"Incredible game, that unfortunately no ones heard of"

Nox is one of my all-time favorite games. I first played it around when it came out and was instantly addicted. I'll still even play this game from time to time. Nox is similar to Diablo II (another great game that most people know about) but I honestly like this game better. This is a great game that deserves a lot more recognition.

===Graphics: 9/10
Nothing amazing here but this game delivers great graphics. It has great particle effects, shadows, monsters, and settings. You'll be fighting in cities, castles, mines, snow, swamps, and more. There's a great variety in the places you'll travel to always keep things fresh. If this game was released today (4/23/05) I'd rate the graphics a little less (about 8.2) but the graphics are still great and run very smoothly (even on my sucky computer).

===Sound: 9/10
The music in this game is great, I even had a song stuck in my head for a while. The sound effects are accurate and well-placed. You won't be complaining about sound at all.

===Gameplay: 9.7/10
The gameplay is easy to learn and is done very well. You basically hold down the left click button to move and right click to attack with your weapon (melee or ranged). You also have spell sets, each set with about 5 spells on them in which you can cast. It is very easy to switch between them, making magic very easy to use. Your spell sets are fully customizable, so for example you can put all your supporting spells (like force field and protect from shock) on spell set 3 and put your main attacks on 1.
There are three classes: Warrior, Conjurer, and Wizard. The warrior has about 5 skills while the conjurer and wizard have around 100. They are very evenly balanced and used in both single player and multiplayer.

*Warrior
The warrior has the best defence, health, deals the best damage in melee attacks. They are simple and fun to use, and can end up wearing very cool armour and use strong weapons. The two best skills they have are probably harpoon and berserker charge. Harpoon will draw the enemy closer to you and berserker charge will make you charge foward and deal insane damage.

*Conjurer
The conjuerers are the only class who can use bows and crossbows. Their magic doesn't live up to the wizard, but they have better defence. They can cast many spells (not as much as the wizard but still alot) and can also summon monsters that they have a scroll for (kind of like the Necromancer in Diablo II). Overall another great class.

*Wizard
The master of magic is the wizard. He has a huge selection of spells to cast. His spells include an electric bolt, shooting a fireball, making a wall, cast up to three customizable traps (when people step on it 3 chosen spells are cast), teleporting, fumble (drops the target's weapon), force field, and much more. On the downside, the wizard has the least amount of health and defence. This is my personal favorite class in multiplayer. I like using Nox's wizard much more than Diablo II's sorceress, I'll explain why later.

===Single Player: 9.5/10
I really enjoyed the single player. You start out at your home watching T.V. and then you suddenly get warped into this new world. You then start on your journey to kill the evil Hecubah. On the way you travel to many locations such as The Village of Ix, Galava Castle, Dismal Swamp, a big library, and much more each with tons of secret locations. You don't just go to each place and kill everything one by one, theres a story and you'll get missions from people like rescuing someone.
The main thing that makes this single player so great is that each different class has its own separate single player. Though you'll still travel to some of the same places (and you have to kill Hecubah), you'll be doing different things in each and traveling to different parts of them. For example, you'll be greeted in Galava Castle when you're a wizard and help them out (its a wizards city). When you're a warrior and you go there, it'll be much different because they hate you. I want to put it in more detail but then I'd be spoiled part of the story :P
Overall its a great single player. It would have been great if it was a little longer, but the fact that you have a separate single game with each class more than makes up for it.

===Multiplayer: 8.5/10 (back when it came out: 9.5/10)
When the game came out and after I beat single player with one of the classes (forgot which), I decided to try multiplayer. It was insanely fun and I was instantly addicted to it. Now you can still play multiplayer, but sadly there are only usually a few hosted games because not many people play it anymore (compared to back when the whole page would be filled with servers and you'd have to scroll). There is also no more Westwood servers (the least laggiest and always open servers for each game type). The other thing missing now other than people and servers is clan support.
Even with all this taken away from us, the game is still fun to play online. The modes of playing online are Capture the Flag, Arena (deathmatch), Team Arena, Elimination (you have only a set number of lives), Flagball, King of the Realm (person who has the crown the longest wins), and Team King of the Realm (the team of the guy who has the crown protects him while the opposing team tries to get the crown). Flagball is like a game of soccer with all the spells and weapons of a deathmatch. You get the ball by walking on it or killing the guy who has control of it. Then you go and shoot into the enemy's goal to score a point. It is actually very fun when you have a lot of people (which doesn't happen much now) and is a good break from the other modes. ALL of the modes are very fun to play, and I especially liked CTF and Arena.
What good is having fun modes without fun maps? Fortunately, the game is packed with maps. The layouts are extremely well done and the settings differ in just about all of them. There are so many of them and none of them are boring. To make things better, there's also a way to create your own that involves hex editing, but its really easy to do and allows you to put anything (including monsters and customized weapons) into existing multiplayer maps and then saving the new ones.
That last aspect of multiplayer is Nox Quest. It is kind of like playing single player online except that you do randomized quests with different difficulties and you can team up with other people. You'll save all the weapons you've gained and lost after you quit (unless you do the method of duping in which you press F1 and type quit, lol). It doesn't take as much time to get good items like in single player and is pretty fun. I prefer the regular multiplayer modes, but Nox Quest is still a fun addition to multiplayer because you can play with other people. It would have been nice if it had a story, but oh well at least the quests are randomized.

==Replayability: 10/10
This game kept me playing for years, and I'll still play the game from time to time. The single player is phenomenal. Each class has a separate single player different enough to want to make you play it through with each class. Multiplayer is also very fun to play. Back when the game came out, it was amazing and kept me playing for a very loong time. Now since there is no clan support, Westwood servers, and little people playing, it doesn't play as it used to, but is still fun to play nonetheless and will keep you playing for at least a couple months. The reason both single player and multiplayer work is because the gameplay is excellent and the three classes differ greatly while still being equally balanced.

==Nox vs. Diablo II== (In MY Opinion)
Its hard to compare these two games because Nox is more of an action game while Diablo II is more of an RPG game, but I enjoyed Nox more. Overall, whichever type of game you like more will probably determine which game is better to you, but I'll just name a couple points about Diablo II I dislike compared to Nox (skip this section if you want or you've never played Diablo II). Diablo II was made before Nox, so the graphics are more dated and run less smoothly. The main thing I didn't like about Diablo II was its skill system. Most of the time you'll only use a couple of skills ignoring the rest (usually only one or two attack moves). You're character will also be useless in hell mode (and maybe nightmare) if you don't choose very wisely or use the cookie-cutter builds. Like for example, wizards in Nox have access to a huge amount of spells that differ. Sorceresses in Diablo have less spells and will only use 1 or 2 attacking spells in hell mode if they survive. Instead of spell sets you just use the left click and right click and then use F1-F8 to switch between spells. Wizards can quickly switch between spell sets of 5 spells (or 6 I forget) using the a,s,d,f, and g keys to cast the spells in the current set. Lastly, Diablo II's story is very linear unlike Nox. In Diablo, you have like 6 quests for each of the 5 acts (except for 3 quests in act 4) and you just return to the main city in each act and ask for the next quest. Diablo II is still a great game (that many people still play online) that I'd also recommend if you like Nox, but is more of an RPG styled game and doesn't have a great story compared to Nox. Remember this is just my opinion.

========Overall: 10/10=========
Nox has always been one of my favorite games. It has excellent gameplay, addicting single player and multiplayer modes, and will keep you playing for a long time. This is one of those games that not many people know about and deserves a lot more recognition. If you haven't played this game, I seriously recommend that you add this game to your collection. This game will always remain in my top 10 games list. Good memories of Capture the Flag games still go through my head ;)

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/25/05