by Jeff ‘Dueeliz’ Weaver
Pros
? great henchmen system
? nonlinear
? several side quests
? feels like an old Dungeon and Dragon’s module
? monsters actually drop the weapons they use
Cons
? too much useless loot and too many crates to search through
? requires a rogue because of all the traps locked doors and locked chests
The Bottom Line – One of the best Dungeon and Dragon module conversions yet.
Module: Download
Review
Few modules are able to capture that special magic of an original Dungeon and Dragon’s (D&D) pen and paper (PnP) module. For example there are attempted PnP conversions like Steading of the Hill Giants where the author trounces any resemblance to the original by mindlessly throwing a swarm of giants at you from the very beginning. Thankfully The Sunless Citadel of the 3rd Edition Adventure Series is nothing like that.
You can tell that The Sunless Citadel is something different when you simply download the file for it. Instead of having to unzip it and place the files in the appropriate folders the self extracting .exe places all the files in the right place so you can start playing the game ASAP. Once you start the game you will see a nice intro that looks very professional.
Fortunately there are several little extras in the actual game as well. First and foremost this module may have the best henchmen system yet. Not only can your henchmen switch weapons and give you input from time to time but you can also have two henchmen at the same time and you get some weird choices for henchmen such as a goblin and a kobold. In fact the interaction with a few of your henchmen is simply brilliant.
The way that you find these henchmen and are given side quests is also nice because you don’t have to do that much in any sort of order. The side quests are interesting and are interweaved into the module’s main goal. The tightly woven story along with the aforementioned henchmen system are what really re-create the magic of classic D&D PnP modules. You just feel like you are playing a D&D module on your PC. The funny thing is that all of NWN’s main campaigns did not get as close to that feeling as this one module did.
On the downside finding mundane loot like plates elf pudding and useless paintings may be more logical than finding magic swords and gems in every crate and chest but the amount of useless equipment that you find in this module is staggering. If you wanted to you could encumber yourself with entirely useless goods very easily due to the huge number of chests and crates in the Citadel. The only other complaint is that this module essentially requires the use of a rogue. Without one you will have a hard time of getting through the entire module. You could probably bash a few doors and chests but some doors and chests have traps on them.
For those of you that play as a rogue or have a rogue in your party this module deserves a perfect score. Simply put you have to play this module if you want to experience the way D&D was meant to play via a computer game.
Game Ogre’s Rating (out of 10):
8.75
