While I enjoyed the original Solasta campaign I gave it 4 stars. I was an enjoyable dungeon crawl and had that D&D homebrew feel to it but I had little desire to revisit it after completion (although with the new multiplayer update I might reconsider it). Lost Valley on the other hand raises the bar in many ways. While the main quest starts out deceptively simple (enter the Lost Valley to find a person and then try find a way to esxape the Valley) the politics and factions of the expansion are the "real main quest" here. You have 5 factions to do quests for and you can't complete all their quests without breaking a relations with others. There are a fair amount of different solutions to quests that can further alter the reputations to different factions. Having a good stealth character and high charisma skills were thus much more useful here than in the original campaign, As of this writing review I didn't find any real bugs but some general jankiness which can be attributed to the low price point (and thus budget). The factions could really use more dialogue or even just lore or exposition to flesh them out more. However the factions are still presented as interesting, and there is no with no clear good faction which leads to some tough moral and political choices. Overall this would maybe be more of a 4 or 4.5 star game but the low price I can't in good conscience rate it anything less than a 5. My total playtime for a single playthrough (with doing most of the faction and side quests) clocked around 30 hours which is the same as with the original campaign. If you like Solasta already there is little to no reason to skip this one.
As I had already played through all the other official NWN content I decided to buy this one despite the very negative reviews due morbid curiosity for 0.80€ on a sale. Story and setting-wise it is decent. Set in Planescape (but not in the famous city of Sigil) there some references Planescape and PS:T, and a city that is under the control of devils is a fairly novel concept to me. The adventure is very plot and narrative driven with not a lot of combat and even many of those you are able to skip with some skill checks. The heavy investigation focus was interesting as well. In the gameplay department the module/DLC starts to fall flat. The adventure was quite buggy with crashes, pathfinding issues, dialogue that told I made choices other than what I actually did, broken journal entries (either missing text or overflowing text) etc., but even when it worked it felt more of a chore to play a lot of the time despite having some interesting story telling. The adventure also feels rushed and the final hour (which is quite substantial as the adventure took me only around 3½-4 hours) especially felt quite bad both in gameplay and story, and the ending is extremely low-budget to put it kindly. As a side note the original music is pretty good and is still playing in my head as I am writing this review. Overall I can only recommend the game on a very deep sale and if you are really desperate for more NWN content, but you can find more higher quality adventures from the modding community for much much cheaper price tag. The 80 cents (€) I spent I didn't make me feel robbed but not entirely satisfied either.
I remember the original controversies surrounding Siege of Dragonspear (SoD) but never got around playing it until now in 2021, and surprisingly found it enjoyable despite a few issues. Mechanically and gameplay-wise I found SoD fairly strong. The fights are challenging, there are tons of loot for your munchkin needs and there are a fair amount of side quests albeit sadly most of them are just simple fetch quests. As a dungeon crawler SoD is quite solid. The writing is more of a mixed bag. Writing and voice-acting for returning characters like Imoen, Minsc and certain a John Irenicus for example are quite fitting and they return with their original voice-actors. There are also some fun references to Forgotten Realms and other Infinity Engine games. As a downside, the setting and writing feels often times too modern and clashes with the atmosphere of other Baldur's Gate games. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 felt like they belonged in the Forgotten Realms and with all the 90's source books and modules, but Siege of Dragonspear feels detached from that mythology despite trying to pay lipservice to it. Also notably the villains of SoD are quite weak with poor motivations. Sure the villain of Baldur's Gate 1 was very cheesy and simple but at least his motivations were understandable. Overall I would recommend giving it a shot on a sale. Seeing and hearing the old characters again, and going through some good dungeons and fights is worth it in my opinion. Is Siege of Dragonspear a necessary addition to the saga? No. Is it fun to play at least once? Yes.
After playing through the great Darkness Over Daggerford, I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this module, but very quickly I ended up liking it more than it. The module is high level adventuring in the hostile Moonsea region which I was not familiar with previously. Cities like Hillsfar were especially interesting. The adventure has solid writing and story to keep you intrigued till the end with a few unexpected twists and turns. It is mostly linear but has a fair share of side quests to net you more experience and power. In terms of difficulty I found it fairly easy even with my underleveled level 13 Sorcerer which I imported from Darkness Over Daggerford. I played it with D&D Hardcore Rules difficulty. Apart from a certain optional undead boss monster (which I still have no clue how to defeat) nothing was too much a challenge. In conclusion a high level D&D adventure which is in my opinion roughly as good as the great Hordes of the Underdark.
Probably the closest thing to a Baldur's Gate 1 experience in Neverwinter Nights Engine. The main quest isn't anything original but the module has well made side quests. Writing is amusing and relaxed. I did maybe half of the side quests and completed the whole main quest, which clocked me around 10 or so hours. Overall a good experience, and definitely better than the original campaign or Shadows of Undrentide, but I expected maybe a bit more concerning the hype the module has had over the years.
The story and presentation is right up my alley with cheesy but intriguing office drama, Hellraiser style practical effects and paranormal horror. However in the gameplay department the game is overly cryptic and lacks direction. There are no clear goals for each chapter but instead you just need to interact with everything and hope something happens that moves the story forward. Also story progression can rely doing trivial things and even repeating some actions, which makes the game very difficult without a walkthrough. The game doesn't have any sort of journal or notes which can make some parts even more confusing. With a walkthrough in hand it is a very enjoyable and cool story. I would give this a 3.5/5 but rounding due my personal tastes.
Expect more Icewind Dale than a Baldur's Gate. Still it is a hell of a party! You crawl 30-40 hours of dungeons with 4 user made characters. However unlike Icewind Dale, the characters are fully voiced and make remarks based on chosen personality traits like Greedy, Altruistic, Cautious etc. The story isn't anything to write home about but it is interesting enough to keep you going through the dungeons, but the character dialogue (made by your characters) is usually cheesy (in a good way) and chuckle worthy. Feels like a homebrew campaign by your friends. Combat is very solid and faithful to the 5th edition rules. Unlike the classics, there is an emphasis on verticality, taking full advantage of 3d battlefields. Higher elevation can give you high ground advantage, AoE spells and effects are fully three dimensional spheres or cubes and so on. The dungeons themselves have a decent amount of variety with different kind of puzzles and settings to not get too stale. Around the 30 hour mark it started to get a bit stale but the game quickly picked up again and threw twists in both gameplay and story. In conclusion: a solid dungeon crawl with not much filler. Witty writing and voiced player characters keep you entertained for this classic D&D adventure.
As a fan of previous Stormling Studios/Zoetrope Interactive games I bought this game despite mixed reviews and I can now see why is it the case. Transient is a short Lovecraftian adventure game with a strong atmosphere, beautiful audiovisual design, and an intriguing (even if sometimes too obscurely and confusingly told) story which unfortunately ends extremely abruptly without a very satisfying payoff. I enjoyed the game despite the short length and poor pacing but the ending really left a sour taste in my mouth, and made the game feel unfinished. I do in addition want to mention delightful references to Lovecraft mythos and previous games from the studio which do give an impression that this game was a passion project but must've have some trouble during the development. In conclusion: I did enjoy the game and story what was offered but I can't recommend it for anyone except Lovecraft enthusiasts but on a deep sale. I hope the next game by Stormling Studios will be better than this as I have immensely enjoyed their previous work.
I usually play more "hardcore" cRPGs like the old Fallouts and Baldur's Gates but I found this a refreshing change. I don't have the same amount of time to play as I used to so this one fits the bill perfectly for a more casual RPG with an interesting story. Setting inspired by Finnish folklore is an unique choice, and I find it delightful. I might be biased as Finland is my home country but I think people from elsewhere will find the setting enjoyable as well.
