Neverwinter Reviews
Posted Friday, July 12, 2002 - 18:14 CET by Mollusken
A whole lot of new reviews today, and we'll start off with Adrenaline Vault who gave Neverwinter Nights 5 and a half stars out of a possible 5.
Texture design is exceptional at the highest setting: Floors are covered with intricate patterns of stones, mosaics, and even actual blades of grass in some areas. Turning the texture detail down even a single setting results in an overcompressed mess, however. Shadows on characters and objects respond to multiple lighting sources, and are some of the most detailed and realistic shadows I've ever seen: shadows climb walls appropriately and animate perfectly in synch with the object that casts them.
Telefragged gave the game a score of 90%.
Is Neverwinter Nights worth your gaming dollar? It really depends on whether you've played previous D&D RPG titles, and how much you're itching for a multiplayer RPG. If you've never played the Baldur's Gate series, Planescape: Torment, or Icewind Dale, it's a fine single player game with the possibility of some very engaging multiplayer action. If you've already had enough of the type of game listed above, though, and don't really care that much for the online aspect, you may want to skip it.
At Wewp the overall score is 8 out of 10.
Neverwinter Nights is a huge step forward since the Baldur's Gate series. It's a much more realistic setting since the "painted on" backdrops of Baldur's Gate and the likes. Probably the most obvious advancement is the 3rd Edition D&D rule set. Neverwinter Nights is the first game to successfully (others have tried) implement this massive system into a Computer Role Playing Game. Not only is it 3rd Edition, it actually FEELS like D&D. They've done an excellent job at meshing a real time combat system and the "3E" rule system.
Thrustworld doesn't like the game, but the guy who reviewed it liked it anyway.
As I said at the start, I wasn't a huge RPG fan before I got this, but now I am. I'm only a relatively short way into the game and I've spent hours playing it and I'm enjoying every minute of it so far, I think thats only going to increase once some good multiplayer modules are released. I would, and indeed do, highly recommend it to anyone, even if it's someone who before wouldn't think twice about playing an RPG. It's got something for the Novice and the Expert to sink their teeth into, and it really sets the bar a few notches higher for the competition to try and beat. Go buy it now and tell them that xBa Jueir (the name the games random name generator help me come up with) - 6th Level wizard and potential D&D geek sent you :).
The overall score at OGR is 8.
Overall I had a lot of fun playing the single player campaign and I am having a blast playing through again in multiplayer with a friend. The game performs well and I enjoy the gameplay. I would probably rate it on the same level as Baldurs Gate, somewhat below Fallout and Planescape: Torment in terms of roleplaying, but the opportunites from the toolset give it a big boost that put it above them for me. The Toolset is really exciting and I am having fun designing my own module using it. Some people have written some really good scripts and I am sure that as time goes on we will see the multiplayer aspect of NWN really hot up.
And the final review is at Eye Talk Now, and the reviewer there doesn't seem to be too excited about the game.
There's nothing really bad about Neverwinter Nights; and there's nothing else really good either. If you remove the Toolset, which, apparently, is not a priority to BioWare, NWN is a pretty mediocre game. The story is not as interesting as Baldur's Gate's, the gameplay is stifling compared to Morrowind, and the 3D engine is laughable compared to Morrowind and Dungeon Siege. The Toolset, and the people that will use it, are the only thing that gives NWN its worth. Hopefully BioWare will soon realize this and do more to support them.