Review SoU review at Worthplaying

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide

<a href="http://www.worthplaying.com/">Worthplaying</a> offers up a <A href="http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=11517">good sized review</a> of <A href="http://nwn.bioware.com/shadows/">Shadows of Undrentide</a>, giving it an <b>8.2/10</b>. Like all the ones before it, this one seems to find fault with the value of the thing. Here's a bit on the improved henchmen:
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<blockquote>Controlling your henchmen is still an issue. Too many times, upon entering a new vestibule or chamber, Dora would suddenly go on this crazed spree, chasing after all of the monsters in the area, alerting them to our presence, springing traps all over the place, and ultimately getting us into a battle that we simply couldn?t win. There is a line of dialogue where you can tell Dora not to attack anything that isn?t attacking you, but this doesn?t always work. She would routinely go running off, attacking things, getting herself killed, and making life difficult. You can use the issue orders command to tell her to come back and follow along with you, but normally all she would do was return and then run right back at the monsters again. This became a real problem at times, so bad in fact, that towards the end of the module, when the going got rough, I would leave Dora in a safe place, while I alone went and handled things. Suffice it to say then that, for the large part, nothing has really changed with respect to controlling your henchmen. At times, they can still be more of a hindrance than a help.</blockquote>
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Maybe the player should encourage Dora to switch to decaff.
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Spotted this at <A href="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</a>

 

[Walks with the Snails]

Yeah, I've been playing with Xanos, just to see the (over)hyped dialogue. That boy is dumber than a brick. He'll fireball single weenie enemies all the time, cast attack cantrips in melee against tough enemies thereby pointlessly drawing attacks of opportunity, and other silliness. The enemies are often smart enough to go straight for him, and when they're not, he's usually eager to close before casting his spells. And why a half-orc sorcerer, that's about the most ineffectual combination possible.

 

[Sabotai]

WwtS, what is your impression of SoU thus far? Is the story somewhat believable this time?

 

[Moondog]

I had a few quid spare this week so I decided to get SoU, and in all fairness, it is much better than the OC. The story is quite a bit better (which isn't hard) and henchman interaction is a much welcome addition. The AI of the henchman is pretty poor, though. Overall, I'd rate it as one of the better mods I've played. As to if it is worth the price (£20 here in the UK), I dont know cos it is pretty short....

 

[Walks with the Snails]

Yeah, the story is much better. Main problem is it's pretty short. People say about 20 hours. I've just started Chapter 2, though, and that's where people say things go a bit downhill.

I think I'd actually be willing to replay it this time, though. There are actually real differences if you decide to play different classes and different attitudes. My druid actually has quite a lot of class-specific decisions to make (I've mercy-killed bears who were raised by gnolls after they let me know they were miserable and had no chance of a normal life, had to decide whether to sacrifice a sentient hart to save a ranger's wife or tell it to run away, had a mummy who was willing to parlay with me change his mind when he saw I was a druid, etc.). It looks like there are also some extra choices for religious types like clerics and paladins. You can actually be evil this time in a few places, too, like joining forces with the bad guys (sometimes) or selling the artifacts your master wants and reaping greater rewards instead of always doing the right thing but asking for more money. Really it looks like Bioware is learning, they just should have made the campaign longer and/or thrown in a couple of bonus campaigns.

 

[Volourn]

I don't find the story itself any better. It's the improved options, and player chocies that makes SOU better than NWN OC.

Easy Rating, No spoilers:


Chapter 1: Easily Better; no contest.

Interlude: About the same, a little better maybe.

Chapter 2: Worst with a few bright spots.

 

[Walks with the Snails]

Yeah, good point, it's really not the story so much that's better. I just found it easier to get into character and roleplay because they gave you more options.

And just finished it. Man, that was short. The end battle was an absolute joke, too. Ph4t l3wt is certainly alive and well as well. Now not only do you get big bonuses, there are now all kinds of useful x per day items that give you lots of really nice spells. Just in the first chapter I got my hands on an amulet that casts Shield 3 times a day item that's a tank's dream. Add to that a find (and automatically disarm) traps and knock, and who needs a thief. Earthquake once a day boots. Etc. A challenge this game ain't. Unless you're an active NWN player and want to use the new stuff, I'd probably wait for the price to go down, it's really not all that.

 

[Volourn]

The phat lewt in ch2 is probabl thwe worst non Diablo rpg phat lewt. I know it's Netheril; but 'tis is ridiculous. Bah. And, people say that Rob Bartel is BIO's best writer/designer. That belongs to Dave Gaider who is virtually resonsible for ch2 which is some of the best role-playing in ANY game. Ch1's only weakness is the "collect the artifacts" thing. Otehr than that, it wa virtually perfect.

 

[Walks with the Snails]

What roleplaying is there in Chapter 2? I must have blinked and missed it. :wink:

If you mean Chapter 1, it's quite nice, and certainly an improvement, but not really earth-shattering. It's so short, it's easy to give you plenty of options, too. There's just a small village, a couple of forest maps, a small crypt, and two moderate-sized cave complexes. If they had given me Chapter 1 x 8, I might be a little more willing to bow and scrape.

 

[Volourn]

Yeah, I meant ch1. Ch1 was short? Yeah, it was. Too bad, it took me about the same amount of time it took to complete about a half of FO1.

And, you shouldn't be bowing to any game company - even in jest.

 

[Walks with the Snails]

Nothing wrong with a short game. Really if they had made it much longer it might have dragged. I really would have preferred a couple more campaigns bundled in that are of the quality of Chapter 1, if they expect me to pay half the price of the full game for it. A few new tiles and some useless prestige classes don't quite cut it. I just wish they'd put forth more effort into the expansion pack in general. They've shown they're capable of doing something good, but from reading the forums, I get the feeling Dave and Co. are just basically lazy. Like the bright kid in school who just puts forth the minimal effort to get C's, because that's all he needs to get by.

 

[Volourn]

Perhaps; it's not ebcause they're lazy; perhaps it's because in the end unlie us on the message board; they have to listen to the bosses when they say enough. For example; I complain about Bartel's ch2; but he had I believe about 3 weeks only to do it. 3 weeks is not a lot of time given to make something professionally worthy.

 

[EEVIAC]

3 weeks is not a lot of time given to make something professionally worthy.

That's hardly an excuse. Why would they release something that had only three weeks development?!? I'd expect more than three weeks of Q&A testing.

 

[Volourn]

Blame the bosses. I'm not giving it as an exuse for BIO; I'm giving it as an "exuse' for Monsieur Bartel who is just a hapless victim... err... employee.

 

[Walks with the Snails]

I don't quite buy that, unless everyone at Bioware is just a spineless weenie. "Don't blame me, the boss made me do it" is an awfully convenient excuse. Given NWN's sales, they could throw their weight around a little to get what they want, if they really wanted it. I've seen less profitable companies than them fight and win for what they want. Little ol' Troika looks like they're largely getting to do what they want from the same publisher as Bioware, and they're nowhere near as big.

 

[Volourn]

I'm not talking Inrogrames. I'm talking the BIO higher ups. If you remember, Bartel was working on WW; and was suddenly pulled from it to working on several mystery projects - one ended up being ch2 of SOU.

That said, it doesn't really matter who's fault it is, ultimately. The bottom line is ch2 is average at best, and non choiceable as heck and is a failure when compared to ch1 or even the Interlude where you could actually side with the main villain there. However, ch2 did have the story book stuff which was very cool.

Hopefully, they remmeber that ch1 is what they should be shooting for ALL the time.

 

[Walks with the Snails]

Still sounds like someone either needs to grow a backbone or else doesn't really disagree as much with the boss as they let on. These phantom ogres in the boardroom would most likely be willing to listen to the developers' suggestions and requests given their success so far, if they bothered to try. Only a complete idiot is going to go, "What, Rob, you dare to question my decisions!?!?! That's it, damn what you've done for this company so far, YOU'RE FIRED!!!!"

 

[Volourn]

True; but who knows. What we really need is a spy in game companys' board rooms so we can find out how decisions are made and why.

 

[Sabotai]

So, what's the deal with Floodgate here? I was under the impression that SoU was a co-production between Floodgate and BioWare, but all I hear is BioWare designers/writers doing the work? Did Floodgate do any work on the story at all?

 

[Volourn]

I have no real clue. Apparntly, they did special effects, the cut scenes, and other assorted stuff. No complete official word yet though Gaider said he would look into getting a list for all of us board junkies to see the scoop.

 

[Moondog]

A few of the guys from Floodgate were on the Bio boards early on in the development of SoU, but they seemed to disappear after a while.....

Hmmm, I wonder what that was about.