's Gate. Fallen Paladin's are no fun. They are weak fighters(not Wheapon Grande Masters) with no powers. For Roll play they are great though! In order to prosper in this game, a paladin(fallen or not) must have 18/00 strength, 18 charisma and 18 constitution and no less. Wisdom is somewhat important too, but not very.(that is only -my- opinion. play it your own way.) 18/00 STR gives him nearly the bonuses of a Grande Master Fighter at 18/99. And as for charm everyone gets morale boosts if he leads the party(with no druid). Elves make(in my humble opinion) the best Rangers, not half elves, they get a bounus to thier bows and swords and can attain +3 in misile attack(and reflex) because of dexterity of 19. Like I said in the IWD review, don't let any one tell you how to play. I can't stand most D&D players as they DO tell you how to play. Usually they say half elven rangers or else. But Half elves don't have dex bonuses nor do they have sword and bow bonuses. Who cares about constitution, they attack from a distance anyway. Elves are -perfect- shots with a bow! What a shame they aren't used to thier full potential(Legolos of Lord of the Rings style) Half elves are humans with some resistance. Bah! Elven mages gain nothing over human mages, no AC, just a reflex. +3(see tables) and cannot use a bow OR a sword! Haflings get sling bonuses bringing starting(thief lvl 1)THAC0 to 15 and make excellent theives and rear attackers but lousy fighters.
  This is a great game and the expansion is good enough for me. There is also a free download with some new areas released by Bioware themselves. They must care about thier customers to do that! I am really impressed!
  P. S. don't be afraid to use thieves in your Paladin party, they do much more than steal!
  
  
• Really enhances Icewind Dale! Well worth picking up!
  By A1BVIANDXCX7RW on 2002-05-23
  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!
  
  

• Fun, but...
  By AQU5MTNJS867K on 2001-03-06
  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.
  
  

• Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter
  By A16EJ37JPUMW3U on 2001-03-08
  This was a hugely disappointing game. Extremely linear, and ridiculously short. Not, repeat, not worth the money! If you've played Baldurs Gate II, basically this was the equivalent of a single quest. If you haven't played Baldurs Gate II, buy that game instead. You definitely won't be disappointed.
  
  
• Good game, but yes, a little too short.
  By A1K0LIR9RIDY9W on 2001-03-08
  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
  
  
• Nice visual enhancements, but really buggy.
  By AKHSXLNT5WLN on 2001-02-27
  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.
  
  

• Doesn't live up to the standard of the original or BG2.
  By AK9HZHTPQ4CH3 on 2001-04-15
  This was one of the more expensive expansion packs I've ever seen, but sadly, it was also one of the shortest. Though the story of the game is okay, there is really not much new for this, other then the graphical enhancements made in Baldur's Gate 2 that they back ported to IWD. The new monsters (actually new, not old ones with a new skin) can be counted on one hand, and other then one of them - the final boss, they are kind of boring. Unless you have money to burn, this game should be passed on...
  
  
• A Worthy Expansion to an Amazing Game
  By A3TP74284CPWJ8 on 2001-03-03
  When the original Icewind Dale came out, I was absolutely stunned by the depth and story that it contained. The combat system (same one as Baldur's Gate) is truly amazing. And this expansion only makes it better. The new resolution (800x600) is great and all of the little interface features alone make it worth the purchase. But the kicker is the raised experiance cap (30th level baby!) and the new lands to explore. All in all, if you've got Icewind Dale (or even if you don't), then you need to buy this game.
  
  
• Not bad at all...
  By on 2002-10-19
  Icewind Dale is a fun game, and I like the expansion quite a bit. True, it is a hack & slash game without a lot of opportunity for roleplaying, and I would not put it on the same level as any of the Baldur's Gate games, but the storyline is interesting, the items that you can acquire are neat, and just because a game is not real complex doesn't mean it is no good. If you find a good price on this game (probably under 25 dollars), by all means check it out.
  
  
• Too Short
  By on 2001-03-04
  It's a good game but much too short to be worth the price. I played it in about 20 hours. They speak of going up to 30th level but you would be hard pressed to do that unless you start the game at 25th level. You can count on going up 4-6 levels that's about it. Cut the price in half or add twice the content and you would have a five star game.
  
  
• not worth the money
  By A11XDU6CI6OT4I on 2001-04-04
  As a diehard fan of CRPGs, and especially of BG1, BG2, and Icewind Dale I was sorely disappointed in this expansion pack. Unlike Tales of the Sword Coast, which proved to be a challenge, my "final save" party from IWD breezed through this easily. I finished this expansion pack on the second day. Sure there were some graphic improvements and higher experience levels, but this thing was nowhere near worth..., not for just the few quests that you get for it. The boss, or "foozle," or whatever you might call him, was a disappointment, too, much less difficult than similar monsters in BG2. If you have unlimited funds, go for it, but I would say that you should wait for it to show up in the bargain bin.
  
  
• What Level Am I?
  By A2DPH0ZYQ1W0PJ on 2001-10-26
  All I can say is the game is really(2x) great its interesting and very, very exciting. But I guess the game is too short for the players to reach their maximum level of 30, you could finish the game without even getting close to it. Please try to work on this...Thanks.
  
  
• More of the same
  By A2LP3RWE75ZA4O on 2001-11-27
  When it comes down to it, Heart of Winter is just a bit more of the same of Icewind Dale. It is about 1/3 as long as the original IceWind Dale. A lot of reviewers are saying that is too short. However, seeing as how the plots of Icewind Dale and Heart of Winter are kind of weak anyway, I don't see that as a big loss.

  What few new features there are supposed to be didnt' really add much, in my opinion. The new weapons and new spells don't seem to do much that the weapons and spells in Icewind Dale didn't do. The best part about the game, I thought, was the final battle. I found it to be more challenging than anything in the original Icewind Dale.

  Whether to buy this game depends upon whether you think that the price is low enough to pay for it.
  
  

• Amused me somewhat
  By A3MIQ42CRQ26GE on 2003-06-10
  I'm not going to talk about the gameplay, linear plot, etc., we all know about that... But here are some aspects of the game I found amusing: The artwork on the new character profiles was excellent and fit very well with the theme of the game-- Very moody with watercolor-like graphics! You get to choose new voices for your characters, and one of the female voices sounds very seductive...some of what she says has double-meanings. Quite naughty! This voice works perfectly with the blonde cleric. It's listed as "HOW-female3",(or is it 2?) Also there's some male voices that actually don't sound dorky. The addition of limited 3rd-edition rules with the expansion is especially cool. With the proper cheat code, you can now create that elven Fighter-Mage-Thief that you always wanted to- with the Sneak Attack ability. Just use the cheat code to give him XP "supplements" so it doesn't take you a year to level up... I've found that with prudent use of the cheat codes and use of certain magic items, you can emulate many 3rd-edition prestige classes. For $$- it's certainly worth the risk. But don't try to play the sountrack during a romantic evening with your significant other-- that's NOT worth the risk!
  
  
• A Worthy Companion
  By A3KB1H0S7T6JX1 on 2005-12-29
  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.
  
  

• PC Gamer (1-year)

• Icewind Dale
• Icewind Dale 2
• Baldur's Gate 2: Ultimate Collection (Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal)
• Baldur's Gate 2 Expansion: Throne of Bhaal
• Baldur's Gate Expansion: Tales of the Sword Coast