Gamers Month - Neverwinter Nights

Although I've chosen a different game, I'll review this one due to recently becoming re-addicted to it. Apologies to Angel of Light if this causes problems of any kind.

Neverwinter Nights



Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Atari
Platform: PC/Mac
Release date: 2002 Summer

By 2002, Bioware has already proven itself in the public's eyes, having released Baldur's Gate, its expansion, its sequel and the sequel's expansion. Seeing how successful their D&D RPGs were, they decided to create yet another one – Neverwinter Nights. The result was not only an excellent new franchise, but the birth of perhaps one of the most productive and loyal video game fan communities. Now, I'll just assume that everyone who reads this has played at least one of the Baldur's Gate games.

Story

The plot of the games is based on the failsafe formula of common guy/gal turns world-saving hero. After creating your character (henceforth PC), you end up in Neverwinter, a large city on the Sword Coast, in Faerûn (think Baldur's Gate). After a brief tutorial, during which you learn from the instructors of Neverwinter Academy, you're thrust into an epic quest which entails cleansing Neverwinter of a plague and single-handedly destroying an evil cult. Nothing too special, but a suitable framework.



Gameplay

The character creator is no different from Baldur's Gate's. It's as convenient as ever. You choose your gender, race, abilites, everything you need to get started.



Compared to the Infinity Engine games (again, Baldur's Gate et al.), several gameplay mechanics have been modified, however. For one, you no longer control each member of your party. Instead, your PC acts as the party leader, with the ability to issue basic commands to henchmen, such as Stay, Follow, or Attack Nearest. While this makes things simpler, it presents some problems. Due to poor pathfinding and generally poor AI, minions quite often either end up stuck in walls, or disengage from combat for no reason.



Another new feature is the radial menu system, invoked with a right click, which makes mundane tasks easier to carry out.



In addition, gameplay in general is much deeper due to the D&D 3.0 ruleset upgrade. New feats, skills, spells, classes, prestige classes and mechanics have been added.



The rest is self-explanatory; good old D&D stat building and quest solving. There's plenty of random and static loot to be had, and tons of side quests to choose from.

Graphics

This is a mixed bag, really, but for the most part, the game looks fine. The models are slightly blocky, but this isn't surprising considering the game's age. There are also some clipping issues with certain model and equipment combinations, but in general, these aren't too serious. The lighting/shadow system, however, can really set the mood for a good roleplaying session. The textures are mostly decent, as well.



Sound

The sound effects are greatly varied. For PCs, over a dozen voicesets are available for both sexes, not including the large amount of monster sounds. Combat sounds are not too loud or annoying, and the various ambient effects greatly contribute to the mood of a scene. The music score, composed by Jeremy Soule, is suitably epic and great to listen to.

YouTube Video

Multiplayer/Community

This is where Neverwinter Nights really shines. Bioware was kind enough to provide an editor with the game, and it was put to good use. People have recreated classic campaigns, or built new ones from scratch, which serve as bases for the defining feature of NWN multiplayer: online roleplaying.



To my experience, most commercial RPGs/MMORPGs don't cater to roleplayers. This one is different. With a sleek server browser, and easy to use DM tools, joining a server and getting into some PnP-esque roleplaying is as easy as it gets.



Online play isn't restricted to roleplaying, though. You can find standard co-op runs of the single-player campaign, whole worlds dedicated to powergaming, hack and slash or PvP, along with other stuff.



Then there's single-player. Aside from the main campaign, two expansions and a myriad of premium modules (early DLC) have been released by Bioware. That's not all, however. Several members of the community have created exceptional, high quality modules (game worlds), with play times exceeding 10, 25, even 60 hours.



Modding

Aside from module building, many worked on enhancing the game itself. Examples are the Community Expansion Pack, a continuously updated addon which adds a staggering amount of graphical content for module builders to use, and the Player Resource Consortium's PRC pack, which, among other things, contains over a hundred new classes and hundreds of new spells, for use with both the official campaigns and online servers. The sheer amount of work people poured into these projects is simply amazing.



Conclusion

Even though it's an incredible timesink, I love this game to death. There is just so much to do. The way all this stuff was created is just awesome – the players took this already remarkable game, and added so much to it, a whole lifetime wouldn't be enough to get through it all. In other words, Bioware created an epic RPG, which the people took, and made legendary. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is at least familiar with the genre.

How ya doing, buddy?