Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide

"Worth $30? Unfortunately, probably not."

Neverwinter Nights, the distant cousin to Baldur's Gate, what can be argued as the most popular PC RPG series to date. While the two series differed in many, many ways, they were still alike in that they have a great fan base, and for good reason, too. I myself loved the original Neverwinter Night, so I was naturally psyched when I heard a pair of expansions was coming out for it. I rushed to get the first expansion, but unfortunately, I was rather disappointed. Why? Well, let's go on to find out...

GRAPHICS - 7.5

Well, not much for me to say here. The graphics are roughly the same as they were in the original Neverwinter Nights. A few more portraits were added in, a few new models came about, but nothing new, really. Still, it's good stuff. Even on low graphic settings, since I have a rather low-end computer, the environment look good and the character models look slick. There's a lot of wildlife scenery in the first chapter of the expansion, and I dare say the game goes and makes them look good. Whether it's snowy forest or barren desert, it's a success. Animation is nice and smooth, and even simple a one-on-one weapon melee can be interesting to watch the first few times, thanks to unique combat animations. Spell effects also look really pretty, with well-done flashing lights and everything. All around, very solid.

MUSIC & SOUND - 7

In terms of music, Shadows of Undrentide ranks exactly like the original Neverwinter Nights. The easy way to put it is like this: The music is excellent, but there simply isn't enough of it. Unlike most standard games where the music is just playing in the background the entire time, the music in Shadows of Undrentide, like its predecessor, starts playing when you get into a battle. Unfortunately, even then the music sometimes doesn't start playing. However, what little music is there is nothing short of awesome. The classical style gives you a sort of medieval-epic feeling, very appropriate to the game. There are a few new tracks in the expansion, and I have to say that they're better than the tracks found in the original.

Another unfortunate downside of the sound is that while you're exploring the outdoors, there isn't a whole lot of ambient sound apart from your character running around in the snow. It would have been nice to at least hear birds chirping as you walk around in the snowy taiga, but no hope for that, apparently.

Also, I should add that there are a few new voice sets in the game. However, just like the original voice sets, most of them are annoyingly gimmick-based, not a voice you'd want to hear coming from a hero about to save the world. Mostly blah, but there are one or two good new sets for each gender.

GAMEPLAY 9

Whoo-wee. For those of you that don't know, Neverwinter Nights and its expansions use rules from the paper-and-pencil RPG Dungeons & Dragons. Not familiar with it? This is where most of the beauty kicks in: You don't need to be. Although I myself am quite familiar with the ins and outs of D&D, I found that very seldom did I actually have to apply the rules. Even if you don't know the rules all that well, the learning curve of the rules isn't steep in the least (one of Third Edition's few advantages over Second Edition).

For the most part, Shadows of Undertides simply expands on the original Neverwinter Nights. Sounds about right, considering it is an ''expansion'' pack. However, there are a number of noticeable new additions. The first is a new set of skills. They include skills such a ''Appraise'' which allows you to rip off merchants and ''Tumble'' which allows you to escape those ever-annoying Attacks of Opportunity. Also, your characters can learn a multitude of new feats, ranging from innate bonuses that your character can only learn at creation, all the way to feats such as ''Dirty Fighting,'' allowing you to focus all your damage onto one target per round. However, I think that the best new addition comes in the form of Prestige Classes.

In the original Neverwinter Nights, your character was presented with a number of classes, all of them more or less pretty basic (Warrior, Mage, Cleric, Thief, and variants thereof). However, in Shadows of Undrentide, the addition of Prestige Classes mixes things up. As you level up, you can choose to take levels in a Prestige Class, provided you meet its requirements. For example, the BlackGuard requires an evil alignment, an innate attack bonus of +6, the Cleave feat, and 5 levels in the hide skill. If a character meets these requirements s/he can level up as a BlackGuard and receive class bonuses, such as the ability to add his Charisma modifier to his attack bonus or use the Thief's Sneak Attack. Very, very cool concept in my opinion, although it is a little limited. The downside to the prestige classes is that there are only five of them, and they're very specialized. Two of the pander to evil characters (Assassin and BlackGuard), one is is a strange hybrid of archer and mage (Arcane Archer), and the other two are strange Bard/Thief variants (ShadowDancer and Harper Scout). Where does this leave good and neutral warriors? What about clerics that want to specialize? An excellent effort on Bioware's part, but it falls ever-so-slightly short. Still, an applaudable effort.

STORY - 2.5

Ack. This is where the expansion falls short. In an attempt to stay spoiler-free, I'm going to leave my criticism to this: The game looks like it has an original plot in the beginning, but in the long-run, it's exactly the same as Neverwinter Nights. You probably think I'm joking or doing some sort of hard drugs right now, but I can assure you that I am quite sober and equally serious. As I finished this expansion, the only thing I could possibly think to myself was ''My god, I did the exact same thing before, only last time I got to have a hot henchman.'' To be honest, there's very little reason to play this game for the story. Don't build up any expectations for an epic tale, as the plot seriously falls short.

Pros
+Expands well on the original Neverwinter Nights system
+Excellent music

Cons
-Not enough music
-Horribly re-hashed plot
-New character options are limited in a few senses

OVERALL (NOT AN AVERAGE) - 5

Good graphics, sound, and gameplay, yet it only gets a five? Simple: The story is the main beef of any RPG, and an expansion that re-hashes the plot of the original borders on unforgivable. In short, one should simply play the game to experience new Prestige Classes, and to play the prequel to Hordes of the Underdark (the second NWN expansion). But for just that, is this game really worth $30? Only if you're in a horrible hurry to play Hordes of the Underdark.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/09/03