Game News Dark Dreams of Furiae is a new Neverwinter Nights premium module based in the Planescape setting

[Infinitron]

Tags: Beamdog; Neverwinter Nights; Neverwinter Nights: Dark Dreams of Furiae; Phantom Compass; Silverstring Media

We spotted a new Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition DLC on SteamDB last month. Sure enough, it was another premium module - this time a brand new one rather than a remaster of an Ossian classic. Developed by indie outfits Silverstring Media and Phantom Compass, Dark Dreams of Furiae is a mystery adventure set in the devil-controlled planar city of Furiae, where a new drug is causing social unrest. The description states that the module's story coincides with the Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus tabletop campaign, so I guess it's meant to be a tie-in product.

Dark Dreams of Furiae is a fantasy RPG module for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. The characters and events of this module coincide with the official Dungeons & Dragons tabletop campaign, Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus.

Features

• 10 hours of brand new gameplay for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition
  
• Solo and co-op play
  
• Original Music Score
  
• Takes characters from level 5 to level 8
  
• Time is of the essence: day/night cycle marches on; your choices bring new events
  
• Daily news sheet adapts to your decisions and gives adventure clues
  
• Based on the Planescape D&D campaign setting
  
• Events coincide with official D&D tabletop campaign, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus

Dark Dreams of Furiae: A City on the Edge of Hell

In the fallen city of Furiae, ruled by devils and despots, a quiet war wages for the hearts and minds of the people. Into this chaos, a new arcane substance is smuggled: worldwine. Worldwine is deadly to devils, and turns mortals into dream-addled fanatics.

As a mortal of Furiae, you have a vested interest in this new operation. Could worldwine serve as a tool against the oppressive regime? Or will a passive populace simply succumb to their rule? What dark forces hide beneath the city, feeding on the dreams of the afflicted? Fight to save a damned city in this planar mystery adventure…
​

Dark Dreams of Furiae is available on Steam and GOG for just $5 with a 10% launch discount until next week. From the description it sounds kind of interesting, but I guess it's a pretty small thing.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

caveat emptor

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

caveat emptor

Y'know, I was just about to say that in theory modders making premium modules for NwN would be an excellent love letter to the community and a great way to reward hard working modders who kept the community alive when nobody gave a shit about NwN or true RPGs anymore. But of course, what's actually happened is soy filled cretins just hire their mates and leave the actual talented modders in the cold.

 

[Roguey]

"Planescape"

Additionally, think of how much Wizards must hate Fargo and McComb for denying them the use of the setting, but giving it to these people.

 

[Zeriel]

WOTC's inept management of the license never ceases to amaze. They could have produced countless D&D games over the years, hell they could have supported NWN and really turned it into a huge franchise back when it was still relevant. Instead they choose to throw some money at a dead, 20+ year old game as a tie-in for a tabletop product now. I'm actually amazed, the business decisions are literally bewildering, as in they leave me bereft of my senses, and make me question if this world we inhabit is real, euclidean space.

 

[Murk]

Boy they really captured the essence of Planescape with those promo screenshots.

Dwarf ass, what else would you want?

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Maybe they want the audience from those "other" NWN modules.

 

[Fenix]

caveat emptor

I see, this homosex shithead is exactly what we don't need.
Dragonspear - huh! We will surpass it!

 

[Terra]

caveat emptor

Wasn't Silverstring Media one of Sarkeesian's ventures... Maybe this is a different company, but that profile ensures I'll be keeping my distance from this.

 

[Drakron]

Wasn't Silverstring Media one of Sarkeesian's ventures... Maybe this is a different company, but that profile ensures I'll be keeping my distance from this.

Adviser ...
https://archive.vn/xumWt

Not listed anymore, maybe because SJW circle-jerking and gamers reeeeeee doesnt actually sell games, or mods.

 

[Arthandas]

Btw, what happened to those high poly models and advanced shaders they were showing year(s) ago? Are they in game?

 

[Trans-Financial-Man]

WOTC's inept management of the license never ceases to amaze. They could have produced countless D&D games over the years, hell they could have supported NWN and really turned it into a huge franchise back when it was still relevant. Instead they choose to throw some money at a dead, 20+ year old game as a tie-in for a tabletop product now. I'm actually amazed, the business decisions are literally bewildering, as in they leave me bereft of my senses, and make me question if this world we inhabit is real, euclidean space.

When I was a game dev, NwN was my favourite game. One of the ideas we had after we made our shitty Doom clone was to lift the multiplayer aspects of NwN, especially the mod-ability and dedicated servers and essentially create an advanced MMO maker. Something a little more agnostic than DnD (this was just before OGL became a thing if memory serves). You could make your dream fantasy MMO that was better than EQ and UO. Or make a Cyberpunk MMO. We never did more than a few UI concepts. No in game assets as we weren't actually very good devs. But I'm still pissed no one else took the idea. Especially after server based FPS games and WoW got hot. I still think even now the idea has legs. The closest thing to it is Legends of Aria.

 

[Bohrain]

A pozzed paid mod for a game that released almost 20 years ago. I struggle to think what is the target audience for this.

 

[JarlFrank]

Planescape

Dark Dreams of Furiae: A City on the Edge of Hell

Oh boy this sounds cool. Planescape setting? The location is a fallen city? The name sounds like it might be located in one of the hellish planes. Holy shit this sounds COOL


What I expect:

What I get:

Vanilla NWN assets but the sky is purple.
Ok.

 

[Maculo]

I read the title with excitement and now I just lost hope I didn't even know I had left.

 

[Van-d-all]

Ehhh, the rape of Planescape continues...

 

[Naveen]

caveat emptor

lol

One of the first characters I came across was a flamboyant gay half-elf Sensate and his blind dwarf lover and I was 'Hmm, that's odd. Oh, well.' I guess that explains it.

 

[StaticSpine]

caveat emptor

P. cool, huh?

 

[Rinslin Merwind]

Infinitron I always trying not to give you bad ratings for bad news, because it's not your fault if some retards create shit mods/games, you are just post news so people can laugh and shitting on them.
But I noticed that UAP 2.0 for Arcanum already out long ago and I haven't seen this in news. And now you post news about mod for NWN (and nwn wasn't even that good from start) that looks so shit and just awful in general. What the fuck, man?
Did terrorist organization sjw infiltrated Israel and held you as hostage, so you can post this shit?

 

[Naveen]

Eh, I'm not a NWN expert but I've played a few modules and I think this one seems bad or, at least, mediocre. Although I'm not so much angry or disappointed as... very confused.

You're some random dude going for a walk along the dock when a warehouse blows up (not that you see it, that would have been cool) and a gnome runs to you and asks for help and tells you he's the alchemist that makes wineworld, some sort of drug that gives hallucinations to mortals but kills planar beings which is why it's illegal there because it could kill the Devils. OK, I say I will help him hide not that there's any personal reason why my character should care. I thought he would stay at my home and then give me quests but no, he joins my party, which doesn't seem a good idea when you are trying to hide. Anyway, to investigate who is behind this wineworld business I go... for some reason!

Spoiler

This is outside my home. There's a group of rats that spawn every day for some reason (I'm going to use that phrase a lot) and they attack me. Luicil, the gay half-elf I mentioned previously, did something wrong (probably an area spell) and got into a fight with a guard, which he lost so he flees. Also, I clicked on the transition area door (that big one) and my character used on it the magic missile scroll I had. I swear that's what happened, maybe I miss-clicked but I'm quite sure that's what happened.

Next, I go to the Rathole, not for any particular reason but because it's only one of the two areas I can go to. I'm sure this is explained in the journal somewhere but I can't be arsed to read all that (but more on the journal later.) What you are seeing is a fight between what I presume are Rat Factions. That highlighted rat is friendly, but the other is hostile. My character is just standing there as confused as I am.

I don't know if this was added in the EE or it's something new for this module but I don't remember it from the original NWN. Your character has like a bubble around him that lets you see through walls. This is somewhat useful because the layout is "realistic" and therefore a bit claustrophobic in some places. The problem is, sure, you can see yourself, but you can't see anything else so it's pointless. A simple see-through highlight may have worked better. Or just design the place in a more open style.

This guy sells items I'm sure are from the NWN OC.

Some amusing lines. Also, citizens behave erratically as you can see by the woman on the left shouting at the clouds. I also hired a Rogue Merc.

Some of the long-distance views are pretty. But it certainly doesn't feel like you are on some weird plane of existence.

This happened a few times. See this crate? It seems clickable. And it is, but nothing happens. I almost clip inside so I assume it's some kind of bug.

I didn't need to know that.

So anyway, I go to some inn to investigate this toxic wine matter (not that I really care but there's nothing else to do) and, as you can see, my interrogation style is as subtle as Austin Powers hitting on women. You can get into a fight to discover the next clue but one character pretty much blurbs it out so who cares. Apparently there's this woman upstairs who may know something.

Now, in the introduction the game advised me to consult the journal, and I decide to do it now because honestly I don't know what is going on or what I'm doing (but because everything is railroaded, it doesn't matter.) 'What is wrong with that picture' you may think? Well, see the last paragraph? That's my latest update, telling me about the woman's apartment and her papers. Funny thing is, I still haven't gotten inside (it's the door straight ahead.) A similar thing happened later, and the journal was helpful enough to mention the guards waiting for me that I hadn't yet encountered.

As I said, I haven't played NWN in ages so I don't know if this happened a lot, but here you can get stuck easily. Here my character is on those stairs but can get down because my followers are in the way. I moved a bit and fixed it, and usually wiggling around a bit solves the problem, but it's an unnecessary frustration.

One of those papers mentions slavers involved in the smuggling of worldwine so I get into their warehouse through a SECRET backdoor that is actually just a normal door on plain view and unlocked. I dispatch some thugs and reach their boss. Mind you, I found, behind a closed door, these nice slaver clothes so I put them on thinking it would allow me to pretend I'm one of them, but no, it's just cosmetics.

The conversation abruptly ends without any [End Dialogue] and without even being able to read what he says and he sneak attacks me. Apparently I'm causing a lot of trouble, which is odd since my investigation so far has been just to break into an empty, unlocked apartment and read some papers lying around but OK. I kill the guy although you can let him live and there are other options which may affect your alignment and, it's implied, the ending.

I go to some places and investigate some more and, again, I don't really understand what is going on but, along the way, I find two magic rings that allow me to communicate with the other conspirators. Mind you, this conversation pops up all of a sudden when I return to my home area, which is the only area I'm allowed to go now because it's late (and at the end of the day you have to go back to sleep and a new day starts). And now all the guards are hostile... for some reason. So I'm here eavesdropping a very long conversation while the guards pummel me to the ground.

Notice that the dialogue mentions "Voice of this or that person". I have no idea who are these people and why would I know their names. Anyway, the guards kill me easily. I quit the game, feeling confused and bewildered.

I should mention that almost never during my short game did I feel like I was in an alien landscape like in PS:T. It's just a generic city with more tieflings than usual. I don't know the background lore, but if this city is ruled by Devils, it doesn't feel that way at all (and I didn't see any Devil through my playthrough.) Aside from slavery being legal, there are no obvious signs of tyranny or oppression and I still don't know why I'm investigating who is behind this substance like it's a threat since it actually seems like a good thing to have around if it kills Devils (and probably good-aligned immortal but meh, it's not like there's any there.) Oh, and the word "fascist" is actually used. Not in-game though, I think, but in the introductory ""cinematics."" I think it's used as a shorthand for "Legal Evil" and the Devil's rule of the city or something.

And, I almost forgot, I got to level 8 (starting at level 5) by the time I got killed and I had only played, at most, 2 hours. The DLC promises 10 hours of play from level 5 to 8, so... I don't know about that. Still, I have no idea how far I got into the story. Maybe I was still at the beginning, or perhaps almost near the end? I don't know and I don't care.

If Beamdog wants to sell modules, they should just hire the guy that made Swordflight or any other expert modders out there.

Edit: The writing, although not atrocious, suffers from that "quirky" style that is so common now.

 

[Murk]

You're a braver soul than I going through that shit.

That quirky style you refer to is one of the worst things to infect gaming, and particularly RPGs. Reading text that sounds like a bad copy-paste from a Tumblr post or a reddit thread just absolutely kills any joy.

Deadfire had a lot of that too; complete with a "YOUR FACE" response to one of the gods. Just... shit.

 

[lightbane]

caveat emptor

Every. Time. When in doubt, you can assume poor writing in a recent game has something like that behind.

 

[Zeriel]

WOTC's inept management of the license never ceases to amaze. They could have produced countless D&D games over the years, hell they could have supported NWN and really turned it into a huge franchise back when it was still relevant. Instead they choose to throw some money at a dead, 20+ year old game as a tie-in for a tabletop product now. I'm actually amazed, the business decisions are literally bewildering, as in they leave me bereft of my senses, and make me question if this world we inhabit is real, euclidean space.

When I was a game dev, NwN was my favourite game. One of the ideas we had after we made our shitty Doom clone was to lift the multiplayer aspects of NwN, especially the mod-ability and dedicated servers and essentially create an advanced MMO maker. Something a little more agnostic than DnD (this was just before OGL became a thing if memory serves). You could make your dream fantasy MMO that was better than EQ and UO. Or make a Cyberpunk MMO. We never did more than a few UI concepts. No in game assets as we weren't actually very good devs. But I'm still pissed no one else took the idea. Especially after server based FPS games and WoW got hot. I still think even now the idea has legs. The closest thing to it is Legends of Aria.

NWN's "lego blocks" style of level design is great. The new Doom did something similar, but in a way more lame way. I really wish someone would revisit the NWN concept, even though I know there isn't a waterfall of money in it. The NWN mmo actually had a pretty decent tool, it was just hamstrung by the developers insistence on putting massive limitations on it (no rewards for the main game, hugely intrusive text filter that prevented you from using words like "grape" in dialogue, etc) and then abandoning it entirely not long after release. A lot of missed opportunities.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

You're a braver soul than I going through that shit.

That quirky style you refer to is one of the worst things to infect gaming, and particularly RPGs. Reading text that sounds like a bad copy-paste from a Tumblr post or a reddit thread just absolutely kills any joy.

Deadfire had a lot of that too; complete with a "YOUR FACE" response to one of the gods. Just... shit.

That's Swen Vickle's fault.

 

[Murk]

No, pretty sure Obsidian came to that inclusion all on their own; as have many other developers.

DivDiv and Divinity 2 had nothing like that; it was goofy and silly but not in this "modern normie internet talk" way. The goofiest it got there was the repeating "Maxos!" bit, which while silly was not a copy-paste of a twitter post.

Though Original Sin 2 had some of this as well, that I attribute more to the general state of "video game writers" than any one company. It's much more pervasive than just Obsidian/Larian.