The heroes of Waterdeep are back: Evil emanates from the temple of Darkmoon this time... a huge building full of priests and monks (very typical source of evil) and - as it turns out - with a complex system of catacombs beneath. What are these people up to?
A very popular feature of RPG sequels is the import of the veteran party of the predecessor. Which is great, because you get to use all those high-levelled heavy hitters with all their fancy equipment. Alternatively, you have to roll new characters.
Which leads to an obvious problem of balance: The game has to stay beatable with the new characters, but at the same time challenging with experienced characters. Newly created characters do start at a decent level with some decent weapons. However, you'll still notice the task at hand is a lot harder than cleaning the catacombs of Waterdeep: The enemies are tough even in the first few levels already. You'll learn to appreciate the (limited) resurrection shrine quickly.
A little more effort has been put into human encounters to have some more of a story after the intro. Likewise, your own characters are more chatty, commenting on your surroundings and providing you with some hints from time to time. Still, the game depth isn't anything to rave about really. It's more pretense on the surface than anything else, but pretense which is working to a degree.
Graphics are good and the levels look more varied this time around. Enemies sometimes change their appearence, too (you'll meet guards in various states of undress, for example). The main problem remains, though: still no automapping. Basically, everything is still the same as in the first part. Just larger and harder. So the standard recommendation: If you liked the first part, this one is for you. If not, chances are you won't be converted by these priests.
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