Neverwinter Nights
by Atari
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Video Game Reviews of Neverwinter Nights
Customer Review: No internet connection needed
Summary: 5 Stars
This game has been one of my favorite games since its release.
Please do not be detered by the "internet required" review as I have played this game with and without an internet connection with no problems at all.... unless you want to play the player made mods, and play online with other people... it is NOT necessary to be connected to the net if you only want to play through the single player campaigns... which, by the way combined with all the expansions is easily over 100 hours of game play.
To this day this game is one of my favorites, that I still play regularly, and I eagerly await Neverwinter Nights 2.
Customer Review: worth it, if you like these games
Summary: 4 Stars
From my point of view, the game is entertaining, but I don't think it's for everyone. It's a hardcore RPG that may seem a bit overwhelming when getting started. I suggest reading the manual if you're not a D&D player, although it's long and monotonous and gets confusing at times; it helped me a lot. The first half hour in the game you get a series of mini tutorials which are extremely boring, but as soon as you are out of the training fascilities, the game speeds up. It is complex in the sense that there are many different options that will customize your character and affect your game greatly. This includes everything from what constitution you have, to what class you fight as, to your gender.NWN consists of four chapters, each with their own main quests, and then a multitude of (generally easier) side quests that will help boost your level and make the game easier to play. To help you along the way, you can hire a single henchman and/or summon a companion. These quests can be quite vast and many of them are less fighting and more barganing, speaking and arguing with other NPC's, so if you're a person who enjoys straigh-out battles, one after another, this game will probably be too tedious for you.
I've had few minor techincal difficulties playing the game, however. The most time-consuming of these was that in the second chapter I was unable to speak with some people in Kendrack's Mercenary Barracks whenever I would leave and reenter, so I was forced to save the game every time before entering said place and reload the game. Otherwise, I was generally okay.
The graphics are also a bit lagging and not up to the standards of some more advanced games- slightly angular and fuzzy with little detail, but when you're playing the game you hardly notice ; I was more preoccupied with trying to *vanquish my foes* and figure out how to complete my quests.
Overall, the game definately is not for everyone, but if you don't mind it being a bit tedious, as I mentioned before, then I highly recommend it.
Customer Review: Not very entertaining.
Summary: 2 Stars
NEVERWINTER NIGHTS is a very derivative, stale game that does not live up to the standards and expectations of Bioware Studios. It has an equal amount of pros and cons, which I will address and compare.
The Pros:
-Neverwinter contains a large amount of quests and items to use, and introduces several interesting customization options.
-Neverwinter also, rather boldly, strays from the easier to use 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons, and becomes possibly the first ever 3rd edition RPG to hit the market.
-Neverwinter also attempts to cover a lot of ground with its skills and feats. The leveling up of characters is translated into a simplified, much more rapid system.
-Neverwinter introduces the most easy to use editor in a game so far.
The Cons:
-Neverwinter does not contain nearly enough skills or feats. Far too many have been grievously oversimplified.
-The story, especially after Baldur's Gate, is a little too lukewarm.
-NPC's* are now much less competent in your party. Since you can only have one, and you can't control them or access their inventories, my NPC felt all too static. Plus, I cannot tell you how indescribably annoying it is when you die ten thousand times, when the fight would be over in two seconds if they would just cast the right spell. Also, they don't know when a battle is coming, so they can only use their magical power-ups** in the middle of combat. It's usually too late.
-The game's editor is still too difficult to use well. There has to be a better system for using scripts***.
-The game is far too short. It did not take very long too finish the game. And I play on the harder difficulties.
Overall, the game is disappointing. It attempts to block out the all-important NPC element, and over-stresses cosmetic and pointless changes in your character and NPCs. I do not recommend this to a fan of the genre. Stick with the classics, or pick up KOTOR**** instead.
*Non Player Character: A character that you do not create, usually not a protagonist.
**A spell that helps your party by temporarily making you stronger or more able.
*** Bits of code that direct characters and events. For instance, a script tells the game to make an NPC attack you if you attack him, or makes the gargoyle come alive when you pick up the statuette.
****Knights of the Old Republic. Critically acclaimed Role-Playing game made by the same company.
P.S. Do not check the box saying that the review was unhelpful unless it actually is. Please, do not mark it just because you disagree.
Customer Review: Typical RPG problems, disappointing toolset.
Summary: 3 Stars
While the game itself is fairly entertaining, it still has those typical design flaws programmers just can't seem to see. Inspite of being told to stay put, characters with you magicly show up next to you as you pass through some doorways, often right into a scene best handled alone. More often, very imaginative strategies will gather fewer experience than rushing blindly into battle. "Scripted events" (where your character is magicly thrown into a new situation or plot line which he or she has the power to control, but can not) can make thinking gamers feel cheated.
The much hyped toolset is a disaster for imaginative Dungeon Masters as the vast majority of "monsters" are of the humanoid type. If as game creator, you don't mind using the same basic type of creaures over and over, the toolset will work for you. Anyone very creative however, will see that most of those fantastic creations from the Monster Manuals can not be included in their game. Professional graphic artists may (in a conciderable amount of time) be able to create unique creatures. Anyone else however, is out of luck. Even if one would be satisfied using the provided monsters, they will be bombarded with the program language "scripting" needed to make events happen within their world. NWN had the potential to be great, but falls victim to typical computer RPG problems and unproductive tools for one's own imagination.
Customer Review: Surprisingly mediocre single-player campaign
Summary: 3 Stars
This review is based solely on my experience with the single-player campaign of Neverwinter Nights. Thus, I can't comment on the on-line capacity of the game. I bought this game thinking that it was the successor of Bioware's excellent Baldur's Gate series, which are among my all-time favorite video games. In a few ways it does improve upon these earlier masterpieces, but in many more ways it proved to be an inferior gaming experience. Unless you have the time and patience to explore this game's on-line side, don't bother getting it. There are many better computer roleplaying games out there (e.g., Morrowind, Baldur's Gate, Diablo 2, etc.).
Gameplay: This is a D&D-style fantasy adventure that Bioware has made a reputation for presenting well. You create a character at the beginning and build him/her up with experience points during a 70-80 hour main quest. The basic idea is similar to other such games, but the implementation here is unexciting. First, this is a single-character game in which you don't have a party. You can hire a mercenary, but for the most part you are on your own. It makes for a rather uninteresting experience, since your hired hand does not have much of a personality and specializes primarily in poor pathfinding and suicidal behavior while in combat. Unlike great games by Bioware such as Baldur's Gate and Knights of the Old Republic, you virtually have no control over your mercenary, who is often a liability.
Another problem with the game is its structure. It is largely comprised of dungeon crawl after dungeon crawl after dungeon crawl. A few of the dungeons are well done and memorable, and the game does pack in an awful lot of monsters. But the experience is rather claustrophobic insofar as your adventures are boxed into four chapters in which you simply explore a town, its countryside, and underground areas. Unlike Baldur's Gate, you can't revisit towns that were in previous chapters, and there is really no reason to since they are rather generic in feel.
The story itself is not a bad one, but is full of cliches and rather predictable. You can take the noble good-guy route or be an outright villain, but the main story will unfold in the same way. The main deficiency with the single-player campaign is the almost utter lack of connection that you feel with your character and the other NPCs you'll encounter. There is none of the banter, bickering, and cameraderie that made the characters so memorable in Baldur's Gate. Here, your mercenary has no stories to tell and even main characters like Aribeth and Aarin Gend are just there to push the story alone.
Perhaps even more distressing is how unstable this game was on my computer. I had the 1.23 patch and it crashed to desktop about every 30 minutes. The current patch (1.65) is available at Bioware's website, but it's 66MB! If you have a dial-up internet connection like me, you know what that means (hours of waiting to download). It's really a shame that Bioware has fallen into the pattern of other developers and has begun releasing games that still have technical issues (I had similar crash problems with Knights of the Old Republic, but the Baldur's Gate games were models of stability). I hope that they avoid this with Neverwinter Nights 2.
Graphics: The game looks good, but not great. Graphics are largely an evolutionary improvement over Baldur's Gate. There are a few interesting changes, such as more combat moves, spell effects, and so forth. You can zoom the camera in close to the action, but things get blocky looking. Those who do use the Aurora toolset that comes with the game should have a lot to choose from, though this game is not the best looking RPG available.
Sounds: The music was good and set the atmosphere. Voice acting was hit-and-miss, with the whiny main character, Aribeth, being the worst offender. Overall, the sounds in the game served their purpose, but didn't rescue the otherwise mediocre plot or excuse the lack of real character development.
Replay/value: Since I don't play games on-line or have an interest in downloading mods by others, Neverwinter Nights had a short shelf-life for me. Due to the ho-hum story, bland characters, and crashing, I won't be rushing out to buy Neverwinter Nights 2. If you like dungeon crawling for dungeon crawling's sake and haven't played some truly extraordinary games like Morrowind or Baldur's Gate, then this game might be worth a try (be sure to get the latest patch). Otherwise, skip this one, since it doesn't begin to measure up to the high standards previously set by Bioware.