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Hordes: An instant "Must Have" Classic

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 41 / 43
Date: December 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Cinematic, flashy, epic, and thoroughly satisfying - Hordes of the Underdark is the truly phenomenal culmination of the Neverwinter Nights franchise. While player reviews were mixed in regards to the original NWN campaign and the first expansion campaign, I have seen little if anything for Hordes except high praise. It brings to the table both a well written and dramatic campaign and an avalanche of new game features like feats, prestige classes and skills and the much-awaited Epic Levels - expanding the game from 20 class levels to 40 - all of it in an extremely smooth and meticulously produced package.

The official Hordes campaign is not only my most enjoyable Neverwinter Nights play experience yet, but also ranks as the single most satisfying RPG game experience I've ever had. If you haven't ever played Neverwinter Nights, now is the time to buy NWN Gold and Hordes and get down to business learning this fantastic game.

The plot of the Hordes campaign is, on the one hand, the same plot every RPG has - "save the world." However there's nothing formulaic about the plot of Hordes. Bioware has made a compelling story that you will have trouble walking away from. The story is complex and well written, taking you to many well-portrayed locations classic to the D&D genre, such as Undermountain, the Underdark, and Beholder and Illithid cities. These locations are moody, alien, dark and disturbing in a truly tangible way. You will not explore these locations *wondering* how you should react - you *will* react, tangibly and viscerally, to their disturbing lighting and ailen architecture.

In addition, throughout the campaign Bioware has made extensive use of the new cinematic camera features added by SOU, bringing a sense of big screen urgency to this adventure. No more reading in a little text box about how important it is you undertake this quest. Instead you watch beautiful, dramatic, in-game cutscenes that show you horrors being unleashed upon the world that only you can stop. And as you approach the close of the story, you are not wondering how you should feel, or fiddling with your equipment because you're bored. You will forget game mechanics and move urgently towards the resolution of the story.

When all is said and done, you will be left with a character that is roughly 25th-30th level. And you will truly see your character as an epic hero - not becuase of a number on your character sheet, or because of feats and skills you chose, and not because of your epic loot. (And there's plenty of awesome loot if you like that.) You will see your character as an epic hero because of your vivid memories of the epic *actions* that your character has performed. "Level 30" will seem meaningless compared to looking at your character and remembering an entire city looking to you as it's only hope - and actually leading that city to *defeat* an entire army in order to realize that hope.

Having now played the OC and tried multiple game features, I have to say that this expansion has an extremely professional and clean feel to it. I was troubled by only a single bug during my play through of the campaign - a moment when a cutscene didn't fire perfectly. This certainly didn't stop my game play. Every feature added has a very polished feel, as if a great deal of care and attention was placed on each of the new game additions. The smallest features, such as the new icons used to represent added feats, are attractive and show care in design.

Henchman AI is much improved in Hordes, and you can now take 2 of them with you while you travel. Playing on Hardcore difficulty, I had a henchman die only once. Countless times my party-mates contributed smart decisions to battles. For example Deekin would use his Fear spell only on foes that were vulnerable to it, often with great results. NPCs that join your party have been given a *lot* of side chatter, comments, and extra interactions with either each other or you - and it's often hilarious. You will definitely NOT feel like you are alone on this adventure with a mute robot that often dies.

I've commented so much on the OC that I don't have much space to comment on the multitude of other great features. Six new Prestige Classes are added, and judging from the Bioware forums they're all a huge hit for different reasons. Many new feats, some epic and some not, were added. Weapon and armorcrafting skills now allow you to modify the appearance of your items - so you can pick between a chain shirt having all those metal loops, or that leather trim. Cloth, leather and metal dyes allow you to completely customize the colors of your armor and helmets. Intimidate and Bluff skills allow new and different types of social interactions. Robes have been added to the game and they look amazing. Items in your inventory can now be the target for spells and items, allowing you to poison your blade, or cast spells on your items that give them new properties.

After NWN's rocky life story, HotU has erased any doubts about Bioware and their commitment to quality. They demonstrate so many gifts and talents in Hordes - care, precision, smart design - and most importantly, an essential understanding of what an RPG gamer wants when they sit down to play. Bioware has really hit the nail on the head with this great campaign: it leaves you feeling like a true hero from myth or legend.

In an era of RPGs that largely disappoint, Bioware has produced a classic - a resplendent gem that is impressive on so many levels that is almost impossible to rate the game high enough. If you have any love for 3E D&D or for NWN, you simply must buy this expansion.

Engaging single player adventure, awesome toolset content

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 28
Date: December 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have to admit, I'm enjoying the new campaign in Hordes of the Underdark more than either of the previous Neverwinter Nights campaigns (the original game or the Shadows of Undrentide expansion). It has a strong "Forgotten Realms" feel to it, and it's great for people who've been wanting a high level adventure with tons of Drow, Ilithids, Beholders, and other denizens of the Underdark. The new prestige classes, spells, feats, etc... are a lot of fun and should definitely add to the re-playability factor. I've personally played through this expansion twice: with a Druid/Shifter and Bard/Dragon Disciple, and I'd certainly consider playing it again.

Also, from a module builder perspective, the new toolset content is quite impressive. To mention just a few things: new tilesets, new magic item abilities, intelligent weapons, improvements and added scripting functions, vastly improved henchman AI... and your characters can now wear robes! These are things that the Neverwinter community has been clamoring for, and it's nice to see the wishes of the players and module creators being addressed. Kudos to Bioware for listening to its customers. This expansion brings Neverwinter Nights to a new level of maturity with regards to the sheer wealth of possibility for fans who design modules.

Warning:highly addictive game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: March 31, 2004
Author: Amazon User

HOTU as we call it online is a great addition to the Neverwinter Nights collection. It gives you new monsters (most notably the mind flayer and beholder), toolsets (like the drow and mind flayer lairs), classes (like the Pale Master and Red Dragon Desciple), and greatly expands the limitations of things like magic item powers (you can make weapons up to +20 with massive additional damage from fire, acid, etc.). There are so many ways you can custom make your character that no two characters are the same. It's fun just to build a character and test them against hordes of monsters.
The many online servers are great, and offer unlimited fun with other players. It doesn't end there, though. The game comes with an *awesome* adventure (which I rate much much higher than any of the previous adventures) where you get to venture into the underdark and battle hordes of drow elves, mind flayers, beholders, etc. It has enough monsters to boost your character from first level to around 26th level, and takes a few days to complete. (I did have a lot of problems with the solo adventure crashing, especially during FMV's. It made the adventure almost impossible to complete. Hope the developers can improve upon this)
You can also download countless adventures from the NWN web sight. There are so many possibilities with this game that you can spend a looooong time experimenting. Have fun!

Best Neverwinter thus far

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 19
Date: December 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The first expansion pack was a disappointment - too little playing time, and what seemed like a quickly thrown together storyline. This second expansion pack was awesome to play. The new stuff is great: Epic classes and skills, multiple NPCs, majorly souped up (and customizable) weapons and armor, and much more playing time. Plus you can import your level 12-15 character from the previous Neverwinter, or start a new level 15 character and manually level them up. (All your equipment gets "stolen" in the opening sequence - but it doesn't matter, because within an hour or two you've gotten much better stuff already!)
This game was a joy, I just finished it and am starting again with a different character.

The Difference is Epic

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: December 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Having played through "Hordes of the Underdark", I am more than pleased to report that this expansion is a far, far greater single-player experience than either the original or the "Shadows of Undrentide" campaigns. Besides the ability to reach beyond 20 levels, the story is epic enough to match your burgeoning god-like hero.

Of course, there are the additions similar to what "Shadows" offered: New monsters, feats, skills, spells, prestige classes, custom items, environments, toolset wizards and the like, but the epic-level advancement of characters and magic items is what will really extend the life of NWN (at least until a sequel, or possibly another expansion).

A not-inconsiderable point of contention to the many positives of "Hordes" is that it is *not* backwardly-compatable with previous versions of NWN online. While this will most likely be fixed in a future update, it should not have shipped this way to begin with. Very annoying.

All in all, this is a highly worthwhile purchase (unless you play multiplayer online often - if this is the case, wait until Bioware fixes the compatibility issues). Even if no further expansions are made for NWN, this is a fitting tribute to the best computer representation of the D&D world so far.

more like 2 and a half

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 17
Date: December 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Bioware seems to be learning from previous mistakes and then simply making new ones. While one could go into the fact that the original (and required) basis for this expansion pack - Neverwinter Nights - and the first expansion - Shadows of Undrentide - are still quite buggy and in need of further patching with the release of yet a second expansion, there are more pressing concerns about Hordes of the underdark.

First, the good stuff:

- The campaign that ships with Hordes is simply stellar when comapred to the campaign that came with the original NWN. Some would fret that that isn;t saying much considering how abyssmal the original was. But, rest assured, hordes delivers a good single player experience.
- Your henchmen are smarter, participative and worth having around. You get 2 now, and you can tell them when to cast spells and when to stop blowing all of their offensive power on weak little minions that present no real challenge and save the fireworks for the big dogs.
- The new tilesets are well done and the presentation of the whole campaign shows care and attention to detail - it is beautiful.
- The musical score is top notch - one of the best i have heard in a CRPG.

Now, the bad:

- Your epic wizard types are severely hamstrung here. Your character barely advances in any measureable way as a spell caster past 20th level. Instead you get to spend your feat(bonus bailities you get as you advance) on a selection of epic spells (there are only 6 to pick from). You can only take each spell once and it is usable only once per day. So, not only do you get no spells or increas ein spell power past 20th level, but you only get 6 spells from level 21-40.
- The class imbalance only gets worse. It has never been a huge secret that some classes - Druids, Bards and Rogues for example - are pretty much left behind in the class balance area. With new epic levels, they are totally left behind. Very little is added to these classes to make them worthwhile vs say a cleric or fighter.
- The new prestige classes are basically for clerics and fighter only. The new wizard prestige classes add no spell casting ability, and the shifter class for the Druid adds little to bring them up to par with everyone else. Monks get nothing.
- The new spells are nothing special. New spells for all classes are not game breakers, and the new epic spells are so easily resisted by 20+ level character that they are barely worthwhile - keep in mind your spell caster abilities stopped at level 20. Vs a 40th level opponent you are still casting as a 20th level mage.
- The system requirements jumped from a p3 450 to a p3 800 without warning. A small thing, but certainly something to take notice of if you have a minimum spec machine for NWN you cannot use Hordes.

all in all this expansion is worth buying, but bear in mind it suffers from the same problems as the rest of the series - hasty implementation with little playtesting for balance coupled with the fact that it is based on a ruleset that isn't exactly perfect to begin with.

it would be nice to see what Bioware does in the future with it upcoming original material that won;t be tied to the flawed dungeons and dragons rule system, but the NWN series is basically a good game hampered by a poor foundation of rules.

25 YEARS OD RPGING AND STILL GOING STRONG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: November 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

OK, I've played PnP D&D since I was 1st interested in reading - actually D&D is what got me interested in reading in the first place...but anyways, I've also played (or tried playing) most PC RPG's out there including the hit titles of 2002 - Morrowind and Dungeon Siege, and NWN is by far the best you can get. First off, if you want Hack and Slash RPGing, you can download as many Hack and Slash modules off of NWVault.com as your heart desires - even beautiful recreations of Diablo and Diablo2! If you want some cerebral RPGing with plenty of text and quests, well you can download tonnes of D&D PnP module recreations - including titles like "Keep on the Borderlands", "Temple of Elemental Evil", "Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh", etc... There are even accurate recreations of previous Bioware licensed material like Baldur's Gate, Planescape, and Icewind Dale! So when you buy your copy of NWN, your getting a thousand RPG's in one little box - it's that crazy!

Worthy upgrade for Neverwinter Nights.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: January 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is awesome, finally your character can brawl with the best of them. To the neverwinter fans, if you thought Shadows of Undrentide wasn't worth a purchase, this expansion will prove to you that missing out on all the new content is stupid. Personally, I thought Shadows of Udrentide kicked @$$ but to each his own opinion. Epic spells, feats and levels make this game a must buy if you bought the first Nevewinter. Tons of online content in the form of Mods is already available utilizing the expansion. The toolset has also recieved heafty additions in the form of tilesets, monster, scripting and armor.-Dungeon Masters rejoice. Theres more of everything but most important thing of all, the graphics are now better due to the 'sky boxes'(give the appearance of a sky in background) and the ability to move the camera right beside you. It feels almost like another game. I'll be playing this game for another year or so. Bioware really listens to the fans and it shows in spades.

The installment that is the most fun to play

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: May 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

For me Hordes of the Underdark is the most fun installment of the series to play. The plot is OK, and is the standard fare for most Dungeons crawls. The Hero and his party of followers head into the depths of the earth to save their homeland from invasion and destruction. Graphically Neverwinter Nights is OK, though it isn't the most graphically outstanding game I have seen. However, the game play is very good. In this installment you can add two henchmen to form a small party for the first time. Unlike dungeon siege there is more of a plot to keep you going, with puzzles to keep you on your toes. D & D purists may hate this games because of its real time and non-turn based structure. However, they may well be in the minority as flowing game play is what I, for one look for. So four stars because it is just an expansion, but one worth buying.

The best RPG in ages

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: August 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The thing about trilogies is the last one is always the most boring. That is not so with HotU. It starts with a dark heroine asking her wizards to summon up the image of the only man/woman who can threaten her might, and viola, you see a nebulous shape emerging. Oh My God! It is you.

Your mission will take you through dungeons beneath cities, the Underdark where the drow live and well, let me just say to hell and back. You will battle the most thrilling monsters, take sides, face betrayal, be inspired by amazing loyalty, and unlike Shadows of the Underentide, which *sucked* the characters here are well developed and romanceable. Female gamers will be impressed that the dominantly male industry has created a male NPC with some depth. You will meet old friends (Aribeth, Linu, Deekin), you will fight old foes (why give away the surprise) and even fight some old friends. (Yes, wait when you go on the quest of the sleeping man, he used to be my friend and he attacked me!!. The best part, you do not have to be a 16 year old with hyper reflexes and eye to hand coordination to play this game, but you will still feel like a God when you fell dragons and devils with one swing of your blade (did I tell you you can reach epic status of 40 and upgrade your weapons to do cool stuff including a +10 enchantment bonus?. I have already played this game 28 times, as a man, as a woman, as every possible profession, and as every possible race I could think of and am still having a party. I'd recommend it to anyone and they ought to thank me.

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