Much ado was made about Neverwinter Nights back when it was still in development. The Forgotten Realms popularized by a host of games by both Bioware and Black Isle Studios was coming into the third dimension, complete with earth-shaking spell effects, a more intimate character system (i.e. one powerful character as opposed to six specialized ones), and, most importantly, the ability to have human DMs control play online. Indeed, it was a golden age for Dungeons & Dragons dorks like me.
In addition to the graphical overhaul, NWN managed to provide the same masterful storytelling, memorable characters, and sharp writing that made its predecessors the masterpieces they were. This tradition continued (more or less) through its first expansion pack, Shadows of Undrentide, and on into the latest incarnation, Hordes of the Underdark.
In addition to new three-chapter stories, NWN’s expansions added more and more, to put it simply, stuff from the latest addition of the DnD rulebook. SoU offered some more feats, more spells, and prestige classes. But enough preamble – Suffice it to say that NWN is a constantly evolving entity, with many expansion packs, enough downloadable material from Bioware’s Neverwinter Nights Website, and a stunning online community. For more detailed information on the original Neverwinter Nights, please check out our glowing review.
The most notable cool thing is the massive new level cap. Whereas your character hit the ceiling at level 20 in the original, Hordes allows characters to reach level 40. What could this possibly mean? Simple: epic characters. Let’s say you take your level 20 elven abjurer into HotU. At level 21, your precious pointy-eared spellcaster becomes an epic elven abjurer. This gives him access to special epic feats that allow you to further increase certain statistics or spellcasting ability. Quite simply, after level 20, your character is godly. The ego boost alone is worth the price of this expansion. Imagine strutting down the street, secure in your knowledge that, beneath your Spider-Man tee shirt beats the heart of a level 32 epic Orc Barbarian. But I digress.
Six new prestige classes have been added, including the Weapon Master (who specializes even further in a certain weapon, gaining superb bonuses), the Dwarven Defender (who is unshakable once he plants his feet and assumes his defensive stance), and the Red Dragon Disciple (who grows wings and can spout fire – you know you want a piece of that – don’t kid yourself).
In addition to all this, several new spells have been added, as well as new feats and skills, and the ability to craft weapons and armour from raw materials you find around. That’s right, all that ham-fisted door- and chest-smashing mayhem you so enjoyed as a strong-arm Half-Orc Fighter (which was probably a direct result of that time you got angry and ate your halfling rogue…) now has a practical purpose – you can take your foul-smelling rage and do something productive with it, like build a second chest-smashing axe. The possibilities, and irony, are endless.
As far as the aurora toolset goes, the whole process has been somewhat streamlined. Also, a few new features have been added, such as the ability to attach wings and tails to characters… You know, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Graphically, aurally, and in terms of gameplay, there isn’t much difference between HotU and its predecessors. There are still the same passable graphics (that seem just a tad outdated by today’s standards, but this is forgivable given the sheer amount of stuff the game has to do), excellent voice acting and music, and fun, innovative gameplay.
Once you’ve finished with the story, there is yet plenty to keep you busy. If you played through as a fighter, why not try a more magic-based character for a change? Or, try out the new prestige classes and level limit in the original campaigns? If you’re still not satisfied, there is still a rich online community of people playing and creating modules, and there are a number of interesting persistent worlds to try out. It’s like Everquest without the monthly fee.
All in all, I’m still quite satisfied with this expansion. It manages to tell a fairly intriguing story, it’s full of some very epic battles, and there seems to be a great deal of leeway as far as your morality goes – for once you’re not pigeonholed into one response, so you can complete quests as homicidally as you please.
All, however, is not a bouquet of crumpled roses (from, say, hitting your gnomish illusionist/Red Dragon Disciple for letting his familiar poop in your socks). There seem to be a lot more scripted events and cinematics in the game, which can hold everything up. A couple of them felt completely extraneous, but this could simply be a difference in artistic opinion. Some of the puzzles can get very tedious – most notably the segment in which you’re hunting down a mimic in order to get your clothes back. Ah, if I had a gold coin for every time that’s happened to me… well, I’d still be a poor writer, but at least I’d still be dressed. At any rate, as far as the dungeons go, there are a number of very interesting and innovative ideas to be found; however, the execution just feels lacking.
And why aren’t there any steeds? You can engineer wings and tails and flowing robes, but not my blasted War Pony? I’d be a happy man if my halfling paladin could charge nobly into battle on the back of a ferocious battle-hardened German shepherd.
All in all, HotU is a fairly solid expansion to the NWN franchise, both on- and off-line. The additions alone make it worth picking up, and, at the end of the day, it still manages to tell a hell of a story. After all, isn’t that what really counts?
