Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter Review

The number of supported classes remained the same, yet some classes have new abilities. Bards now have many new songs, and druids will be capable of assuming the shape of several new animals. Some enemies you'll come to cross swords with are recognizable from the original, and some will be new, originating either from the vivid imagination of the programmers, or the rich Norse mythology. The game also features many new spells, magical items and weapons. Many of them are quite interesting, but if you want to read about that, just go and check our preview.

Heart of Winter supports 800×600, and unofficially all resolutions up to 2048x1536 pixels leaving DiabloII and its 640×480 far behind. It also supports 3D acceleration, but will only use it to present impressive lighting effects during spell casting, as the rest of the game is still in isometric 2D. The new areas look much prettier than the old ones, and the enemies seem larger. It would be great if they introduced a feature to make wallpapers out of those terrains.

Sound effects and background music are as good as they were in the original. Your quests will be followed by majestic, movie like music, supported by great and really professional voice acting.

Icewind Dale had much more action than adventure in it, and the sequel pushes that balance one step further. You will frequently have fights with more than ten characters at a time, and at times, you will run into really epic battles like the one between two barbarian clans. The enemy AI has been enhanced, and you won't be able to lure a single enemy into an ambush anymore. In case you are spotted, the enemy will alert any other creature in the vicinity, and they will all rush towards you. This makes the game more difficult, but also more dynamic and challenging. The developers introduced bags for jewels, potions and scrolls, which should make meddling with the inventory easier. The trade system has been improved too, so that you won't have to by a single arrow at a time anymore.

There, I accounted for all improvements the expansion pack brought, but unfortunately, it still features some of the flaws the original game had. First things first, the PC AI is very stupid. Determining how much time the CPU spends on calculating their moves is futile, as even the highest setting result in your characters getting stuck or lost. Many RTS games have this problem solved, and I simply cannot imagine why in the world six demi-gods can get lost in labyrinths that wouldn't seem too complicated for Homer Simpson. Then, there's the utter linearity, which drastically reduces the replay value. And there's one thing about the multiplayer mode; it still supports LAN, Internet, modem and NULL modem, but now you can only play against (or indeed with) someone who has Heart of Winter installed. OK, it might seem logical that all the novelties and changes caused incompatibility between the original game and the expansion pack, but I do believe that they could have introduced an option to turn all the new stuff off and let you play with your friends who did not want to invest in buying the expansion pack. (This option is present in a way, you just have to go to the control panel, add/remove programs, and then click uninstall Heart of Winter).

Small innovations and enhancements are sure to attract people who were thrilled with the original game, but are highly unlikely to attract anyone else. Hence, I can but conclude that Heart of Winter presents a good Expansion Pack, but nothing else that would leave a deeper mark on the video-game industry.