Simply put, this is a good game. Not the best I've ever played, but a good game nonetheless. The developers packed a lot of adventuring into the official NWN campaign game - almost too much. As I neared the end, I found myself almost starting to wish it would soon be over. Not that the game is not interesting - for my taste, it's just a wee bit long, and the limited tilesets don't allow enough diversity of environments along the way. But, overall, the game certainly held my interest. The game is quite linear, but there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I like my games to have some sense of ending or closure. After all, it's just a game, and at some point there has to be an end (after all, there are so many other games to play and so little time!). I don't mind a little non-linearity, but I do like my games to have a definite objective and a logical, fun path to get to that objective without spending precious gaming hours out collecting obscure herbs for alchemy or running endless "go get this and bring it back to me and I'll give you a reward" quests. I liked the main storyline of NWN, and the linearity allowed me to move steadily forward into the story while having a lot of fun along the way. For me, the biggest negative in this game was the limited tilesets. The dungeons, forests, caves etc. begin to look very much the same very quickly. Same tilesets, just arranged in different layouts. Of course, there are other environmental "looks" available for the NWN world thanks to the construction set and the many user mods, but as far as the official NWN campaign goes, the game could certainly have benefited from more variety in the environments. The developers did a nice job with the quests along the way to the main objective. Great variety and good use of ingenuity at times (e.g., I was delighted with the world within the snow-globe and the intrigue surrounding that world). They made this a game that holds your interest and they deserve kudos for good work with the game design and storyline. The game plays smoothly and is quite stable. I don't remember any significant bugs, and I played through to the end with only one crash that I can recall. In summary, this is a nice game. It is single player (though you can choose a companion from several fairly interesting henchmen at times), it is linear (a plus for some like myself, a negative for others), it gives you good bang for your gaming buck. Though it is a bit long for a linear game (in my humble view), and though it definitely suffers from far too much similarity of environments, it nevertheless holds your interest to the end. And the construction set and huge and active modding community make this a gaming world you could almost play forever if you so desired. NWN is a worthy addition to the gaming library of any CRPG fan.
The first time I heard (or more accurately, read) about Neverwinter Nights was when I was playing Baldur's Gate II and a loading screen told me I would be able to import my Baldur's Gate character on Neverwinter Nights. ... Read Full Review
It only takes a glimpse at the manual to realize that Neverwinter Nights is a massive game. Over 200 pages of detailed information will give you a clear idea of what you're getting into. In fact, unless you're a hardcore... Read Full Review
