As you might expect from a game that lets your characters advance to the godlike experience level of 40, you'll pick up quite a bit of impressive loot in Hordes, and you'll fight off a number of formidable adversaries. Fans of the Forgotten Realms can expect to tangle with just about every single adversary you'd expect to find in the Underdark, like beholders, mind flayers, umber hulks, driders, and plenty of drow elves. It seems safe to say that the Hordes campaign is probably the toughest Neverwinter Nights adventure yet (player-made modules notwithstanding). Even if you don't already have a powerhouse character from the previous games, the expansion lets you start out with a level-15 character. Thankfully, the game is paced quickly enough for your character to grow in power so that he or she can more effectively take on the next challenge.
Despite the fact that you will face some truly epic battles in Hordes, you may feel like you're facing the same sorts of straightforward hack-and-slash fights that you saw in Neverwinter Nights and Shadows of Undrentide. You'll fight a small group of enemies, and you'll be able to sustain more damage--but so will they. When the dust finally settles, you'll loot a +3 longsword rather than the +1 longsword you would have picked up earlier. You may also find it odd that you can routinely waltz into a dungeon and find piles of high-level loot lying around on the ground. Furthermore, it's doubtful you'll find Hordes' puzzles to be terribly enjoyable. As in many of BioWare's other role-playing games, several of the new game's puzzles require you to perform such uninteresting tasks as flipping a bunch of switches in the correct order or going on a scavenger hunt. However, if you've been playing BioWare's role-playing games for some time, this sort of thing probably won't bother you in the slightest. In fact, you'll likely have a decent enough time fighting your way through the Underdark in the meantime.
The expansion pack adds all-new prestige classes, exceptionally high epic levels, and new content for the editor.
Hordes also adds all-new Underdark tilesets, creatures, and objects to Neverwinter Nights' already-powerful editor. At launch, servers running the expansion weren't 100 percent compatible with players who didn't already own it, though BioWare is currently working on patching this issue. This incompatibility is unfortunate, but it's clear that the addition of the expansion's new tileset, objects, and creatures--along with the new prestige classes and magical items--will provide a strong foundation for all-new player-made adventures for months to come. We also encountered occasional stability problems and infrequent crashes on setups using ATI Radeon graphics cards, though we experienced no problems on setups with Nvidia GeForce cards. These problems can be annoying, but they're reportedly rare.
Hordes also looks and sounds good. The expansion's new underdark areas and monsters are well done, though, like the graphics from the original game, they seem somewhat blocky and lacking of detail--particularly when viewed from up close. This is especially true of the cinematic cutscenes in the campaign, which occasionally feature key characters who are speaking--or bobbing their heads while gesticulating stiffly. Unlike other recent RPGs, such as BioWare's own Knights of the Old Republic, Hordes lacks facial animations or lip-synching. The expansion also reuses some sound effects and music from the previous games, though its new speaking characters deliver their lines competently. Hordes also features a great deal of all-new music that seems much more sweeping and appropriately epic. Ultimately, Hordes of the Underdark is a solid expansion pack that adds a substantial single-player campaign and interesting new options for multiplayer enthusiasts.
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Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark:
