Neverwinter Nights Review
Stephen Leyton
00/12/0000
It’s what you’ve all been waiting for, Neverwinter Nights!
It has been in development for years, it carries an incredibly large franchise on the back of it with thousands and thousands of loyal fans behind it. Set in the world of Dungeons and Dragons, Bioware have stunned us all once again with the release of Neverwinter Nights for the PC.
Dungeons and Dragons is huge, lets face it who has not heard of the name before? The true original (RPG) filled to the brim with muscular warriors complete with gargantuan veins, heroines with strength and fantastic beauty, rounded dwarfs, magical spells, and hideous creatures from the underworld. If it wasnāt for this we wouldnāt be playing the games we are today, titles such as Diablo may never of existed and we all know how successful that franchise has been. So is there room in the crowded market for one more contender, could Bioware prove to the hardcore fans that their Neverwinter Nights is the ultimate RPG ā“ after playing for merely 5 minutes we most certainly believe so.
From the start of the game you can decide which character you would like to take through the game, now this is slightly more in-depth than your standard game whereby you select one of 5 players. With Neverwinter Nights you design your character based on a set of skills and abilities, which in turn will develop as you explore through the complex and dangerous fantasy worlds. Every single aspect has a result, so it is crucial you choose wisely, whilst you can modify your characters skills slightly in the game, if you decide to became a full blown warrior, it would be very hard to convert him to the next sorcerer auditioning for the third Lord of the Rings. Another important decision you have to make is the role of team-playing, will you be playing solely on your own or with others, sometimes itās best to be a less powerful character that can help others, in return you will be rewarded with gifts and gratitude.
Neverwinter Nights like Diablo has two very important parts, The Single Player mode and the Multiplayer mode. If you embark on a simple player mode you will eventually meet up with a Henchman who will assist you on your adventures ā“ again choosing a character that has different skills from yourself is probably a wise decision. The single player mode gives you an ultimate challenge, however on your mission to solve this challenge you will be given new challenges in return for money and various objects etc. You can decide to help people for free, for a charge or not at all; it is entirely under your discretion. During your travels you will meet various NPC (non-player-characters) that have their own life to live, sometimes this may mean they interact with you whilst other times they merely tell you to go away, Bioware have done an incredible job in creating a living world whereby its not just the human controlled characters that make the moves. As you enter villages the atmosphere is superb, people are talking to each other, talking to themselves, praying, fooling around, the type of thing you would imagine a medieval village to be like.
Personally I enjoyed the Dungeon & Dragons legacy, the board game was superb if however incredibly complex and confusing which brings me onto my next topic. You would expect a game like Neverwinter Nights to contain so much information and vast amounts of āthingsā going on that it would confuse and somewhat distress new and less advanced gamers. I must admit I have been playing games like these for years and I too get frustrated if I canāt understand whatās going on, thankfully Neverwinter Nightsā seams to have hit the nail on the head. As you play, the game itself develops at your own speed and at the level of your knowledge. Instructions are clearly displayed and simple to understand, admittedly there is still a lot going on but eventually youāll get the hang of it. Using quick keys you can use different weapons, cast spells, heal yourself and to some extent get you and your team members out of trouble. If you die you have two options, load a saved game, which is fine if you have saved recently. Secondly you can re-spawn, this takes you back to the temple however you will lose crucial character skill points ā“ again itās another decision you will need to make.
The graphics are not as impressive as we hoped; however we did have very high expectations, especially after playing Morrowind. The game itself looks like Diablo, however unlike Diablo Neverwinter Nights uses a top down perspective created in full 3D giving you complete control over the camera, which is, controlled simply using the keyboard and mouse. The detail is very good, if you zoom in the textures are very crisp and clear, as well as being varied throughout the game. The character models themselves are also equally as impressive. The graphics department does shine however in the lighting effects, the real-time shadows are superb, casting realistic shadows depending on the light available. If your character is holding a torch at the time you can see the shadows moving through doors, over objects and on characters themselves. As you would expect when a player casts a magical spell from start to finish it looks fantastic, you may start of with a simple flame effect but eventually youāll be casting spells of a disastrous outcome that are fantastic to look at.
But the Neverwinter experience is not just for one person- adventure with all your friends. Neverwinter Nights can be played online with up to 64 friends, all-sharing in the adventure. You can organize and run your own adventures through the role of the Dungeon Master and control all the monsters, creatures and characters your friends meet as they journey on their quest. A powerful piece of software that is included with Neverwinter Nights, the DM Client, allows nearly unlimited control for running your own adventures for your friends. This software is simply superb and thankfully for us āOnline Gaming Newbieāsā it is relatively straightforward to use. For those of you that remember when the board game came out āDungeons and Dragonsā one player would be the DM and the other players would be the heroes, the DMās job was to create a dungeon impossible for the characters to complete. As I have mentioned above the Dungeon Master mode is in the game and it rocks.
Thankfully the developers Bioware have considered the abilities of the programmers and bedroom developers amongst us all. Neverwinter Nights allows you to create your own worlds. Included in the game are all the tools needed to construct your own unique lands of adventure. The Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset allows even novice users to construct everything from a quiet, misty forest or a dripping cavern of foul evil, to a kingās court. All the monsters, items, set pieces and settings are there for world builders to use. You can also construct traps, encounters, custom monsters and magic items to make your adventure that little bit more unique.
