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I first saw mention of Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark back at E3 in 2003. I was at Bioware’s private booth checking out a few games and saw the poster for Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark on the wall. Like most D&D geeks, I’m a big fan of the whole Waterdeep/Undermountain Drow setting so I was really stoked when I learned there was to be an expansion using that setting.

Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark is the second expansion for Neverwinter Nights, hot on the heels of Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide. While Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide was received by the fans with mixed emotions, Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark is just the opposite. This is a great, epic adventure with a good plot and a lot of attention to detail. It’s by far the best Neverwinter Nights adventure out of all three thus far. Bioware continues to expand on the 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. With every expansion we get new classes, feats and skills. Half a dozen new prestige classes make an appearance in Hordes, which include the Weapon Master (my favorite), Dwarven Defender, Champion of Torm, Pale Master, Shifter and Red Dragon Disciple. In addition to new prestige classes, Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark introduces 16 new creatures, 4 new tile sets and a slew of new spells and feats. Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark is an Epic Level 3rd Edition adventure. You can import your existing Neverwinter Nights character or start a new game with a level 15 character. You can reach up to level 40, although you probably won’t break level 30 in most cases. The module itself runs about 20-25 hours, depending on the number of side quests you run.

Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark takes place in the legendary city of Waterdeep in the Forgotten Realms. Resting beneath the city is a vast dungeon known as Undermountain. Undermountain was created by the mad mage Halaster as a form of personal entertainment, you could say. Adventurers come to Undermountain to test their metal, seek riches and make a name for themselves. Some return, others often do not. Undermountain is filled with all sorts of nasties, but they’re all under the control of Halaster and never venture beyond Undermountain up into the city of Waterdeep itself. Halaster prefers to keep to his own little world. Deeper into the world’s crust, even below Undermountain, lies the insidious world of the Underdark. The Underdark is home to the Drow and all sorts of demon spawn, brain sucking uber baddies and anything else that may occupy your nightmares. No one really knows much about it, other than it’s an extremely dangerous place. The inhabitants of the Underdark, like Undermountain, keep to themselves thanks to various bindings and simply wanting no part of the surface world. Here’s where the problem arises: For some reason, the inhabitants of Undermountain are seeping up from the dungeons below and invading Waterdeep, along with bands of Drow from the Underdark. A call is put forth to all capable adventurers to discover why this is happening and help fight back the Hordes of the Underdark.

The coolest thing about Hordes is the fact that it’s an Epic Level adventure. In 3rd Edition AD&D, beyond 20th level is considered ‘Epic’. You have access to all new epic feats and abilities that greatly increase the power of your character. If you’ve ever played a “Monty Haul” style adventure in 2nd Edition AD&D, that’s basically what 3rd Edition Epic is like. You can walk down to the corner magic shop and pickup a +10 War Axe of God Annihilation just like you could walk down to the corner mart by your house and pick up a 2 liter of soda. Magic is in abundance. You’ll need it too, when you battle the inhabitants of the Underdark. You’ll run into some nasty enemies like Beholders, Mind Flayers, Dragons and powerful Undead. You also have the ability to craft and upgrade your own weapon and items like in previous Neverwinter Nights adventures, although it has been expanded a bit in complexity in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark. You can make potions and scrolls as well. You can also control two henchmen in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark.

The henchman AI has always been questionable in Neverwinter Nights. Huge advancements in henchmen AI took place between the original game and the first expansion. A few slight improvements have been made in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark, but it still needs a bit of polish. I often caught them simply standing around during battles. They do respond well to basic, built in verbal commands such as “HEAL ME!”, but that was about it. You can control their inventory and how they advance in their particular classes as well. Like the previous Neverwinter Nights games, Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark supports Multiplayer, so you can run through the game with a friend or two if you like. There is lots of hack’n’slash on top of a great story line with plenty of twists and new tricks that can be done with the Aurora engine. There are plenty of in-game cinematics and the voice acting is very well done. Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark really shows off the flexibility of the Aurora engine. One of the coolest parts of the game is a giant battle where you act as a General, positioning troops, ordering catapults to fire at specific targets while you manage your troops as they battle an onslaught of monsters. This is all stuff you yourself can do with the Aurora Toolset, included with the game. Although to do something as cool as the battle sequence I just mentioned, you’d better be an experienced scripter with advanced knowledge of the toolset or you can forget about it.

There’s been a few minor upgrades to the graphics. Higher polygon count, more detailed textures and some more advanced magical effects. There are also skyboxes which now allow you to actually look up towards the sky, although most of the game takes place underground so there isn’t much sky to look at. Builders will find the skyboxes as a very welcome addition, I’m sure. Due to these enhancements, the system requirements are a bit steeper than previous Neverwinter Nights games. The game is very configurable and scalable so you shouldn’t have much of a problem getting it to run well on a decent system.

With the graphical enhancements, we’re treated to a new soundtrack from Jeremy Soule. As with all Jeremy Soule’s work, the music in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark is spectacular and gripping. My only complaint is there isn’t enough new music. There are a very limited number of tracks and it gets repetitive after a while. Jeremy Soule’s stuff is so good, I think it’s a shame there isn’t more of it in this game.

Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark is a great expansion. Bioware continues to impress and expand on their impressive Aurora 3rd Edition AD&D engine. If you are new to Neverwinter Nights, you can pick up the Gold Edition which includes the original game and both expansions. Chances are, if you’re an RPG fan, you already own at least the original Neverwinter Nights. Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark is worth picking up. Don’t miss out on this one.