Neverwinter Nights launched in 2002, but despite its now 23 years of age, its developer just released an official, new DLC with around 15 hours of gameplay. The Doom of Icewind Dale is written by Luke Scull, an award-winning fantasy author and one of the lead designers of another Neverwinter Nights expansion, the Tyrants of Moonsea.
You can finish the main story of this new expansion in 10 to 15 hours, but there’s a lot more content to play through. It introduces 14 new monsters, multiple new locations to explore, and a whole lot more.
Scull says the purchase of this DLC will help support the Blades of Netheril campaign, a continuation of the story of the Hero of Neverwinter. The start of the campaign is set to be the Doom of Neverwinter DLC, and it’s just the beginning of what he says is a 60+ hour adventure — and Scull plans to make it available for free at launch.
Neverwinter Nights just received an unofficial quality-of-life update last month from the community that boosted performance and addressed a few graphical bugs.
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Dungeons and Dragons games have seen a resurgence in popularity recently, and no doubt Baldur’s Gate 3 takes the credit for much of it. That said, Dungeons and Dragons was already creeping into the mainstream before Larian kicked the door down.
There have been whispers of a Neverwinter Nights 2 remaster, but developer Beamdog says it isn’t involved. Whether another studio — like Aspyr, perhaps — will conjure it into existence isn’t clear yet, but there are more than a dozen paid modules for Neverwinter Nights and hundreds of free ones the community has published. A remaster of the sequel would be a welcome surprise, but until then, a new campaign for the original game will keep you busy for a while.
Scull says the Blades of Netheril campaign is his final project, and he intends for it to be a “love letter to NWN.”
The Doom of Icewind Dale is available now on both Steam and GOG for $10, but you can get a 10% discount if you purchase it before February 28.