Reviews for Baldecaran's Modules (The Cave of Songs)
xiaoleiwen
Member Posts: 197
Finished the first one and hopefully, I can get through the rest. Also, just realized I never posted my reviews for SOU + HOTU from a few years ago, and now I’ve lost the draft 
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The Cave of Songs
When you play the first module from an author famous for writing some of the best stories in NWN, you'd probably expect a story-rich experience, though maybe with a few rough edges. But to my surprise, after leaving the beginner’s inn, I found myself wandering through dark, ominous and large open areas, getting mauled by ferocious bears left and right, with almost no story or NPCs in sight. Instead, you get occasional notes hinting at where to go and a few NPCs trying to kill you. Honestly, it felt more like exploring the wilderness in early Baldur’s Gate 1 or even a Souls-like game.
Anyhow, the atmosphere the author creates is excellent, and the exploration ended up being way more enjoyable than I expected. Still, I can guess some people might want to skip this module if they’re expecting more story than action-heavy gameplay. At least in the early game, the writing of the occasional dialogue and notes scattered around doesn’t really hint at the epic storytelling you’d expect from the renowned creator of the Prophet Saga.
Thankfully, I stuck with it. Once you hit a certain point with an unexpected encounter, the story starts kicking in. From there, the experience becomes progressively more story-rich, just as I’d hoped. Venturing deeper into the mystery and piecing together the notes and journals scattered around was as satisfying as any well-written CRPG quest. The story isn’t super mind-blowing, but it’s quite unexpected and pretty well-crafted. It also hints at some of the deeper themes that I guess the author will likely explore in their next modules, especially in the Prophet Saga. Some of the questions posed by a certain NPC definitely carry the vibe of Planescape Torment, one of the best-written CRPGs. I enjoy how this particular tale revolves around the tragedy of obsession with
Overall, it’s a solid short story that I don’t regret playing.
Now, for the companion- you only get one , and they’re not as fleshed out as what you’d expect from a BioWare or Obsidian CRPG. While they have some location-based banter and dialogue interjections, their main purpose feels more like a tool for delivering lore rather than developing a distinct personality. It’s not necessarily a bad thing for a short module, but don’t expect deep companion dynamics here.
As for the gameplay, the early game is slightly challenging, while the late game is very easy— at least for my Fighter 3/Rogue 2 build. I enjoyed the sense of exploration, but only until my henchman eventually ran out of arrows and he couldn’t switch to a melee weapon. Instead, they just stood there repeating “out of ammo,” becoming a liability that did nothing but die during ambushes or boss fights. That was frustrating during certain encounters. He also completely ignored all of my instructions— no healing the player, no standing ground, nothing. It felt very limited compared to the henchmen in the vanilla modules.
In short, this is a great atmospheric module with a decent story and enjoyable exploration. If you’re willing to push through a slow start from level 1, it’s definitely still worth your time.
Story Experience: 7.5
Companion: 6.5
General Gameplay: 7.0
Groping in the dark
Companion
Companion- location awareness
Heavy Spoiler:
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The Cave of Songs
When you play the first module from an author famous for writing some of the best stories in NWN, you'd probably expect a story-rich experience, though maybe with a few rough edges. But to my surprise, after leaving the beginner’s inn, I found myself wandering through dark, ominous and large open areas, getting mauled by ferocious bears left and right, with almost no story or NPCs in sight. Instead, you get occasional notes hinting at where to go and a few NPCs trying to kill you. Honestly, it felt more like exploring the wilderness in early Baldur’s Gate 1 or even a Souls-like game.
Anyhow, the atmosphere the author creates is excellent, and the exploration ended up being way more enjoyable than I expected. Still, I can guess some people might want to skip this module if they’re expecting more story than action-heavy gameplay. At least in the early game, the writing of the occasional dialogue and notes scattered around doesn’t really hint at the epic storytelling you’d expect from the renowned creator of the Prophet Saga.
Thankfully, I stuck with it. Once you hit a certain point with an unexpected encounter, the story starts kicking in. From there, the experience becomes progressively more story-rich, just as I’d hoped. Venturing deeper into the mystery and piecing together the notes and journals scattered around was as satisfying as any well-written CRPG quest. The story isn’t super mind-blowing, but it’s quite unexpected and pretty well-crafted. It also hints at some of the deeper themes that I guess the author will likely explore in their next modules, especially in the Prophet Saga. Some of the questions posed by a certain NPC definitely carry the vibe of Planescape Torment, one of the best-written CRPGs. I enjoy how this particular tale revolves around the tragedy of obsession with
mortality
, and I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness when leaving a certain NPC behind during the endgame.Overall, it’s a solid short story that I don’t regret playing.
Now, for the companion- you only get one , and they’re not as fleshed out as what you’d expect from a BioWare or Obsidian CRPG. While they have some location-based banter and dialogue interjections, their main purpose feels more like a tool for delivering lore rather than developing a distinct personality. It’s not necessarily a bad thing for a short module, but don’t expect deep companion dynamics here.
As for the gameplay, the early game is slightly challenging, while the late game is very easy— at least for my Fighter 3/Rogue 2 build. I enjoyed the sense of exploration, but only until my henchman eventually ran out of arrows and he couldn’t switch to a melee weapon. Instead, they just stood there repeating “out of ammo,” becoming a liability that did nothing but die during ambushes or boss fights. That was frustrating during certain encounters. He also completely ignored all of my instructions— no healing the player, no standing ground, nothing. It felt very limited compared to the henchmen in the vanilla modules.
In short, this is a great atmospheric module with a decent story and enjoyable exploration. If you’re willing to push through a slow start from level 1, it’s definitely still worth your time.
Story Experience: 7.5
Companion: 6.5
General Gameplay: 7.0
Groping in the dark
Companion
Companion- location awareness
Heavy Spoiler:
Cool End game NPC, cool sword:
If you are willing to backtrack during the end game, you can get extra experience and additional dialogues:
A short quest with some sad dialogues you might miss if you leave the area too quickly:
Moral of the story:
If you are willing to backtrack during the end game, you can get extra experience and additional dialogues:
A short quest with some sad dialogues you might miss if you leave the area too quickly:
Moral of the story:
0
Comments
That said, you should register over on the Vault and copy your review there on the module page. For posterity's sake, if nothing else - there appears to be an awful lot of spam hereabouts as of late, and I've had plenty of experience with company-owned fori shutting down on short notice under such circs. And future players are more likely to see it there, anyway.
I appreciate your suggestion, I got an account but just forgot my log-in information, and it was an older user name that I no longer used. Generally, I still prefer posting on a forum because I like posting screenshots as well.
I guess I can backup this on the G3 thread temporarily, at least until I find a better place.