Ice Cold Near Alex
HEART OF ICE
Designer: Dave Morris | Publisher: Other Worlds 455
Following Storm Weavers, this is another ‘book with bits’, a deluxe re-issue of a work published in 2013. This time the setting is a postapocalyptic future with cyberpunk trimmings. Climate control has long been entrusted to a giant AI network named GAIA; a massive mistake (didn’t they watch the films?) with catastrophic consequences for the planet. It is now 2300, Earth is blanketed with snow and ice and GAIA is omnipotent and possibly ‘insane’.
You are sitting in your local inn in Northern Italy in the company of Kyle Boche when an old news feed tells of a fallen meteorite known as the Heart of Volent, venerated by a cult since it purportedly holds massive psychic potential for someone in direct physical contact. You decide to travel to Du-en in Egypt to investigate. Use one of seven presets for your character or create your own by selecting four skills from the 12 available. Survival would seem a good choice, as would cybernetics or lore for intel gathering. Close combat, shooting or psi are your combat options; all are simple and there are no dice throws. The bookmark shaped character sheets are a nice touch.
You now start a journey which takes around three quarters of the adventure. Initially you have to decide whether to travel east or west, and alone or with Boche. Travel is for the most part linear; you have to keep pushing on. For a time it’s fairly easy going but after a while you reach a long stretch of icy desert wastes and traversing these is absolutely brutal. If you are not sufficiently prepared you will die. As you travel you hear about other people making the same journey and you might encounter them along the way. You also learn about a way of destroying the Heart (which will require a partner), but perhaps you plan to harness its power for yourself. There will be a couple of side locations to explore for loot and intel along the way, and one or two big surprises. You can access atmospheric soundtracks and mark your progress on the supplied scratch map by matching printed symbols. The Moebius style full page colour artwork is good.
If you survive the icy wastes you arrive at Du-en and this is where the adventure goes up a gear. Here are gathered a motley bunch of adventurers; a US assassin, female clones, a psionic lord and others, including Kyle Boche. None of them are ideal partner material, and all are armed and extremely dangerous. There are just a couple of days to explore the ruins before deciding what to do. My first character was a rogue spy and although he had used his skills to good effect along the way, learned a lot from infiltrating the Compass Society and survived the ice trek, he fell to an early encounter at Du-en. My second, a Psi specialist visionary took the alternative route from the inn, had a very different experience, and died of cold. My third reached the end game, partly because he had a particular skill set which I guessed would unlock a major shortcut.
To be frank this one grew on me. It’s not perfect – another keyword or two wouldn’t come amiss particularly regarding Boche, and sometimes tooabrupt transitions and minor story disconnects make you feel you must have turned to the wrong section. On the other hand, you can generally anticipate what items will be most important, and there are few illogical sudden deaths. The end sequence is memorable.
DEBBIE BROWN
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
◗ Adventure
book (hard cover)
◗ 7 character cards
◗ 3 bookmark style character sheets
◗ 5 world maps
◗ Compass Society ID card
WE SAY
Yes, it’s a classic adventure with interesting NPC interaction, but you can pick up the original paperback for a fraction of the price.
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED ESCAPE FROM THE DARK SECTOR...
A similar atmosphere of dread stalks you as you hope to outwit creatures and machines in this high tech shooter adventure.