Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark is the second expansion pack for Neverwinter Nights, one of the best RPGs ever made. As I expected, the expansion continues the journey from the Shadows of Undrentide. I don't want to spoil the storyline for Hordes of the Underdark for anyone, but what I can tell you is that the story starts off in Waterdeep, one of the more famous cities in the Forgotten Realms world. An army of Drow (dark elves), beholders and Mind Flayers are about to attack the city. You come to the city as a hero of great renown and set off on a strike mission into the dungeon of Undermountain to stop the attacks. In the course of heading off the impending invasion, you have to stand against an entire army of drow, beholders, undead, and mind flayers. And that’s just the beginning...

The most significant addition in Hordes of the Underdark is the ability to take your character from NWN or Shadows of Undrentide above level 20, in accordance with the D&D Epic-Level rules. You must start at level 15 or higher. If you start a new character or one at a level lower than 15, you'll be given the requisite experience points when you start the expansion. The level limit has been raised to 40, though you'll probably end Hordes of the Underdark somewhere in the range of level 25 to 30. Level 20 characters are actually incredibly powerful, with Level 40 characters being near demi-gods :) /Here's one mod to take you to 40 at least/.

Another the most exciting additions are of course, the new character classes. The six new prestige classes (there are now 11 prestige classes in total) that are included with Hordes of the Underdark are the Dwarven Defender, a mighty fighting class for Dwarf players; the Weapon Master, a class that focuses on developing great skill with a specific weapon; the Shifter, a person who can take the shape and abilities of a large range of animals and monsters; the Pale Master, a class that can control and take on abilities of the undead; and the Champion of Torm, which is a holy fighter for the god Torm. The sixth and most unique new prestige class is the Red Dragon Disciple. This class allows the player to take on some characteristics of a dragon. The can develop a breath weapon, natural armor, strength, and even grow wings like that of a Red Dragon.

There's also loads of new spells and feats, a bunch of new skills, the ability to have two henchmen, 4 new tilesets (Drow Underdark, Drow Interior, Beholder Tunnels and Mind Flayer Tunnels), 16 new creatures (Driders, Mind Flayers, Spider Demons, Dracoliches, Eyeballs, White and Black Slaads, Harpys, Azers, Demonflesh and Mithril Golems and Beholders), over 40 new spells (Ball Lightning, Battletide, Blade Thirst, Bless Weapon, Crumble, Death Armor, Flame Weapon, Glyph of Warding, Great Thunderclap, Healing Sting, Infestation of Maggots, Iron Guts, Keen Edge, Mestil's Acid Sheath, Monstrous Regeneration, Scintillating Sphere, Shelgarn's Persistent Blade, Undeath to Death and Vine Mine), over 50 new feats and 150 feat-like abilities (Wildshape (Dragon), Overwhelming Critical, Bard's Curse, and Lasting Inspiration), new weapons (Dwarven Battleaxe and Whip), new Crafting Skills (Craft Potion, Craft Scroll, Craft Armor and Craft Weapon), ability to modify Armor, Robes and Weapons, 50 new heads, new portraits, and six new Voice Sets, new music by Jeremy Soule, new toolset functionality, and lots more.

Overall, the game itself doesn't look much different, except that there is improved camera control. The camera has been unlocked, allowing for a free-form feel. Bioware have also increased the polycount on nearly all of the new models and tilesets, so they're way more detailed, and look absolutely awesome. It took me around 26 hours to complete the campaign (thanks Ivanek for help), that's fairly amount for an expansion. In my opinion, anyone who was a fan of Neverwinter Nights, and is still interested in playing the same type of adventure again will enjoy this new expansion. The various added features definitely add to the game's replay value. This expansion is really worth getting if you're a Neverwinter Nights or CRPG fan.

gameplay movies: movie1 (5.1MB), movie2 (2.8MB), movie3 (2.4MB), movie4 (2.1MB), movie5 (3.4MB), movie6 (5.4MB), movie7 (2.6MB), movie8 (6.1MB), movie9 (3MB),   /DivX required/

Minimum System Requirements: PIII 800MHz or AMD Athlon (1.4 GHz P4 or higher recommended), 128MB RAM (256MB recommended, 512MB is recommended for Windows XP), 32MB video card with Hardware T&L support (64MB video card with Hardware T&L support recommended), CDROM 8x, DirectX certified sound card, 1.5GB HDD space, multiplayer (not required): LAN with TCP/IP protocol or established Internet connection (56Kbps modem or faster required).