role-playing

After completing the official campaign from NWN (hereafter, OC), I was left wanting something more. I was disappointed with the OC in that it was a little too easy -- there were too many opportunities to run back to the temple and stock up, even in the middle of combat situation. As a result, the OC was very unbalanced, although the storyline was good.

Shadows of Undrentide (SoU) is *not* a continuation to the OC, but rather is a parallel storyline, taking place at roughly the same time. Completely new characters, completely new setting, completely different storyline (although, roughly the same premise).

This expansion pack does not have some of the same flaws as the OC. The game is more balanced, with no teleports in combat situations and limited teleports overall. The puzzles are harder, and the rewards for completing quests are not unbalancing either. Further, SoU adds a few new abilities and character classes, as well as new creatures, that would have been welcome in the OC. This is more along the lines of what the OC *should* have been.

SoU is shorter than the OC, and for some that's disappointing. It's also a lot harder and takes more time to wade through, which makes it equal out to about the same amount of investment in time. It takes a good little while to work through the puzzles and side quests, which add positively to the game.

One negative -- the game's ending is very anticlimatic. Once you finish the final battle, you are led to a cut scene with a vague ending that is resonant of the "...to be continued..." cliche at the end of a bad movie. In spite of a great game and a wonderful final encounter, the player gets a disappointing epilogue, resulting in "Bummer, what a letdown" instead of "Wow, that was great!"

In spite of the ending, I still max the rating for this expansion pack. Had the OC been more on the difficulty level as SoU, the OC would have been great. SoU takes a good game, builds on it and makes it better.

Neverwinter Nights was a brilliant game, though the single player game was lacking. Shadows of Undrentide has fixed this, and added immensely to the most amazing aspect of the game, the toolset. Creating your own modules is easy. Scripting requires a knowledge of C programming, but isn't hard. The additions to the toolset enable users to create even bigger, better worlds, expanding the spectrum of possibilites. Scripting is especially improved with a number of great new functions that are much needed. This game isn't for everyone though, as much as I am obsessed with it.
This issue of multiplayer play is an important one. Everything is based on custom user content, which is good. The bad part is that many users that create modules simply don't know what they are doing. Bioware NEEDS an official on-line only campaign. However, there are so many modules broken into so many catagories, you are bound to find something somewhere you like. The fact that on-line play is free makes it even better. Regardless, the single player expansion and the vast, vast array of new toolset options (Especially within the scripting realm) make this addition a must have. Even if all they added was the new toolset stuff, it'd still be worth it.

A very nice second campaign if you already finished the main campaign and want to take you character up a few more levels, buff up on eq and even change your character by the new prestige classes. (Or even head over to bioware and download some ultra buffed pre made characters.) Very similar to the NWN. Three chapters in different worlds with unique creatures. The eq in this sequel was very impressive and may even tilt the game, but it is for high level characters.