Hordes of the Underdark Review at IGN

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(Originally posted by chevalier)

IGN have reviewed the Hordes of the Underdark expansion and given it an overall of 8.6 and Editor's Choice Award. Here's a tidbit:

Bioware uses in-game cutscenes to great effect to tell much of the story this time around, which really lends to the dramatic feel of the expansion pack since it keeps you in the game world. While the story is a bit confusing and slower-paced in chapter one, the game really gets revving and becomes much more interesting by chapter two, and chapter three is a whirlwind of back-stabbing, double-takes and larger-than-life schemes complete with multiple endings. As fulfilling as the story is, one thing I did notice is that there aren't as many alignment changing events and choices as there were in the original Neverwinter Nights or the first expansion, but there are plenty of chances to role-play your character's alignment correctly, and the branching dialogue choices allow you to be the goodie-two-shoes type, the apathetic type or the truly evil type.

Because it uses a tile system, dungeon design has always been a little repetitive in Neverwinter Nights, but the expansion does add a few new tilesets, so the dungeons tend to look different than the ones from the original. Since the plot revolves around the Drow, most of the game takes place underground. The dungeons tend to focus on one race or type of creature, like Beholders or Golems or Undead, so there's not a lot of creature variety in the individual levels, but there is in the overall game, and you never really feel like you're just having the same encounter over and over again and you play through the game.

Read the whole review at IGN.