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Pick this up....then give up your free time!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 86 / 101
Date: September 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

In case you haven't heard of Neverwinter Nights yet (and in case you're wondering, we landed on the moon too.) and are in the dark about this incredible series, here's your chance to redeem yourself! In any case, this 'platinum' pack includes the original Neverwinter nights and both expansion packs, Hordes of the Underdark and (though the less exciting, but still fun) Shadows of Undrentide. What you should know is that this is the 'it' game concerning playability, multiplayer fun, as well as expandability with the excellent tool sets included to craft your own D&D adventure. It is an RPG set in the Forgotten Realms world (but has been modded to all sorts of worlds-you can even find an upcoming Dragonlance mod soon to be released), and I would stand by it to say (along with the Baldur's gate series as well as the fairly new Knights of the Old Republic...All made by Bioware...Hmmmm pattern here?) it is one of the best games you will play in a very long time (Until a month from now when the next 'big' thing comes and levels all expectations...suffice to say that the way technology is growing so fast, it doesn't give us poor gamers a lot of time to appreciate those great games that come out!). With tremendous graphics that still hold up remarkably well (its not THAT old), stellar gameplay and 100's of hours worth of pure entertainment, quit reading this review and wasting your time! Play the game NOW!(and plan on dodging those pesky necessities 'showering' and 'eating'!)

One of the best

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: January 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing computer role-playing games since Wizardry came out for the Apple II. (For those of you too young to remember, that was when a machine with 48K of RAM was considered super-fast.) Neverwinter Nights is, IMHO, one of the best ever in the genre. It combines ease of play and an interesting story effortlessly. Better yet, one doesn't have to be The Amazing Kreskin to figure out what you are supposed to do next. Too many other games substitute cryptic puzzles for good game play. Neverwinter Nights does it right.

Typical rpg problems, disappointing toolset.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 13
Date: January 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

While the game itself is fairly entertaining, it still has those typical design flaws programmers just can't seem to see. Inspite of being told to stay put, characters with you magicly show up next to you as you pass through some doorways, often right into a scene best handled alone. More often, very imaginative strategies will gather fewer experience than rushing blindly into battle. "Scripted events" (where your character is magicly thrown into a new situation or plot line which he or she has the power to control, but can not) can make thinking gamers feel cheated.
The much hyped toolset is a disaster for imaginative Dungeon Masters as the vast majority of "monsters" are of the humanoid type. If as game creator, you don't mind using the same basic type of creaures over and over, the toolset will work for you. Anyone very creative however, will see that most of those fantastic creations from the Monster Manuals can not be included in their game. Professional graphic artists may (in a conciderable amount of time) be able to create unique creatures. Anyone else however, is out of luck. Even if one would be satisfied using the provided monsters, they will be bombarded with the program language "scripting" needed to make events happen within their world. The NWN series contained here had the potential to be great, but falls victim to typical computer RPG problems and unproductive tools for one's own imagination.

Fun but annoying....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: March 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

One of the reasons Dungoens&Dragons has a very hard time going from Pen and Paper to video game is becuase of the interactivity factor. Not to say the RPGs based on D&D rules aren't fun to play...I spent a good portion of my 22nd year of life playing and replaying Baldur's Gate. But now that NWN has come out, I think we might have peaked. The game looks great, its level of interaction is very enriching, and for the most part its fun to play. All this in its favor but still there is something missing. For anyone who's ever been a basement dwelling gamer dork like me can tell you, the video game still can never hold a candle to the Tabletop experience. In the video game..what the programmers want to happen will happen, nothing you can do about it, no matter how clever you are. In the Pen and Paper (tabletop) game, you're interacting with other people, a Dungeon Master who can think and adapt at will. Other living thinking players who can do the same. Players can bounce ideas off of each other, and come up with strategies that can be impossible to account for. This just doesn't happen in NWN or any other D&D based video RPG. That's what's missing. As for saying the game can be annoying...I think theway the programmers meant to compensate for what I just said was lacking...they give you way too much to do, and too close together quest wise. I'm no fool, and I'm pretty good at multitasking, but when I have a goal to acheive I don't want to click my way through a 5 minute talking to by an NPC only to have yet another quest stacked on top of what it is I'm already doing.

Pretty good, but still has flaws

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: March 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm enjoying the game for the most part. The graphics are very good. The story is interesting. Voice acting is really good. What flaws it has isn't going to make me stop playing the game, but they are still annoying.

As I play NWN, I can't help but campare it to Diablo 2. The fighting is slow and rather dull. It seems to take forever to level up even at very low levels because the XP for killing stuff is rather low. I find contolling the character rather difficult. If I want to go towards the camara and click that area, he moves very slowly and for only a couple of feet. So, I'm forced to turn the camara around. Sometimes he'll just stop fighting. By the time I noticed he's not doing anything anymore he's almost dead. When I tell the NPC that is with me to stay put they still come running in to get killed. Diablo 2 seemed to have millions of different weapons, armors, ext because of the prefix and sufix system they used. I just don't feel like there is enough veriety of weapons and armor. And, I really can't tell if my armor is really doing anything. For example, I have a large tower shield. Sometimes I switch to a torch if I can't see well. I find I do just as well having a torch in one hand instead of a shield. Seems to do me no good. I have yet to find a helmet that takes damage. They seem to only enhance certain values instead. I find the "save" feature VERY annoying. I hate having to save before going into EACH and every room. Then I get really mad when I forget to save for about an hour and have to trudge through it all again.

But, with this said I'm still going to keep playing it.

The down sides that no one talks about.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 11
Date: April 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Most people quickly point out that w/ both expansion packs, this game is over 100 hours long. While that is a plus, the buyer should beware: 100 hours is equal to over four days of non-stop game player (if you also sleep, it's actually closer to a full week).
The other down side of this game is that there's a lot of places to go and they are not all easy to find (for those who played Diablo II, think the Jungle level but for the entire game). This game requires a walkthrough, or atleast an annotated map of each area. Trust me, w/o it, it may take another day or two to finish the game. Luckily there are many walkthroughs available on-line, and for free.

One good set of rules, dozens of (free!) adventures to play

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 26
Date: April 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've played a lot of computer based role playing games and I think Neverwinter Nights is the best. I've played it for over a year now.

For one thing, the Platinum package offers an incredible amount of content that used to cost $100 in a very affordable package. Second, the game is based on Dungeons and Dragons rules, which have been tested and refined for decades. It takes a while to grasp the richness of the possibilities, but it's worth it. Third, some people complain about the graphics but I think they look great. I never get tired of pausing a battle and zooming the camera around in circles and in for a closeup. Fourth, the interface is so simple it's almost a work of art. You right click on any particular object and a menu of things you can do with it comes up.

Fifth, with NWN comes a toolset that lets you build your own adventures. The ones provided with NWN Platinum are pretty good -- with Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark being far better than the original campaign. So you can download, for free, literally hundreds of additional games that fans have spent hundreds or thousands of hours creating. And many of these are even better than the adventures that come with NWN Platinum. People have also built additional scenery, monsters, environments, and much more. So you learn one set of rules and you're set for dozens of adventures - some short and intense, some huge and sprawling (with up to 60-100 hours of playing time, so they say). I feel like I'm totally set to be entertained for the next 6-12 months, probably more if people keep building great adventures and putting them online. (See nwvault.ign.com for a glimpse of what's out there. And did I mention it's all free?)

Sixth, if you have a fast online connection (which I don't), you can play online with others in "persistent worlds" full of gamers, or in campaigns with your friends -- and a Dungeon Master can even run the show and provide the kind of interactivity and richness that pen & paper experiences used to provide. I can't speak to that whole aspect because I don't have DSL or cable, but many people love playing that way.

I think this is simply an unbeatable package. Diablo I&II were incredibly fun, they had atmosphere and gameplay for days, but in terms of role playing they lacked depth and freedom, and battles were basically a clickfest (click on that one! now click on that one! now click on that one!). Morrowind is unmatched as a sprawling, freeform adventure, but it's so open ended that you often feel lost and somewhat unmotivated after a couple of weeks, or months, of playing. Plus, to improve your lock picking skill, you had to pick hundreds of locks. To improve your jumping skill, you had to jump and jump and jump. That system just doesn't appeal to me.

I wish you good gaming. [PS: advice for new players: play a cleric. Great combination of fighter and spell caster. Lots of fun.]

A mix of the original Baldur's Gate series an the Dark Alliance Series

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

Neverwinter Nights picks up where Baldur's Gate 2 left off with the engine of the game. It's much more fluid to control your character. While there's more story and character development here than in the DA series, it still pales in comparison to the orignial BG series. You'll find the NPC personalities to be rather dry, and the quests that go with them a little too straight forward. Most of the items you need to find to complete them aren't too far off the beaten path. The game is long and entertaining... if you like long dungeon crawls, you'll certainly get your money's worth out of it. A small tip: Rogue is very fun, but challenging. Paladin is much easier as you can cut through the battles.

Not as good as Baldur's Gate

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: August 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I got this game thinking it was another, newer, better version of Bauldur's Gate, it ain't. It just doesn't have the interactivity that Baldur's Gate, not as many side quests, and just not as much fun. I like it, but prefer the Baldur's Gate style combat then the Diablo style. Plus I like being able to control the ENTIRE party, not just one character. I guess its made more for online play, but I'm just not into that. I still wish BioWare would come out with another better version of the original Baldur's Gate, I really think there would be a HUGE market for it.

NeverWinter Nights

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I actually don't play this game, I bought it for my brother. It seems to be an awesome role-playing game, I'm just not into that kind of thing. The graphics are awesome, and the music and sound is EXTREMELY high quality. I have a low-end, ''integrated'' graphics card and everything still looks great. I can only imagine what it would look like on a Radeon or Geforce. One of the highlights I saw in the game is being able to build your own levels and scenarios, as well as characters. The levels my brother was making looked incredible, with doorways, caves, skeletons, lighting, even stepping into certain areas would take you into other non-connected areas, flawlessly (like a warp zone, if you will). If you're into this kind of game, I would highly recommend it.

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