Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13009 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Atari
• Released on: 2002-06-28
• Platforms: Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP

Amazon.co.uk Review
Sometimes, games of the magnitude of Neverwinter Nights just don’t survive the hype. Sort of sequel to one of the best (and longest) computer role-playing franchises ever, Baldur’s Gate, this is the title that gamers the world over have been waiting for, for a very long time--so is the final game worth it?--simply put, yes.

Incredibly ambitious, it is aiming to be the closest thing to that paper-based, Dungeons and Dragons’ experience played in basements everywhere, although there is a 60-hour plus single-player campaign it is online where NWN is hoping to make its mark. Would-be dungeon masters can design their own worlds, campaigns and storylines and then invite other players to join them, resulting in pretty much open-ended game play.

The single player campaign is centred on the city of Neverwinter and the plague that has struck down its denizens. You are a recent graduate of the academy of adventurers charged with finding a cure for the illness decimating the land. In the best RPG tradition, before you begin the game you choose your character race, class, gender, skillset and special abilities, all fully customisable allowing you to create any character you want, from 11 barbarian to half-orc bard.

The control system is very pick up and play but there are a number of tutorials in the academy level that teaches you the basic of spell casting, inventory, combat and the control interface. As well as your character, you can hire a henchman (you can only have one at a time) and if you are magically inclined, you can also summon a familiar to help you (making up for the initial weakness of the magic classes).

Atmospherically it is superb; graphics are stunning with great shadows, lighting and spell effects. Sound and voice acting is also brilliant and the game itself is incredibly immersive.

It’s not perfect, the camera controls are overly simple and not fully 3-D, so you are always more distanced from the action than games such as Morrowind. The game suffers from breaks in the action whenever you go to a different area and have to brave a loading screen and multiplayer NWN is only worthwhile if you’ve got a dedicated group and a DM that knows what they’re doing.

But NWN has indisputably found that holy grail of RPG gaming: transferring the Dungeons & Dragons experience onto a PC. The included campaign is gripping and the tools are powerful enough to ensure a steady stream of module content from devoted fans. If you like RPGs, this is one of the best. --Kristen Bowditch

Manufacturer's Description
Neverwinter Nights (NWN) is a new Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) roleplaying game from BioWare, the developers of Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast. Neverwinter Nights has been designed specifically for the online, multiplayer environment and the latest in 3D technology and also allows you to experience all the magic of pen-and-paper Dungeon-Mastering on your home computer! Using Neverwinter Nights' powerful and user-friendly Neverwinter Toolset, you can create and populate entire new modular worlds and stories for others to adventure in. As an all-powerful Dungeon Master (DM), Neverwinter Nights even allows you to alter the plot, possess characters, and manage combat from behind the scenes, all in real-time.

Customer Reviews

Hopelessly Misjudged
This is a very hard game to review, and I think a lot of people get it wrong. This isn't just any standard game, it's an experience. It not only includes an official campaign, but an integrated multiplayer system and strong support for custom campaigns in the form of the toolset. It aims to emulate D&D on a computer, and it succeeds to some extent. In order to make an accurate judgement, you need to consider it as a whole.

The official campaign has a great number of weaknesses. The story isn't as involving as those of previous games such as Baldur's Gate or the highly underrated Planescape Torment (which boasts a truly amazing storyline and is well worth playing). Plus the gameplay is very repetitive. The first chapter is visit four areas and bring back four objects. The second chapter is visit four areas and bring back two objects, etc. I did feel a little involved at times but it just wasn't enough. The characters were mostly lifeless and dull. I felt no sadness or emotion through what happened to them.

I can't help but feel Bioware are pampering to the hack & slash fans with this one. It's all very Diablo (with slightly more story) - a Diablo style henchman, Diablo style respawn system, Diablo style levels brimming with enemies and more powerful 'boss' encounters. It's a little disappointing that this is the way Bioware have gone. The game would have been infinitely better had they stuck with the same party-based system from previous games. I enjoyed Diablo, but it just doesn't work with a different style of RPG, as the dull and lifeless Dungeon Siege has shown. You're not concerned about making it to level 69 in Neverwinter Nights, you should be concerned with the story.

That's where the analysis of some people ends. You're missing out on a huge amount of fun if you're judging this purely on an out of the box game. It offers the possibility of limitless adventures. Interacting with people online is hugely fun and allows for a more cerebral experience than that of multiplayer Diablo.

Someone has levelled the criticism that Rogues are pointless. Well, they are in the official campaign. Not in the plethora of custom created modules out there. Someone out there will have the same idea of a perfect game as you, and they'll likely have created a module of their own in that style. Browsing through custom content you can see some great modules, everything from pure hack & slash to role-playing masterpieces, serious and emotive adventures to laugh-out-loud parodies. There really are enough modules out there to suit everybody. Many of them are of exceptional quality too. The Penultima series of modules is great if you're looking for a parody, Tragedy in Tragidor is a heavyweight storyline module and Scourge of Vallenwood is a great multiplayer hack & slash module. Remakes of classic D&D modules are also available, including Pool of Radiance and Spires of Ravenloft. Look at the custom modules before judging Neverwinter Nights.

As for the toolset itself, I can't level enough praise on it. It's very simple and easy to pick up if you're committed. While more complicated things require scripting, you can plonk down areas and quests easily enough. Since I bought Neverwinter Nights over two months ago I haven't played anything else - I've been hard at work creating my own module in the toolset.

Sadly, the game is marred by quite a few bugs and instability. Although most of the bugs have now been fixed, it does mean a bit of patching and updating, and I'm disappointed Bioware didn't spend more time in testing getting these things sorted before unleashing the game on unsuspecting customers. It does seem that Bioware is giving the game great support - they've got a Live Team working continuously on adding new features to the game. Existing releases include chess, battleships, and a strange penguins vs. chickens game. Not to my taste but surely some people will enjoy them. The Bioware Live Team are also developing a new campaign - Witchwork - which will be free to download from the internet. If it's half as good as it sounds, it'll be the best thing I've played so far.

Overall, despite the poor quality of the official campaign and the drawbacks of the system used, Neverwinter Nights provides an honestly fun experience. If you just want to play something out of the box, then this isn't for you. If you're looking for the multiplayer and custom aspects of the game, or intend to build your own modules - this is by far the best thing on offer.

A new level for computer-based RPGs
The first thing you notice about NWN is that character creation has changed totally. Implementation of 3rd edition AD&D rules means you now have a huge amount of flexibility, and can create pretty much anything you want- plus, all characters can dual-class, further extending the possibilities. Very nice.

The single-player campaign, while predictable and linear in some respects, is still intriguing. It's not quite as impressive and engrossing as 'Planescape' (still one of the best examples of storytelling with the genre) but still makes for a fun experience. No spoilers here- suffice it to say that the quests are fun to figure out and play through, and that you can get through most of them in a variety of ways according to your character and play style.

You are limited to one PC, one NPC henchman and one summoned creature. This would seem to be a major limitation when you first encounter it, but there's so much you can do with your one PC you soon get used to it, and it makes for a much deeper multiplayer game with PVP being for once a realistic option. Gameplay is very fast, so you must set up your strategies (via a comprehensive hotkey system) and stay very alert, although as in Baldurs Gate etc. you can issue commands in pause mode.

Graphically, it's not quite up there with other new RPGs like 'Dungeon Siege' or 'Dark Age of Camelot' -I was dissapointed to see that the designers hadn't implemented cloaks- and the world does look a little square and modular at times. Still, it's quite pretty and capable of scaling up to look very nice on higher end machines.

If you ever played AD&D back in the day (or still do!) you'll be hugely impressed by the level of detail, both at the tactical and creative levels. There is infinite play potential- quite apart from the replay possiblities in the single-player game, the powerful creation toolset is integral and is the most user-friendly I've ever seen. Once the game community has had a good chance to play with the tools, expect a whole slew of free add-ons, probably including conversions of classic AD+D modules. At the time of writing, NWN players are learning how to effectively DM games- expect all sorts of community-based fun soon. Neverwinter Nights is a next-big-thing kind of game if I ever saw one.

Never-sleeping Nights, more like
Neverwinter Nights was preceded by a ridiculous amount of hype. I had very high expectations. They were exceeded by the game.

Critically, the game's high points are what make it excellent:

1) Well-written Involving Storyline - anyone who has played Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, or Planescape will understand that these products come with involving novel-worthy storylines that draw you in and make you want to play for plot based reasons. The villains are believable and despicable, the hero's brash and funny, the love-interests suitably attractive. All characterised well by excellent (if a little long) voice-overs from the main cast as well.

2) Excellent Interface - its so easy to control your character, you find yourself not even noticing the interface. Its intuitive, instantly accessible, and self-explanatory, as an interface should be.

3) Immersive Graphics - at all the various levels of zoom, the graphics provide an experience that "just looks right" for the fantasy realm genre that the game is set in. The monsters shamble, lurk or hustle believably, the weapon animations are suitably spiffy and melodramatic, and even the "incidental animations" such as leaves blowing, water rippling are all very good.

4) Excellent Implementation - as a D&D 3rd edition fan, playing the first real implementation of the rules was going to be a trial. But I like what I found. On a high note as well, other friends who play computer games but have never played D&D in their lives also said that they found the system easy and seamless.

5) Accessible Editors - if you download the "Tutorial PDF" from Biowares website, you can be making games for your friends to play through in about 30 minutes. Its *that* simple, its made very easy by the drag-and-drop, tileset based system they chose to implement, which, while limiting in other ways is perfect for this task.

Trying to find a flaw in this game is hard. But to be completely objective:

1) The graphics aren't *as* good as recent efforts from other developers, such as Dungeon Seige (flawed, but pretty) or Morrowind. This is mostly due, however, to the fact that Bioware went with an obviously "tile-based" system so as to make the whole thing more accesible overall to "module makers". I can see the logic behind that though.

2) Loading Screens - to Bioware's credit, they're VERY short. But having praised Dungeon Seige for its immersiveness, it would be excellent to see the next Bioware offering do without them if it could.

3) No Partys - this has created division amongst my friends, but this is *my* review, so I'll say that I would have preferred to have a flexible, completely controllable group of up to 4 players. Having only a single character felt a little under-manned, and made balancing your own PC choices a bit quirky.

But, overall - Simply Excellent, Immersive, Enjoyable fun. Well done! Keeps me playing for hours, and I'm already planning a second time through the single-player campaign as well as my own worlds... !