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Wow...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 31 / 60
Date: February 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I normally don't get hyped up for games, as a gamer who has played games for years, 90% of the time they end up being less than expected (such as Black and White, Civilization 3, etc). But after hearing from some online players talk about this new game coming soon. I decided to spend a few minutes to check out some previews...but then the minutes turned to hours, and hours turned to days grasping every bit of info I can on this wonderful game and telling friends about it!

First off, it has a great single player adventure, the developers made a 60-80 hour long single player campaign that is going to be great, the developers put a lot of time and energy to make sure the single player experience will be truley great and not lacking in any way (like most other games). It has been made by the same developers of Baldur's Gate, so you know it has to be good!

If your not satified with the single player campaign, no problem, make your own! Neverwinter Nights will have an easy to use adventure creation set, which will have easy step-by-step tools that can help guide even the newest player, and special modes and scripts for the most experienced of pros to help create their own dungeons, cities, castles, adventures, weapons, and armor in a flash.

Once you make your world, you can host it online as a "Dungeon Master" and take control of all aspects of online play. Maybe posess a monster to take an oncoming online party, or help guide a lost adventurer, or even tell a story to intensify your own world...it is all up to you!

If you don't want to create your own world and just want to step into the online action, no problem! Just create your own persona with billions of different combinations of armor and equipment. All stats and rules are based off of the Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition rulebook, so the creators of the game aren't making up numbers as they go, so you can expect to have well-balanced races and classes.

Just log on and connect to a server with worlds created by players like you, you can have a different types of games to play on each server you join. Want to hack and slash dozens of monsters? Just pick a hack and slash server. Want to experience immersive online quests? Just pick a questing server. Neverwinter Nights should appeal to all players of all genres.

So even if NeverWinter Nights is half than expected, you can be sure its going to give Everquest and other games of that genre a run for their money. One thing for sure is that you definatly have a buyer here!

If you play PnP RPG's, this is the only review that matters.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 23
Date: June 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is to stave off the people that compare this game to Dungeon Siege or Diablo. Do NOT heed the words of these people. If you played PnP Dungeons and Dragons this is THE game you have been waiting for.

In the aforementioned games can you:
1. disarm
2. knockdown
3. set traps
4. recover traps
5. pick pockets
6. persuade for treasure/information
7. dual-weild
8. taunt
9. choose from many skills/feats
10. parry
11. 11 classes/7 races each with different
disadvantages/advantages

12. LIVE DUNGEON MASTERING!!!
...you get the idea here.

This game offers a large amount of options not implemented in the pathetic 3 classes/1 race games. You aren't supposed to have more than one henchmen simply b/c they want people to really roleplay unlike most MMORPG's of today.

This game has been intended for multiplayer from the get go, it is a port of TRUE PnP role playing, not some silly little point and click, level your character power trip game. A game that actually has a person who can take the reigns at any time and change the course of your game.

I do not see how this possibly compares to the jokes that are Dungeon Siege and Diablo. Certainly the level restrictions on items are annoying, however you can disable that for both single and multiplayer.

That being said I can list some let downs as well:
1. The only things that change on your character are the armor, helmet, and weapon.
2. Bioware fiddled with the armor stats a little bit.
3. The polygon count on characters is fairly low, so when you get close up in battle things don't look that pretty in relation to the models but when you zoom out everything looks just fine (VERY nice animations in battle); though the envoirnment is very nice to look at.
4. As in Pools of Radiance the dice seem to be a little bit weighted in the enemies favor (this is coming from a Rouge lvl.7/Sorcerer lvl.2 with a 25 armor class/ 29 vs. attacks of opportunities).
5. Thus far there have been no secret doors, however it is worth noting that there has been a script written already that allows them to be implemented into your self-built modules.

I feel that you must enjoy PnP sessions and REAL RPG's to fully enjoy the purpose of this game.

Lousy Out of Box Experience

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 15 / 23
Date: December 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

NWN's funfactor depends entirely upon who you play with and the modules you play on. If for example you play the single-player campaign by yourself your in for 40 hours of mediocrity. If on the other hand you can play with some buddies, one of which who is a good DM and module designer, you will have an absolute blast.

The game has an excellent engine/editor and is probably the best electronic translation of DnD 3E but that does not a fun game make. I could go on and on about the faults of the Official Campaign but it can be boiled down to this: very little opportunity for roleplaying, encounters are rarely non-combat, dungeons are just unimaginative series of rooms that lack flavor or puzzles, (this is especially bad given the games focus on dungeon crawls) and the henchman system is barely functional.

That said multiplayer can be a blast IF you can find good people to play with. That's a big if, given the tendency of online gamers to be uh, rather lacking in the social skills department.

Anyway, if tabletop DnD requires too much of a time commitment for you then NWN could be the answer for you RPGing prayers. If however you are searching for a good single-player CRPG (as I was) NWN will disappoint to no end. Look at titles such as: Fallout, Planescape: Torment and Deus Ex instead.

OVERRATED - but a decent RPG

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: November 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Neverwinter Nights has been praised by much of the gaming press in the time since its release, yet I can't help but feel that they have somehow overlooked the game's numerous and glaring flaws. I'm not claiming that Nights isn't a fun combat-oriented RPG (with more brains than Diablo and most of its ilk) - but does it have problems? Oh yeah, it definitely does!

First of all, here's a list of what the game does well:

· As one might expect from a Dungeons & Dragons product, the character creation segment is deeply involving for die-hard RPGers, and it is worlds better than the "here's your pick of classes and a name" system that so many shallow RPGs employ these days.
· The graphics are immediately appealing to the eye - particularly where the player character models are concerned. Swords shimmer in the light and armor flickers as you pass by flaring torches. The hand-drawn artwork that accompanies this polygonal world is also top-of-the-line.
· This game is massively replayable (assuming you dig the game in the first place). With all of the character options and quests, the official single player campaign is quite massive (although the story-driven part of the campaign is rather brief). On top of this, the mod community is thriving, and should produce material that is even better than what the folks at Bioware have given us.
· The combat animations are the best I've ever seen in an RPG. You can actually see your character deflecting incoming blows and generally fighting for his or her life. Your opponents do likewise.
· The best thing about Neverwinter Nights is that it generally allows the player to tackle problems in various ways. For example, you can enter that dungeon through the main entrance, sneak around the back, or enter through the cellar in some cottage nearly a mile away.

Neverwinter Nights certainly has its strengths - some of which should henceforth be required in a self-respecting RPG. Unfortunately, the game has more than its share of faults that you may not have heard about at PC Gamer or Gamespot. Here are some examples:

· Despite all of the things there are to do in and around the city of Neverwinter, the scenery is horrendously repetitive. Sure, the outdoor segments of the game really shine from a graphical standpoint (most notably the druid encampment mid-way through the campaign), but once you head indoors, things get really bland. It's not because the level design is poor, but because the game suffers from repetitive textures. For example, you begin the game in the Academy at Neverwinter, which, oddly enough, resembles pretty much every other indoor locale the game has to offer. Get used to it, or you're not going to enjoy adventuring all that much.
· As I mentioned before, the game sports some impressive visuals - but somehow, despite this, the enemy character models tend to look rather silly. Orcs look like blocky rejects from WarCraft, and panthers' legs disjoint as they run to catch up with you. Needless to say, the enemies probably won't impress much.
· The storyline is severely lacking in Neverwinter Nights. The game does include some memorable characters, events, and one particularly good surprise, but apart from that, it's just another "bring down the evil cult" sort of scenario. Note to all you game-makers out there: hold the evil cultist stuff. It's tired.
· Neverwinter Nights also suffers from poor writing. Conversations with NPCs are most often boring, and that's a shame since there's so bloody much conversing going on throughout the course of the game! On top of this, the voice acting is generally bad. These people like to chew the heck out of that proverbial scenery. "Ha-ha-ha-ha! You are too late to stop me!" Yeah, it's like that.
· There are many portraits to choose from when you're setting up an alternate persona, and yet the NPCs wandering about in the game world can end up looking just like you! It was annoying in Baldur's Gate, and it's annoying now. NPC portraits and PC portraits should be completely different from one another, and I don't care how busy the artists get.
· Buggy. I reached a point in the game where a bug prevented me from continuing, and I had to RESTART the entire game. That is BAD, folks.

All in all, my take on Neverwinter Nights is that it's a good, enjoyable adventure that's worth taking, provided you know what to expect and don't subscribe to all that media hype floating around out there. Don't be fooled - this game has its problems, and it is completely undeserving of its 95 of 100 score in mags like PC Gamer. Fortunately, solid gameplay keeps you coming back for more... provided some of the bugs don't force you into early retirement.

Final Grade: C+

quality, quality, quality

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: March 12, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I had just quit Everquest after playing it for over 3 years. Those who know EQ know how rich and addictive it can be. I needed a game that I could play while I stuck out my retirement from EQ.

NWN did the job. I'm a fantasy RPG fanatic at heart, but I still like action. Dungeon Siege was too hack and slash, so I decided to try NWN. I played the singe-player campaign with my husband through multiplayer, and we had a blast charging through the plot just to see what happens next.

This game is like playing a book. You can't compare it with EQ, Dungeon Siege, Baldur's Gate, or Diablo. First off, it's not a massive multiplayer online game. Next, the richness of content is the jewel of this game, not the 'uber l33t' capabilities (sorry, powergamers).

The pathing is pretty decent- props to the developers. You can lead a summoned creature, an animal companion, and a henchman. You can only control your own character, but the other companions follow instructions pretty well.

The Aurora client included with NWN is worth the cost of the game itself. You can create your own world, play your own modules, make your own equipment, make dialogues for NPCs- everything. It's just plain awesome. The adventure doesn't end with end of the campaign.

NWN is a game with terrific replay value, especially if you go and make your own mods. You can let your friends download your module, you can download theirs, and you can all play together in multiplayer. You can also visit Bioware's NWN site for excellent support, forums, fellow NWN fans, and download modules made by other fans. Bioware even released another campaign called "Witch's Wake" you can download and play, which is very RP heavy.

I'm not a big gamer, but I'm always on the lookout for the next enjoyable thing. What I require is a nice playable game and visionary content. I'm not a hack and slash fan (as fun at it was, Dungeon Siege was definitely hack and slash and cannot be compared to NWN, as a few people here have done). I like immersing and engaging content. I adore the Aurora client and I've fallen in love with making my own worlds and modules.

The technical stuff: Setup was a breeze for me, and I'm on a pretty humble system- 866mHZ, 384megs of RAM, win XP (had played it on ME before I upgraded to XP, and a geforce2 vid card. The game didn't give me any troubles. It comes with 3 (or 4) installation CDs, but you only need to keep one of them out (the play disc) to play the game.

My only gripe is concerning the character models. They all look a little subpar, and the elves look downright goofy. Aside from the asthetics of the player chars, everything else was gorgeous. The voice acting was very well done, as well.

I'm definitely looking forward the expansion.

Bottom line: If you like a good plot, rich content, a downright stellar RPG, this is your game. If you'd like to create your own D&D mod or campaign, this is what you want (no other game available gives you the versatility of NWN's Aurora client). If, however, you don't like reading through and listening to a story- if you find stories and plots more tedious than enjoyable- then this is NOT the game for you.

My experience with Bioware was refreshing from my long time prior experience with Verant (EQ). Bioware's entire attitude is about catering to what customers want, not as focused on making a quick, big buck. This is my first Bioware game, but just from the quality they put in their games and their customer-centered support pages, I'll definitely be buying another game from them.

Ultimately, disappointed

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: July 30, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is the one we've all been waiting for- too bad it fell short in a few arenas.

First- I'm an old-school Pen&Paper guy, and the thing I really like the best about the ol' PnP is the ROLEplaying. I think my biggest disappointment in NWN is the vastly reduced Skill set. They basically threw out all the skills that did not relate to combat somehow.

Which comes to my point- although the story is pretty good in some ways (but not close to Baldurs Gate), it seems like the story is just sitting on top of a hackfest framework. There are other things I don't like, but I think what I really really miss is having skills like "Profession(innkeeper)" and Wilderness Lore at my disposal, and so on. (And why the heck is the Healing skill as powerful as the "Heal" spell? )

There are a lot of great things about this game, that maybe would't be noticed by people who haven't played 3e pen&paper yet. The user interface is truly awesome, as are the graphics. The story is very good too, though not unsurpassed i.e.BG2. The versatility of the game may be its biggest strength; it can act as a massively multiplayer, or a cozy party dungeoncrawl, or a great singleplayer game.

I'm not asking for a miracle. I don't need a 'z' axis, robes, or advanced illusions. But I guess I WAS just hoping for a little bit more.

Comparitive reviews reveal NWN's superiority

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 22
Date: August 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Neverwinter Nights is simply the most fun I've ever had with a computer, ever. BioWare has produced a solid RPG title, with a personable storyline, completely customizable character creation and development, a complex, yet remarkably intuitive interface, and some lovely eye-candy. Beyond that, of course, they've realized the dream of many gamers who have long desired the ability to crank out virtual worlds with the ease of snapping together leggos, and a vital community with which to share creations. The toolset makes the ludicrously complex tools shipped with games such as Dungeon Seige look like what they are: afterthoughts. If you've ever wanted to immerse yourself in an environment of your own creation, and then invite others from around the globe to participate in your creation, this is as close as you're going to get until user-friendly virtual reality comes out.

Some reviews mention NWN in the same breath as the other three big titles which appeared around the same time: Microsoft's Dungeon Seige, Bethesda's Morrowind, and Blizzard's Warcraft 3. You might well play all four of these games and enjoy them...but with all of those other titles, once you've played them once, they're done. Finished, kaput, over, back on the shelf, no longer entertaining. Not so with NWN, which allows you to download any of the hundreds of user-created expansion modules already available, or, better yet, fire up the included toolset and make your own to distribute to others, to play with others or on your own. No game has ever matched this level of expandability and replayability, and I include all currently available MMORPGs in that claim.

That said, I have to confess complete mystification at the strange reviews this title has sometimes garnered. A quick flip through professional gaming resources and magazines will reveal that most of those reviewers got it right and pegged NWN as one of the greatest PC titles of all time. However, you'll see plenty of reviews from individual users that award NWN much lower marks -- but with little or no justification.

I've never seen so many ostensibly well-experienced gamers and reviewers dissing a title for such remarkably wrong-headed reasons. A number of reviewers (including, bizzarely enough, the site'sown reviewer) have slammed NWN for not adhering strictly enough to D&D's 3rd edition rules. Hello? Who cares? Are they simply not aware that translation to a computer necessitates changes to the ruleset, and a subsequent re-balancing of the rules? Or did they think that NWN should come packaged with a real-live DM to adjudicate rules conflicts? Others slam NWN's single-player official campaign for not repeating the formula of BioWare's Baldur's Gate series. Oddly enough, they don't have a problem with the fact that Microsoft can produce an Operating System *and* a flight simulator *and* a dungeon-crawling adventure...no, apparently they think BioWare should make one game, and one game only, over and over and over, for the rest of eternity.

And then there are those who've seen the toolset and complain that it is (a) too complex and (b) doesn't have enough options -- without acknowledging that these two demands are diametrically opposed.

For such reviewers and players, you could simply throw up your hands at their lack of insight, and be grateful that they won't be cluttering up the NWN servers...only, here's the dirty little secret: even the ones who slam NWN most severely are *STILL PLAYING* online. It's easy to check -- simply pass through BioWare's bulletin boards... and you'll see ranks of these naysayers who slam the game with one hand, even as they chat in other forums about the amount of time they're spending playing the game. It's that addictive.

So go purchase a copy of NWN and make your own decision. I'll lay down any odds you care to name that you'll be glad you did -- long after those other titles are collecting mold in your waste basket.

If someone tells you this game [stinks], they're [wrong].

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 22
Date: July 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

At long last, it's here.

Neverwinter Nights is a fantastic RPG that uses the 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. The gameplay, camera controls, multiplayer, and graphics are all excellent, easily earning this game five stars. But the real meat of this game is the editor.

NWN's editor is a superpowerful tool of destruction, easily accessible to newbies, and making it easy for new dungeon masters to plop down a castle filled with orcs and take it online. Countless "wizards" and easy-use tools make creating monsters, weapons, and treasures a breeze. The more advanced features of the editor (namely, anything that has to do with scripting) shift the gentle learning curve to a learning sheer cliff, but hopefully Bioware will be releasing wizards that will make scripting as easy as everything else.

For those more interested in a deep single-player experience, you'll find your money is well spent, even if you won't discover what makes this game so great. The game's main campaign takes your mercenary hero through a quest to save the city of Neverwinter from the ravages of plague. It's admittedly a bit hack-and-slash, which will turn off traditional D&Ders, and it feels somewhat lonely with only your henchman to keep you company, but it's a fun, interesting experience.

Multiplayer, as one would expect, is almost always a blast. Barring occasional crashes (there's some sort of bug with a DM posessing a creature), you'll be hard-pressed to find yourself bored. There are several different channels to choose from; if you prefer Diablo-style slaughter, hit the Action channel. If you're an old school D&Der who enjoys his "thees" and "thous," I'll see you in the Roleplay channel. There's room for every game type, and aside from the aforementioned crashes, there are very few complaints.

In the end, Neverwinter Nights is worth every penny, whether you just want a good RPG experience or plan on using the included tools to create the dungeon of your dreams. Don't waste your money on other so-called "RPG"s like Dungeon Siege -- for your role-playing budget, NWN is this summer's blockbuster hit.

Prelimary Review After 4 Days of Play

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 16 / 27
Date: June 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Having burnt out on Dark Ages of Camelot's great eye candy but appalling lack of content, I had been anxiously awaiting NWN.

I have not played much multi-player, so this review is based on my time doing the single player (all scores based on 0 to 5 scale)

GRAPHICS: 2
NWN looks like Baldur's Gate. There are some interesting spell graphics, but the inability to completely control the camera and move to a first person or "shadow" aspect (i.e. DAOC, AC, etc). is very limiting IMHO.

Compared to other games released lately (Dungeon Siege comes to mind), the graphics were a major disappointment.

SOUND: 2
Nothing special here but the totally annoying NPC voices caused me to go from a 3 to a 2.

STORYLINE (Single Player): 2
The story line is "locked", i.e. you cannot complete certain quests or even leave certain areas until you have completed pre-requisites. I prefer my RPGs to allow me more freedom to move and explore. I'm hoping that people create large, open worlds to multi-play in. Otherwise the "storyline" is quite droll and you lose interest in most of the quests except to gain XP.

CHARACTHER CREATION: 5+
This is what saves the game. Finally a game that does not lock you into narrow race/class limits. I've actually spent more time studying the classes, races, spells and feats than playing the game. Having my unique creation of a character that isn't a cookie cutter of everyone else's is major plus.

So, at this point the game is more appealing as a challenge to learn the rules and intricacies involved. NWN has gone from a long awaited game to a place holder for AC2 at this point. I'm hoping the multi-player experience changes that for me.

Side Note: I recently replaced my Motherboard/CPU from an Epox & P4 1.7 to a Soyo & AMD XP 1900 and NWN would freeze up during game play. I went back to the P4 setup and it works flawlessly.

DON'T BUY IT YET !!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 16
Date: August 16, 2002
Author: Amazon User

!!Don't Buy Me!!
the company has not fixed a worldwide problem with their latest patch. Patch 1.21 has a thing that scans your registry or something to check for anytime of hackering software. Even a cd write, which might be my problem will not let you play the game. Find a friend who has it, rent one if you have a pc rental place or just search the forums you can to see if you might be able to actually play it with the new patch from heck.

Just heed my warnings .. 4 weeks and I still can't play with anyone cause I don't know how to fix the bloody thing. If you are interested in NWN, but haven't bought it yet. !!DON'T!! For whatever reason they have, (insert favorite slang word) person has helped me either.

Secondly, it's not fully even partially 3e rules. You don't get all the weapons. Barely 1/2 the skills. Only can scribe scrolls or make potions. If you don't blow yourself up in the process. The toolset is generic, world mapping to small. 10 different types of the same monster. It's VERY lacking in what we read about. Please don't waste your money on this til you actually have tried it, and amazingly like it.

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