I finished Menzoberranzan earlier this week. First, before some moderator gets itchy fingers, I'll quote the OP:
It's possible that Menzoberrenzan can also find a home in this thread as it uses the same game engine
So there.
Menzoberranzan has a few big changes compared to Strahd's Possession:
Ceilings can now be higher, levels can have the regular height or 2x, as long as the height is uniform within the level. Strahd's Possession seemingly had 2x height walls in outside areas but I think that was accomplished through other means (i.e. fake walls).
Every square on the grid is larger, 1.5x or maybe even twice as large. This means that you can attack enemies before they get close (and vice versa). It also meant that it was a bit difficult for me to judge distances when looking at the map.
Enemies move much slower and combat is also slower. Enemies aren't moving as spasticly and don't spam attacks like they used to. That's alright, because the party can't spam attacks either. The cooldown between attacks seems longer, like they are simulating initiative and weapon speed rules of then PnP game. Except wands and other multiple use items can be spammed.
What I thought about the game:
*Level desing isn't as good as in Strahd's Possession. The cave levels are labyrinthine messes where everything looks the same and I got lost constantly despite looking at the map, but maybe that's just me. I feel like they should've had less of that. With that said, I really liked the dwarven levels and the Menzoberranzan levels.
*Combat is too easy in this game. Sure, I lost a party member or two occasionally when facing a heavy hitting enemy but other than the only fights that felt challenging where the yochlol and the final battle. The game showers you with consumables but there's almost never any need to use any of them, I only used some in the final battle. In fact, the only spells I used in my F/M/T character's spellbook was Light and Improved Identify, you could probably finish this game without a mage.
*The music is really good, though not as memorable as in Strahd's Possession. Unfortunately I suffered some bug where after combat ends the regular music wouldn't come back untill after a while passed, so there periods of silence sadly. An annoying thing is that whenever the music changes, the game pauses for a couple of seconds; accessing your inventory during combat changes to regular music and back to combat music when you exit, pausing the game twice.
*In Strahd's Possession enemies make a lot of noise when nearby, here they don't and I miss that. However combat music starts whenever an enemy is nearby, even if there's a wall between you.
I had this weird bug when I drank a Potion of Jump and the effect was permanent, it's supposed to go away when resting but it never did.
I played through the game with an Elf Ranger and an Elf F/M/T. I had Baldassar and the Centaur in the beginning, replaced them with Drizzt and Manahath. When Drizzt disappeared I temporarily took the diseased Dwarf to heal him, to see if I'd get XP or a reward but sadly nothing came out of it. So I recruited Azarell the "Elf" and due to a bug she never betrayed me and stayed with me untill the end.
I'd like to warn anyone that's playing this game: at a point you will find yourself in green caves. There an NPC will ask you to kill an Umber Hulk. If you've already killed the Umber Hulk before talking to the NPC, the game won't recognize it and you're softlocked, you have to reload a save from before killing it and talk to the NPC first.
Overall, I enjoyed Menzoberranzan but not quite as much as I enjoyed Strahd's Possession. Now to
Bone Profits Stone Prophet.
