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Do Not Bother - Worse Than Terrible

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 28
Date: April 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Do yourself a favor - play Diablo 2 instead of wasting your money on this absolutely worthless, frustrating, terrible game. Yes, it may be 3D, but the character control is show-stopper terrible - unplayable - especially in combat.

Also, regardless of how many people are playing together, there is only ONE main prize-weapon. This has two game-ruining effects - first, only ONE player in the team gets rewarded FOR THE ENTIRE QUEST!!!! Second, because everyone knows this, at the End-Main-Battle, no one is trying to defeat the boss, but rather are all fighting each other for the main prize weapon.

Stupid story, blah 3D graphics, show-stopping game quirks, horrible interface. Gaming does not get any worse than this - avoid at all costs!!!

MAC Version

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 37
Date: November 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you want to play a fantasy RPG, this is a pretty good one. There are a couple of things about it that I found frustrating:
henchmen - you can only give them potions which they use right away, nothing else.
the BIG DISSAPOINTMENT was that the module designer program that comes with the PC version of the game is NOT AVAILABLE on the MAC or LINUX versions of the game - so you cannot create your own modules. You can still do the on-line play, and the DM client is included so you can DM the game.

Great story, graphics, and sound. Subpar control & gameplay.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 17
Date: March 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I recently bought a Mac and have decided to try computer gaming. I've been playing console games since NES, and have used computers for music and work, but I never mixed the two. The first game I bought was Neverwinter Nights as I love console RPGs and Action/RPGs. This is a cool game, with great graphics, but the gameplay is rather restrictive if your a console gamer.

I am trying to stick with this game, as I like the story and enjoy the general look and atmosphere of the game, but this is nothing like any console RPGs that I've played. You don't control your character directly the way I am used to with console games. I feel more like your character is an NPC and your sort of give him suggestions. There exists a layer of abstraction between you and your character, so you don't feel as though he is your onscreen representation (as you would with a Zelda or FF game) but rather a separate entity that you direct (another way to put this is, in a Zelda game for example, I would say "I'm trying to hit this enemy" or "I just ran across that bridge", In Neverwinter I'm more likely to say "I'm trying to get him to move" or "I want to get him to the other side of town"). You control your character by pointing him in the direction you want him to go with your mouse, he decides the path he takes and his exact movements himself. You click on enemies to attack them, but he doesn't attack when you click, but rather when he's good and ready, resulting in many an untimely death. Combat feels very forced and unruly - it's this element of the game that comes very close to ruining the whole experience. I'm progressing at a snail's pace, and will abandon this game if it doesn't become more fun in the near future.

Overall this seems like it could be a great game, if this sort of gaming experience fits your fancy. As a console gamer I just feel to detached from the action and not in enough control. I often find myself in situations (especially combat) where I'm thinking "If I could only control my character directly, or attack at will, this would be great fun". This game comes across allot closer to something like starcraft wrapped in the trappings of an RPG - I would almost call it an RPG/Sim. If your a computer gamer, this sort of thing might be your bag, but if your a console gamer, I'd be weary. I can tell there's a great game underneath it all, and that's why I'm plugging away at it though the fun has yet to start (I'm almost 10 hours into it without completing a single quest) - that and I spent 39 bucks on it, so I've got to at least attempt to get my money's worth. I would reccomend Neverwinter Nights to anyone who enjoys this sort of indirect control gameplay, as all other aspects of the game are top notch. I wouldn't reccomend it to someone from a console background.

P.S. There is a control scheme that tries to give your more control over your character, but it really doesn't work out so hot. You can tell how this game "wants" to be played, and it's not by direct control. Though it's borderline agonizing, your best off with the mouse.

Doesn't live up to it's billing......Yet

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: January 19, 2004
Author: Amazon User

The game has received rave reviews and I bought it based on experience with Baldur's Gate I and and II. THe game is much to linear with the built in storyline. Not nearly as challenging as the prior games. A major problem is that it follows the newest Ad&D rules and they are just a little to wierd for someone who started with the first edition and only grudgingly moved to the 2nd ed. I quickly lost interest in the built in scenario and have not gone back to try out any custom games.
This game runs fine on a G4 400mHz with 896MB RAM and 64MB ATI video card.

boring game, bad AI

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: June 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

While Neverwinter Nights can be fun to play, it's incredibly boring (both in comparison to Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale, and also just on its own terms.) The plot is straightforward, unremarkable and and consists mostly of "go here, find this, bring it back, and don't swallow your own tongue" busiwork, and the design of the game is incredibly frustrating: there are countless identical maps that are tedious to navigate, innumerable locked AND trapped chests/crates/barrels that contain nothing of value, millions of locked doors to random rooms filled with said chests/crates/barrels. You will kill hoards of unchallenging enemies and solve connect-the-dots-type plots, but there's no fun to it. The first chapter - which is set in the city of Neverwinter - is the most intriguing so far, since the plot is a little more open-ended and you can explore the various districts at your leisure. The later chapters seem much more linear (as well as disjointed and arbitrary - you randomly resurface in new cities searching for things that various people have told you are important for reasons never quite made clear) and the game suffers for it.

Also, the AI in the Mac version seems to be flawed: my character randomly gets stuck standing on walls. I think you can troubleshoot this at the MacSoft website, but it's still sort of a pain.

Left me a bit cold

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I wanted to like this one, I really did. Honestly though, it left me cold. While the graphics and sound were all decent enough, I just could not bring myself to care about my characters or the story. The story was very linear, and felt no emotional attachment to what I was doing with my character, unlike Baldur's Gate 2, which pulled me in with its eccentric characters and an environment that changed more according to my actions. Obviously, some people like this one, and it is certainly hard to find fault with the mechanics of it, plus it has a huge fan base of mods and multiplayer virtual worlds. But if you want an engaging story, I would look elsewhere.

excellent engine for endless gameplay!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: June 21, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Overview: Don't think of NWN as a single game, but as an engine that allows you to play graphical role-playing games by yourself and with others. It's your way to access thousands of modules written by other NWN fans, each one a separate adventure. It's easy to find these modules online at the BioWare website. (You can download whatever style module pleases you -- from ones that emphasize roleplay to ones that are pure hack-and-slash.) It's also very easy to join multiplayer games online. (Mixed results with these. If you adventure with a standard group of people that you know, it feels like an intimate pen-and-paper role-playing session. If you join a random game and hang out with random people, it feels much more like a MU*.) The game ships with a single long campaign, which is well-written and enjoyable.

Of course, I'm just repeating what hundreds of PC players of the game have said -- go and read their reviews for that version of the game.

For Mac users: In my experience, NWN runs without a problem on an 800 MHz G4 iBook with 640 MB of RAM and 32MB of VRAM. It opened but ran unbearably slowly on a 500 MHz G3 iBook with 576 MB of RAM and 16MB of VRAM.

As is often the game, Mac gamers are treated as second-class citizens -- although it's not too bad in this case. Here are some specifics:

* We don't get the toolbox that allows us to write and customize modules, which is the biggest disappointment for me.

* The expansions (which are necessary for many of the downloaded modules) haven't been released for the Mac, and won't be anytime soon. [Edit, 7/5/2004: the expansions have now been released, finally! I'm leaving this part of the review in, because it illustrates how Mac users haven't been a top priority. Then I'm going to go order the expansions!]

* BioWare claims that MacSoft is responsible for providing support for the Mac version of NWN. MacSoft's attitude toward support is minimalist.

Bottom line: Five stars for the concept and the game. Minus one star for the Mac adaptation of it.

Will Rule Your Free Time

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: February 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

It took a while for me to get this game mainly because I had a lowely 16 MB graphic card and after reading some reviews didn't think my 400 MhZ could run it. So with a 1.2 MhZ Sonnet upgrade and a 128 MB graphics card, Neverwinter Night runs well. One of my other inhibitions was from playing Baldur's Gate II and other RPG's that let you control and entire party instead of just one character. However, after playing NWN, I quickly got over it. The 3D graphics and ability to circle and tilt the camera, along with the raidial and hotkey menus, make game play simple. I played it through the first time with a monk, and he did die frequently even with the help of a henchmen, eventually he became awesome and able to quickly dispatch nearly any foe. Perhaps my only complaint is that the game isn't that long, but with two modules to add on and a slightly different experience depending on the class of your character, Neverwinter Nights is worth checking out.

I could not turn it off...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: September 26, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I actually could not turn off the game.
It gave me hours of play and i really loved it.

It reminded me of Diablo 2 but i liked the player classes in this game much more :-)
I really did buy a game worth it :-)

Just Give it time

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: September 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

iv owned this game for about 6 months and when i first got it it didnt really run good and i was unexpierenced with D&D based games. Since then iv played Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 and Icewind Dale and iv come to appreciate NWNs as one of the best RPGs out. I really suggest you at least running it on a G4 700 MHz at least. I started playing it on my imac G3 500mhz and it ran just not very well and you couldnt get the best out of the game. i have currentley purchased a new computer and it runs great the graphics are awsome and the storyline is pretty good. i dont like though that you can only party up with one person (called a henchmen). i believe it shouldve been more like baldurs gate in the NPCs area of it but besides that a great RPG. Id suggest purchasing this game and its newley released fun expansion packs.
Pros:
-Great Single Player Campaign though towards the end its too easy
-its 3D!
- 60 hours of Gameplay
-good graphics
-multi-player its pretty good
-Nice control

Cons:
-only one party member (cant equip with weapons armor etc)
-With mac version no toolset
-gameplay can get repetetive

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