The evil Soraks are back, and they are meaner and greener than ever! Palace of Ice is another story DLC for Solasta: Crown of the Magister. Unlike Lost Valley, this one is a direct continuation of the original campaign instead of being a standalone adventure. This means that you get the chance to import your old dungeon-crawling crew if you still got the save file laying around. I had to start up an old computer of mine to find the save as it was a long time since I played it. And thank the Lord I found it. The thought of going through the main campaign again just to experience Palace of Ice would have been very demoralizing. Not that the main adventure is all bad, but one take was enough for me. And yes, you are allowed to create a new party, but my weird gaming autism would have prevented me from doing so.
The greatest threat to the world
The lizardmen are once again back in the world of Solasta, but this time their incursion is concentrated on the cold dwarven lands. Since your little gang of lizard slayers are experts on everything Sorak, you get the call and have to set out for faraway lands of snow and ice. In typical Sorak fashion, they have infiltrated everything and everyone, and it’s your job to sniff them out, and then slowly skewer them painfully. The story in itself isn’t any kind of narrative masterwork since it’s rather simple, but coming from the main campaign, and Lost Valley, I can’t complain about it too much. It’s pure Solasta writing – the best of the three storylines, actually, thanks to the cool dwarven setting, and environments. Give me snow landscapes and massive dwarven stone architecture over hot and sweaty jungle-themed terrain any day!
Like Lost Valley, the game has a couple of different factions. However, they don’t have the same importance. They are mostly used for backdrop, to expand the lore and the setting of the north. Yet, there are moments where you can and will give your influence over these groups, but it’s more of a binary choice of good and evil, than making an informed decision about who you want to support throughout the game.
All in all, the storyline is fine if you set your exceptions to match the game. By now you should know what you are in for. There is no losing here, considering it’s the best narrative of the three. I have to add, though, a huge bonus to this feeling is that you get to continue to play your old party of adventurers. It was very enjoyable seeing the familiar and slightly weird faces once again.
Paladin smash
The one major difference when it comes to gameplay is that the level limit has been upped from ten to sixteen for this adventure. This will make your party even more powerful than they already are – which comes with some serious balance issues. On AUTHENTIC mode (core Dungeon and Dragons 5th edition rules), you will soon become over-leveled for most of the quests. Soraks, as good as they are being lizards and all, stand no chance when you can zap two-thirds of their health with one smite from a Paladin. You won’t run into many fights with health-point bloated enemies that take forever to destroy, however, it never becomes a challenge except for a few bosses that actually put up a fight.
One reason for this is that they insist to keep random encounters when traveling the map. Beyond just being annoying as hell, having to fight scattered angry dragons ten times in a row, you get a ton of XP by doing so. Balance is hard, and I do understand that they need to have some kind of random events while traveling across the map, but this screwed up the original campaign and the Lost Valley expansion. There is just too much XP being handed out for these arbitrary confrontations.
An addition to Palace of Ice is environmental hazards, or, well, one hazard. Since the quests take place in the cold north, chilly weather will affect your party and enemies alike. You can avoid turning into an ice popsicle by wearing cold resistance gear or setting fire to piles of debris that you can find scattered around the maps. I like this addition, and I wish it would be been part of the series from an earlier stage. For example, the jungle-themed DLC could have sticky heat, or maybe malaria being a menace to the party. RPGs should have more survival aspect in general since it adds to the sense of adventure. Realistically, it’s not only ugly orcs you have to overcome, weather, finding food and sickness is also part of the journey. It’s a great start, though, and if Tactical Adventures decides to create more expansions, I hope they expand on this feature, making the life of an adventurer a true suffering as it should be.
Otherwise, the overall gameplay remains the same. It’s glorious turn-based action, which only becomes hampered by the easy campaign and being built upon DnD 5th edition instead of 3.5. There isn’t much you can do about the last part, considering we are on the third DLC now. One thing I have to add before talking about the visuals is that the final segment of the game does provide a proper tactical challenge. It does so by heavily restricting access to resting, shops, and other helpful things to diminish the hardships of questing. And it’s… GREAT! It’s just a shame it comes so late in the story, but it proves that the developers know how to make a challenging area/encounter if they want to. More of that, please!
Not the most attractive
Not surprisingly the visual style remains the same, except with the addition that we now get to partake in majestic dwarven architecture. Prepare for massive underground stone halls and dizzying vistas of meticulously carved rock. It’s absolutely splendid if you are a big fantasy dwarf buff like myself. The snowy cold landscapes of the north also add to the experience. I guess you could call this expansion the Icewind Dale of Solasta. Palace of Ice also adds the race of theiflings, but for some reason, they look horrendous. I’m not sure what happened here since their faces are way below the expected quality since everything else looks top-notch. I’m glad I don’t care for that race, but if you do, well, don’t buy the expansion for this addition alone because you will be beyond disappointed in their looks.
The music is very fitting for the setting, especially the droning musical numbers for the dwarves. These songs are probably my new favorites when it comes to the series. Everything concerning the dwarves from the visuals to sound is great – in other words, the atmosphere is of the highest grade. The voice actors make a return to voice the party members, and it’s a pure joy to hear them bicker again with their somewhat goofy delivery of lines.
Nice inclusion
Palace of Ice is a nice addition to the Solasta series, even if it isn’t the most advanced when it comes to storytelling. It’s enjoyable for what it is – a good old RPG romp through icy wastelands and dwarven settlements. And if you like to kill stuff, especially soraks, this is the expansion for you. Palace of Ice is also fairly long, it took me around fifteen to twenty hours to complete, so you get enough content for the fifteen euros it currently costs.
To add to that, it also comes with many new items, and new rules for use in custom campaigns, which is great. There are already a lot of custom-made adventures for download on Steam Workshop, and this will only add to them – allowing for more areas, and new gameplay rules. A big one concerning this aspect is that campaign makers can now add their own followers/companions. In general it’s a pretty good expansion worth the asking price. It’s just a shame that the game is too easy, however, there is potential for the future. If they ever decide to make more expansions, that is. The developers showed that they know how to make more difficult encounters, the team just shy from it for some reason. Either way, I recommended Palace of Ice!
Thanks for reading.
/Thomas
| System: | PC (Steam) |
| Played with: | Mouse & keyboard |
| Release year: | 2023 |
| Mods/fixes: | None |
| Enjoyment rating: |  |
Tom's Gaming Vault 