Cons: Doesn't quite live up to all the hype for a few reasons.
The Bottom Line: Well in conclusion, Neverwinter Nights is a game worth playing, but I wouldn't say it's a game worth paying the going rate of $60 for.
pyros7's Full Review: Neverwinter Nights (PC) for Windows
Neverwinter Nights has been hyped for years as a breakthough RPG, and while it's not a bad game, it doesn't live up to it's full potiential for a number of reasons.
System
For starters, I have a pretty typical mid-range gaming system. It's a 1.1Ghz Athlon processor, with about 400MB of RAM, and a brand new Nvidia GeForce Ti 4200.
Even though the minimum requirements are only at 450 Mhz, and they recommend 800Mhz, I'd think twice about playing it at anything much lower than 1Ghz. My machine occasionally lags, and putting too much on the screen causes characters to disapper (remember the old Nintendo flicker?)
Graphics
I'm still torn on the graphics. In some respects they are ground breaking, even breath taking. As you wander through the forests you'll notice leaves falling from trees, light shining down through branches, and shimmering water that ripples as your character wades through it. Night slowly falls, you see lightning flash across the sky and drops of rain being to fall all around you. Truly beautiful!
But your character doesn't really have a face, just a vague image. Some of your armor changes the appearance of the character, other stuff, like cloaks, do nothing to your appearance. There are a very limited number of tile sets, so every forest looks just like the last forest you were in, every castle and dungeon looks just like every other one. The portraits of characters are well drawn, but there's only about 5 different portraits per race, so with thousands of people playing they get very old very fast.
Sound
The sound scheme is actually a lot like the graphics. In the opening menu, it's dark, haunting and adventureous. The rest of the game is kinda bland, and every time you get into a fight, or even try to beat open a chest, the same quicker "battle" music starts up and fades out when you're done.
The voice acting is hands down horrible. Many of the voice sets sound like bad imatations of either Scottish women, or Australian men. The dragons sound anything but threatening or powerful. And while your henchman friends have sayings that play when they do things like go into battle or try to open a chest, they say the same thing every darn time which gets old within minutes.
Single Player
The single player module will give you quite a few hours of game play, anywhere from 25-75 hours depending on how many side quests you chose to take.
Unfortunately the story is detailed with a few great plot twists, but not as captivating as it could be. It's also very linear. No matter what character you play, or what actions you take, you'll always get the same storyline and ending. And I hope you like reading, cause you'll be doing a lot of it. All in all the single player game is very linear - some claim great replay value by completing the game again with a new character, or by downloading new modules. But I have yet to find a module that is comparable to the single player campagin, and going through the same story line (where you already know all the twists and quests) again with a new character is dumb.
Tool Set
The tool set is great for creating your own small modules, and it is indeed easy enough for most people to pick up in a reasonable amount of time. However in order to do everything that's done in the single player quest, you'll need to get down into the underlying C code, or find someone who's written the scripts for you.
Manual
I'm gonna have to give the 200 page manual that comes with the game a big "2 thumbs down". It's hard to navigate, arranged in little particular order, and even though it's 200 pages long it still doesn't give you all the information you'll want to know while playing the game. It's really just enough to get you started and into the game.
Game Flaws
This game itself is horribly buggy. So buggy that I feel ripped off for paying $60 for it.
I have more than the system requirements, and even the recommended brand of video card (there were problems running it on ATI cards), and the game still crashes about every 30-60 minutes!! (No, it's not my comp - NWN is the only program I have trouble with) Since it has been released a few months ago, Bioware has already released something like 7 patches for it! And there are still issues with your henchman turning on you and killing you and your allies, and certain scenes in the single player don't work right - in short, game stopping bugs that should have been identified by any idiot and fixed before it was released!
I'm not big into D&D but from what I hear there are a number of simple math bugs that incorrectly calculate your statistics. You'll never notice if you don't count the rolls yourself, but it's just another example of poor quality control and coding by Bioware.
The pathing is horrible, put your character up against a small rock, tell him to move to the other side, and he won't move an inch. You'll have to tell him to step to the right, then procede forward. Should there happen to be an enemy on the other side of the rock, he'll kick your butt while your guy stands there and you wonder why he's not fighting!
And to top it all off, the game doesn't even come through on Bioware's promises. There isn't supposed to be any difference between single player and multiplayer characters, because really the single player campagin is just a multiplayer module you play alone - you can even set it up as a multiplayer game and have friends join you. But if you start a character in single player, then decide to export the character and play a multiplayer module with him, it is impossible to import that character and his gained items and experience back into your single player game.
Bottom Line
If you haven't bought it by now, you can wait til the price comes down or pick up a used copy for about half what they want in the store. In that case, I'd recommend it, but there's no excuse to pay $60 for a released version so you can do Bioware's testing for them.
Neverwinter Nights 2: Gold is a bundle of NWN2, NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer, and the first adventure pack - Mysteries of Westgate. Neverwinter Nights 2...More at Meijer
platform:windows 98/me/xp/vistapublisher:sold-out softwarepackaging:dvd style boxrating:teenin order to save the inhabitants of the town of neverwinte...More at UnbeatableSale, Inc.
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