Neverwinter Nights

"Great game, but unsettling for BG players"

UPDATED REVIEW : I decided to update this review, like I did for some of my other works. The reason is, I have gained experience over the years and I now consider myself a better reviewer. Of course it did not make much sense for me to rate this as an average game and still write a huge guide after the second expansion pack... Also, I have come to realise that the engine was not as flawed as I originally thought.

I originally did not plan to buy NeverWinter Nights. Of course it looked like a superb game, but could it really bring me something that Baldur's Gate didn't? The answer would be yes and no.

Gameplay 8

First off, you must understand something : NWN is based (notice the word "based") on the 3.0 Dungeon and Dragon rules. Thus, the engine is really more complex than what you might think at first sight. Is the game consistent with the Pen and Paper rules? I'd say yes. There are some flaws; some necessary, others not. It's generally not a big deal, but it does unbalance certain aspects of the game.

The DnD universe is famed for it's group action. Generally, a DnD game has an adventuring party of some sorts. In single player, NWN is far from this. You only get to have a single henchman with a really bad AI. Of course you have some basic control over him, but that just doesn't cut it. Back in Baldur's Gate, you could have a six people party with full control over everyone. That was a lot better.

Like in the Diablo games, your character is always "selected". You click to attack, move, take items, cast spells, open doors et cetera. Nice and simple. The game also features what they call a "radial menu", which is opened with a single right-click. This menu contains every single spell and ability your character has, which makes it easy to use every skill you possess. To make the gameplay easier and faster, you can also assign specific spells and feats to hotkeys. There are a lot of them, but dedicated spallcasters might run out of space if they like to memorize many different spells.

There are 10 playable classes, each with their unique abilities. You can also have up to three class on each character, which is great for creating characters with multiple abilities.

The character creation process is very close to the PnP version of DnD, and you can really customize your character in many ways.

Story 8

There is an important thing to catch here; something that I originally didn't get. The campaign shipped with the game is more of a "bonus". The game itself is more the ruleset and the toolset. The campaign by itself is good, but keeping what I said in mind, it is easy to understand that it's absolutely noting compared to Baldur's Gate. The story is divided into 4 chapters, with loads of quests and places to explore, but it's not that long. A casual player should be able to get through it in a couple of days. Of course you can always do it again with different characters, but it gets boring and repetitive after some time.

The heart of the game is really to create and play "modules" that you create using the toolset and download from the Internet. Multiplayer also represents a big chunk of the fun, since it is really like traditional DnD gaming, with Dungeon Masters and many players.

Audio 9

The music is quite good. There are some specific themes for specific places and people, and that's really great. There are also some nice ambient sounds. The problem is that few dialogues have voice overs, but hey, there is really a lot of dialogues and it would have taken ages to record everything.

Video 8

While the graphics are great (all in 3D), there are some minor flaws. First, some details are missing. For example, people's lips are not moving when they talk. However, you will rarely zoom the camera on everyone's head, so that's not a big deal.

The game also features a tileset system. For example, there is a tileset for towns, one of forests, etc. I personally hate tilesets. Since it's just texture, a fight in a city or in a forest is basically the same. Of course I use the term "forest" to refer to some grass with a couple of trees here and there. This is, in my opinion, one of the biggest flaws of NWN; it does not necessarily captures the "adventuring feeling" that Baldur's Gate gave you. However, I admit being in a really deep analysis here, so I'll pass.

Replay Value 9 (6 without Internet)

The campaign itself should keep you interested for some time. You can easily do it a couple of times with different characters without getting bored. You will get bored eventually though, and that's where an internet connection comes in handy.

I'm not exclusively talking about multiplayer. I'm talking about modules (i.e. player created adventures) that you download off the Internet. Some of them are really great, way better than the official campaign.

Of course, multiplayer is also loads of fun, but it takes time to get settled. Basically, you have to find a server that you like. There are many different kinds, some for hack & slash fanatics, others for dedicated role-players (my breed). Once you get started though, it's hard to stop; and that's certainly not a problem.

Conslusion

NeverWinter Nights is an amazing game, but it takes time for old school Baldur's Gate players to get settled. There's no party that you can control, the gameplay is different (some would say less strategic), and multiplayer is much more important. I have come to like the "control only one character" style of play myself. In a way, it does capture the DnD feel more, since you focus exclusively on your own character and only play as him.

I would definitely recommend this game to any DnD and/or RPG fan. It's probably one of the finest fantasy RPG created up to date, and will probably only be surpassed by another BioWare game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/13/02, Updated 07/15/05