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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!

Excellent Enhancements

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: November 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've read the reviews that pop up here regarding NW: SoU being too easy for their existing characters. Bah, I say, Bah. The designers stated numerous times that they were creating a quest for new characters. The true enhancements, of course, come into play in Multiplayer mode, where the original shined anyway. New spells, new feats, and best of all, prestige classes. Definitely an improvement!

Note on Joe Gromadski's review.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: December 02, 2003
Author: Amazon User

SoU (Shadow of Undertide) expansion was essentially a separate game from the original Neverwinter Nights. You were not supposed to play it using your old character from original NWN campaign. Starting from lvl 1 is what Bioware intended. I played through it as a monk and found it to be moderately challenging and not troublesome like you describe. In fact, towards the end, fights were easy (especially with Deekin watching my back :)
Hordes of the Underdark is, however, designed for 15th lvl character, so you'll need to use your favorite SoU character.

Great Expansion to an good game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: December 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

When Neverwinter Night first came out, it was not all what it was cracked up to. It took about a year of them patching the game up and plugging all the holes until they finally made a good game that shipped with a Great Module.

Hordes of the Underdark is a great expansion. Ton's of Detail, not overly huge areas, Good use of the game engine to tell the story, finally some fixes that everyone wanted to see and just a good game to sit down and play a few times though.

Finally doing something right.

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.

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.

Worth every cent!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: December 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The "Hordes" expansion was a lot of game play and tons of new abilities. The plot is pretty good and the new development options are impressive.

There are some bugs in the game, so you'll want to save frequently, but I'm hoping that a patch will fix them soon!

Enjoy!

Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: December 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This expansions truly brings out the best of Neverwinter Nights. The levels have an epic and satisfing feel, the gameplay is solid and fun and the many plot twists keep players on their toes. Many new features come with this expansion, such as six new prestige classes, many new monsters, new character customization options, skys in outdoor environments, wizard robes, five new tilesets, increased henchman interaction and an awsome 20+ hour campaign. The game has also had a slight increase in graphics, not earthshattering, but their nice. What Shadows of Undrentide did to streamline gameplay, Hordes of the Underdark does even better, making it an all around better gaming experience than the original. This expansion is well worth $30, I highly recommend it.

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.

This is what NWN should have been

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: December 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I liked the original Neverwinter Nights well enough, but there were a LOT of disappointments considering the amount of hype that surrounded it. I wasn't very impressed by the first expansion either; it was more of the same, only shorter. Hordes of the Underdark, however, gives credence to the saying "Third time's the charm".

This expansion proves that Bioware actually listened to the fans and added a great deal of content that was requested. The new story is fairly typical of fantasy games, but still enjoyable, particularly for the characters. The gameplay is significantly improved by new classes, spells, equipment, and more.

While, in my opinion, the first expansion was forgettable, Hordes of the Underdark will redefine Neverwinter Nights as a much more enjoyable game.

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