Neverwinter Nights

"Neverwinter Nights will keep you up for Nights on end"

After 5 long years of waiting finally the game that many feel would or now has changed PC RPGs forever has arrived and has it met my high expectations? Oh yes! I'm not finished with the game but I feel I've dived into the game deep enough to write a review.

Story 10/10 I won't giveaway too much of the story but the basics of it is, The city of Neverwinter has been hit with a Plague called the wailing death and it is up to you to find the cure, sounds pretty basic huh? Wrong there's alot more to it than that I could go as far as to say that it's almost as deep as the story in BG2. The sidequest stories are almost as enjoyable as the main story itself.

Control 10/10 Controls are simple in this game it as simple as point and click, and all of the F keys can be assigned to different skills and equipment your character has this is a great great help during hectic battles. In one of the games battles I was able to quickly switch to a Ranged weapon and pick off a sorcerer then switch to a Melee and use a few special attacks all in a few simple key presses. Whoever came up with this Idea hopefully got a raise cause it saved a ton of stress and time and probably my skin in that battle. Movement is as said before easily done by point and clicking or holding down and clicking or for those of you who like in depth control you can use the W,A,S and D keys to move yourself about.

Sound 10/10 The sound in Neverwinter Nights is beautiful and it brings the world to life, Weapons will make the familiar ching and clang sounds you would expect from battle, and with a good sound card you'll here echoes of footsteps the crackles of fires and of course enemies taunting you. You'll here faint sounds in the backround throughout the game from the chirping of crickets to the sounds of battles far off or things breaking it truly brings eviorments to life. The music is composed by Jeremy Soule same person responsible for the great IWD Soundtrack, and the Music in this game is every bit as good if not better, Themes are memorable and you'll find yourself humming to them while playing and when you're done you'll often still be humming them afterward.

Graphics 9/10 That 9 didn't get there because the graphics aren't perfect. It's there because you need a POWERFUL PC to run the Graphics at there fullest. Other than that the 3D world of NWN is beautiful, Shadows Play off walls and split when necessary torches light up hallways, Grass sways and moves as you walk through it. Water shimmers, armor and weapons gleam, I can't explain it all it just has to be seen. Character models move fluidly and have a Ton of Animations at your disposal from Taunting to Threatning to Bowing and Laughing, but again you will only see this with the setting REAL low or if your system is really powerful, Be sure you have the lastest drivers for your Video Card, a fast processor and lotsa RAM. That's the only way to fully appreciate this game and even then the game may stutter a little.

Gameplay 10/10 This Game is FUN and challenging if you've heard it's like Diablo 2 find who told you that and shoot them, this game take a lot more strategy than D2. The single player is good but the game really shines in multiplayer, trust me I play this game with three close friends of mine and with the right people this games is seriously fun, Days will quickly turn to nights if not careful. It's a blast to play although it's a little on the short side if you go straight through but that can be easily solved with something dubbed the Toolset. With the Toolset you can easily recreate your PnP sessions Neverwinter style with the only limits being your imagination. A trained monkey can whip up a good dungeon crawl for treasure in the span of 10 minutes. It's THAT Easy once this game gets a little age and has a dedicated mod community think of it then. I myself and the same friends are currently working on a mod, I've heard people on the boards say Morrowind has more replay value than NWN well with the Toolset and limitless imagination replay value is infinite, and if playing the game as a PC isn't your forte you can always be the Dungeon Master...just try not to cheat at it alright?

If you're thinking about picking up this game but not quite sure I HIGHLY recommend you get this game. You will not be disappointed, if you do get this however hopefully you have a computer WAY above the system requirments to fully enjoy with just being slightly above the requirements won't cut it here, but with a good PC and maybe a few friends to play online with you got a real monster of a game on your hands.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/21/02, Updated 06/21/02