I’ve completed the second chapter of Hordes of the Underdark and I dare say HotU is (thus far) equal to — if not better than — anything in Baldur’s Gate II.
I had a low opinion of NWN’s Aurora engine but it appears Bioware didn’t take full advantage of its capabilities until HotU. I was particularly impressed with the final setpieces of the chapter which featured some outstanding large battles. I don’t think there has been anything like it in CRPGs prior to this one. And some of the quests had some delightful (and often wicked!) twists.
Could the chapter have been any better? Well, sure. The writing wasn’t bad — I actually enjoyed some of the conversations with the NPCs — but it wasn’t particularly memorable either. (To be fair to Bioware, though, I can’t think of any other recent game that had me raving about the text.)
Furthermore, the difficulty could have been scaled better. Most battles were a breeze for my character (a Druid 20/Shifter 4 at the end of the chapter) with one battle of infuriating difficulty early in the chapter.
I also wish Bioware had taken inspiration from fan-written programming scripts which increase player immersion. For instance, Vendalus’s Personal Reputation and Reaction (PRR) system keeps tab on player actions and NPC reactions. Do something deplorable like rifle through an NPC’s belongings and he will take offence.
But on the whole, this game is enjoyable and I’m looking forward to Chapter Three.
You really have too much time on your hands – you seem to be advancing through these chapters pretty sharply. But then, I guess, I’m the kind of player who has to explore every nook and cranny. I haven’t got anything to do, since I’m currently between college terms, but I’m still on Chapter 3 in BG2, finishing off lots of quests I received in the previous chapter, and grabbing even more, so I can try and level as much as possible. In fact, I’ve been playing it so much, I’ve grown quite attached to my characters, and I was really quite pissed when Keldorn had to leave my party. And then there’s characters that really annoy me, but I know the game just wouldnt be the same without them *cough* Nalia de’Arnise. It’s been hard for me to fit in playing the game, maintaining websites, doing my job, playing other games (UT2004, Star Wars Galaxies, Dungeon Siege and X2) in all this time! You seem to be doing fine, and how, I just don’t know. Hopefully, I’ll be getting a copy of SMB Advance 4 in a few days – but it’ll be just another game to play. At least I’m not stuck for choice!
Well, you’ll be either amazed or nonplussed to hear I just finished Die Horden des Unterreichs (as its known in German) today.
The game apparently has between 15-20 hours of gameplay and I think my run corresponded to the lower end of that estimate. The plot was sufficiently compelling that I just had to find out what would happen next and that explains why I bulldozed through.
(I’m not much of a powergamer so playing FedEx Man just to collect all the various magical tchotchkes doesn’t particularly appeal to me.)
I know I missed out on a couple of subquest storylines in my first run but that only provides additional incentive to (eventually) replay the game with a different player character.
Oh my god! I never thought of it like that! You’ve opened my eyes! I never think of things like that. But at least someone normally does it for me :P