The Definitive Review for Neverwinter Nights

Key:
DnD= Dungeons and Dragons
3E= 3rd edition ruleset
NwN= Neverwinter Nights
PvP= Player vs. Player
DM= Dungeon Master
PC= Player Character
NPC= Non-Player Character



Neverwinter Nights is the first game to implement the DnD 3E
Ruleset, closely followed by Icewind Dale 2, and believe me, NwN is the better choice.

Graphics:
The graphics are stunning, better than pretty much any I've ever seen. When you move through grass, the stalks bend; when you walk onto a road your feet stir up dust. The lighting and shadows are amazing, and the weather changes, such as fog, are beautiful. Heck, I have a AMD K6. Yes, thats only 500 Mghz. I almost always turn off all of the graphics options, and it still runs slowly, but I can easily play it. My ATI Rage Pro doesn't help matters, but in all respects, its the best darned graphics *I've* ever seen, bad processor/vid card or not.

Sound: Great. Some of the voice dubbing sounds a little flat, but the music is spectacular. Jeremy Soule (www.jeremysoule.com) did a great job, and it's truly captivating. A neat feature is where if you go into combat, the music changes completely.
Out of combat, music chages back. It has sound support for alot of different kinds of features, including 3d sound. Did I mention my sound card is only a Sound Blaster 16 class? It still sounds good though, on my Altec Lansing 3 peice speaker set.

Difficulty: It's difficult at first, to get used to the controls, but after about three minutes, you're ready to go. The interface is pretty easy to figure out, and its mostly a click-and-go kind of setup. The camera setup could be better, but I find it more than sufficient. The talk and shop interfaces couldn't be easier. It's sufficient to say, that theres hardly any learning involved.

Gameplay: You really can't help but love it. It follows the 3E rules very well. Only slight modifications have been made, and if you are looking for EXACT replications of the 3E rules, theres a mod you can download which fixes that. The gameplay is captivating, with combat really taking the gold. It's a solid setup, without a doubt. The spell system is slightly confusing, but its easy to cast a spell on the fly. The classes are pretty much like the 3E ones; solid, and balanced. You can't beat how well they thought out the game. It was worth the wait. One problem though, you probably will need to go on, and update it, or else the bugs willl overwhelm you. With the patches though, you will hardly notice many problems. There are a few hitches in it though; you can't ride horses, for one, and there is no way to "loot" corpses, the corpse simply disappears, leaving behind a sack with whatever loot it has on it. But again, to the rescue, is a script by a fan, which makes it possible to "loot" a corpse, without it dissapearing. The inventory system is reminiscent of Diablo II's, but much easier to manage. Weight is a factor, the more strength you have, the more you can carry, and if you try to carry mor than that, you are "encumbered", and you can't move as fast, even to the point where movement seems to take FOREVER. However, there are also magic bags, which reduce the weight of any items placed in them. The radial menu is the best way to go, because it's simple, and quick to get to what you need. Henchmen control is very simple. You can talk to them to change things like whether they use ranged weapons or melee weapons, when they heal you, and whether they will try to open a locked door or chest. Also, if you right-click on them, you have an array of options, from "Guard Me" to "Stand Your Ground", you can really get them to do what you want. Familiars and animal companions are even easier to control, because of the built-in "Posess" feature, meaning you assume total control of the companion. The companions and henchmen are practically a nessecity, but you can play without them. The journal system is a little strange, but for the most part, simple. The "Rest" option is probably one of the most useful parts of the game, because it refreshes spells, and your HP. However, you can't just sit down and rest while enemies are near, or right after combat, you have to wait a tad after combat, and anything that requires a skill check, as far as I can tell. The implementation of die-rolling is flawless, and the console at the bottom of the screen explains everything you need to know. Overall, this game has deep gameplay. You can really see how much Bioware did to ensure quality.

Replayability:
This game has the most replayability of any game I have ever played, including games I have already played about 40 times, to give you a scale. Really, thats about all I need to say, before I go on to the next section:

The Toolset: (finally!)
The Aurora Toolset. The best part is here. Believe me, you can do virtually ANYTHING with the toolset, and thats no lie. You have thousands of options at your fingertips, many of which are due to the implementation of "NWScript". It's rather hard to use if you just started it up, but, like the game itself, it isn't that hard to figure out. A few may be intimidated by all of the options, but it's simple after you get the hang of it. There are no help files. That can't really be excused. But there are a lot of helpful tutorials on the subject, and once you know the basics, slapping down a dungeon takes no time at all. Seriously, it's not hard at all, once you know the simple things. The interface, like the game, is quite intuitive, and it's easy to maneuver around. You are able to customize nearly anything, from the weather to the individual stats for the creatures. The conversation editor is easy to use, giving you all the control you would ever need. The script editor is simple once you know how to script, which is perhaps the greatest hurdle, but it gives you a nice feeling when you are done.
The wizards guide you through the stuff that would normally be near impossible, and they are rather easy. Also, the implementation of "Hak Paks" is the coolest part. A "Hak Pak" is the way you can import custom content, such as tilesets and monster models, into your module. You are able to find alot of the online, too. It is rather hard to make a whole campaign module, but it is possible, despite how it seems at first. There are over 1500 published modules at the time I'm writing this, and many more are being created EVERY day. Also, there are a heck of a lot of custom content hak paks, including but not limited to a jungle tileset, a desert tileset, and slews of other things.

Single Player: The single player campaign isn't the reason a lot of people bought it. It's one of the reasons I bought it, but not the main reason. The 100+ hours campaign is, to say the least, captivating. Many people say it isn't good, but that is really opinion, just like most anything about a game. It is packed with quests, items, and really shows how much you can do in NwN, and the toolset. I am not even half-way through it, and I love it to death already. It keeps you wanting more, with it's signature Bioware plot twists, it will be sure to keep you up many nights. (I spared you a bad pun there.) There are a few problems in it, but they can be forgiven. One is, there are too many chests and crates, to the point where you might even spend more time looting than anything else. But other than that, it is quite nice, and there are no boring parts to it, so far.

Multiplayer: What can I say? It has a relatively simple setup, pretty much the same as a lot of games. You find a server, and play on it. The party system is great, as is
PvP, and the amount of servers already out is amazing, considering how long the game has been out. There isnt much more to say, other than pehaps that it IS hard to find a good server, but once you're there, you're good to go. Finding a good DM isn't so hard now, which brings us to...

The DM Client: The DM client is the real treat; you can spawn monsters, inhabit any creature at will, and do generally anything you want. One of the most interesting (and useful) features is the ability to talk through inhabited creatures. This allows the DM more direct interaction with the PC's, which is useful. Plus, when he inhabits the creature, he has the full skills of that creature. The difficulty slider of the game is one of the most practical thing, for it allows the DM to change it how challenging the game is for the PC's "on the fly", making things that much easier. The DM has a slew of options at his command, and truly has control over the game, which is precisely the point. I think Bioware did a great job on the DM client, and an even greater job on the next category...

Bioware's Website and Support: Bioware did a great job on NwN, and they didn't fail with their website, http://nwn.bioware.com. There is a thriving community there, and it is just waiting to be explored.


Thanks to Amy, for the proofreading of this review, and her wonderful website, http://home.earthlink.net/~mystichope