Update for Heart of Winter

I found this on some site somewhere...


Interplay's Icewind Dale surprised a lot of people. Thanks to a bizarre marketing campaign by the publisher, a lot of gamers went into it thinking that they were about to play a Diablo-like hack and slash role-playing game that would be very light on story and very heavy on combat. The game deserved better than that. It's true that it was combat heavy and wasn't as story-driven as Fallout, Baldur's Gate or Planescape: Torment, but Icewind Dale played like a traditional role-playing game-a combat heavy AD&D pen and paper module. This design philosophy opens the door for further adventures in the Spine of the World Mountains and as luck would have it the folks at Interplay and Black Isle Studios are hard at work on the expansion entitled Icewind Dale: The Heart of Winter.

The expansion picks up right where the original game left off. If you finished Icewind Dale, you simply continue the story from there, or if you haven't taken the plunge into the Spine of the World you can start your adventure from the beginning of the original (you still need a copy of the main game) and take advantage of the perks that the add-on has to offer. The storyline sounds fairly straightforward. Designer Josh Sawyer explains, "The story centers on the smallest of the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale, Lonelywood. A barbarian shaman enlists the aid of the party to deal with an impending war. A new leader has risen among the barbarian tribes, uniting them to sweep across the Ten Towns, leveling all they come across. It's up to your party of heroes (and villains) to find out what's going on."

What would an add-on be without new bad guys? The expansion will toss several new monster types into the mix. Sawyer states, "The one I'm most excited about is the Remorhaz, or "polar worms." Remorhaz are classic powerful D&D monsters, and they fit the setting very well. In addition, there are hordes (literally) of new barbarians and fearsome undead. I'm particularly happy about the undead. I just can't get enough of those guys. The Wailing Virgins are particularly cool, and I can't wait to see what players think of them."

The developers will also make new and more powerful spells and incantations available. In fact, there are nearly 60 new spells for wizards, clerics, and druids, and more than 80 new magic items-even refinements to items in the original game. "We decided to beef up all levels of spells for all casters in the expansion," Sawyer continues, " Druids got a lot of new, more distinctive spells, including Beast Claw, Storm Shell, Smashing Wave, Animal Rage, Whirlwind, and Earthquake. Clerics are enhanced as well. Not only do evil clerics now get access to the "Cause" variants of healing spells (Cause Light Wounds, Cause Moderate wounds, etc.), but they also will be able to cast devastating spells like Slay Living, Spiritual Wrath, Blade Barrier, and Cloud of Pestilence. The wizard classes haven't been left out, either. Sawyer says that mages now have access to such offensive minded spells as Cat's Grace, Trollish Fortitude, Lance of Disruption, Mordenkainen's Force Missiles, Shout, and Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting among others. "We're still working on refining the old spells," he admits, "but some immediate improvements include a revision of Mirror Image to make it more balanced, revisions to Beltyn's Burning Blood and Shroud of Flame to make them more appropriately powerful, and a revision to Spike Stones to make it balanced when compared to the new druid spell Spike Growth."

On the technical front, the expansion will be playable at 800x600 resolution, just as in Baldur's Gate II, and will have better OpenGL support. Players will also have the ability to drop away the interface panels at the touch of a button. These improvements apply to the whole game, so you could play through the original again with 800x600 support. New character voice sets, narration, and cinematics are also in the works.

In terms of gameplay, the design team is adding a number of features from Baldur's Gate II, such as gem bags and scroll cases. A new feature, ranger tracking, should be fairly interesting, especially for people playing the game for the first time. It allows rangers to gain information about what people and monsters are in an area, how many there are, and so on. For the power gamers worried about the experience cap, it has been raised to 2,900,000. This allows clerics to reach 20th level, druids to reach 14th level, fighters to reach 19th level, wizards, paladins and rangers to reach 17th level, and thieves and bards to reach beyond 20th level. Black Isle Studios has built a healthy stable of top-notch role-playing games; it sounds as if Icewind Dale: The Heart of Winter will be another notch on the team's sword belt. With new spells, monsters, an improved interface, and a continuing storyline it sounds like a "can't miss" title for fans of the original game. We'll find out how it all plays out when it ships this winter.

by William Abner