It's hard to believe the people who made BG and BGII, some of the best selling games ever, didn't build on what those games great: party role-playing. What we want is Baldur's Gate with better graphics. That's it. The game mechanics were almost perfect, the multi-threaded stories where fun, and the party building was great.

So no NWN SoU is not an equal to BGII, but with this expansion pack, it's worth a few days of your life.

"NWN: SoU", I was really happy with the expansion to the Great NWN game.
Play is fun and the addition of new classes and monsters is awesome. I can't wait for the next one to be delivered to me

"A disappointment in relation to the original", I found this expansion to be disappointing.

I first tried the expansion with the character I finished the original with. I practically sleptwalked through the entire expansion. My paladin, approx lvl 20, and zero trouble going through it.

Next, I tried it with a brand new character. First I tried a monk, and it was just too hard. Next, I tried another paladin, and it was still extremely difficult to get through it.

So, for someone that was looking to move forward with a character that finished the orignal, I can't imagine this expansion will offer you ANY challenge. I think I finished the expansion in a few days. And if you want to start a new character, be prepared to really work your bottom off.

Here's hoping the next expansion is better suited to either roll.

"Entertaining but dissapointing", This expansion pack has the same quality gameplay at the original Neverwinter Nights. The graphics are good and the game is well done. However...I was generally dissapointed with the game. I used my same character that I developed in the original game which made 95% of the game a cake walk. There was virtually no challenge until the very end. Also I maxed out my character well before the end of the original game and was unable to advance him further in this expansion pack (I did not like this). At the end of the expansion pack I was still using all of my kit from the original game...meaning I ran across nothing of value greater than I was already carrying. So...the game was moderately fun but did not allow me to build on my character and for me that is where the fun is.

"Better story, better puzzles, better characters", The Neverwinter Nights (NWN) game engine represents what I hope to be a new era in computer gaming: platforms that invite users/players to create their own games with near-complete access to the game engine.

Sadly, while the NWN platform itself was a major breakthrough, the included gameplay was routine, uninspired, and sometimes even silly. Shadows of Undrentide (SoA) shows that the Bioware crew can not only create a great technical product, but also deliver a solid story.

Unlike the original NWN storyline, SoA has a coherent plot that, while short of "compelling," kept me interested. The fact that it was written for single-player mode meant the storytellers could focus on developing non-player characters rather than try to have the story work with lots of different players (not an easy task!). While many have complained about the lack of multi-player support, personally I've been unable to commit to that kind of gameplay anyway, and the few experience I've had were disappointing.

The fact that NWN is both a generalized toolset and a game means a lot of tradeoffs: one is that the graphics and environments become pretty uninspiring after a while because they re-use the same assets over and over again. To me, this is almost a blessing, as it forces story developers to focus more on the story rather than dazzle players with graphics.

Toolset enhancements and expanded assets (monsters, spells, etc.) make this expansion essential for those of us creating content.

Although not approaching the peaks of the Infinity Engine series of games, the NWN platform still has a lot of room for growth, whatever the power-gamers who want shiny graphics instead of good stories might say.