Game Review: <emphasis>Hordes of the Underdark</emphasis>
Some shortcomings are still evident, but this expansion to Neverwinter Nights has much to recommend it.
Title: Hordes of the Underdark
Manufacturer: Bioware
URL: www.bioware.com
Price: $29.99
Hordes of the Underdark is an expansion to
Neverwinter Nights, a
third-person perspective role-playing game (RPG) built on
Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd Edition Rules; it was
released by Bioware.
The story in Hordes picks up some time after the
Shadows of Undrentide expansion ends. You do not
need to have played Shadows it or even have
it installed to play Hordes, but it would be helpful to have played
through Shadows from a storyline perspective.
The single-player
campaign has a lot of action, many puzzles to solve and an excellent storyline
with an interesting plot. I wish the campaign had been a little longer,
but only because I enjoyed it so much. The campaign certainly is not
too short, however, a relatively common failing of other games' expansion packs.
Hordes of the Underdark tries to outdo both
NWN and Shadows by
incorporating several noteworthy enhancements. The first improvement
Hordes introduces is Epic Levels. Epic Levels allow your character
to attain levels higher than the previous restriction of 20; the engine
now supports up to 60 levels, although Hordes itself is
limited to 40 levels. The extra levels add depth to you characters and
allow for many more choices in character creation.
There also are six new prestige classes to choose from, each one having unique
special abilities. I was particularly impressed with the Dwarven
Defender, Weapon Master and Red Dragon Disciple. The other classes are
the Pale Master, Shifter and Champion of Torm.
New visual enhancements have been added as well, such as the ability
to add wings and tails to characters. There also are several new heads to choose from
and, quite possibly the most player-requested feature, robes. A new and
improved camera rounds out the visual upgrades you get with
Hordes.
Another new feature that Hordes adds to the single-player campaign is
the option to have two henchmen travel with you. Having two henchmen
really adds to the tactical possibilities when playing the campaign.
With this release, Bioware maintains its previous pattern of both succeeding stunningly and
falling slightly short of making the Linux platform a viable choice for
playing this game. NWN's downfall was the astoundingly long wait for
a Linux client to be released, but being able to play in Linux at all
made up for the wait. In Shadows, the expansion pack was fun to play,
but the less-than-perfect installer tarnished the glory somewhat.
This time out, Bioware's major success is finally tying the chapters of the game
together with cut scenes rendered by the game engine. This is
a huge plus, as the cut scenes previously were done in the Bink
format. Viewing them required either using a player-made utility, such
as nwmovies, or viewing the
movies outside of the game with the beta
Bink Player for
Linux. The story flows much more
smoothly now that you can watch the cut scenes from within the game
itself. There is no longer a hollow feeling because you got dumped back
to the main menu after beating the game.
Sadly, Bioware failed once again to provide a working installer.
Although manual installation is an absolute breeze, it's still somewhat
disappointing. Also on the downside, the v1.61 version of the client
has an almost show-stopping bug that requires DebugMode and some
trickery to get past and finish the game (the workaround can be found
here.
The only other on-going disappointment is the lack of a native
toolset. Once again, the player made utility
nwwine works for some folks. Evidently,
you can use Gentoo's Portage tool to install it.
I believe Hordes more than overcomes its few
blemishes, because it provided an entertaining game with some excellent
game-play enhancements. I recommend this expansion to anyone who has found enjoyment in
Neverwinter Nights. The ability to play the game natively in Linux
nearly is reward enough, but Bioware has made this upgrade well worth
overlooking a few minor issues.
Pros
- Cut scenes now are rendered by the game engine
- Provides game-play enhancements
- An excellent storyline in the single-player campaign
- A lot of action
- Epic levels
- Enhanced visual effects
- Hordes campaign can't be played in multi-player
mode without an unsupported workaround - No Linux installer
- Serious bug in the Linux 1.61 client that
requires a workaround to finish the game - Still no native toolset
______________________
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Comments
Re: Game Review: Hordes of the Underdark
~ravage
There is a linux installer for NWN and NWN Gold, HOTU, & SOU here, along with several other great games.
Re: Game Review: Hordes of the Underdark
yeah well you are all gay
Re: Game Review: Hordes of the Underdark
There is an upcoming Patch, 1.62 that, according to the bioware forums, fixes the "serious bug" listed above. The beta version of the patch is out as of Feb 05, 2004. The final release is expected soon.
Re: Game Review: Hordes of the Underdark
The main problem I have with Neverwinter Nights on any platform is the sheer amount of bugs in it. It's fairly stable, though not perfectly so; but the main problem lies in the myriad of little niggles that plague the game.
This is especially evident in multiplayer games, when there is more than one party. For instance, there's the infamous "bow bug". If your character is carrying a ranged weapon, then you confusingly and unexpectedly get to see all manner of hidden and invisible creatures, free of charge.
There's a pickpocket bug that allows you to pilfer your comrade's pockets without ever being near them. All aura spells, such as silence, are bugged terribly. The dirge spell doesn't even actually work at all. Up until Hordes, spells like War Cry affected the caster (who, presumably, was literally scared of his or her own voice). Greater Sanctuary only provides an advanced form of invisibility, and fails to protect your character as it's supposed to.
These bugs are all in the Windows version as well, unfortunately. Often one just has to work around them. Remember not to use spells like Dirge, of if you do, try not to move. Remember that dragons can inexplicably get around Greater Sanctuary. Remember that if you're invisible, and your opponent wields a bow or a sling, they can see you. Spells can be "stacked"; their effects magnified if cast upon a character more than once, up until the point where the character is invulnerable- which isn't supposed to happen. These are just a few of the things you need to watch out for.
These are really minor-ish issues. The game is still playable, but it would be nice if Bioware playtested their games a little. What's the point in introducing new spells if you don't actually check if they work or not? And what's the point of releasing patches or expansions if you don't actually fix what's broken?
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