kinda disappointed

[Nightowl]

I enjoyed the game...til it ended so quickly! I can't believe I spent $29.99 on a game I finished in 2-3 days. I realize it was just an expansion, but for around $30? That's not including the price of Icewind Dale! For that price, they should've made the Heart of Winter MUCH longer. I was also expecting more variable monsters. I saw a Remorhaz and more undead monsters. Whippee. Oh, I hope they extend it with improvement, cuz I love this series too much!

[Nightowl]

Yeah, no doubt! I've always been one to fully enjoy role-playing games, with little argument or complaining. But it's really getting ridiculous how high-priced in ratio to what you get, games are. I am willing to spend the money, but only if there is a lot of playing time included. I suspect they will continue their saga, slowly dangling the carrot in front of us, if you will, taunting us with 3-4 new monsters here and there per extension game! I remember being in the one cave and spotting dead "eye of the beholders." There I was guessing they'd be in the game somewhere, but once again, none. Just like in Icewind Dale, when they kept "taunting" you with basilisks and medusae, but to no avail. Hmph. (grumble, grumble!)

[Accord]

Too short? Yeah, it is kind of short relative to games like TOTSC for BG1. But to be honest, I enjoyed the new areas a lot as well as playing IWD over again (probably over and over). Since I really enjoy the IWD/HoW experience, I think the expansion is still an worthy add-on and I definitely don't mind spending my $37 CDN dollar on it.

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Long live H22A1!!!!!

[Nightowl]

Oh, I enjoyed it as well, but that was the problem--I enjoyed it and suddenly it ended. It was just not long enough for its price. Point blank. And when you combine the $50 price tag of Icewind Dale with the $30 extension of Heart of Winter, that's quite a sum to be coughing up. I guess what I'm saying is, although I loved playing it (it is so addictive, isn't it?), it ended too shortly, which was the disappointment. I still feel, too, they could've put more different kinds of monsters in. Most of the monsters were repeats from Icewind Dale, such as the trolls and yetis. By logic, the monsters lingering nearby made sense, but they could've added more variety in addition, is what I'm saying. Also, lastly, I worry that their next saga extension will carry the same price tag and be just as restricted.

[Leafy]

not to mention,"where are the class kits"?. I was really looking forward to something closer to BG2 the interface with the Icewind action. They SAY it's much like BG2 in the manual; but what they mean is that you can drop your screen away... and the imported characters actually remember their names (i was just as annoyed with BG1 when i realized that all those stupid names i made up, because it didn't remember them anyways, were actually saved on a text file but the game was simply too dumb to access the file next tim you imported!)
I'm playing thru again from scratch.. so far i see a lot of spells and abilities nerfed out. here's two that piss me off: Protection from fire no longer protects from fire, it simply helps to take less damage from it (tell THAT to my spellcaster). and yesterday i was in Dragon's Eye getting stunned by Bombadier Beetles, even though i was wearing a ring of free action!! i don;t recall EVER beiing stunned or held in anyway when under the affects fo free action, until HoW... oh yeah, and some totally GAY bugs like, rangers can't wear the sneaky ring or +1 shadow armer, though it specifically says in the description that they can. sheeesh.. this game looks like a McDonald's cheese burger after it's been slapped together in a hurry, left under a heat lamp untiul it's stale, then mooshed into some bag and thrown out the drive-thru window (they F#CK you at the drive-thru)

[nimzo]

You can make the game last a lot longer by taking through a whole new party, starting all of them out at first level.

I did it up until I met the shaman in exile on Burial Island, then gave up and imported some stuff off of the pregenerated characters. I haven't used any other cheats but that one though.

Getting past the first fight with the barbarians was the tough. I had to kill one with magic missiles from my 3 magic users and then run back to town to take them out again, one by one by one. Also tough was burial island where I had to use the same tactic. They all come at you so I ran to Ned after killing one or two of the wights and told him to shove off. Then I'd rest in the Inn and come back for more. At the time I didn't know I could rest in the mage tower there, so that was a big pain.

It sure makes you appreciate a lot of those low level spells that you might otherwise think are pretty worthless. I had my clerics burning up their spiritual hammers and casting their little rock hurling spells that do 6-24 damage against undead. I was also a big stickler for using Web and summon undead.

I decided to go with an almost all demihuman party, with a halfling fighter thief, elven fighter mage thief, half elven cleric mage, dwarven fighter cleric, gnome illusionist thief, and the sole human exception, a cleric who I will dual to mage later. I previously played with powerhouse human parties with almost all characters fighters dualed to mage, cleric, or thief. I still think that is the easiest way to go, but for a challenge I thought I'd try something a little different this time.

It sure is making the game last.