Below are user reviews of Neverwinter Nights and on the right are links to professionally written reviews.
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User Reviews (1 - 11 of 19)
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Very nice! (MAC version, performance specs)
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 66 / 69
Date: November 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User
This game combines the hack-and-slash of Dungeon Siege and the complex character management of Baldur's Gate 2 into a very enjoyable game.
The gameplay focuses on a single character; while there is no party system you can hire a henchman (a la Diablo 2) that can be useful. The story line is detailed and interesting. Many, many NPCs to interact with. No "ultra-impossible" enemies: while the game allows you to examine an enemy and determine their challenge rating, I found that even ones labeled as "Impossible" by the game were not particularly difficult for my fighter to dispatch.
MUCH better than Dungeon Seige, with a similar feel, but not so much the tedious "hack and slash" boredom I got with that title. And I went to play Diablo 2 for a little bit after playing NWN for a while: forget it, it's paleolithic in comparison.
Recommended character: I'm currently having much fun with a single-class Fighter, lvl 10 (in second act right now). Specialized it in greatsword, have the Harbinger Kin +1 GS (the GS is perhaps the best melee weapon in the game). Tried a monk but she kept dying! Paired the fighter with a bard henchman and it is much fun to attack a boss with a bard's song pumping all your stats up! (Think Brave Sir Robin and his Minstels, only the opposite)
Pros:
1) Stable build, only two major crashes in 3 weeks of playing (upgraded to latest version 1.32)
2) Good performance on a mid-line machine (see below)
3) Game play not too difficult at normal level (but can increase)
4) Storyline is slightly linear, but once you get to Act 2 there's a lot of branching sidequests to do!
5) Henchmen can be very useful!
6) Talking to NPCs really can work wonders on the gameplay; able to talk my way out of several battles and earn my "Neutral Good" alignment (even though I could have SO KILLED THEM!)
7) Graphics are high-end for Mac
8) Sounds are excellent
9) PLENTY of room in the character inventory; limit is almost exclusively dependent on character strength
Cons:
1) Viewable area sometimes seems claustraphobic when compared to full zoom-out in Dungeon Siege.
2) Sometimes can get overwhelmed with the number of active "quests"
3) Have no clue about some of the items I've picked up
4) Cannot "equip" henchmen with items (no packmule) nor upgrade their base equipment
5) Graphics are mid-range for PCs
6) Apple sound system not able to convey all the subtleties of the background (need to use headphones)
7) Cannot modify character portrait/color scheme during play as you could in Baldur's Gate 2
About performance: I have a dual 867mHz G4 with an older GeForce4 MX440 (32mb) card and 1 GB ram. The game set itself to low-medium but runs over 30 FPS on 1024 resolution without many hiccups. No problems here, though might "burp" when a lot of enemies on screen. I'm upgrading to a GeForce 3 Ti4600 card this week and I'll update then.
UPDATE: Minor improvements with the GeForce4 Ti card, but cannot run it at max settings without significant rate drops (<20fps). This seems to say that there is significant CPU dependence of this conversion -- be aware.
UPDATE2: Newer versions of the nVida drivers with OSX 10.3.5 and higher provides a SIGNIFICANT speed improvement! I can now run at 1024x768 with high level graphics at an acceptible 28-30 fps.
Great game
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User
This game is pretty good. The storyline that comes with the game gets kind of repetative, but I gave it 5 stars because you can download modules and play those as well as the origional story. There is an unsupported mac toolset called neveredit. It is freeware too. If you are interested in making your own modules, go to versiontracker.com and download it.
Amazing Storyline and Gameplay
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User
Wow. Neverwinter Nights totally blows away all other r.p.g.s out for mac today. Terrific graphics and gameplay are just part of the package. The real gem quality in this game is its storylines and quests. Compared to Dungeon Siege, the intricate storylines provide a real feel for the world. It is almost as if you have been sucked into a really great fantasy novel, playing the main character. The A.I.s, for the most part, actually engage in conversation with your character and you can choose how you speak to them and deal with them. I really enjoy the large number of quests that you can pick and choose to complete. The ability to mold your character's personality through your words and actions is also a really great, fun feature. Overall, despite this game's flaws (of which I think there are few), I think the stories and characters make this game an amazing way to keep yourself out of touch with reality.
adicting
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User
This is the first game I bought for my Power Book and I love it. After finding out the only game that comes on a Mac is Chess I decided I needed to get a real game. My brother sugested Neverwinter to me and so I got it. Since then I have hardly been able to set it down. A I play, I find that as I achive one goal all of a sudden a different chain of events happen. I knew there was a lot of playing time but I never imagened to get so much of my moneys worth out of it. That may be bothersome to some people but the box does say that it has 60+ hours of game time.Before I bought this game I was not familar with the rules of D&D, I don't think I quite still understand all of it. I find it rather relaxing to be able to leave my computer to fight with it's self. I have to admit that at sometimes I wish I could contol my character to be able to decapitate my averitary's head.
Worth the wait
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User
I waited for five years for this game and I am not at all disappointed. I opened it up last night, installed it, and sat in awe while I played all night until I fell asleep at the keyboard. I'm still so in shock at the grandness of it all that I'm going to have a hard time explaining my feelings. Even on my measley - by their standards - 400mhz G3 powerbook it runs beautifully. Not astoundingly fast, but the only problems with loading were with text conversations in large areas. The in-game system is easy to understand and use, the characters are as well done as you would expect, I absolutely love the music. Also, it's the closest by far that I've ever seen to sitting at a table and actually playing pen and paper dungeons and dragons. Congratulations to the companies that created and put it out, it's a thing to be proud of and has accomplished the feat of playing D&D at home by yourself.
My only complaint: Waiting a year longer that they advertised for the mac version to come out.
Neverwinter Nights Review
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User
This game is what every RPG should be: full of adventure, a great story line, and a vast arsenal of weapons and spells for you to help create the ultimate character. The character creation is very in depth; giving you total control on how you want your character to perform. The controls are easy to use, and best of all it's challenging. I highly recommend this game to anyone in love with RPGs
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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