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Tags: Beamdog; BioWare; Creative Titan Limited; Luke Scull; Neverwinter Nights; Neverwinter Nights: Doom of Icewind Dale
Back in 2021, Ossian Studios designer Luke Scull announced that he intended to create an episodic series of Neverwinter Nights modules called The Blades of Netheril that would be a sequel to the game's original campaign starring the Hero of Neverwinter. Its development ended up taking a much longer time than expected, during which Luke also produced enhanced editions of his classic modules from the 2000s, Siege of Shadowdale and Crimson Tides of Tethyr. The decision was made to split the Blades of Netheril campaign into smaller parts, the first of which would be called Doom of Icewind Dale. It was finally released last month, as a new official DLC for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition rather than a free download as originally expected. Our resident Neverwinter Nights expert Gargaune wasted no time giving it a try. In his review, Gargaune finds Doom of Icewind Dale impressive, but not a masterwork on par with Tyrants of the Moonsea. It's clearly the first episode of a larger whole, with some curious choices made with regards to continuity with the original Neverwinter Nights campaigns. Here's an excerpt:
Read the full article: RPG Codex Review: Neverwinter Nights – Doom of Icewind Dale
Back in 2021, Ossian Studios designer Luke Scull announced that he intended to create an episodic series of Neverwinter Nights modules called The Blades of Netheril that would be a sequel to the game's original campaign starring the Hero of Neverwinter. Its development ended up taking a much longer time than expected, during which Luke also produced enhanced editions of his classic modules from the 2000s, Siege of Shadowdale and Crimson Tides of Tethyr. The decision was made to split the Blades of Netheril campaign into smaller parts, the first of which would be called Doom of Icewind Dale. It was finally released last month, as a new official DLC for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition rather than a free download as originally expected. Our resident Neverwinter Nights expert Gargaune wasted no time giving it a try. In his review, Gargaune finds Doom of Icewind Dale impressive, but not a masterwork on par with Tyrants of the Moonsea. It's clearly the first episode of a larger whole, with some curious choices made with regards to continuity with the original Neverwinter Nights campaigns. Here's an excerpt:
So you arrive in Targos a penniless refugee accompanied by your first henchman, Kinnuki, an elderly Reghed Priest of Tempos (or Tempus to people who bathe) whom you met on the Bremen docks. While not under siege at present, Targos is under lockdown for fear of the monstrous threat to the Ten Towns, giving you an opportunity to explore the place, meet some shopkeepers and companions, and catch up on what’s menacing the Icewind Dale this time. However, this is not the same sort of setup you encountered in Darkness over Daggerford, Targos has relatively little content to explore and you’ll only need to complete one token quest – an opportunity for Luke to hand you some consolation money after stealing your riches – before you’re set loose on the main plot. You depart Targos with twin objectives: tracking down a local hero on behalf of Speaker Kemp and, for yourself, pursuing rumours of a mysterious masked woman seen haunting Maer Dualdon as bodies keep washing up on its shores, ultimately leading you to face down the latest threat to the Icewind Dale and picking up the scent of the Alazander Series' underlying conspiracy by the end.
As has been typical of Scull’s prior work, DoIWD’s worldbuilding boasts an abundance of Forgotten Realms lore and a comprehensive panoply of iconic characters from various related works. The moment you hit Targos, you’ll start running into a plethora of individuals who either reference events or have themselves taken part in the NWN OC, and the module gives you every opportunity to introduce yourself as the Hero of Neverwinter. You’ll forgive me if I spoil one or two minor moments in the very beginning to touch on your party and, aside from the aforementioned hunter-gatherer, you’ll quickly have the option of recruiting Aarin Gend, demoted from Nasher’s former spymaster to your personal thief, or once more enjoy the haughty company of Sharwyn the Bard. Your last henchman you may (or may not) discover later – Blizzard, a mage and secondary character through TotM. There’s one more, but only for the final battle and we need not spoil that. However, your choice of sidekicks will be mostly mechanical, since their journal entries don't progress as quests (only one packs a twist) and they seldom interject in dialogue. Aside from the NWN material, you may additionally mingle with a bunch of characters from Black Isle’s Icewind Dale series and R.A. Salvatore’s novels set in the same region. Those looking for cliffnotes will also be relieved at the return of in-game booklets summarising the events of relevant prior modules.
This is all well and good, DoIWD draws upon source material to provide the player with a rich and familiar setting to its benefit, but then carries on to bring even more references and cameos into the fold, even going so far as to feature a certain “Neomi”... To the writer’s credit, it never gets too much, but there are a couple of moments when it teeters on the edge and meeting a particular fiend mid-game did actually make me mumble “So you’re here too, huh?” You can only include so many before the player starts questioning how seemingly everyone who is anyone has started converging on the frozen arse-end of the Realms for some thrice-damned reason.
[...] Moving on from combat, skill and ability checks feature with some regularity in dialogue interactions and can lead to different narrative and mechanical outcomes, though I’m sad to say I kept Charm memorised through the whole adventure and never got a chance to use it in dialogue like at the Bron’s tower in TotM. Most agency faces limited, immediate consequences, such as avoiding a fight or extracting additional pay, though some can access or terminate additional plot and quest opportunities – for example, stiffing the mage Jaluth on her optional task will close off a follow-up quest involving the dragons in the next area. Another interesting affordance consists of roleplaying options to murder a couple of mages, which will also provide you with spellbooks that Blizzard can use to swap her repertoire, but at the cost of losing merchants and possibly other repercussions further down the line…
Of course, just because you can talk yourself around a fight doesn't necessarily make it the most profitable solution. When tasked by the Red Wizard Marcos to "gently" evict a meddling duergar's party from his lair, I chose to try Persuasion on a lark, seeing as my skills were middling in that department. Shockingly, I succeeded, netting me a bonus 250XP and the duergar left peacefully, but Marcos complained that hadn't been our deal, awarding me another 1500XP while withholding the promised magical item. Since I hadn't actually intended on persuading the dwarf, I took the liberty to reload and began blasting – not only did I get Marcos' full reward, but I butchered more than 250XP from the enemy corpses plus turned up a small treasure trove of useful gear. So always remember that the RP in RPG stands for roleplaying, but the G stands for greed!
The module also features automatic Search checks here and there as you roam around, and passing them may reveal a tucked-away chest or a fresh corpse for you to rob. I’m chuffed to say DoIWD does this correctly, like in Swordflight or Pathfinder: Kingmaker, meaning the hidden object is only discovered on a successful check and will otherwise give no indication of its presence so as not to invite the player trying to game the system. And yes, that was a stab at Baldur’s Gate 3. Aside from that, a thorough explorer will be rewarded in knocking on every door they come across, as the odd hut or barn may turn up a valuable item on inspection, although the game shows no rolls here.
[...] What Scull's been strong at in the past – worldbuilding, dialogue, art direction – is similarly superb in DoIWD, but what didn't necessarily excel before is much the same and one or two aspects would bear course-correction. Going forward in TBoN, I’d like to see proper dungeon-crawling make a return, perhaps a slightly more modular scope to open-world exploration, and I’d advise treading lightly around the continuities of related adventures. Where we go from here is interesting – as a series of fan modules, TBoN was originally intended to comprise of seven smaller installments, though the author’s suggested a publishing deal might require consolidating DoIWD’s follow-up content into two larger chapters instead. Personally, I feel like a broader chapter scope could accommodate a more open structure if the narrative allows and I’d prefer it that way, but in any case, I hope we won’t have to wait as long to find out given where DoIWD leaves things. Whether the completed series can steal that “definitive single-player NWN experience” accolade I awarded TotM is still in the running, and with the artistry already in such good shape, I suspect the answer will hinge primarily on matching gameplay fortes.
In summary, Doom of Icewind Dale is an exciting adventure delivering strong plot-driven action with a high grade of aesthetic polish and, while just this opening chapter can’t bowl me over the way Tyrants of the Moonsea or Darkness over Daggerford did, it’s absolutely worthwhile on its own and generously indulges that certain nostalgia for a beloved piece of D&D history. As a fan-module-turned-DLC, it doesn’t meet the scope and production values of the flagship expansions, but it pulls ahead of other Premium Modules like Wyvern Crown of Cormyr or Pirates of the Sword Coast and the €8 RRP is fair value for the quality and runtime of content on offer. For my part, I came away well impressed and eager for the next installment, and if you care to follow suit, Doom of Icewind Dale is available on any storefront of your choosing, so long as it’s either GOG or Steam.
As has been typical of Scull’s prior work, DoIWD’s worldbuilding boasts an abundance of Forgotten Realms lore and a comprehensive panoply of iconic characters from various related works. The moment you hit Targos, you’ll start running into a plethora of individuals who either reference events or have themselves taken part in the NWN OC, and the module gives you every opportunity to introduce yourself as the Hero of Neverwinter. You’ll forgive me if I spoil one or two minor moments in the very beginning to touch on your party and, aside from the aforementioned hunter-gatherer, you’ll quickly have the option of recruiting Aarin Gend, demoted from Nasher’s former spymaster to your personal thief, or once more enjoy the haughty company of Sharwyn the Bard. Your last henchman you may (or may not) discover later – Blizzard, a mage and secondary character through TotM. There’s one more, but only for the final battle and we need not spoil that. However, your choice of sidekicks will be mostly mechanical, since their journal entries don't progress as quests (only one packs a twist) and they seldom interject in dialogue. Aside from the NWN material, you may additionally mingle with a bunch of characters from Black Isle’s Icewind Dale series and R.A. Salvatore’s novels set in the same region. Those looking for cliffnotes will also be relieved at the return of in-game booklets summarising the events of relevant prior modules.
This is all well and good, DoIWD draws upon source material to provide the player with a rich and familiar setting to its benefit, but then carries on to bring even more references and cameos into the fold, even going so far as to feature a certain “Neomi”... To the writer’s credit, it never gets too much, but there are a couple of moments when it teeters on the edge and meeting a particular fiend mid-game did actually make me mumble “So you’re here too, huh?” You can only include so many before the player starts questioning how seemingly everyone who is anyone has started converging on the frozen arse-end of the Realms for some thrice-damned reason.
[...] Moving on from combat, skill and ability checks feature with some regularity in dialogue interactions and can lead to different narrative and mechanical outcomes, though I’m sad to say I kept Charm memorised through the whole adventure and never got a chance to use it in dialogue like at the Bron’s tower in TotM. Most agency faces limited, immediate consequences, such as avoiding a fight or extracting additional pay, though some can access or terminate additional plot and quest opportunities – for example, stiffing the mage Jaluth on her optional task will close off a follow-up quest involving the dragons in the next area. Another interesting affordance consists of roleplaying options to murder a couple of mages, which will also provide you with spellbooks that Blizzard can use to swap her repertoire, but at the cost of losing merchants and possibly other repercussions further down the line…
Of course, just because you can talk yourself around a fight doesn't necessarily make it the most profitable solution. When tasked by the Red Wizard Marcos to "gently" evict a meddling duergar's party from his lair, I chose to try Persuasion on a lark, seeing as my skills were middling in that department. Shockingly, I succeeded, netting me a bonus 250XP and the duergar left peacefully, but Marcos complained that hadn't been our deal, awarding me another 1500XP while withholding the promised magical item. Since I hadn't actually intended on persuading the dwarf, I took the liberty to reload and began blasting – not only did I get Marcos' full reward, but I butchered more than 250XP from the enemy corpses plus turned up a small treasure trove of useful gear. So always remember that the RP in RPG stands for roleplaying, but the G stands for greed!
The module also features automatic Search checks here and there as you roam around, and passing them may reveal a tucked-away chest or a fresh corpse for you to rob. I’m chuffed to say DoIWD does this correctly, like in Swordflight or Pathfinder: Kingmaker, meaning the hidden object is only discovered on a successful check and will otherwise give no indication of its presence so as not to invite the player trying to game the system. And yes, that was a stab at Baldur’s Gate 3. Aside from that, a thorough explorer will be rewarded in knocking on every door they come across, as the odd hut or barn may turn up a valuable item on inspection, although the game shows no rolls here.
[...] What Scull's been strong at in the past – worldbuilding, dialogue, art direction – is similarly superb in DoIWD, but what didn't necessarily excel before is much the same and one or two aspects would bear course-correction. Going forward in TBoN, I’d like to see proper dungeon-crawling make a return, perhaps a slightly more modular scope to open-world exploration, and I’d advise treading lightly around the continuities of related adventures. Where we go from here is interesting – as a series of fan modules, TBoN was originally intended to comprise of seven smaller installments, though the author’s suggested a publishing deal might require consolidating DoIWD’s follow-up content into two larger chapters instead. Personally, I feel like a broader chapter scope could accommodate a more open structure if the narrative allows and I’d prefer it that way, but in any case, I hope we won’t have to wait as long to find out given where DoIWD leaves things. Whether the completed series can steal that “definitive single-player NWN experience” accolade I awarded TotM is still in the running, and with the artistry already in such good shape, I suspect the answer will hinge primarily on matching gameplay fortes.
In summary, Doom of Icewind Dale is an exciting adventure delivering strong plot-driven action with a high grade of aesthetic polish and, while just this opening chapter can’t bowl me over the way Tyrants of the Moonsea or Darkness over Daggerford did, it’s absolutely worthwhile on its own and generously indulges that certain nostalgia for a beloved piece of D&D history. As a fan-module-turned-DLC, it doesn’t meet the scope and production values of the flagship expansions, but it pulls ahead of other Premium Modules like Wyvern Crown of Cormyr or Pirates of the Sword Coast and the €8 RRP is fair value for the quality and runtime of content on offer. For my part, I came away well impressed and eager for the next installment, and if you care to follow suit, Doom of Icewind Dale is available on any storefront of your choosing, so long as it’s either GOG or Steam.
Read the full article: RPG Codex Review: Neverwinter Nights – Doom of Icewind Dale
