High: Solid gaming experience, lots of side quests, and interesting storyline
Low: Some puzzles are very simple but time-consuming, certain dialogues need to be activated in a certain order for it to work, same graphics as the pervious expansions.


Hordes of the Underdark (HOTU) is the second and the final major expansion for Neverwinter Nights (NWN). It is designed for Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) players from level 15 and above. Neverwinter Nights is a 3D role playing game based on the universe of Forgotten Realms, a fantasy world where elves and dwarfs co-exist. The game is designed by Bioware. Bioware is very famous for developing a series of great RPG's like the recent Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, pervious NWN expansion (very disappointing compared to this one), and Balur's Gates I and II. Bioware games all have an epic sort of feeling and you will see many evidence of that when you start playing.

The story starts out with you, the hero and legend among the local people, providing assistance for the troubles in Waterdeep, a major city in the Forgotten Realms universe. It is a rumored that the Drow (an evil dark elf race) have flooded the dungeons below the city and are trying to emerge to the surface to get their revenge on the normal folks. It is also rumored that the Drows are lead by a very beautiful lady in tight leather outfit. Her name is Valshareness and she has nothing but evil deeds on her mind. The story goes on from there with a very interesting and unexpected twist. This story is much more interesting than the pervious ones in my opinion.

The gameplay for HOTU is almost the same as pervious Neverwinter games. The combat system of the game follows the DnD rule of combat: rolling a dice and decide your damage based on your abilities. It might seem a bit confusing at first for newcomers. You will, however, be very familar with a after a few hours of playing. The new additions to the game includes but not limited to the ability of having more than one henchmen. Henchmen is someone whom you hired to help your with the dirty jobs. If you take a henchmen of the opposite gender, you might get some romance. The max limit for henchmen is two. Another new addition is Epic levels. Epic levels are levels that you gain after you have reached level 21 or above on your chracter. The levels give you alot of bonuses and improve your abilities to such a degree that you will be literally god-like against normal monsters. This addition is greatly needed since you will be fighting some of the toughest bosses in the Forgotten Realms. Puzzles are not too frequent in the game but they can be very annoying. Some puzzles are in fact really simple but you have no idea of how to solve it sometimes. They can take a lot of time and often a trip or two to the spoiler guide. The character dialogue system between you and your henchmen is poor implanted. You need to waste a certain amount of time to rest after each dungeon in order to get your henchmen to talk. (The resting thing is an in-game feature, you need to press the rest button. After the button is pressed, your character will sit for a minute or two to recovery. You cannot rest in anyplace you want. It must be somewhere where no monsters are around.) If you don't, you will often lose the chance of developing a very intimate relationship with your henchmen.

Graphics havn't changed much. It's the same old graphic engine that came with Neverwinter Nights. The graphics are above average though and it is probably better than most of the RPGs on market today. There are some nice additions to the graphic engine like underground levels and terrains literally frozen with hell. The game don't lag much on my PC, even after I turned on all if the graphic options. (My pc is average) Cutscenes and Chapter ending movies are now made by the game engine and represented in nice animations instead of slideshows with sound like in the pervious games. (The game is divided into different Chapters like a book.)

The sounds and voice acting for HOTU is good for a RPG. A few important dialogues are voice-acted and they sound really professional. Musics in the game are very traditional of the game genere. (Medieval period music mostly) Enviroment sounds are mostly taken from the original game and the pervious expansion. Although it did have a few special enviroment sounds made especially for this expansion.

The expansion took me around 40 hours to complete at a slow pace. I completed the main quest and about 95% of the side quests. Side quests are plenty and they all have interesting sub-plot and rewards. Those 40 hours are very solid and you will not waste any second of it. Unlike pervious NWN games, I acutally found enough interest to play the game non-stop until I finished it. I will give this expansion a rating of 95%. Good job Bioware!

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