Just finished HotU (spoilers)

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

I'm really not impressed at all. Honestly, that "true name" stuff, although it is a part of planescape - it sucks. Big time. The story itself wasn't as bad as the OC, but... meh. I wasn't a happy camper. For any of the three endings. Well, whooptidoo. I convinced the "Big M" to let me a) kill him, b) join him, c) rule over him.

Well. Great. *That* was what I had to put up with?

And don't even get me started on the Aribeth/Sleeping Man thing - of course, I acknowledged her request not to discover her "true name" on the first run. On the reload... meh.

No, what really gets to me is the "Valsharess" -- and calling companions back from the grave. Well, why in 'faerun's' name, couldn't I call her back, join up with her and go hunt down M? Hmm? Maybe I wanted that alliance with her and I wanted to rule the world after all. Grr.

Well, after looking at the various endings, I opened up the toolset - took a peek at the dialogue - and was even less impressed. I don't think I'll bother running through with an evil character - or even different companions. Granted, some of its cute, but it really isn't worth the time or frustration.

And... honestly, you simply can't do enough with the 'true names' either. "I command you to love me!/let go of your guilt!/sell you into slavery" - well, great. What else could you do? Quite a bit, actually. Like, perhaps, make your henchmen generals of your almighty armies that you plan to raise? (Although, I will admit, the dialogue option of 'I have enough room in my heart/bed for both of you' was amusing - concerning Aribeth and the Drow, I mean).

Oh, and finally, my character's own 'true name' sucks. So much so its not funny. There also wasn't a single mention of SoU at the end of HotU - to which I was uber disappointed with.


But other than that, it wasn't bad, I suppose.

I did enjoy defending the drow city greatly - in fact, that's my favourite part of the game [img]smile.gif[/img] .

[Mirror Image]

Tell me, when you opened it up did you discover why when I have my shield golem with me after entering Cania its treated as a NPC in the grouping. I had two companions and one perpetual summons before being sent to hell and then in hell if I drop Valen, or Deekin I can't take them back in without droping the other NPC (the shield golem only leaves on death).

Any way I agree it got too mushy and was too weird. And that detour into the mimic lair had little value at all except to give you away to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

[robertthebard]

I found the demon hand to be quite useful against M. Especially when I didn't want to stand toe to toe with him.

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

Originally posted by Mirror Image: Tell me, when you opened it up did you discover why when I have my shield golem with me after entering Cania its treated as a NPC in the grouping. I had two companions and one perpetual summons before being sent to hell and then in hell if I drop Valen, or Deekin I can't take them back in without droping the other NPC (the shield golem only leaves on death). Any way I agree it got too mushy and was too weird. And that detour into the mimic lair had little value at all except to give you away to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

The mimic's lair was actually quite amusing - once you figured out how to get past the damn walls using that stupid ring, but I agree, its somewhat pointless.

As to your shield gollem... I never managed to build one. I assume that one is the one you build in the demi-lich's lair using a certain talkative blade? If so, I had no sorcerer/wizard/magic levels, sadly . Maybe I should try again with one. (As opposed to harper scout levels [img]tongue.gif[/img] )

I tend to agree, the NPC limit of 2 sucks. It's too bad they didn't make it so you could take three, or even four. Maybe it would have overpowered the game, but damn, I was really hoping for a party . I feel that HotU could have been somewhat more polished. And longer (but with less annoyances - *points at mimic lair and other irritating puzzels that put me off replaying it). *sigh*.

The Underdark... really was a disappointment, quite honestly .

I still want the Valsharess as my henchman!