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What Neverwinter Nights is and isn't

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 144 / 168
Date: May 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Having followed the development of Neverwinter Nights for almost two years now, I think I have a feel for what this game will mean to Computer Role-Playing Games.

Neverwinter Nights (NWN) is not a Massively Multiplayer Game, it wasn't designed to be such. It is not a single-player Game although it will ship with a single-player campaign. NWN was designed for a small group of players (up to 64 currently) to play through 4-5 hour modules (adventures) very similar to the way Pen and Paper Role-Playing campaigns are structured.

One person controls one character either totally independently or under the supervision of a live DM that can control the playing environment (for instance scaling back an encounter that is too tough for the players).

To PnP roleplayers this game will be a dream come true, a chance to move into the computer game world and create modules without having to learn complicated graphic arts and computer programming techniques. It will also be attractive to the MMORPG player who is tired of the endless pointless series of combats who craves a Roleplaying experience. It will challenge Mod Designers who have up-to-now had their own private playgrounds due to the steep learning curve cost of entering the world of Module Design.

Will this lead to a plethora of modules being produced (most of them bad)? I personally hope so, because as with PnP roleplaying it was typically never the bought modules that yielded the memorable experiences.

Neverwinter Nights will not be Baldur's Gate and it will not be EverQuest. It will be something different, its own game.

Do not buy this game at this time

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 104 / 170
Date: June 25, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Anyone thinking of buying this game should skip over the hype reviews on what it contains, and go read the forums at http://nwn.bioware.com/forums/viewforum.html?forum=49 and read about all the bugs it contains. This is Bioware's forum for bug reports, and only four days after release contains 60 pages of bug reports from hundreds, possibly thousands, of people who cannot get the game to run due one or more of about 11 major bugs. Everything from the anti-piracy scheme on the CD making it impossible for legitimate users to install the game, 3dfx Voodoo cards cannot be used with the game, the game detects processors faster than 2Ghz as being "below the minimum requirement to run the game." Random freezes, crashes, corruptions of data, and lots of other grief. Also notice that all the posts with suggestions on how to fix these problems are from other customers, and all that Bioware can find to say at this time is, "Update your drivers. Update your drivers. Update your drivers."

Well, I don't need to update my drivers. I have an Alienware Area 51 2.26Ghz... it arrived the same day as NWN with all the latest drivers installed and finely tuned for gaming. Quake III runs 235 fps, but NWN freezes up in the character generation screen.

Bioware, update your game.

My advice: wait another six months (hey, you waited five years already, whats another six months?) Keep reading the reviews to see when they finally get their product past the beta stage. Then buy it. Don't pay to be a beta tester...

Neverwinter Nights is obviously meant for multi-player...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 28 / 31
Date: June 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Not that that's a bad thing. First of all though, in case you didn't know, Neverwinter Nights has been in development for a VERY (over 4 years) long time. Baldurs Gate fans (like me) have been waiting for this game so anxiously, you wouldn't believe. Most of of us would probably expect a game similiar to Baldurs Gate, but regardless of what you heard... it's not nearly as good.
You see, Neverwinter has a different purpose (which I don't like)... and that's multiplayer, and creating your own "worlds" with the tool set. Don't get me wrong, the game is still fun... but it plays like a souped up version of Dungeon Siege. Unlike Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter lets you control only one character, instead of a whole 6-man/woman party. True, this is dissapointing in a way, but the game is meant for playing with other people, and that's where the parties form... so not really anything to worry about.
The game looks and plays almost identical to Dungeon Siege (which I hated)... the only difference is that Neverwinter uses the 3rd-Edition Dungeons and Dragons rules. And no, I'm not going to explain it. But just expect lots and lots of hack n' slash.
So, basically, this game really isn't anything special. It really isn't. Behind all the flashy D&D rules, lies good ol' hack n' slash. The only thing is that it's fun when your doing it with other people. I don't understand why many are saying that Baldurs fans will love this game, because I'm a huge Baldurs Gate fan, and I don't love it. However, I do LIKE it... it's a good, fun multi-player experience. No, it's not the end-all RPG... not even the best RPG this year (Morrowind is 20 times better). But if your looking for some fun multi-player gaming, then buy Neverwinter Nights. Just don't expect another masterpiece like Baldurs Gate II. And if you don't own Morrowind, get that instead of this...

I've CRPG'd for a long time and I've never seen anything...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 62 / 91
Date: May 30, 2001
Author: Amazon User

...like this. I disagree with anyone who says the game is graphically based, and will appeal to people for those reasons. The graphics outshine current MMORPG's (Everquest, Ashernon's Call etc.), but are still a tad below the top of the line CRPG's coming out (Morrowind for example). Being involved in the NwN community (there really is one, and it is huge already) for about 2 years, I find the biggest hype surrounds the NwN toolset.

The ability for anyone to create an area, is astounding. I watched Bioware create a Dungeon in 2 minutes! Sure, it is their game, and it would probably take a newbie 10 minutes to create the same area, but it was large! It would easily take a group of players 20-30 minutes to explore the area. Now bear inmind, that is a small area. Anyone who has played BG2 can attest to area size, and the ones in NwN are twice as big (32x32 compared to 16x16)!

Add to that the 3 billion (literally) different character avatar options (the way they look on the screen), the ability for my aunt Bernidette to make a +3 sword that casts a spiderweb on opponents whenever it hits in 2 minutes, and I think we have a hit on our hands.

I think this may kill EQ, as it is free, and with more than 100 persistant worlds already in the works, I don't see how EQ will be able to compete.

It's too bad Amazon didn't post video clips for games, because I think it would deter all the naysayers, and sell them even more games.

If you're looking for Baldur's Gate 3 - this isn't it

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 20 / 22
Date: October 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

NWN is actually 3 things in one: it ships with a single player campaign so you can play it on your own, much as you would other CRPGs such as Arcanum, Fallout or the Baldur's Gate series. It can be played (and indeed was primarily intended to be played) multiplayer, in which you typically team up with other players to complete a module. Finally, it ships with an editor so you can produce your own modules. Note that this means you can download hundreds (eventually undoubtedly thousands) of player created modules to continue enjoying the game. NWN is based on the 3rd edition Dungeon and Dragons rules.

Having said all that I want to comment specifically about the SP game: opinions are deeply divided on this issue, but IMO if you liked Bioware's previous CRPG offerings, the classics Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2, you are probably going to be disappointed with the NWN single player campaign. In a nutshell, you don't get a full party but instead can hire a single henchman, who has about as much character as a cold bowl of oatmeal. The story line is very linear, some would also say predictable. Loot is randomly generated, so you spend a LOT of time smashing open chests and barrels because you never know when you'll find something good in the most unlikely of places. All the screen art is composed using a limited set of standard tilesets, so it gets repetitive fast. The side quests, such as they are, tend strongly toward the "purolator" variety in which you simply retrieve an item and return it to the person who gave you the quest for a reward. Depending on which class you choose to play you may also find combat generally unchallenging. I could go on, but you get the idea. For many of us who thoroughly enjoyed the BG and BG 2 experience NWN was a major letdown. Don't take my word for it though, visit the official NWN website at nwn.bioware.com, where the pros and cons of NWN were hotly debated by the game's supporters and critics for weeks after the release.

I have not touched on the multiplayer game or the editor. Suffice it to say that multiplayer game can be a lot of fun if you are playing with people you know. You can join games with strangers, but that experience is often -to say the least- uneven. To take full advantage of the editor you need to be comfortable using a scripting language. You can design basic modules using only "stock" scripts, but the results will be bland. It goes without saying that although there is a large and ever growing number of modules in the public domain, only a minority of them are even medicore.

One final note: if you are looking for quality fantasy CRPG, with well-developed NPCs, an engaging storyline and a well rendered world, and you have not played Baldur's Gate or Baldur's Gate 2, don't deny yourself any longer, you're in for a treat!

Nice toolset, shame about the game...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 22 / 30
Date: July 12, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game contains two main parts, a single/multi-player campaign, and the toolset and DM tools.
The single player campaign is really just here for the sales and should be avoided by anyone expecting a rich, immersive gameplay experience. The campaign is linear, repetitive, almost completely hack 'n' slash (there are perhaps two subquests in the entire game that don't have "killing the boss" as the main aim) and plays much like Diablo with 3rd Ed AD&D rules. You can play the same campaign through multiplayer, online or on a LAN, as well which though making for a somewhat more immersive game, can't hide the fact that the entire campaign feels rushed, like a last minute add-on.

The toolset is graphically powerful, quick and easy to use and though limited in the environments, creatures etc. available, this is something that will most certainly improve. The scripting tools (the parts that create NPC interactions etc) are a different kettle of fish as you code them in what appears to be a derivative of the C programming language, not the most user friendly approach especially when compared with the graphics tools. This disparity will no doubt encourage users to follow the same approach as Bioware took with the SP campaign and create mods based around violent encounters as they are far easier to make. I'm sure in time the occasional Mod will arise that will do justice to the designer's original concept, but they are likely to be swamped by badly written and unbalanced slash fests.

Graphically this game is on a par with others of its ilk but does tend to suffer from shudder even on high end systems. In this and in the woeful pathfinding the Aurora engine differs little from Bioware's previous efforts, though a special mention must be made of the appalling henchman AI (Yes it really is that bad).
All in all, this game is by far best played over a LAN with an experienced DM. Hey, but if you had that set up you would be better of turning those computers off and playing PnP instead, as then the only limit would be your imagination, not your coding ability and the toolset. And for those of you looking to relive those heady days D&D sessions of your youth you can't, because those days were about more than just the game.

Almost delivers on everything it promised... almost

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: August 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Perhaps the best that can be said about Neverwinter Nights is that it comes very close to fulfilling all the hype that lead up to its release. It isn't, however, going to put Wizards of the Coast out of business. Here is why.

The Aurora toolset is powerful- very powerful. Probably too powerful, as it is difficult to learn and slow to use. I'm a computer programmer that has also acted as a pen and paper Dungeon Master, yet I still haven't quite worked up the urge to delve into all those tutorials and menus. The main problem with building your own modules is that you have to pick and place everything, which takes literally forever. Also, the editor has some odd quirks and limitations, and if you use hacks or scripts can screw up the game very easily. You are well advised to backup everything before you do anything.

The single play campaign is very long and quite challenging. The plot is good, and the characters have more than one dimension. Unfortunately, it shares some of the elements of the only other 3rd edition D&D CRPG- Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor. That is to say, there are way too many dumb 'Fed Ex quests,' and the graphics seem squarish and get very repetitive. It is still a good deal better than that game, however, as combat is actually fun and the NPCs do more than just tell you to go somewhere and find something.

As for stability issues, if you don't hack there probably won't be too many. However, once in a while you might encounter inexplicable and often serious bugs. For example, sometimes items vanish or stop working for no apparent reason. I've also seen savegames get corrupted, which is bad but not impossibly so, since you can export and restart a chapter. It's advisable you keep several saves and update them at intervals in case something breaks.

Aside from its flaws, NWN has a great look and 3rd Edition feel. The rules aren't nearly as faked as they are in Pool of Radiance, though some spells and feats are modified to be workable with the real-time system. That said, not all of the rules are implemented, but quite a few are. I have to admit I was astonished at how thorough a job BioWare did... although my opinion might be skewed due to having played through the entire Pool of Radiance game (still can't believe I did that). As is to be expected, the spells look fantastic, and combat is generally exciting and fun. You'll encounter scores of different monsters, and they each look unique and well done.

The interface is easy to learn, especially for veterans of Baldur's Gate or similar games. As with its 2-D predecessor, you can pause the game to issue commands. You do not control a party any longer, however, and can have at most three followers (a henchman, familiar/animal companion, and summoned creature). The followers' artificial intelligence is passing, but not too great. Perhaps the community or BioWare will improve on it with future patches. If there's one thing at all that hasn't changed in the makeover from Infinity engine to Aurora, it has to be the path-finding. It's still horrible, and despite the fact that I like NWN in general, I can't think of an excuse for this. It's as if BioWare has been deaf to player's comments for the last few years... I hope they remedy it somehow.

Despite its pitfalls, Neverwinter Nights goes a long way to addressing the need for a customizable computer D&D experience. It is definitely a revolutionary step up from Baldur's Gate in terms of this aspect, and it has a great deal of potential. I am looking forward to seeing what BioWare is going to do with this proprietary engine in the future. For now, all those who enjoyed the Infinity engine games or wish to try out a D&D CRPG are heartily encouraged to get a copy of Neverwinter Nights.

Still Waiting for the Perfect D&D Experience

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 13 / 15
Date: October 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

After the release of the Baldur's Gate franchise, players were amazed by the level of depth and scope that could be crammed into one gaming experience. Bioware had successfully captured the D&D tabletop experience, enriching it with superb graphics, a likable cast complete with convincing voice-dialogue, and a fantasy world immersed in epic grandeur. Neverwinter Nights, Bioware's follow-up to the Baldur's Gate series, is a great step forward in developing what players can expect from a role-playing game.

Foregoing the aging Infinity engine, the creators have instead utilized a new fully 3-D Aurora engine to give players a more graphically impressive and technologically current game. Unfortunately, while Aurora is very powerful and 3-D environments is logically the next step in gaming experience, the new engine saps a lot of the vitality found in the Baldur's Gate series. Locations seem constructed by an amateur programmer, with a lot of the buildings, characters, and enemies lacking any sort of inspiration. Even fantastic creatures such as dragons, which should look menacing, are presented as comical by the blocky graphics that Aurora produces. Traversing through environments, especially the dreary city of Neverwinter, is a mundane experience and not particulary captivating.

Gameplay wise, Neverwinter Nights translates faithfully the D&D core rules. Class skills, feats, character kits, and more are all here and much further developed than in the Baldur's Gate series. It's not just decorative either: the skills and feats you choose your character to specialize in can impact how you play the game and how other characters react to you, making Neverwinter Nights a very interactive world. Combat still unfolds the same way, with "to hit" ratio determining your proficiency in battle while your "armor class" determines whether you walk out of a battle with a scratch or in need of serious medical attention. You gain levels much quicker than you would in Baldur's Gate, which can be a good thing until your character becomes near-invincible towards the end of the story and the game becomes less and less of a challenge. But this can all be remedied by cranking up the difficulty factor of the game if you don't want to slaughter through hordes of enemies with relative ease.

The interface of Neverwinter Nights is arguably an improvement over Baldur's Gate. Character Sheets, Inventory Screen, Journal and Map are all one click away and hover transparantly over the game so you can still guide your character as you ransack through your posessions or determine which location to visit next. It's an innovative idea, but it furthers the impression that Neverwinter Nights is more of a Beta version of a greater game rather than a finished product. The interface is too simplistic for its own good, reminding the audience that they're playing a game instead of immersing them in the Dungeon and Dragons experience.

In the end, Neverwinter Nights is a great accomplishment but a rather flawed and forgettable game. The graphic engine for Temple of Elemental Evil is much more elegant and beautiful, and you'll miss the group chattering of your Baldur's Gate party when you can only travel with one other companion in the Neverwinter cycle. Bioware is capable of producing a much more ambitious and rich D&D experience, and if they can strike the right balance between TOEE's graphics and interface, NWN's improvement of the class system especially prestige class, and Baldur Gate's memorable cast, main plot, and subplots, then a truly remarkable game can be concieved. Until then, the company's upcoming "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" should satisfy fans for now who are still waiting for the perfect D&D game.

This is Not Baldur's Gate!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: January 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Am I the only person with questions about Neverwinter Nights? I remember playing the Gold Box games way back when on an Amiga and I was really looking forward to Neverwinter again. It is beautiful. It is slick. It is well plotted. It is not nearly as deep, complex, or engrossing as the Baldur's Gate games or the original Gold Box games.

I was looking at the Amazon editorial above and all of their criticisms are valid. The third edition rules are only partially implemented with stange additions for Neverwinter Nights only. The new rules pretty much [are bad] anyway; I don't see why we needed the changes. I thought the second edition rules were excellent.

Character Creation: You can no longer roll an exceptional character. The Creation process has been dumbed-down so that characters are absolutely limited to the addition of 30 points. No more fighter/mages who can fight and cast spells. A real fighter can cast weak spells and a mage will never be a really strong fighter.

The magnificent spells of Baldur's Gate II Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal have been removed, changed, or weakened. Timestop, for instance, is now a sorry shadow of its former self. It seems to be much shorter in duration.

The gameworld is large with four separate chapters, but it is nothing like the Baldur's Gate games or Icewind Dale.

This is not a "party" game. You can have one and only one "henchman" and you have little or no control over their actions and development. If you are a mage you can have a very weak familiar, and you can (at higher levels) summon powerful outer planar creatures, but they are not true party members.

The manual is only fair. If you really need information on character types or creation, start "thumbing". You may find it in the manual. Or maybe not.

The special weapons and armor that you can have created during the game are pretty much, with a couple of exceptions, [bad]. Are you still hauling all of that dragon blood and holy water around?

Having said all of this, I have to also say that I have played Neverwinter Nights through about five times now and I am still playing. It is beautful. The game play and plotting are excellent. It is fun to play. It is worth playing even if it is a subset of something much larger, more powerful, and more engrossing.

Great game, but maybe a little too ambitious

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: March 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Neverwinter Nights is a great single-player game. Neverwinter Nights is a great multiplayer game. Neverwinter Nights is a great all-around game. 1,2,3, the cat ran up the tree.

Really, though, it is a great game. I have a sort of souped-up computer now (3 Ghz processor, 1 GB RAM, ATI Radeon 128 MB graphics card) so the graphics run smoothly no matter how high the settings are. On my older computer, though (1.8 Ghz processor, 256 MB RAM, cheap Intel graphics card) it didn't work as well, so if your computer isn't great it might not runn so well. Overall, the gameplay is great; it isn't too hack-and-slash, the single-player campaign is superb, and I think it does a pretty good job of porting the D&D 3rd Edition rules (though I, being too young to have played the original pencil-and-paper D&D, wouldn't really know). Still, there are a couple minor flaws you should know about when deciding whether or not to buy the game:

1. Henchman (i.e. any companion you may have). There a few issues here. The first, and most glaring, is that you can only have one (excluding any people you are leading somewhere as part of a quest and familiars [animals or whatever that you summon via magic]). Still, when you play the game, you might be glad of this, because the pathfinding for henchmen is really inexcusably abysmal. Lots of times rounding a corner is enough to make your henchman freeze in his/her tracks and stay where he/she is until you come back and "bait" him/her out by inching along. Also, you can't control your henchman's inventory (although you can in the expansion). This, I suppose, is only a pain if you are a shady player who likes to take all he can from his henchman and sell it. But it can be troublesome if they have a good weapon that they aren't using and that you want.

2. Pathing in general. Pretty self-explanatory. The camera is rather awkward, which makes it even harder. Combine this with henchman pathing and you have a real pain.

3. The instruction manual. This is the biggest, baddest problem. Like I said, I have no clue how the original D&D was played; when it was in vogue, I was an embryo. I don't know what character class is. The term "skill modifier" is a mystery to me. And what is a "saving throw?" Here's a real gem, straight from the manual: "Only rogues may disarm traps with a DC over 35 or greater. With 5 or more ranks in Set Traps a character gains a +2 synergy bonus on Disable Trap checks." and there's more: "Standing still provides a +5 bonus to a Listen Check. A character with the Alertness feat gains a +2 synergy bonus on listen checks." And also, it was only after much ponderings that I realized that the often-referred to "2d6" meant a 6-sided die rolled twice, and "1d8" is an 8-sided die rolled once. And why does a "Greatsword +1" cost about 50,000 times more that a regular Greatsword? The list goes on and on.

4. Turn-based combat. For "turn-based" read "dumb, pointless and frustrating." For no real reason, there is a 5 or 6 second delay between each combat action. A zombie will swing a fist; the character will duck. A HUGE pause. You will swing your sword. The zombie may or may not duck. Why the pause? It conveys no sense of "my turn, your turn." Is it to make all the necessary "skill checks," "saving throws," and "dice rolls?" Come on, folks. This is a computer. It can do 20 times that amount of simple math in a millisecond.

Well, anyway. It's a great game, just these minor details. Get it.

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