Is it basically Baldur’s Gate 3? I’m pretty sure I saw something during BG2 about importing characters to Neverwinter Nights, which leads me to believe it uses the same engine and all that.
Please say it does so I can rush out and buy it and stop going to class again.
Well, I haven’t actually played it myself yet, but…
Yeah, it uses the same engine as the BG series. From what I’ve heard, the main single-player storyline is quite weak compared to the BG series, but this is more than made up for by the fact that you can download missions (both single-player and multiplayer).
Unfortunately, you can’t actually export your character from BG2. IIRC, NWN uses a set of rules that are too different from BG to be able to effectively swap characters between the games. Also, your character is so bloody powerful by the end of BG2 that he would plow his way through most missions without any effort at all.
No, it’s not the same engine at all. The single player game it ships with is no where near as in depth as BG 1 or 2. I haven’t played the expansions but I hear they’re pretty good. Overall it’s pretty good, not as good as either Baldur’s Gate games, but still enjoyable. The real strength comes from the mod community. You can download all kinds of different stuff to play with.
Neverwintyer Nights does NOT use the same engine as BG.
NWN’s engine is 3D for starters, and it uses the D&D 3rd edition rules.
The MAIN focus of NWN is multi-player gaming. Basically, the whole idea behind NWN is bringing pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons to the computer. Therefore what it excells in is gaming with a DM, and a small group of friends through an adventure of the DM’s design or one he downloaded from a fan site.
But that is not to say NWN doesn’t do singleplayer or other modes of multi-player well. To give you some idea:
NWN has been out for over a year now and it is STILL on my hardrive 
(along with the expansions)
I have a group on sunday nights with which I adventure through fan created adventures(mods), or occasionally adventures created by myself or someone else in the group.
There are currently over 3500 fan created adventures and thousands of fan created additions to the game.
The community is not only huge and very active, but very involved in the development of the game even now, over a year after release.
There are numerous ways of enjoying NWN. You can play single player through the Official Capaigns (which ship with the game and the expansions), or through fan created adventures (many of which are simply incredible and a lot are based on classic D&D adventures such as pool of radiance, or Keep on the borderlands). Multi-player you can join a DM’ed session or enter a persistent world server (think of an MMORPG but on a smaller scale, and with much more involved and dedicated DM’s and server moderators).
IMHO, it’s an incredible game. As someone mentioned, the campaigns that ship with the game vary in quality and length. The original is LONG, around 60 hours, and is pretty ok, but not up to the standard of BG. Which is why I’d recommend you also get the expansions. The Campaigns included in the expansions are shorter, but MUCH better. The story in Hoardes of the Underdark (the second expansion) is incredible, and is definately in par with BG and BG 2.
I would characterize the engine as very similar to the BG series, but it is different – partly because of the change to 3e rules, partly because it is more flexibly 3d (not just isometric), and partly because of some design decisions. I think the interface is easier to use, but that’s a personal opinion.
There had been rumors that you could import BG characters – I think this was part of their actual intentions at the beginning of the project. Somewhere along the line, they dropped this idea (it’s in the documentation for the game, and on their web site in their FAQ), probably because of the difference in rule systems.
I’m in the middle of it right now. I had originally read a lot of posts, similar to spudo’s and mbossa’s, that said that there was not a lot there for single players and that it was primarily multi player, so I’ve been passing it over for a long time. My wife bought in on a lark when we got a new computer (not knowing that I had been passing it up), so I tried it. I was pleasantly surprised that I disagree. I think the module that ships with it is interesting, has depth, and is playable by a single player, and I’m enjoying it (I’m about two thirds of the way through the game, on the first module), and I think it was worth the money for that alone.
If you are interested in the multi-player options, or downloading user modules, or both, you will get that much more out of it over and above the single player version. I’m not interested in those, and I still like the game.
The standard singleplayer campaign NWN ships with is a mixed bag. Good production values (for the most part), but the story as a whole is formulaic and repetitive.
Don’t let that dissuade you, though. There are some fantastic player-created modules out there, more than enough good material to justify a purchase.
As someone who’s not into multiperson gaming, I like the Baldur’s Gate series much better. In NWN, you only get one character and a henchman (and you are limited in how much you can control the henchman and his/her inventory/gear). The consequence of this is that the battles in NWN just aren’t as epic as the ones in BG, because with only one main character, the opposition just can’t be that overwhelming. And with only one type of character, you’re pretty limited in your choice of henchman – really, you pretty much have to pick the thief or you end up spending all your time bashing boxes.
I also thought the scenery in NWN got kind of monotonous – I suspect because the modders have a toolbox of different textures and objects, so everything ends up looking pretty much the same.
Also, Bioware had planned to incorporate a way to import BG characters into NWN but the resulting product ended up so different from BG that they scrapped the idea.
That’s not entirely true. Multi-class characters are allowed and with the second expansion (Hoardes of the Underdark) you’re allowed to have two henchmen.
Oh, and the first expansion (Shadows of Undrentide) allows you to completely manipulate your henchman’s inventory.
delurk
Also, Hordes of the Underdark allows you to go beyond the original 20 character levels and introduces new feats and spells. You should probably check out Bioware’s website for details.
The official site:
www.neverwinternights.comwww.neverwinternights.com
Fan site with adventures/modules, hack packs, and a listing of fan projects and persistent worlds:
If you liked Baulder’s Gate you’ll eventually like NeverWinter Nights. I really enjoyed Baulder’s Gate and it took me a while to adapt to NWN. I had more fun with the expansion packs, though the second is pretty minimal. Once you get used to the new engine you wonder why someone hadn’t done it before.
Am now on to The Templeof Ultimate Evil and am disappointed in the engine.
I guess I stand corrected. It doesn’t use the same engine. I probably should have known - I haven’t acquired it yet cos my computer, which runs the BG series fine, is too old for NWN.
But from what my friends tell me, it definintely has a similar feel to the BG series. It does sound like the type of game that, given enough initial investment, could absolutely ruin your life.