A team of 4 players, from different parts of the world ranging from Florida to Sri Lanka, explores an ancient underground fortress in Faerun, the world of Neverwinter Nights.
Atari's Neverwinter Nights has just been made available as a DRM free download for $10 at Good Old Games.
A generation after it's original release NWN remains the most revolutionary cRPG ever made.
The adventure isn't that special. If you're a casual cRPG fan it's worth a play, but it won't rock your world. Baldurs's Gate 1 and 2 are both better cRPG experiences for the RP lightweight (and both are available on GoG). The official campaign is weak at best. The first expansion, Shadows of Undrentide, is MUCH better. In fact, just skip straight to "Shadows" (known in the NWN community as SoU). It's no Baldur's Gate, but at least it gives BG a run for it's money. The original campaign doesn't even try. The last full length module, Hoards of the Underdark (or HotU) is a sequel of SoU and is without doubt the best of the three modules, but it's also epic level. I wouldn't recommend making HotU your first NWN experience.
No. As far as the single player game goes it falls into the "meh" catagory. The graphics are dated, and in the OC the plot is lame, linear, and riddled with painfully 2 dimensional NPC's.
But it's still the best cRPG ever made.
What makes NWN stand apart from any game that came before it is the Aurora Toolset and it's multi-player features. The toolset is easier to use and more powerful than anything ever released before or since. Dungeon Siege, Morrowind, even Oblivion have toolsets that pale in comparison to NWN. While the sequel, NWN 2, has a toolset that offers a building experience with much better graphics, it offers nothing in terms of improved game play and is much more complicated and time consuming. NWN is also highly modable. It's relatively easy to create and animate 3d models, so fans have fleshed out the game with custom clothing, models, buildings, monsters... you name it. The system is so flexible that it has been used to create d20 modern and even sci-fi modules. NWN is the perfect platform for the amateur game designer. As a result there are literally thousands of fan made modules, and literally hundreds that are actually superior to the official campaign.
Still not convinced? Let's talk multi-player. NWN can be played cooperatively or PvP. The official campaigns can be played co-op, but there are scores of fan made modules designed for MP co-op as well. Now there's nothing new about MP support. Baldur's Gate was an amazing MP experience for the few people who tried it, but compared to NWN it's downright primitive and without the toolset the MP experience in these games was intrinsically limited.
And this brings us to the one thing that sets NWN apart from every other cRPG ever made...
NWN has a Dungeon Master client.
NWN's DM client, in combination with the powerful toolset, relegates every other MP computer game on the market to the status of "Poser". This feature makes real tabletop Pen 'n Paper style role playing available in a thoroughly rendered 3-D environment for the very first time.
Well, yours truly has been banned by the bioware boards for "Atari Bashing". Not publicly in the forums but privately to the moderators.
Normally I would not air this type of laundry publicly, but now it seems that nobody in the community believes me... so here it is. The entire exchange... complete and unvarnished.
The following messages were logged in that exchange.
================================ Subject: Warning! (R) From: Selene Moonsong (Add to Buddy List) Received: Fri, 28 March 2008 04:02PM Options: Reply | Reply without quote | Forward to my E-mail | Delete
UrKnightErrant
In my opinion, you are attempting to get circumvent the Rules of Conduct and still directly bash Atari. If you have issues with Atari, take them up with Atari, but not in these forums as you have in your last two posts shown below.
Consider this a severe warning since everyone has already been warned twice in this thread , with a reminder of the Rules of Conduct posted by me. Your post has been deleted as per the Rules of Conduct.
As posted by UrKnightErrant:
Quote: Posted 03/28/08 18:02 (GMT) by JBNL
Quote: Posted 03/28/08 17:32 (GMT) by UrKnightErrant
OK... so I'm waiting for a game that's finished because the DRM has not been developed (or tested) yet?
No wonder this game is so buggy.
I feel bad for Ossian. They're a great team of devs that just keeps getting screwed by... those who shall not be named for fear of a thread lock.
:-/
I wish I'd never bought this stupid game.
Now now, this is unfair. Don't blame the developers, who really have done their best on this, for the publisher's mistakes and lack of foresight.
I'm not blaming the devs. Re read the post. Obs and Ossian have done thier jobs. The dark force that must not be named for fear of thread lockage must therefore be...
?
Hint: Rhymes with "Fat Lardy". _________________ ~Selene Community Member/Moderator Official Patches Community Updates
================================ Subject: Re: Warning! To: Selene Moonsong Sent: Fri, 28 March 2008 06:45PM Options: Forward to my E-mail | Delete
Fine. I'm out.
This is why I don't post on the NWN2 boards any more.
You are quite right. I am VERY critical of Atari. I believe that they are milking this franchise into the ground and I find it infuriating.
Atari doesn't need my help to look bad. They do just fine at that all by themselves.
They are mismanaging themselves into the ground. Atari didn't go from like $65.00 a share 5 years ago to todays HIGH of $1.44 because of their astounding foresight and competence. And this AFTER a 10:1 reverse split last year? If you don't know what that means I'll explain it to you... The REAL value of a $65 share of Atari 5 years ago is FOURTEEN CENTS today. There's no nice way to say it. These people are IDIOTS. They shouldn't be running a corner bodega, much less a multi-national corporation.
And now Atari expects me to wait two months or more to buy a finished game which was promised last month so they can bundle in a completely untested software package that will disable the entire application if it doesn't work right?
Now who's being treated with contempt? ME. That's who!
I retreat now back to whence I came... to the NWN1 forums where customer input is welcomed (or at least tolerated), and considered even when it's negative.
================================ Subject: Re: Warning! (R) From: Selene Moonsong (Add to Buddy List) Received: Fri, 28 March 2008 07:50PM Options: Reply | Reply without quote | Forward to my E-mail | Delete
Quote: Sent 03/28/08 23:45 (GMT) by UrKnightErrant
I retreat now back to whence I came... to the NWN1 forums where customer input is welcomed (or at least tolerated), and considered even when it's negative.
I invite you to re-read the Rules of Conduct you agreed to and be advised that those rules apply to the BioBoards, not just NWN 2 and will be enforced when necessary. _________________ ~Selene Community Member/Moderator Official Patches Community Updates
================================ Don't BS me Selene. You want me to stay off your boards, fine, I leave you to your ever diminishing support base of sycophants and fan-boys. But we both know that Bio doesn't use the TOS the way Obs does.
I know the rules of conduct. I did not spam, slander, flame, stray off topic, telephone, impersonate, fight (I was in fact agreeing with the tone of the thread), or promote any illegal topics.
I did lay in a backhanded dig on you mods for being lock-happy. Maybe that's what really pissed you off, I don't know. Don't really care.
And I've been on these forums for 8 years. I only changed handles because I lost access to my old Email account when I moved last year.
Bio doesn't lock threads because they or their bosses are getting razzed. Case in point... Click Here
11 pages. No lock. SCATHING criticisms of EA and Bioware.
That's how you handle angry customers. You let them say what they need to say, and you either help them or stay out of their way. You don't fan their anger by bullying them into silence.
================================ Subject: Banned (R) From: Chris Priestly (Add to Buddy List) Received: Sat, 29 March 2008 10:53PM Options: Reply | Reply without quote | Forward to my E-mail | Delete
Since you asked to be banned, you are gone from these pages.
If you want to come back, you can ask me to allow you to return.
_____________________ Subject: Re: Banned To: Chris Priestly Sent: Sun, 30 March 2008 11:24AM Options: Forward to my E-mail | Delete
Who am I? Oliver ***ing Twist? I quite willingly volunteered to stay off your boards.
Atari is the most pathetic excuse for a game publisher in business today, and if they were based out of any country but japan they'd have gone out of business years ago. Sooner or later the japanese government is going to get tired of carrying them and that's going to be that.
That's not "Atari Bashing". That's called "reading a financial report".
Like I said in my post... I wish I had never bought NWN2. As much as I want to support my beloved D&D franchise, my NWN2 experience has been a long, drawn out MISERY. I believe that Obs and Ossian have done the best they can do. I blame Atari.
This is not "Atari Bashing". This is how I feel. That this is unspeakable on your boards says volumes... but the only message that matters is, "Fan-Boys Only."
Atari is in such a hurry to produce salable content to shore up their ridiculously low bottom line that they are releasing buggy games and failing to provide the devs with the zots needed to patch them. You know it. I Know it. Everyone in the industry knows it.
Now... In the Game Publisher equivalent of "Jumping the Shark" they have convinced themselves that if they can just stop the evil pirates from stealing their games their problems will be solved and they will be magically transported back into the black.
Like I said. Pathetic.
This strategy will fail. It always does. Some pimple faced german kid will crack the game in a week, and their new DRM software, not properly tesated on the thousands of possible hardware/software configurations, will cause the application to fail on hundreds if not thousands of machines. This will piss off tjousands of paying customers, while thousands of game pirates fail to run out and buy the game.
Atari will do what it always does... ignore the problem in favor of devloping more salable content.
No doubt you will then have to ban more angry customers from their boards.
Then Atari will find itself right back where it started... A failed business with incompetent officers and a self destructive corporate culture.
You offer two choices.
1) Fall in lock step and march joyfully in lock step to our party line.
2) *** and get out of here.
I choose option 3.
================================ Subject: Re: Banned (R) From: Chris Priestly (Add to Buddy List) Received: Sun, 30 March 2008 11:48AM Options: Reply | Reply without quote | Forward to my E-mail | Delete
Well, I think it is a shame you feel that way since you were a great NwN1 advocate and a long time supported or NwN1. You could have voluntarily stayed off of the Neverwinter Nights 2 forums and refrained from bashing them on the NwN1 boards and simply enjoyed the NwN 1 games and fan content and waited until our next games, like Dragon Age came out and then enjoyed those.
However, since you feel you cannot be a part of this community and NOT bash Atari (and there are a great many peopel who are forumites where who have zero interest in Atari or NwN2 in any way), then your account remains banned.
Hopefully, someday, you will realize there is more to this community than Atari and again choose to take part in it.
================================ Subject: Re: Banned To: Chris Priestly Sent: Sun, 30 March 2008 02:15PM Options: Forward to my E-mail | Delete
The toolset is easier to use and more powerful than anything ever released before or since. Dungeon Siege, Morrowind, even Oblivion have toolsets that pale in comparison to NWN. While the sequel, NWN 2, has a toolset that offers a building experience with much better graphics, it offers nothing in terms of improved game play and is much more complicated and time consuming. NWN is also highly modable. It's relatively easy to create and animate 3d models, so fans have fleshed out the game with custom clothing, models, buildings, monsters... you name it. The system is so flexible that it has been used to create d20 modern and even sci-fi modules. NWN is the perfect platform for the amateur game designer. As a result there are literally thousands of fan made modules, and literally hundreds that are actually superior to the official campaign.
