Neverwinter Nights
by Atari
|
List Price: Our Price: $16.99 You Save: $12.96 (43%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $4.75 (click here) Category: Video Games See more product details |
|---|
Video Game Reviews of Neverwinter Nights
Customer Review: All about on-line
Summary: 5 Stars
I didn't bother to finish the NWN or SoU campaigns that come with game. Perhaps I am missing out, but once I stated playing on-line, going back to playing solo was, by comparison, boring. The on-line community for NWN is outstanding and provides opportunity for all types of D&D play styles, from hack and slash to non combat roll playing, with much in-between. There are a number of creative and dedicated people who have created worlds to explore and welcome all. So whether you like or dislike the campaigns that came with the game, you are totally missing out if you haven't spent some time looking for on-line adventures. It can be totally different experience. Hey, and best of all... once you have the game, playing on-line is free.Customer Review: Good game but not great.
Summary: 4 Stars
I liked this game. It has good graphics, a storyline that is easy to follow unlike some RPG's, and the controls are not hard to master, but there were a few things I really hated.I played a human druid with a neutral/good alignment but found that I had a lot of trouble gaining points. Once you kill even a lesser monster no more would appear unlike in Baldur's Gate where you could earn extra points just by leaving and then coming back to that area where more monsters would be waiting. I killed every monster I could find and still came up short at the end of the game, unable to complete the last of the character quests because they wouldn't complete their stories until I gained a higher level!
I also found having only one companion at a time rather frustrating, and you can't even change their weapons or give them heavier items to hold! And what is up with those small brown loot bags that blend in so well with the floor that you have trouble finding them? I also had the huge problem of finding enough gold for those outrageously priced special items.
I do recommend this game overall, it really is very engaging, but buyers should be aware of some of it's limitations.
Customer Review: Great transfer from the original
Summary: 5 Stars
When this first came out I was a little apprehensive about buying it due to some bad reviews, but after buying it anyway, I was pleasently surprised. It's a great adaptation of the original game.Customer Review: Still Waiting for the Perfect D&D Experience
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Customer Review: Why not?
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great game. It takes fantasy, role playing and strategy and mixes it all up in one. This game is overall lots of fun and is very easy to learn how to play.