Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark Image
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84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews What's this?

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8.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 136 Ratings

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  • Summary: The second expansion for the revolutionary role-playing game Neverwinter Nights. BioWare has created a dark and dangerous world of adventure set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Your hands are callused from many years of weapon play, your mind is sharp from hundreds of books studied, yourThe second expansion for the revolutionary role-playing game Neverwinter Nights. BioWare has created a dark and dangerous world of adventure set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons. Your hands are callused from many years of weapon play, your mind is sharp from hundreds of books studied, your feet are nimble from slipping unseen and unheard past thousands of guards and your faith is unshakable in the gods you worship... but will it be enough for this final terror? Will you stand once more for those who cannot? You are the last hope for the Forgotten Realms, you must face the unstoppable, you must decide the fate of all. You are a hero... but are you a legend? Epic levels, new prestige classes, new creatures, spells, feats, weapons and new tilesets to explore... endless adventure! [BioWare] Expand
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 24
  2. Negative: 0 out of 24
  1. 90
    Between the game's multiple endings and its awesome character creation, it's definitely worth playing this 20-plus hour game again just to get a different feel for its compelling story and tight gameplay.
  2. 90
    Needless to say, the story is strong, contains all the typical Bioware twists, turns and quality writing, and fans of power-D&D will have a lot to crow about.
  3. The revised level cap will be a slam dunk hit, and the new resources will give builders plenty to play with. The campaign alone is worth the price of admission.
  4. The amount by which it expands the game in every direction is truly epic. [Feb 2004, p.110]
  5. With some new gameplay, a ton of new loot, and lots more choices for character creation and advancement, Hordes of the Underdark is a must buy for fans of the original game.
  6. The storyline is reasonably interesting, there’s plenty of new stuff to check out, and it looks pretty good. It’s not an amazing expansion, but it's better than "Shadows of the Undrentide" in every way.
  7. Computer Gaming World
    70
    Has that woefully underbaked, released-just-in-time-for-the-holidays taint to it, and that's just a colossal shame, because underneath that nastiness is a great, great expansion. [Mar 2004, p.78]

See all 24 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 14
  2. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. PatrickO.
    Nov 27, 2003
    10
    Even better than the first expansion pack...amazing graphics and storyline!
  2. Mar 11, 2011
    10
    Brilliant expansion for a brilliant game.
    It's nice that Bioware has given us another aspect of the D&D setting to explore, and hasn't just
    Brilliant expansion for a brilliant game.
    It's nice that Bioware has given us another aspect of the D&D setting to explore, and hasn't just stuck to the typical caves, dungeons and big cities.
    This also adds quite a bit to the multiplayer aspects of the game. I've seen plenty of servers add an underdark to their PW, and greatly benefited from it.
    Expand
  3. JamesC.
    Nov 29, 2003
    10
    Freakin awesome!
  4. Apr 9, 2020
    10
    The definitive experience, if you don't count premium modules. Story is a bit of Baldur's Gate, Icewind dale and Planescape Torment.
  5. Dec 16, 2020
    10
    The expansion is far better than the main game. It has an exciting story with good twists that are as amazing as surprising. Even after manyThe expansion is far better than the main game. It has an exciting story with good twists that are as amazing as surprising. Even after many years I still remember the story, characters and twists. It is a very loose continuation from the previous (weaker) expansion. Your character survived the events and obtained a useful artifact “The Relic of the Reaper”. It is a pocket dimension which transport and revives the character upon death and can also be used as a portal system for previous visited places (You need an item for this). The mentioned Reaper is the host / guardian of this place. The story is set again in the Forgotten Realms on Faerun and starts in the city Waterdeep. There are constant attacks from Drow on the city and they are invading from Underground. This should not be possible as under the city is the (undisputed) realm of Halaster. Halaster is one of the most powerful mages in this age, slightly mad (or medium mad?) and does not like Drow. You are hired by a former adventurer named Durnan who is now an inn keeper to investigate this mystery. The set up alone is great as there is something really wrong. As you progress the story never loses momentum and there are twist that I still would put on my top 10 list in gaming. The other content is also good. You get interesting quests, some moral dilemmas, a few good riddles and meet interesting characters (party members and NPCs). There are also some variation in the story and the ending / conclusion is fitting in each possible outcome. I will not go into details because of spoilers here (Would consider it a crime). It adds also some new (prestige) classes like Dwarven Defender (Iron wall that hits back;-), Pale Master (Necromantic abilities), Shifter (What the name says), Weapon Master (Also what the name says), Champion of Torm (Some kind of Paladin I did not use) and Red Dragon Disciple (Dragonic abilities) atop on a now level cap of 40. I tested mostly the Dwarven Defender, Red Dragon Disiple and Pale Master and found them useful (There are some drawbacks but that is normal as no perfect class exists). A mayor improvment is that you can have 2 party members now instead of 1 like in the main game / first expansion. This while being an improvement is still not enough because I had more than 2 companions I would take with me especially later on (Party of 6 is what I prefer). I think I give you some tips: Firstly the amount of money you get for great items is limited to 5000 Gold if I remember correctly. Later in the game you need tremendous amounts of money to use all possible options (Not needed but very nice gameplay and roleplay-wise). I solved this by exporting my character with all items to the main game, sell the items for incredible amounts of money and returning the character to the expansion. Don't know if this still works. I experimented also with creating a new character manually. You have 15 levels to use and I tested a lot of combinations for viability. You can later improve weapons to an amount that is ridiculous (But not unlimited). For last play different ways. It is the only noteworthy exception in a D&D game were I finished the story with an evil character (Never happened before or after). The graphics looked amazing back then and there was a great variety in the game. Like the main game it aged not that well but this is just a testament how much the graphics have improved since back then. The soundtrack is still good and should deliver. Overall this was a positive surprise and I returned many times to this game. The story, character and variations in the outcomes are what makes this game so great for me. It was an amazing expansion and should not be disregarded or hide behind other games. Expand
  6. Aug 3, 2014
    9
    In case of Hordes of the Underdark I was still confused what is everybody raving about. I mostly hated dungeons and interiors in the originalIn case of Hordes of the Underdark I was still confused what is everybody raving about. I mostly hated dungeons and interiors in the original NWN, so my logic was - How can an expansion located mostly underground be so good? After playing through this, I understand it perfectly. Hordes of the Underdark is by far the best adventure from the Neverwinter Nights era that Bioware produced and I wouldn't even hesitate to say that this time, the story was even on Baldur's Gate quality levels. Amazing story, characters, quests and that final ultimate epicness, hmmmm, that right there is the good stuff fans of the BG series have been eagerly waiting for and it definitely puts Neverwinter Nights into the good light and maybe even let it slightly peak into the classic hall of fame, not really there with the best, but almost. 9/10 Expand
  7. Jun 24, 2011
    7
    This second expansion for Neverwinter Nights got a lot of praise, even though the story feels like a bit of a rambling mess compared toThis second expansion for Neverwinter Nights got a lot of praise, even though the story feels like a bit of a rambling mess compared to Shadows of Undrentide (wisely, it's a continuation of that expansion's storyline and ignores the NWN original campaign). As an "epic" D&D adventure (over level 20) it has the usual stat inflation problem, with far too many spells (many now useless) ending up in your list if your character is a spellcaster. But: two NPC companions at once! More Deekin! Expand

See all 14 User Reviews