Well, I dropped the $60 to pick up Neverwinter Nights. I was intrigued by the concept and the thought of doing huge RP adventures via the network in our house. I was only moderately familiar with the D&D system (it’s been diluted after years of using many other systems), but I figured it’d be cool to get back to my old roots again (even if they are the 3rd Ed. rules… but I’ve heard good things about 'em).
I’ll admit, I’ve only played the game for a couple hours (all I could spare so far), but the game hasn’t grabbed me. At all. The only reason I’ve played this far is because I’ve felt obligated to do so (hey, it was $60). So I’m trying, I’m really trying, to get into the game. I haven’t gotten very far - just got into the city core of Neverwinter, where a bunch of criminals are running loose (or something) - but, still… I’ve never had a game take so long to “hook” me. Ever.
Am I just defective? Is the game just slow? PLEASE tell me it picks up, PLEASE! 'Cuz if not, then I wasted a pile of moolah, and I haven’t got a whole hell of a lot to waste… And, yes, if it does indeed turn out to be a game that I can’t get into, I will offer to sell it to someone at a lower price.
Well, I’m liking it and I’ve played much longer than you have. The story is simple, but make sure you’re talking to people and finding out things. There are many optional quests right now - the game gives you a lot of leeway in doing things. You can go to another area. The 4 outer sections of the city are crawling with enemies appropriate to the backstory.
Nevertheless, remember that much of this game is a dungeon crawling adventure. You’ll have to go into ancient fortresses and deep caverns to find out what you need.
The story is great: You find this out in about 15 minutes of play so no spoils here: There is a dark conspiracy spreading plague about the city of Neverwinter. You need to find the city’s last, best hope for a cure in the form of 4 reagents - 4 monsters (well, one dryad who is rather polite).
If you don’t like the playstyle, try changing your character class - even starting over if needed. You may want to find a more suitable profession.
All in all, the game is good. Great voice acting, Plot twists and turns, a very free play style, and plenty of extras. Take a good look at what is going on and fit yourself into thta role.
I’m sure you’re aware of this, SPOOFE, but you know that if you don’t like it, you can make it better, right?
NWN comes with a toolkit that allows you to create your own role-playing games, taking on the role of the DM in both the design of a module, but also in real-time gameplay. The possibilities of this gaming system are amazing.
Of course, this is from someone who doesn’t have the game yet, and won’t be getting it for days. Want game! Want game!
Right after I installed it, I played it for hours. Then, the next time I started playing, I could only hold my interest in it for about 20 minutes. I tried it again a bit later with the same result.
Then a friend called to say that he’d picked it up, and after a while of screwing around with firewalls and routers (gah), we got connected with me hosting a new game.
It’s a lot, lot more fun with more than 1 person. You can properly coordinate attacks, lay traps, and do other things that don’t really work well when you’re just 1 person and an AI assistant.
If you’ve got more people playing with someone DMing, it becomes a totally different game entirely. As the DM, you can take over any of the NPCs, drop in new monsters, or change things around on the fly to keep the players on their toes. It’s a total blast.
I haven’t tried playing online with people I don’t know yet, but perhaps you should try to find some others to play with, it really does make the game quite a bit more fun.
I think it’s the worst single player D&D game ever. I never dug on MP for any computer D&D game - it’s just a big pain in the ass. The problem with NWN is that you only control one character. Some people seem to think this makes for better roleplaying, but it makes the battles simplistic. The most fun for me in BG2 was orchestrating the battle tactics - using the strengths of each class together. IN NWN it’s now like Diablo, that is, mindless. It’s really a shame.
I guess it depends on what class you play too. I’ve got a level 12 Wizard who is partied with a Half-Orc Barbarian merc, a level 7 summoned elemental, and a panther familiar. The four of us have plenty of battle tactic options.
I also recommend the multiplay stuff if the single-player isn’t grabbing you tightly. I personally love the single player game and all of the detail and side quests. But I’ve also played it with 5 other people on a LAN, and it rocks.
The Toolset is a helluva lot of fun, I’m currently working on my Pirates: The Musical module.
What’s this? Complaints because a D&D game in single-player mode allows just one player character? Y’all are making me feel old! Granted, this game is from the same company that developed Baldur’s Gate so additional PCs would be expected. Having a single-PC harkens back to the days of good old dungeon crawls like Dungeon Hack and ASCII games such as NetHack.
I wonder how many more resources would be taken up if Bioware allowed a BG-style party mode in single player. As it its, the minimum requirements are only slightly lower than Morrowind. Maybe Bioware will come out with a patch that adds party capability to single-player for those with higher end systems.
