Neverwinter Nights

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.

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.

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... !