Hordes of the Underdark

I used three of the four days in the long weekend to start and finish Hordes of the Underdark, the second expansion for Neverwinter Nights. Overall, good value for money for the single-player alone, and lots of potential for multi-player.

Not a long review this time. It's great not to start from scratch again. You have the option to create a new character and immediately upgrade it to 15th level. You can also import an existing character, and bump it up to 15th level if it's under 12th level. Wanting to play an epic fighter, I created a new character. It was a whole lot less painful to have a bunch of feat progressions (like Dodge to Mobility to Spring Attack to Whirlwind Attack) than doing it in-game.

I don't think a fighter was that great a choice for the game itself, as there are three powerful warrior types available as potential followers. You can now have two followers at a time, meaning you really don't have much to worry about if you're a bit undermuscular a spell-caster.

As before, there're no particularly great arcane magic users as potential followers. You have the same set of potential followers as Shadows of Undrendtide, and three more (that I found).

I didn't find the game particularly challenging at Normal difficulty, so perhaps consider trying it at a harder setting.

Some puzzles in the game were just too puzzling for words, with only one possible solution. In one area, you're stuck if you don't have a particular item - no way back at all.

The setting was fun, with a few fun setbacks restricting over-reliance on fighting or magic ability, and rewarding quick brain and feet over frontal attack. There was even an attempt to give you an entire battle to run, but that probably didn't turn out exactly how it was wanted.

There was some depth in the game, introducing snippets of information about the happenings in the Neverwinter Night predecessors as well as guests from them (besides your followers), and some nice touches about the Planes.

Obviously, the big thing about this expansion is the whole Epic Rules thing. For a fighter, at least it gives you some more options for feats, as by 20th level you've pretty much run out of feats you want. I'm not too sure I approve of the requirements for some of the feats (27 Wisdom, 23 Dexterity, ...), but it was something new at least. Might be more useful in multi-player, I suppose.

Think I'm a big CRPG'd out - looking forward to Arcana Unearthed and Diamond Throne in the new year!