Posted on: October 8, 2023

jankitty
Verified ownerGames: 38 Reviews: 1
Favorite premium campaign, with a caveat
This campaign was actually pretty intense, and unlike Darkness over Daggerford the intensity was sustained for most of it. I liked the dark fantasy feel, I loved the creepy secondary villain, and I especially loved the zombie rogue Lyressa - she's one of my favorite companions in NWN, period, and her backstory's resolution had me all but standing up and applauding. Also liked how the second half can be an all women party, which... is appropriate for the campaign, but the reason for that is the caveat... Which is that like in Crimson Tides of Tethyr, Luke Scull doesn't pull punches about how sexist the world of Forgotten Realms is, with IMO mixed results. Sometimes it works great (the visceral serial-killer misogyny of the secondary villain). Sometimes it doesn't (the way that bit villains tend to spout sexism before being killed, sometimes not even by your party). And sometimes it works a little too well (the end boss's pelvic thrust casting animation, which made me almost give up the campaign the first time around). As far as gameplay, that's more of a mixed bag, leaning very strategic rather than tactical. Most fights are very easy if you have a good build, and very hard if you have a bad one. As in HotU, weapon enchantment is available, and you should use it - otherwise, barring a couple exceptional weapons, you won't be able to hit stuff towards the end. Roleplaywise, the campaign feels very geared towards good or neutral PCs, which I am fine with. No romance options AFAIK but plenty of shipteases. It's a good followup to Crimson Tides of Tethyr as well - that campaign had the feel of a superhuman hero stumbling into an epic tragedy, and in TotM said hero runs into their own brick wall of tragedy. In conclusion: slightly flaw, very fun, goes hard. I like it a lot.
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