Icewind Dale and Expansions leads the player through a dungeon crawl that would make any DnD player more than happy.
User Rating: 9.2 | Icewind Dale (DVD) PC
Utilizing the Infinity Engine developed by Bioware, Black Isle Studios brings to Dungeons and Dragons fans a new game set in the world of Faerun. Icewind Dale was released at the end of June of 2000 giving the players the ability to create all six of there party members, to lead on an adventure across the Spine of the World, an arctic mountain range north of the area that fans traversed in Baldur’s Gate. Wanting to give the fans more, Black Isle developed an expansion about eight months later known as Heart of Winter which added new areas and quests that could be completed during the actual first game. Not feeling that that was enough, Black Isle made an extra expansion for free to their fans called Trials of the Luremaster. Black Isle listened to their fans when they made games and this installment definitely proves it. Fans of Baldur’s gate and its expansion were treated with a pure dungeon crawl game set in another region of the Forgotten Realms known as Icewind Dale. A region centered around the Ten-Towns, which as you can imagine, is an area where ten trading towns are located. You’ll begin your adventure in Easthaven doing simple quests helping out the locals and through accomplishing these goals, you’ll come upon the main quest of the game to investigate the hidden evil in the lands around Kelvin’s Cairn. Throughout your travels, you’ll see famous sites such as Dragon’s Eye, Dorn’s Deep, Severed Hand, and many other areas as your warriors and mages progress through the game’s entirety. Unlike Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale and its expansions are linear in gameplay where you’ll never not know where you’re going or what you should be doing. This can be seen as a negative for the game, but if you go into the game fully knowing it’s meant to be a pure dungeon crawl hack and slash, you should have no complaints. The ability to create every person in your party is new in this Infinity Engine Game. The player, from the start, can create all six party members in their group making them Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Halfings, or whatever, and then having the ability to have them all be different classes. Where as in Baldur’s Gate, you made one character and then met up with different NPCs being different classes that would join your group and having to deal with what the characters were before they joined your party, in Icewind Dale, you have total freedom over your group. Unlike Baldur’s Gate though, you’re not able to pick up any NPCs during your travels and have them join your group. Your party of six will remain the same unless one of them dies. The NPCs are just there to talk, sell/buy items, and provide quests to your party. The storyline in Icewind Dale and its expansions is better than most taking place around the year 1281 DR, the Year of the Cold Soul. For its time, Icewind Dale brought a lot to the table with taking your party of six across the Sea of Moving Ice all the way back to adventure through what is known as Wyrm’s Tooth. These wonderfully detailed areas are a joy to traverse through with your party. Never knowing what lurks inside each dungeon or cave, always preparing for the next big battle with Faerun’s monsters is just a little bit of the fun to be had with Icewind Dale. The special and unique items you’ll come across, not to mention the powers you’ll receive from leveling up your party hour after hour is something that make this game hard not to have fun with. It’s definitely a classic that will always be remembered from the now bankrupt Black Isle/Interplay Company. Utilizing the Infinity Engine, Icewind Dale has some dated graphics, but the pre-rendered backgrounds and the attention that was made to detail in each area is something that every game developer should look at. Black Isle certainly did something right when trying to make the player feel like they were in the frigid north tundra in what is known as the Spine of the World. The level design within the interior dungeons and temples is outstanding and the Infinity Engine once again, brings the pen and paper Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rules to the computer almost flawlessly. One level that you’ll easily remember your first time through is the Severed Hand where you’ll travel up each finger in the towering building learning the condemned fate of its inhabitants. Each level with its design and story/background that it tells leaves the player with a lasting impression each time they play through the game. The soundtrack, which was produced by Jeremy Soule is amazing to say the least. The music is definitely something that brings the player into the atmosphere of the cold north. Each track played throughout the many areas and maps of the game seems to roll out the speakers of the player almost creating a serene sense of imaginative state of mind. Knowing how well the music was produced, Black Isle released a separate CD that could be purchased being the soundtrack to the game. Some voice-over work was done and Black Isle was a company that was known for great voice acting is Icewind Dale is no exception. Something new that was added with the expansions is the Heart of Fury mode. This mode, which can be selected from the configuration panel at startup, is a playing style much harder than the original but gives the player the ability to reach very high levels with their characters by expanding the level cap in the original game. Also, with the Heart of Fury mode, the player is able to play through the game again with their original characters, which is always fun seeing how difficult the early on game is for your seasoned warriors. Overall, Icewind Dale is a must buy for any Dungeons and Dragons fan and also anyone who loved the other Infinity Engine Games. Having the ability to create each of your players gives anyone the chance to pick and choose between the different classes offered in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rules. Having the wonderful artistic work of the pre-rendered backgrounds, plus the amazing detail to story, and add to that, a wonderful soundtrack, Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter: Trials of the Luremaster is a great way to adventure on your computer.
