Good module. Well deserved 4 out of 5. If I have to find a flaw, there are too many sidequests and not entirely consistent with the main plot.
The game is nice but too long, and suffers what - I think - every high level DnD campaing does: it is poorly balanced. At high levels, no fight is a match for the PCs so it becomes boring. For now I've left it unfinished, maybe I will give it another chance in future. If you find it at a reasonable price (say, 5$) it's OK.
I've not finished the module yet, but I want to write e quick review based only on first impressions. The overall mood is very different from other modules I've played: it is less dark and very "light", there are some situations that remind me very closely the old Monkey Island adventure games: the clash between the two thieves guilds in the harbor, the gathering of a crew to sail from the island, the many (awesome!) treasure maps, the shipwrecking and survival struggle, and in general the jolly and humorous atmosphere. It also reminds me the good "Lankhmar Nights" module (freely available on the Neverwinter Vault website). In these situations, killing foes is not the primary objective and thus you gain many XPs simply advancing in the plot, but there are also some fierce fights that require planning and tactical skills. I've chosen - as usual - my favorite character class, a female human rogue/ranger (and future shadowdancer), but some fighter levels may help since you need a good amount of hit points to survive some encounters. I've bought the module at discounted price, and certainly it is worth every single cent.
After some hours of play, in my opinion it already shows its limits: the level areas are more or less quite the same, with the same enemies and treasures (and all contain a room with a campfire, a merchant, a hireling and a healer). However, it can be a good "playground" to practice with different character classes and to spend a couple of hours with NWN if you don't have other modules to play with. I've bought the module at very low price (0,79 €) and it is surely worth it. If you manage to find it at this price, give it a try.
I've played through the 3 campaigns on a laptop with a 512 MB video adapter, and even in these conditions the game is still enjoyable and fun (with the occasional stop/lag when there are many characters). I've only played with an elven fighter and a human rogue, maybe in the future I can try to play with another race/class combination. The fist two campaigns are well balanced since they start with a 1st level PC; the third, while the plot is interesting, suffers the same issues of high-level PCs DND campaigns: mainly focused on magic (with absurd +10 weapons) and with some boring moments. I've found the NPC companions too difficult to manage and probably only one companion rogue is necessary due to the ridiculous high number of traps to dismantle. The UI is not so easy to understand and the inventory is rather confusing (with no option to order by type of items). I would recommend this game (especially if you find it on sale) but it shows its age.
While the story is somehow very simple (the struggle of Good against the Evil, a dead king and a possible civil war arising), this game is intriguing. The story is not always linear and sometimes to achieve a plot objective you have to choose which side to support (or kill) and so it can be also fun to start over and play the whole story with a different character. For your main character you can choose between man, dwarf or elf, various classes, backgrounds and physical appearance; during the game you have the opportunity to specialize the character giving him (or her) unique and lethal abilities; as the story goes on you have the chance to recruit other characters and it's better to establish at least neutral relations with them (actually you can also make some of them fall in love with you), otherwise they will leave or even attack the party! Sometimes it was not always so easy to understand the right way to raise up a character using talents and spells since the rules are not from the "usual" DnD manuals and a party of only four elements can be challenging especially when facing enemies like dragons giants golems and revenants. But in conclusion, a great game certainly worth buying.
This is the first game I've bought on GOG.com. Albeit not perfect, this game feature a unique combat system with turns in which you can state the action of each character and until you haven't decided that action, the game doesn't go ahead. While this inevitably slows the course of the game, it is the only way to recreate the flavor of the original "old" DnD combat system, in which a single clash could last several hours. I wish more games could feature a similar system, based on strategy much more than action. The graphic is still quite good for a game issued in 2003. The main campaign is quite linear, many side quests are fun, the character progression is fast enough but doesn't allow to reach astral levels and so a good swordplay is much needed even if your magic user can cast lots of fireballs. If you have time you can also mess up with magic and create your magic items. Only the last part of the quest is a little bit boring (too much combat and combat and more combat). All this reverts me 30 years back in time and it is enough for me to give 5 stars.
It seems to be a fairly common problem amongst people who own these games. I hope to solve this problem and play.
I've played three out of four of the campaigns in this title. The first one is well balanced between plot and combat, the others are less balanced. "Sword of Zehir" is mainly about raising money with the trading company and killing time with poorly designed quests, and the story of "Mask of the Betrayer" suffers from giving too much powers to the playing characters and turns the game from "Dungeons & Dragons" to "Magic & Magic", like in the old marvelous days of the book game in the 80's. Anyway, I enjoyed myself very much. Having bought it at -75% of its price, it's worth the money for sure.
This game is far from being perfect, but the story is so addictive and challenging that I give 5 stars. The game itself is quite old and should run on most computer systems available today. One little thing I haven't appreciate is the final chapter, mainly focused on combat, combat and more combat. But I can't wait to play the next chapter (hoping my computer can run it the same way...)
