Icewind Dale
Encyclopedia
- For the R.A. Salvatore novel, see the Icewind Dale trilogy article
Icewind Dale is a computer role-playing game developed for Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
by Black Isle Studios
Black Isle Studios
Black Isle Studios was a division of the computer and video game developer and publisher Interplay Entertainment. Black Isle Studios was a division that developed computer role-playing games, and also published several games from other developers. It was based in Orange County, California, USA. The...
and published by Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed...
. Released on June 30, 2000, it takes place in the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
Forgotten Realms
Forgotten Realms
The Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories...
campaign setting
Campaign setting
A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...
, and is based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition ruleset.
The player begins the game by creating
Character creation
Character creation is the process of defining a game character or other character. Typically, a character's individual strengths and weaknesses are represented by a set of statistics. Games with a largely fictional setting may include traits such as race and class...
an adventuring party, which becomes enlisted as a caravan guard in the wake of strange events. As the story progresses, the player learns of a demonic feud that threatens the Ten Towns of Icewind Dale.
Icewind Dale was released to positive reviews, with critics praising the game's musical score and gameplay, the latter being compared to Diablo. The game received criticism for its similarities to previous Infinity Engine
Infinity Engine
Infinity Engine is a game engine which allows the creation of isometric computer role-playing games. It was originally developed by BioWare for a prototype RTS game codenamed Battleground Infinity, which was ultimately re-engineered to become the first installment of the Baldur's Gate series...
games. An expansion to the game, Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter
Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter
Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter is an official expansion pack to the computer role-playing game Icewind Dale developed by Black Isle Studios. It introduced many changes and additions to the original game, and included an all-new campaign...
, was released in 2001. A free expansion called Trials of the Luremaster was also released by the publishers, though it requires the Heart of Winter expansion pack to play.
The PC game does not follow the events of R. A. Salvatore's the Icewind Dale Trilogy
The Icewind Dale Trilogy
The Icewind Dale Trilogy is a trilogy of novels written by R.A. Salvatore, a SciFi and fantasy author. The events depicted in the trilogy follow the events of The Dark Elf Trilogy, although the former was written beforehand. It then continues from the Halfling's Gem onto the next series, Legacy of...
novels—characters such as Drizzt Do'Urden
Drizzt Do'Urden
Drizzt Do'Urden is a fictional character in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Drizzt was created by author R. A. Salvatore as a supporting character in the Icewind Dale Trilogy. Salvatore created him on a whim when his publisher needed to...
, Bruenor Battlehammer
Bruenor Battlehammer
Bruenor Battlehammer is a fictional character in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The character first appears in the Icewind Dale trilogy by author R. A. Salvatore. He has also appeared in subsequent books as the trusted dwarven companion...
, and others make no appearance in the game which takes place in a different century.
Gameplay
Icewind DaleThe player begins the game by creating
Character creation
Character creation is the process of defining a game character or other character. Typically, a character's individual strengths and weaknesses are represented by a set of statistics. Games with a largely fictional setting may include traits such as race and class...
an adventuring party of up to six characters. During character creation, statistics including name, gender, race, class
Character class
In role-playing games, a common method of arbitrating the capabilities of different game characters is to assign each one to a character class. A character class aggregates several abilities and aptitudes, and may also sometimes detail aspects of background and social standing or impose behaviour...
, ability scores and weapon proficiencies may be altered. Magic users and thieves have more statistics, in the form of spells and thief abilities, respectively.
After a character has earned enough experience point
Experience point
An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
s through completing quests and defeating enemies, the player is given the option of leveling up
Experience point
An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
that character. The player may alter several statistics when leveling up a character, while others are automatically upgraded. Certain character classes require less experience than others to achieve a new level. An experience point limit of 1,801,000 is in place for all characters, meaning that certain classes are able to reach higher levels than others.
The player may order characters to engage in movement, dialogue and combat. Combat occurs in real-time, replacing the originally turn-based system. The player may pause the game at any time, during which orders may be given to characters, who will carry them out when the game is resumed. Gameplay is focused mainly on combat, often against large groups of enemies.
Plot
The game begins in the town of Easthaven, where the player's party of adventurers is resting at a tavern. The town's leader, Hrothgar (voiced by Jim CummingsJim Cummings
James Jonah "Jim" Cummings is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 100 roles. He has appeared in classic animated movies such as Aladdin and The Lion King, as well as taking on roles in more current films, such as Bee Movie, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh.-Personal...
), invites the player's party to take part in an expedition to the town of Kuldahar, which has recently sent word of strange happenings. On the road to Kuldahar, the group is ambushed by frost giants, who cause an avalanche. Save for the player's party, the entire expedition force is crushed, and the way back to Easthaven is blocked.
The party continues on to Kuldahar, where they meet Arundel (Jim Cummings
Jim Cummings
James Jonah "Jim" Cummings is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 100 roles. He has appeared in classic animated movies such as Aladdin and The Lion King, as well as taking on roles in more current films, such as Bee Movie, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh.-Personal...
), the village's Archdruid. The druid explains that a mysterious evil force has been causing abnormal weather patterns and monster behavior, and kidnapping villagers. As a result of these disturbances, the magical warmth surrounding the giant tree, under which the town is built, has begun to recede. Arundel sends the party to discover the source of the evil before the tree dies, and Kuldahar is destroyed. Following Arundel's advice, the party first goes to the "Vale of Shadows", an area containing Kuldahar's crypts, due to rumors of undead
Undead
Undead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...
creatures being seen there. However, Kresselack (Tony Jay
Tony Jay
Tony Jay was an English actor, voice actor and singer. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was known for his voice work in animation, film and computer games. Jay's distinctive baritone voice often landed him villainous roles...
), a cursed barbarian spirit residing in the Vale of Shadows, informs the player that the threat to Kuldahar is not present in the area. The party returns to Arundel, who asks them to retrieve an ancient scrying
Scrying
Scrying is a magic practice that involves seeing things psychically in a medium, usually for purposes of obtaining spiritual visions and less often for purposes of divination or fortune-telling. The most common media used are reflective, translucent, or luminescent substances such as crystals,...
item called the Heartstone Gem, so that he may discover the source of the evil more quickly.
The player's party travels to a temple that Arundel believes houses the gem, but finds that it had been attacked recently, and the gem stolen. Arundel discovers that the attackers' lair lies within the caverns of Dragon's Eye, and the party travels there to retrieve the gem. After making their way through a network of tunnels, the party finds a powerful demonic creature named Yxunomei (Tara Strong
Tara Strong
Tara Lyn Strong is a Canadian actress, voice-over artist, singer, who is best known for her voice work in cartoons.-Early life and career:...
). Yxunomei claims to be using the Heartstone Gem for personal reasons, and mentions a vendetta and age-old war with someone she sarcastically referred to as an "old friend." After slaying Yxunomei and retrieving the Heartstone Gem, the player returns to Kuldahar, and finds it under attack. The player converses with a shapeshifter
Shapeshifting
Shapeshifting is a common theme in mythology, folklore, and fairy tales. It is also found in epic poems, science fiction literature, fantasy literature, children's literature, Shakespearean comedy, ballet, film, television, comics, and video games...
disguised as Arundel, who reveals that he was the one Yxunomei had mentioned, and that the real Arundel is dying in another section of the hut. After the shapeshifter vanishes, the player locates the real Arundel, who tells the party to take the Heartstone Gem to Larrel (Michael Bell) at the fortress of the Severed Hand, as he is now the only one capable of using it.
The party arrives at the fortress, discovering that Larrel had gone insane. Larrel brokenly mentions something about freeing his cursed people, along with a hint on how to go about it. After completing his task, Larrel regains his sanity and uses the Heartstone Gem to discover the source of the evil, which apparently resides in the dwarven city of Dorn's Deep.
After carving their way through Upper Dorn's Deep, Wyrm's Tooth, and Lower Dorn's Deep, the party at last reaches Brother Poquelin (John Kassir
John Kassir
John Kassir is an American actor, voice artist, and comedian who is best known as the voice of the Crypt Keeper in HBO's, Tales from the Crypt franchise...
) – the villain of the game. Poquelin explains that he arrived in the material plane
Prime Material Plane
The Prime Material Plane is the central plane of existence in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game...
due to his superiors exiling him from his home plane – according to Poquelin, calling his vendetta with Yxunomei "out of control." Poquelin had predicted that Yxunomei would follow him to the material plane, so he had sought a base of operations in order to begin a military force capable of crushing her. While he was doing so, he stumbled upon the ancient artifact Crenshinibon
Crenshinibon
Crenshinibon is an evil, sentient artifact in the Forgotten Realms setting based on the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The item was featured primarily in the novels The Crystal Shard, Passage to Dawn, The Silent Blade, and Servant of the Shard by R.A...
, which he claims had been "calling" to him. Using its power of attracting evil-intentioned creatures, Poquelin began amassing an immense army with which to conquer the lands of Icewind Dale. He claims that everything was going as planned until Hrothgar's expedition had set out to investigate Yxunomei's activities in the area around Kuldahar. He used his frost giant minions to cause the avalanche to crush the expedition. Apparently, he did not see the player's party as a threat until they stole the Heartstone Gem from Yxunomei, to which he responded by killing Arundel – the only person he thought would be capable of using it. Although the party discovered his location by taking it to Larrel, Poquelin wasn't bothered, as all the while he was amassing his forces outside of Easthaven. After combating Poquelin, he teleports the party back to Easthaven, which is now in ruins. After freeing the surviving villagers and speaking with a local cleric of Tempus, the party makes its way to Poquelin's lair – Easthaven's temple, which has been enveloped by a Cryshal-Tirith (Elvish, meaning "crystal tower"), courtesy of Crenshinibon.
In the end, it is revealed that Poquelin's true intention was to re-open Jerrod's Stone (a portal to the Nine Hells of Baator created long ago), so that he could conquer the North with an army of devils at his command. Although after opening the portal, the local cleric of Tempus, Everard, hurls himself into it just as its namesake did – sealing it off at the cost of his own life. This buys the party enough time to fight Poquelin, who has reverted to his true form – the devil Belhifet. After defeating Belhifet and banishing him back to the Nine Hells, the Cryshal-Tirith collapses, and the party barely escapes in time. Easthaven begins to be rebuilt, and the game ends with the party victorious.
In a twist ending, the game's Narrator (David Ogden Stiers
David Ogden Stiers
David Ogden Stiers is an American actor, director, vocal actor, and musician, noted for his roles in Disney movies, as well as his performances in the television series M*A*S*H as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy...
) and Belhifet are revealed to be one and the same; the demon implies that his mandatory century of imprisonment (after his defeat at the hands of the Player's party) is close to an end and that he will soon walk the Prime Material Plane once more....
Audio
Icewind DaleJeremy Soule
Jeremy Soule is an American composer of soundtracks for film, television and video games. He has won multiple awards and has been described as the "John Williams of video game music" and "a model of success" for Western composers. He has composed soundtracks for over 60 games and over a dozen...
, and received widespread critical acclaim.
Development
Icewind Dale is based on the BioWareBioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer founded in February 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. BioWare is currently owned by American company Electronic Arts...
Infinity Engine
Infinity Engine
Infinity Engine is a game engine which allows the creation of isometric computer role-playing games. It was originally developed by BioWare for a prototype RTS game codenamed Battleground Infinity, which was ultimately re-engineered to become the first installment of the Baldur's Gate series...
, featuring pre-rendered backgrounds and sprite-based characters displayed with an isometric camera perspective. This engine was used to power Black Isle Studios' previous games Planescape: Torment
Planescape: Torment
Planescape: Torment is a computer role-playing game developed for Windows by Black Isle Studios and released on December 12, 1999 by Interplay Entertainment. It takes place in Planescape, an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy campaign setting...
, Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate is a computer role-playing game developed by BioWare and released in 1998 by Interplay Entertainment. The game takes place in the Forgotten Realms, a high fantasy campaign setting, using modified Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition rules...
, and others.
Versions and re-releases
The game and its expansion were released in two budget packages in 2002, entitled Icewind Dale: The Collection and Icewind Dale: Complete. They were released once again in 2002 alongside Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment in Black Isle Compilation. A collector's edition, Icewind Dale: The Ultimate Collection, including the sequel and its expansion was released in 2003. All four games were released again in Black Isle Compilation - Part Two in 2004, in Ultimate Dungeons & Dragons in 2006 and in Atari's Rollenspiele: Deluxe Edition in 2007. On October 6, 2010, Icewind Dale was re-released complete with expansion packs on the GOG.com website.Reception
Icewind Dale was critically well received, scoring 92% on Game RankingsGame Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
. The strongest criticism was that the Gameplay was too uniform and was essentially entirely combat focused, with little interaction or investigation. Gamespot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
gave the game 86% saying: "It's well suited for fans of Black Isle Studios' previous games, classic hack-and-slash AD&D computer games, and anyone looking for an action-packed role-playing game with a lot of depth." IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
scored it 8.8/10 and Game Zone gave it 9.5/10.