Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark Hands-On

Bioware’s upcoming RPG, Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark, appears to be heading in the right direction. How do we know? Recently, the good people at Bioware allowed us to toy with the latest build of the game, until the final version hits the market this December.

Pay heed foul creature, this here is my mighty dagger!

Summoning can be fun... But don't overdo it.

By the way, our previous coverage of the game contains almost all you need to know about specific innovations in terms of content, so I would ask that all of you to give it a peek if you have any questions. This time we were privileged to experience the gameplay first hand. (Lucky bastards - Six)

Hordes of the Underdark begins with a roar. You are thrown into an intense brawl, throughout which you must help your companions defend the Inn of the Yawning Portal from a bunch of mean-looking Drow. Even though, at first glance, the Yawning Portal appears to be cozy and friendly, the sudden visit of nasty Drow turned it into a rather unappealing place. Your goal is to enter the Undermountain and seek out the one responsible for unleashing the Hordes of the Underdark, who are obviously led by a sinister and powerful being. Oh well, no time for dilly-dallying, we had best put a stop to this evil presence before it gets worse. The Undermountain stretches its caves and perilous dungeons deep below the City of Waterdeep, whose inhabitants still face constant threats from the Drow, beholders, and other dangerous denizens of the deep (Alliteration is fun! - Six). After the action-packed opening scene, we were allowed to commence quests almost immediately. Every character you meet along the way seems to be well-aware of your reputation as a valiant adventurer and a worthy adversary in combat. This makes the going easier, especially when you require assistance during your struggle.

As an improvement over Shadows of Undrentide, the developers decided to incorporate a fast-paced opening, filled with a variety of missions, side-quests, new monsters, and a whole bunch of NPC’s, to keep you on your toes right from the start. We were rather pleased with this step up, due to which players won’t have to wait too long before tasting some of the new content. But, before delving into the gameplay itself, we spent some time testing the character creation system. In its basic form, the character creation system is very similar to the one we saw in the original game and SoU, so NWN fans won’t have any difficulties getting through the process. Everything is intuitive and easy to master, so it shouldn’t be a big problem for those of you who are less experienced in the ways of RPG lore. The time around, you’re able to experiment with new prestige classes, new portraits, new heads, and new voicesets. Another interesting thing is that the single-player campaign was designed strictly for level 15+ characters. There shouldn’t be any worries if you don’t have one, seeing as the game levels-up any character automatically at the beginning, regardless of its experience and appointed prestige class.

After much pondering, we decided to go with a pre-designed character profile; a powerful Wizard/Pale Master named Jacob Chaal. Pale Masters are a highly regarded prestige class with exceptional skills in necromancy. One of the most thrilling aspects of using this particular prestige class is being able to wield a wide assortment of nifty summoning spells. Leveling up a Pale Master can grant you some serious powers to boot, all of which prove to be extremely efficient in combat, especially against certain Drow and impetuous creatures such as orcs and goblins. Things get even better once you get to summon more resilient undead monsters that have some powers and special abilities of their own. Throughout gameplay, the Pale Master exhibited a wide range of spells, as well as admirable skills in hand-to-hand combat. This particular class is good at wielding lighter close range weapons such as daggers and staves. Increasing your experience in combat will grant you the employ a lethal skeletal arm. Also, many of the cool new weapons can be upgraded, which makes them even deadlier. Once our character topped level 20, we immediately got access to additional feats, spells, and abilities. As we mentioned in our previous coverage, the level cap has been raised to 40, which guarantees some good clean RPG fun. All of these improvements make Hordes of the Underdark one of the most gratifying additions to the NWN franchise.

I think I'm beginning to see the light! Oh yeah!

Try this on for size!

Getting through some of the levels was no easy task. Each area we explored in was crawling with monsters and crammed with deadly traps. In other words, you can be sure this is going to be one hell of a challenge almost every step of the way. This build also showed some evident improvement in both friendly and enemy AI routines, particularly when you engage in larger battles. Venturing through the cavernous surrounding, we came across quite a few adversaries with expert battle tactics and equally notable melee skills. In a particular spot, we encountered two Drow, both of whom were adroit sword wielders and expert archers. When we attempted to withdraw from close combat, the Drow would instantly switch to their long-ranged weapons, piercing our hero with a series of accurate arrow shots. Still, this doesn’t denote that all enemies are invincible. The AI was balanced quite well, ensuring an array of different reactions from each and every creature and NPC. For example, a Beholder is a lot tougher than your average Skeleton or Mummy. As you head deeper into the Undermountain, foes become increasingly deadlier, which is why we appreciated the innovation of being able to hire more than one henchman. When combat begins, your henchmen handle themselves pretty well and are always open to suggestions when it comes to using different combat tactics. From what we’ve gathered, players have a commendable choice of companions with different skills, all of which may come in useful throughout the journey (for instance, if you are a wizard, it would be wise to bring along a rogue to deal with traps and a strong barbarian or fighter for support in melee combat).

The fluid gameplay and praiseworthy mix of new content are not the only innovations players will come to appreciate in Hordes of the Underdark. Right from the beginning, it became clear that Bioware went all-out to throw in as much visual improvements as they could. Although no radical improvements over the original engine exist, we were quite pleased to see freshly polished character models, enhanced lighting effects, huge impressive-looking outdoor and indoor environments, as well as numerous beautifully animated spells. Of course, composer Jeremy Soule once again provided some new tunes, which will no doubt appeal to hardcore NWN fans and newbies alike.

I must stress that this is a huge expansion that’s intended to present a hell of a lot more than what you’ve read in this preview. Time in the Action Trip office is scarce (what with managing our BOTD collection and all) (MANAGING. Is that what you call it? - Six), and we didn’t get a chance to test all the prestige classes and features that come along with the expansion pack. In any case, we managed to play through all the chapters in the expansion pack, and we can’t reveal anything much other than to say hard-core fans have plenty of things to look forward to. NWN: Hordes of the Underdark holds many surprising twists and other secrets. Of course, it would be no fun to reveal these in our hands-on preview, so keep your shirts on for a while longer.