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Better story, better puzzles, better characters

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: October 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The Neverwinter Nights (NWN) game engine represents what I hope to be a new era in computer gaming: platforms that invite users/players to create their own games with near-complete access to the game engine.

Sadly, while the NWN platform itself was a major breakthrough, the included gameplay was routine, uninspired, and sometimes even silly. Shadows of Undrentide (SoA) shows that the Bioware crew can not only create a great technical product, but also deliver a solid story.

Unlike the original NWN storyline, SoA has a coherent plot that, while short of "compelling," kept me interested. The fact that it was written for single-player mode meant the storytellers could focus on developing non-player characters rather than try to have the story work with lots of different players (not an easy task!). While many have complained about the lack of multi-player support, personally I've been unable to commit to that kind of gameplay anyway, and the few experience I've had were disappointing.

The fact that NWN is both a generalized toolset and a game means a lot of tradeoffs: one is that the graphics and environments become pretty uninspiring after a while because they re-use the same assets over and over again. To me, this is almost a blessing, as it forces story developers to focus more on the story rather than dazzle players with graphics.

Toolset enhancements and expanded assets (monsters, spells, etc.) make this expansion essential for those of us creating content.

Although not approaching the peaks of the Infinity Engine series of games, the NWN platform still has a lot of room for growth, whatever the power-gamers who want shiny graphics instead of good stories might say.

Does not really feel like an Add on...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 12
Date: January 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I got this game as part of Neverwinter Gold. I have heard nothing bad about Neverwinter and with a second expansion coming out I bought Neverwinter Gold since it was the same price as Neverwinter. I finished Neverwinter Night last weekend. It was a great game. I love every part of it. It is the best representation of D&D in a computer game since the early days.

But....Shadow of Undrentide is seriously lacking. First, you start out being "trained" as an adventurer. My character was twenty second level by the time I start this add on so I would hardly say that a player of that level would be in that situation. It seemed like the creators wanted this to be a separate game using the same game engine, but decided on an add on instead. This can be the only reason for the next flaw, which is they dump the hench men from the original for a new set which are seriously lacking the depth of the original ones. I only raise this issue b/c Bioware brings back the original Henchmen for the next add on; Hordes of the Underdark. So why else would they make this change in the middle?

So in short, this is a fair enough game if you buy the Neverwinter Gold edition, but do not waste you money on buying it on its on. It is simply not worth the money. I gave it two stars since this add on has my favourite prestige class, the Blackguard. Buy it from the bargain bin.

games is too buggy

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 20
Date: September 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

this game, and the original, needed to be tested more before release. there's people everywhere, including me, having fits trying to play this game. there's no support from bioware. all software problems are blamed on the user and the publisher of the game, things are never the software creator's fault. though the game is fun, it crashes so often its fun-factor drops dramatically. patches are nigh non-existent as bioware is too busy creating expansions to de-bug the existing code. ka-ching?

if you want to buy a beta-game which may or may not work on your system, this is the game for you.

I hope the other expansions have more than this...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: August 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This expansion will give you A) five new classes, only two of which are worth playing (the Blackguard and the Arcane Archer are fun). The other classes are inferior to most others.
B) A handful of new monsters. The madusa and the basilisk were a good addition, but I was hoping for a lot more.
C) A handful of new spells, most noteworthy are the bigby's giant hand spells. When will prismatic sphere be added? It's the best spell for wizards and sorcorers!
D) A few minor rule changes, such as the removal of level requirements for the use of magic items (This never should have been added into the game in the first place, and is right out of Diablo 2).
E) A new campaign, which is much better than the original campaign. If you like playing solo, it's fun, but not as fun as playing online.
F) The editor has been upgraded. Secret doors, and simular objects, are much easier to add into your dungeons.

It would be nice if these fixes and add-ons could be gotten in a free patch, rather than a $... game!

Its a hard 3 stars

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 12
Date: September 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

ok i bought this game for the single player game and the box says 20 hours of new single player adventures well i beat the gamae in under 10 hours and i am very thorough to so there is no way its 20 hours of game play. The original was a far better plot as well. Not that it wasn't good but it was way to short. In the future i would say a long harder single player game or i will stop buying the neverwinter nights games.

Excellent Game-highly anticipated Expansion

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 34
Date: May 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Wonderfull game for folks like me, wife, kids, no time to sit around a table, throw dice, scarf cheetos and mountaindew...sadly, those occasions come rarely, if at all.

Despair not, if you geek on D&D, this game and expansion pack are for you. Remember its 3rd edition, so throw that 2nd edition...out the window...well, put it on the shelf for refrence.

New feats, new spells, the "core" prestige classes...with the codes available to do a .hak and create custom prestige classes...

Anyway, as awesome as it all is, I admit to a hankering for Psionics...but oh well...

A solid, but short, expansion

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: February 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Shadow of Undrentide is a very solid expansion, with new tileset, placables, PrCs added to the already amazing original game. The official campaign is a little bit short though, but it is as interesting as ever.

Definitely get this if you liked the original NWN.

I want a deepwood sniper!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 62
Date: January 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

But since that won't be happening it seems that the new feats will be cool ( blindfight and dirty fighting especially ). The fact that they claim the quest will allow more sneaking around and less kill the monster, rogues will have more fun.

decent

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

well, i got it to run on my computer no problems, so i didn't encounter that problem, but i imagine that others may be having similar problems to what someone else wrote in their review of the game. i thought the game was just ok, only two henchmen to choose from a dwarf rogue/cleric, which is just alright....the rogue portion of that character is not good enough to take care of all the traps or all of the doors....and then a half-orc sorcerer, which is just about the worst race-class design possible, and although i do like the idea for its orriginality, it would have been nicer to have had as many potential henchmen as there were in the original neverwinter nights. the story line is similar to that of neverwinter nights, in that a couple artifacts have been stolen you have to recoup them, and save the day. i found the game to be harder than the original, so it did get a little frustrating at times from that stand point, but it didn't take as long to get to the conclusion. overall, it was alright, nothing to scream about. i thought what it added for the toolset and the ability to now add things to your henchmens inventory and have a little more control over which weapons they use to be very useful. the one thing i would like to see added to a future expansion is the ability to get your henchmen to use their move silently/hide skills, that way you and your henchmen can sneak up on enemies.

A disappointment in relation to the original

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 19
Date: November 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I found this expansion to be disappointing.

I first tried the expansion with the character I finished the original with. I practically sleptwalked through the entire expansion. My paladin, approx lvl 20, and zero trouble going through it.

Next, I tried it with a brand new character. First I tried a monk, and it was just too hard. Next, I tried another paladin, and it was still extremely difficult to get through it.

So, for someone that was looking to move forward with a character that finished the orignal, I can't imagine this expansion will offer you ANY challenge. I think I finished the expansion in a few days. And if you want to start a new character, be prepared to really work your bottom off.

Here's hoping the next expansion is better suited to either roll.

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