Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide

"Not as good as the original."

I must say, it's not as good as the original, and the things they change take away from the enjoyment of the game instead of adding to it.

Graphics: 7
The graphics are the same as the original. There are new monsters, but they are done with the same quality of texture and detail as the original, which is rather low. Everything from the original, NPCs, weapons, monsters, is still there and mostly is still used in the same fashion. After all, this is only an expansion, not a new game entirely. So this gets the same grade as I gave the original game's graphics.

Just to go over some of my original gripes, the characters and monsters look like deformed polygons and there isn't very much detail.


Sound: 8
The sound is exactly the same as the original, as far as I can tell. So I'm going to copy/paste my original thoughts.

The voice acting is good for the most part. But you have to choose a voice very carefully because you're probably going to have to stick with it. I chose a voice solely based on the fact that in the preview he said, "Once more into the breach!" which was a line from Shakespeare. This mild amusement turned to sheer dread when it turned out that he sounded like the most completely stereotypical nerd, "Stand still so I can hit you!" While a few times wouldn't be an annoyance, my character likes to say this whenever he fights, leaving me in a state of self-kicking.

The music is fitting. When you're in a tavern, it plays the minstrel-type song, when you're in a battle, it plays a more dramatic bit with strings. When you're in a forest, it's kinda quiet, and you can hear footsteps crunching on the ground, and splashing when you cross water.


Gameplay: 8
In focusing on the difference in gameplay between this game and the original Neverwinter Nights campaign, I would have to say that it's still done in the same style, but the original was better. This introduces some new features, like actually making having points in Search useful, because there are hidden doors not located on the map that you can only find by standing next to them. Another rather cosmetic change is the addition of "footprints". Monsters may leave tracks in snow/sand/whatever, and you can see where they went. It's almost completely useless as far as information goes, since another good indication of where the enemies might be is where the walls physically form rooms.

Apparently, there are newer feats as well, but I didn't notice any, and since I didn't notice any, they weren't important enough to bring any real change to my experience.

One important omission from the expansion is that they don't give you a Stone of Recall. In the original, you could use it pretty much whenever, wherever to escape from battle or just to go back to town. You were charged a small fee (and in later chapters, 400 gold, which is a bit more than a small fee) to return to where you were, but it was a really nice feature when you were at your weight maximum and had to return to sell stuff.

In Shadows of the Undrentide, this humanizing feature was adulterated, to be replaced by a pathetic ring that would only work three times ever and wouldn't work at all during combat. And then to sell your plundered goods, you have to walk clear across the map to a shop and walk back up to be transported back. To further this annoyance, there are people who are willing to teleport you at various fixed locations... but for a large sum of gold with which I refused to part. In short, it takes way too much time to get from one place to another. While that may be realistic, RPGs aren't played for realism.


Storyline: 7
The storyline has nothing really to do with the original, and it's not as good as the original storyline. You are a student of a retired adventurer, and on your last day, Kobolds attack your mentor and you have to go on a quest to recover magic items that they stole, and the items that you recover propel the story forward. This storyline wasn't as interesting as the original, and there isn't really that sense of urgency or raw emotion that there was in the original.

There is an urgent task that needs to be done, but I was just left with the feeling that I don't give a damn.

Overall score: 7
The overall score is seven. Although it was a toss up between seven and eight, this is simply not as good as the original, and that does weigh into my considerations when judging the game as a whole. Is it worth it? Yes. The NWN Diamond compilation has everything for like twenty ameribucks.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/28/08

Game Release: Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide (US, 06/17/03)