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Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark Expansion Pack

Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark Expansion Pack

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $19.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark
Review: Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark adds more of everything. The new Prestige Classes are generally more interesting and useful than those in the previous expansion pack (Shadows of Underntide). The new feats, like the Prestige Classes, are also much more interesting and useful than the previous expansion. The list of epic spells, improved henchman, max level, and tile sets are all improvements for the game.

Hordes of Underdark also adds a new set of official modules with the expansion. The plotline, dungeon layout, puzzles, and feel of the modules are far superior to that of previous official modules (and even better than most player/fan-base modules). A major problem is that it was designed for single-player only. Technically, you could play the game multiplayer, but the player hosting the game would have to be well versed in using the DM Client commands from the Player Client interface to combat these "issues."

Hordes of the Underdark has also released more glitches and bugs than even the original unpatched game. Even after Hordes being patched, most users experience occasional freezes and crashes. This is not such a big deal when you have the auto-save feature turned on, but still detracts from the excitement of playing the game.

One problem that I have witnessed in Neverwinter Nights from the beginning is that there has never been a large player/fan-base Mods for high levels (level 20). With the new cap of level 40 in Hordes, I have still not witnessed many high quality Mods for characters level 20-40. Lastly, those Mods that have been designed well for the higher levels frequently have a bias for more warrior based characters.

For players whose main focus in NWN is the single-player mode and enjoyed the expansion of freedoms in Shadows of Underntide (classes, feats, etc), those who enjoy "maxing" out a character or designing super templates, enjoy designing their own Mods or like to be able to keep up with playing the most current Mods, then Hordes of Underdark is an excellent expansion. For players whose computer's limits were being pushed by the previous expansion (Hordes doubles the "recommended" RAM requirement), who play primary/solely multiplayer mode, or for those who get their kicks by challenging high-level content, then Hordes doesn't deliver as much as it seems to contain.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 25 YEARS OD RPGING AND STILL GOING STRONG
Review: 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!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great
Review: Overall, NWN and the expansions are the best D&D roleplay game ever. Period.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Note on Joe Gromadski's review.
Review: 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.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Worth every cent!
Review: 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!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Neverwinter thus far
Review: 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.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Game
Review: 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.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great addition
Review: There's a lot of things I think make this expansion pack worthwhile. Just another game to play, that alone would be a deal. But you can sort of "pick up" where you might have ended in NWN:OC or SoU.

I haven't had any crashing problems, and have a general run-of-the-mill system: XP2100+ with 512mb, XPSP2, DMA133 hard drive. The only thing that might be considered sub-par is the graphic card, which is an older NVidia MX420 which I've had for about three years now (64mb). But even with the video, I get good response, except in those areas where there are a huge number of scripts running, such as one battle scene near the end. luckily, those are few.

Other than that, the plot is fun, and full of unexpected twists and turns. But it allows you to follow those plot twists, such as betraying your allies. The ultimate goal seems to be the same, no matter which way you play it.

Graphics and sounds are fine, as in the original NWN. They did add a lot more cut-scenes to HotU, tho, which can get kind of annoying. Some of the cut-scenes add depth to the story, but some are just seemingly put there for eye-candy.

There's also lots more puzzles in this expansion. Some are fun, but one in particular got extremely tedious very fast. I knew exactly how to solve it, but I had to wait for in-game timing events before I could move on to the next step. I honestly cheated at that point, and just solved the puzzle. Otherwise I'd probably waste 30 or so minutes.

You can start HotU with a new character, and you'll immeadiately level him up to level 15. I'd really recommend that you play straight from OC to SoU and then HotU. You get a good feel for your character, his strengths and weaknesses. It's easy to take your newly made level 15 character and assume invicibility. I ended the OC with a level 15 half-orc barb, took him thru SoU to level 18, and ended HotU around level 22. Quite a bit of growth in there. Besides, I'm an XP hunter and level monger, so I like that kind of stuff.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Neverwinter series is the best PC RPG series period
Review: They actually did it, they made the god-like RPG, Neverwinter Nights, vastly better with this expansion. Friends and family will take a back seat as you continue your quest, good or evil, with an array of new prestige classes, equipment, spells, epic levels, and an excellent story to boot. My only gripe is that this game is annoyingly difficult at times for anyone that relies mostly on spells or steatlh.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: GREAT expansion pack
Review: This expansion pack brings to the table some very cool things. Players can craft items, choose epic classes, new weapons, skills, spells, camera angle can be set virtually in any position, there's even a sky now in the game! Very cool indeed. The new adventure is interesting, very very long and the storyline is pretty deep. There is however a point where you will get the feeling the whole thing is starting to drag for too long.
This is how Neverwinter Nights should have been from the beginning. DON'T miss out on this great expansion.


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