| Game Reviews From a Parental Perspective! | |
|
|
|
| Home | Forums | Review Archive | Columns | Feature Articles |
|
Home >
Review Archive >
Video Games
> Results: NWN: Hordes of the Underdark
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Scroll down for our Kid Factor. Dungeons & Dragons, in its purest form, consists of powerful heroes, a town, a dungeon, and a DM ready to thumb through the various monster books unleashing unusual horrors on the hapless characters. That's why the latest expansion pack for Bioware's ground-breaking Neverwinter Nights D&D simulator, Hordes of the Underdark, eschews travel across strange lands, sweeping interconnected adventures, and most importantly, artifact recovery. Essentially, it has more in common with the better player-created modules -- like those based on old school D&D -- than the original campaign or the recent Undrentide expansion.  Underdark consists of the city of Waterdeep, a massive and horrible dungeon created by a mad wizard that exists under the town, and the vast Dark Elf-inhabited realm of the Underdark that exists below that. The story is simple. Waterdeep needs heroes. For decades, the city has pretty much ignored the vast deathtrap dungeon (built by a mad archmage, naturally) lurking below the surface because, while adventurers and heroes might go in, nothing bad ever comes out. The problem is that now things are coming out all of a sudden. Bad things. The city is under siege from below and it looks like the Drow are responsible. The question is: is the mad archmage working with them? Or have they found a way around him? Adventurers gather at an inn and, after repelling a sneak attack, venture forth. You may play a previous character, generate a new one, or play one of the many pre-generated characters. You'll begin between 15 and 20th level, so you know the adventures will be epic. You'll have to manage your character, spells, abilities, feats and more as you face the scariest and weirdest creatures D&D has to offer. Oh, the best part is that the Drow Priestess has had a vision that your character is going to destroy her. Isn't that comforting? It looks like the team at Bioware had a great time crafting this adventure. And why shouldn't they have? They got to use the most devious traps and create encounters and quests around dragons, Driders, Duergar, Drow, and many other things that fortunately don't start with "D." What things? Umber Hulks, Mind Flayers, extra-planer monsters, giants, and much more. Yes, all those wonderful creatures that prospective DMs dream about unleashing, when they page through the Monster Manual late at night.  The original Neverwinter Nights took a cue from Diablo II by offering the ability to teleport back to town for healing, the selling of equipment, identification of magic items, or raising of henchmen. Underdark gives your character an interesting ability (that turns out to be more than it seems) in a "reaper stone." If you die, you appear in a parallel realm in front of a winged figure, who lets you return to the inn and rejoin the adventure. The going gets rough in this game so you'll appreciate the ability to keep your equipment, experience, and only lose the time it takes to return to the fray. Needless to say, the story is strong, contains all the typical Bioware twists, turns and quality writing, and fans of power-D&D will have a lot to crow about. It's in three pieces and the three are cleverly put together and unique in their own right. That alone makes this a necessary purchase for NWN fans already groaning under a huge pile of free content. What makes Underdark more fun is the ability to fight these massive monsters in multiplayer. A well-balanced party fares much better against Beholders, Blue Dragons, and much, much worse. The pack also enhances the original game. You get new rules for handling characters up to level 40; now you can use the Red Dragon Disciple class (there's a sample character included who comes with his own set of wings), and you get some new prestige classes (including the new ones added by the Undrentide expansion). New tilesets let you create your own deep, dark dungeon and dank cavern adventures. You'll also find improved monster AI (it really does handle spell casting well), new treasures and artwork, and you can actually have two henchmen this time. You'll also find some old friends including Linu Lanaeral, Tomi, Daelan Red-Tiger, and Deekin the annoying Kobold who fancies himself a novelist. Perhaps listening to complaints from Baldur's Gates II fans, Bioware has scripted some... interesting romance scripts to make your henchmen interaction more... well, interesting. The game engine has been enhanced with an improved zoom, but that doesn't stop the graphics from looking a bit long in the tooth. The sound is pretty much what we've heard before, aside from some very cool monster sound effects and new visuals with the spell effects. Like Baldur's Gate II, the high-level spell selection means lots of fireworks happening all at once. Darkness spells, fireballs, and multiple magic missiles, webs, and much more all give off sound cues and reflect nicely off the cool and alien-looking wall and floor tiles. Composer Jeremy Soule has once again submitted a worthy score for the adventure. Anyone that was disappointed when comparing Neverwinter Nights to Baldur's Gate II or the more recent Knights of the Old Republic will find a lot to like in Hordes of the Underdark. Bioware is a company that listens to its fans and a creative developer when it comes to exploiting what's irresistibly cool about RPGs and especially D&D at high-level play. Hordes of Underdark is the epic NWN deserves and that fans have been waiting for. Kid Factor: The kiddies will probably enjoy the adventure, especially if you read and play along. A LAN is ideal for this. Or, you can become the Dungeon Master and guide your kids friends through an adventure you and your own kids have created. Neverwinter Nights is very much the kind of game that gives back what you put into it 100-fold. ﾖKid Factor by Robert Andrews GamerDad's take: Since this expansion deals with the Dark Elves torture, spiders, and demonic worship figure into the story heavily. There's also a twist toward the end that might give some parents pause. Age: 14+ ESRB: T- Teen Producer: Atari Developer: BioWare Score: 4.5 of 5 Reviewer: Andrew S. Bub 
The kiddies will probably enjoy the adventure, especially if you read and play along. A LAN is ideal for this. Or, you can become the Dungeon Master and guide your kids friends through an adventure you and your own kids have created. Neverwinter Nights is very much the kind of game that gives back what you put into it 100-fold. ﾖKid Factor by Robert Andrews
Kid Factor by Andrew Bub
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: NWN: Hordes of the Underdark |
Read the GamerDad 2007 Holiday Guide!
|
Please Note: GamerDad is not intended to be read by anyone under 18. We stay clean, but be warned! Content Management System developed by Redbird Solutions. |
