Erebus
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2008
- Messages
- 4,770
Dark Waters is a series of three NWN2 modules (very closely linked, especially the second and the third ones). It's pretty hard to describe, because it has tons of diverse things, but I'll give it a try.
You start as a level 1 PC, with two companions who'll remain with you during the whole series (a ranger and a wizard). At the start of the first module, you're just a young (wo)man living in a village on an isolated island. Your life and future prospects aren't exactly exciting. Then you discover the subterranean citadel of a pre-cataclysm civilization (that island you're living on used to be a mountain) and you get the memories of one of its inhabitants. During the rest of the module, you'll be exploring the citadel, discovering many things and looking for a way out.
In the second and third modules, you'll be travelling to other islands to gather keys and pieces of a map that are supposed to lead you to a mysterious treasure. These modules are much less focused and linear than the first one : the quest for the keys and the map is mainly a reason for you to encounter many different places and challenges.
Dark Waters is a highly hybrid series. There are times (such as the beginning of the first module and some islands) when it is very close to being an adventure game. And there are also plenty of mini-games : naval combat, a spelling game, a game similar to Magic the Gathering, Lute Hero (seriously !), a game of tower defense, etc. It's really quite amazing what the makers of the mods managed to do with the NWN2 engine. I didn't find all of these mini-games to be equally entertaining, but you usually don't have to spend too much time on them if you don't want to.
The story's rather focused during the first module. It tries to be too many different things in the second and the third ones, but it's not that much of a problem. The quests we face on each island tend to be rather independent from one another, but they're usually creative and enjoyable. I remained entertained during the whole series. The atmosphere also varies a lot (though the second and third modules are largely inspired from pirate stories).
The characters are interesting and the dialogue entertaining (and often pretty funny). It's worth noting that there are plenty of minor original elements, such as the jewels you can use to enhance your equipment or the psychic powers you can discover.
The difficulty's not usually very high, but the non-linearity in the second and third modules mean that it can vary a lot depending on which quests you decide to do first. By the end of the series, I had reached level 10.
There's a fatal bug that sometimes happen in the second or third module (loading screens keep freezing). It's apparently rather rare, but it happened to me the first time I played the series and forced me to give up.
Other than that, I'd really recommand Dark Waters to those who haven't played it.
You start as a level 1 PC, with two companions who'll remain with you during the whole series (a ranger and a wizard). At the start of the first module, you're just a young (wo)man living in a village on an isolated island. Your life and future prospects aren't exactly exciting. Then you discover the subterranean citadel of a pre-cataclysm civilization (that island you're living on used to be a mountain) and you get the memories of one of its inhabitants. During the rest of the module, you'll be exploring the citadel, discovering many things and looking for a way out.
In the second and third modules, you'll be travelling to other islands to gather keys and pieces of a map that are supposed to lead you to a mysterious treasure. These modules are much less focused and linear than the first one : the quest for the keys and the map is mainly a reason for you to encounter many different places and challenges.
Dark Waters is a highly hybrid series. There are times (such as the beginning of the first module and some islands) when it is very close to being an adventure game. And there are also plenty of mini-games : naval combat, a spelling game, a game similar to Magic the Gathering, Lute Hero (seriously !), a game of tower defense, etc. It's really quite amazing what the makers of the mods managed to do with the NWN2 engine. I didn't find all of these mini-games to be equally entertaining, but you usually don't have to spend too much time on them if you don't want to.
The story's rather focused during the first module. It tries to be too many different things in the second and the third ones, but it's not that much of a problem. The quests we face on each island tend to be rather independent from one another, but they're usually creative and enjoyable. I remained entertained during the whole series. The atmosphere also varies a lot (though the second and third modules are largely inspired from pirate stories).
The characters are interesting and the dialogue entertaining (and often pretty funny). It's worth noting that there are plenty of minor original elements, such as the jewels you can use to enhance your equipment or the psychic powers you can discover.
The difficulty's not usually very high, but the non-linearity in the second and third modules mean that it can vary a lot depending on which quests you decide to do first. By the end of the series, I had reached level 10.
There's a fatal bug that sometimes happen in the second or third module (loading screens keep freezing). It's apparently rather rare, but it happened to me the first time I played the series and forced me to give up.
Other than that, I'd really recommand Dark Waters to those who haven't played it.
