Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter is a well done expansion for the original Icewind Dale, it throws your party into another great adventure and adds many new features, weapons, containers, and so forth to the already great classic game.
Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter is the expansion game for the original Icewind Dale RPG.
This time Faerun and the Ten-Towns are threatened by a group of Barbarians who are led by a zealous leader who feels that he is guided by the ancient king Jerod to lay waste to the Ten-Towns region. The adventure will start in the town of Lonelywood, and from there you will travel to other new areas and discover the secret behind the Barbarian rage.
Gameplay was excellent in this game, and the interface was once again very easy to use. The game screen, movement, and much of the other elements of gameplay are the same in this expansion as they are in the original Icewind Dale (See my review for Icewind Dale if you want further explanation). There are two different ways in which you can play "Heart of Winter", either while playing a full game of Icewind Dale, or just start the expansion ONLY from the town of Lonelywood. It is suggested that regardless of which way you choose to get into the expansion game, that your party members be level 9 or higher. That can be easily done if you are playing a FULL Icewind Dale game, but if you choose the option of just playing "Heart of Winter", than you can either import your party that you finished the original game with, or build a party from a group of pre-generated characters that are level 9 or higher (these are provided in the expansion game).
If you decide to play the entire Icewind Dale game with the expansion loaded, than you can access the "Heart of Winter" areas anytime from the house of a Barbarian Shaman known as Hjollder. His house is in Kuldahar, and it was the one that could not be opened when you DID NOT have the expansion loaded. If you choose to play the Expansion ONLY, than you will automatically start in the town of Lonelywood.
The following new features are added by "Heart of Winter": 1.) New Portraits 2.) New Character Sound Sets 3.) Higher Experience Point Cap, can now reach level 30 4.) A "Heart of Fury" mode that will make monsters more difficult and increase Experience awards 5.) Higher Resolution (800 X 600) 6.) Drop Away Interface 7.) Added Gem bags, Potion bags, and Scroll cases 8.) New Priest, Druid, and Wizard spells 9.) Hot key that will highlight doors and items on the ground 10.) Can now buy multiple items from merchants 11.) New special abilities for Paladins, Rangers, Thieves, Bards, and Druids
Graphics were excellent in this game. As you might guess, since this is a campaign that is mainly dealing with severe winter conditions, than most of the new areas provided by this expansion, will be wintry-like, but they are ALL well rendered, and the quality of them are equal to that of the original game. As I mentioned above, the major graphical difference that this expansion provides, is a Higher resolution.
There is not much of a learning curve in this game. If you have already played the original game, than you pretty much know how to play this one, and how to get to all of the needed functions, journals, maps, and so forth. But, if you have not played the original Icewind Dale, than no need to worry. I believe that everything is so well laid out in these games, that it would take you very little time and energy to figure out how the mechanics of these RPG's work.
Replay value is very good for this game. You have a difficulty slider in the options section that can make another game more challenging, or you can play it in the "Heart of Fury" mode that was mentioned above. There are many new weapons, armor, and jewels that can be found once the expansion is loaded, either through the original campaign or just the "Heart of Winter" adventure. There is a whole host of new monsters to kill of course, and some can be quite challenging. I played the first time as "Expansion Only", but I will probably eventually play the entire original game again with the expansion loaded, to see what difference it makes, and to be able to find all that cool new equipment.
Sound was excellent in this game. There were plenty of ambient sounds, and background music that pushed your party during battles into a sword wielding frenzy. Many unique character voices will be heard when you play this game, and as I mentioned above, there are new voice tracks to choose from for your party members. There is a particular voice that you might recognize from the "Fallout" games, if you have played these games. The only hint I will give you is: "War, War never changes".....LOL
I think about the only con I had with this expansion game is that it was very short, and did not take me too long to play. I was expecting to spend at least a week on it, but in fact was able to finish it within a few days (and that is with the limited time that I now spend Playing games....LOL).
I know this was just an expansion, but I have played other expansions that almost seemed like a totally new game, and I suppose that is partly what I was expecting out of this one. I think the true scope of what this expansion adds to the original game, cannot really be appreciated fully unless you play the entire game again with the expansion loaded. I do plan on doing just that at some point in time.
OK, so overall I would say that "Heart of Winter" is a very entertaining expansion to the original Icewind Dale game, and is very much worth your consideration. Pick this one up ASAP!
