The Single Player Experience

The single player story is a good story. Be warned, however, it is SLOW to start. Very slow. So slow I had to force myself to continue and not give in to the darkside and go play online with friends in custom modules to give a fair review. For probably twenty hours its a good story when there's story...but a slow paced affair where you spend hours wandering around scenery hacking stuff up. Which is NOT COOL for a CRPG.

However, if you stick with it things start to speed up near the midpoint of chapter 2. Chapter 3 is a blur and the final chapter is a whirlwind. Once it hits is stride the single player is perfectly acceptable considering it was mostly an add on. Much more 'genre friendly' a story than BG or BG2, and just as entertaining. It was a lot more interesting than Dungeon Siege or Morrowind's main story, that's for sure.

But you have to stick with it for quite a while (though it's never bad, just slow). So it loses points there, too.

I played through as a wizard. Since it's the most powerful class in any edition of the game I was expecting a cakewalk. And yep, it was. For chapter one and two nothing could stand before me. Chapter 3 and 4, however, started to get tense. Some of the end game enemies could tear apart my 188 hit point henchman in about two seconds, leaving me blinking 'oh my god...how could a fighter, rogue, or cleric beat this game'? I don't have an answer, but I intend to find out soon. I found the game challenging (and I reloaded a lot in chapter 3 and 4 when they started throwing random archmages at you who cast Weird. Urgh. Note to self...use more super-cheesy items that make you immune to specific effects. The enemies sure do.).

The NPCs are well written. I found myself caring for Aribeth, Aarin Gend, and my henchman Daelen Red Tiger. I actually wanted to help them out, so that's a sign of good writing in my books. Well written, poorly scripted...augh. A little more direct control over the henchman would have been appreciated. Daelen was pretty dim about doing certain things, like, not killing me by running through a chain lighting trap and such.

All in all... a fun game. Worth the extra money for just the singleplayer experience? I would say yes - I truly enjoyed it more than Dungeon Siege or Morrowind or anything released this year. However its true strength lies in multiplayer and the toolset.

The Multiplayer Experience

Oh WOW. This is what I've been waiting for since I started playing D&D CRPGs. The ability to form a party with my friends and throw ourselves at the minions of darkness that are being controlled real time by a DM and an ever evolving campaign world.

It's really something when the weakness of a games multiplayer doesn't come from the game, but from the quality of the players.

If you get a good group of people together who are determined to play D&D and not Diablo (D2 is SO MUCH BETTER a game for that style than NWN multi, that's for sure) then NWN is a true joy to play. I've spend forty hours playing this game with my various friends from forums and real life. I've rebuilt the gaming group I had in Germany and one of the DMs is working on adapting our old campaigns.

Do not play the single player module multiplayer. Just don't. It can't handle it, it's too easy, too time consuming, too dull. Find a good user module and play that. It's that point, unfortunately, that is souring many players.

Connecting to Gamespy and jumping into a blind game with perfect strangers to play the single player game sucks. There's no other way to put it. Just as badly as BG2 multiplayer does. Worse, perhaps, because NWN is touted as being a truly 'multiplayer game'.

Right now that's why people either love or hate NWN multiplayer, I believe. Those who find good user modules and play with their friends or make new friends love it, it's just like tabletop. Those who end up with the hardcore el33t playing the overwhelmed single player module online hate it. NWN multiplayer is not a game to be 'soloed'...and taking a local character from game to game is pointless. You hit level 20... and that's it. Over and done.

I can't wait for my next multiplayer session with my best friend or any of my friends from the forums I frequent. I never join local character allowed public games when I have to play on Gamespy, though. I just can't force myself to run around not speaking to anyone trying to find monster spawns and loot. I play D2 for that, or a MMORPG. They're much better designed for that style of play.

As a replacement to Diablo 2, I can honestly say that Neverwinter Nights sucks. Don't buy this game if that's what you're looking for. It's a waste of money.

As mentioned, I have also run into some memory access violation problems when playing multiplayer, leading to crashes at best, reboots at worse, and taking the entire server with me at extreme worst. The multiplay game's stability seems to suffer the most when the DM client is active, and that is a very bad thing. That needs fixing ASAP, as it's the heart of the multiplayer fun.

The Tools and DM Client

Unfortunately, I don't have much to say here. I built a test module to use the toolset, but I didn't script it. I'm a writer, not a programmer. The basics seemed easy enough, the interface didn't confuse me like Morrowind's did (I mostly just modded races for Morrowind, not areas). As to the details? I was able to drop NPCs, completely customize them, give them basic scripts, load the module and play complete with shops, random encounters, and quests. In an hour.

Since I'm terrible at programming I was pretty proud of myself, seeing my hamlet besieged by orcs come alive. And a friend of mine, who IS a programmer, loves it and how easy it is to script.

If you run the enemies with DM client, my wretched programming knowledge is enough, it's just more work for the DM. If you want a rather automated world, well...that's harder. I'm afraid it's nothing an average person like me could figure out without spending a few days learning the scripting language.

But it's a toolset. I think the understanding is 'if you want to use the toolset, learn to use the toolset'. Just like learning to use Studio3DMax or AutoCAD or learning to program. I own a toolbox, but I'll be darned if I know how to build an ornamental cabinet from scratch with it. But I can fix stuff around the house with it, and that's enough for me. Just like the toolset that comes with NWN. I can do the simple things, but the more complex modifications and details I have to leave to someone else.

The Summary

Neverwinter Nights was very expensive. Even though I wanted it, I had to wince when I saw the price come up on my credit card monthly statement. It's probably the most expensive computer game I've ever bought.

And I think I've gotten every penny back in entertainment value.

It's a very fun game: singleplayer is solid and enjoyable, weighed down by a slow pacing at first. Multiplayer is a blast, fulfilling all my expectations. I don't see myself shelving NWN multiplayer any time soon, and I'm even planning on playing the single player again, which I rarely do. Overall the game is hampered by a few minor bugs and a cumbersome radial control method that can be overcome with hotkeys. In addition, character sprites tended to get in my way when trying to look for items on the floor, and it was hard to control the henchmen properly. Which is a shame, but doesn't detract too badly from the excellent addition to the genre that Neverwinter Nights is.

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