 An expansion pack can be great fun. It allows you to come back to a game that’s
been sitting on the shelf, re-explore it, and test out whatever goodies the developers
have thrown in--be they new character classes, abilities, or places to explore. That said, expansion packs almost invariably seem
to let you down. There just isn’t
enough new wine jammed into that old bottle to make the experience as breathtaking as the
original. And often, by the time the
expansion rolls out, the original game feels dated and dull.  The Heart of
Winter pack for Black Isle’s Icewind Dale fails in just this way. After playing marathon sessions of Baldur’s
Gate II with all of the added pizzazz of character kits and high-level magic, the
relentless hack and slash dungeon crawling of Icewind Dale gets tired quick. Now I know that Icewind suffers in comparison to
Planescape or Baldur’s Gate in a few specific areas and that these games are designed
with separate types of play in mind. I
enjoyed Icewind the first few times through, but Heart of Winter doesn’t have enough
punch to re-energize the experience.
 Some of the technical advances from Baldur’s Gate II have
been ported to Heart of Winter. You can now
play at 800x600 resolution and the interface bars can be hidden. Additionally, a hot key illuminates all visible
doors and items on the ground. No more
hunting for dropped wands in the dark. A
Heart of Fury mode has also been added that provides unbelievable experience points but is
almost impossible. Goblins give 2000exp per
kill. It’s the killing that’s the
problem. Strangely, and I don’t have a
good explanation for this, with the expansion pack, Icewind Dale plays slower and more
clunky (a problem I had with Baldur’s Gate II) than I recall. Even tweaking down the performance options doesn’t
help much.
 Since you’ll probably begin the game from scratch, the
first changes you’ll notice are to the character classes. Paladins walk taller with tougher holy powers. Druids shape-shift earlier and better as well as
benefit from added spells – so too clerics and mages.
Bards learn some different tunes. The
two most interesting new skills are the thief’s sneak attack/crippling strike and the
ranger’s tracking aptitude. Sneak
attack is a 3rd Edition rule and, in place of the traditional backstab, allows
the thief to do additional damage when behind or flanking an enemy without sneaking. Crippling strike lowers a monster’s to-hit
and damage rolls on a successful sneak attack. Tracking,
potentially, could be the coolest new skill in the game as it allows the ranger to get a
feel for an area’s inhabitants as well as its recent history upon first arriving. However, as Heart of Winter and Icewind Dale are
hack-n-slash adventures, tracking doesn’t provide much info that’s terribly
useful as all you’re going to do is trudge around the map and kill everything. This would have been great in another game with a
more varied storyline but fails to impress here.
Once your party attains ninth
level, they can travel to Lonelywood where Heart of Winter’s new travails take place. If you remember, a certain shack in Kuldahar never
opened. Well, it does now. Inside is a barbarian representative with
information of an, as yet, unnamed evil plaguing the barbarian tribes. Would you come save them? While you can take on this part of the game at
ninth level, it’s advisable to be a bit higher.
 And in that lies part of the problem with Heart of Winter. By the time you can effectively deal with the
challenges of Heart of Winter, you’re going to be so tough that the battles aren’t
that interesting. The new and nifty magical
items – some truly nifty – aren’t much use so close to the game’s end. Additionally, since many of the magic spells from
Baldur’s Gate II aren’t included, much of the fun and flash of ultra-high level
battles isn’t available. Without mages
firing off spell sequencers and time stops and protection from magic weapons, the fighting
becomes rote and unimaginative. Icewind Dale
was a fun forty-hour killing spree. Straightforward. Not too complex.
Heart of Winter just give more battles – only now your enemies have
extra hit points. As the bang-per-buck
decreases significantly, I don’t see the point of tacking on another twenty hours of
the same.
 Where Tales of the Sword Coast added an insanely difficult
dungeon crawl to a game that lacked exactly that, Heart of Winter adds a not-so-tough
dungeon crawl to … a dungeon crawl. While
high-level characters are nice, what’s the point if those levels aren’t
concomitant with the magic and challenge that ought to go with them? If Heart of Winter came with a lower price tag, I’d
recommend it, but since it rides around thirty dollars, I’m forced to say wait until
it hits the bargain bin. Heart of Winter is
fun but not fun enough.
Matt
Blackburn |
