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by Kevin Kuphal Published: July 16, 2002
Neverwinter Nights has come about as close to a perfect PC based RPG that I have ever seen happen. It misses the mark only slightly and only in light of other titles on the market that did it one better. So to put things in perspective for you avid gamers, let's compare, shall we? Dungeon Siege When this title came out I was blown away. The game seriously impressed me from the moment I stepped into the beautifully rendered world. Neverwinter Nights has matched this in every respect and in some places exceeded what the folks at Gas Powered Games had achieved. One fault of Neverwinter is the load time between areas of the game. Dungeon Siege did a remarkable job with their game engine, completely eliminating transitions between areas, not allowing them to in any way detract from the action at hand. Neverwinter Nights could benefit greatly from this feature as the act of exploring a city was punctuated often by waiting for a room to load. Granted, the wait time was in seconds, not minutes, but still seemed extraneous given the fact that Dungeon Siege lacked this problem. The major downfall of Dungeon Siege was not in the world that was created, but in the game engine. Without a detailed skill system, creating characters was an afterthought. Without extensive mods, the item variety was nearly non-existent. Neverwinter Nights excels in both of these areas by virtue of its basis in the AD&D 3rd Edition rules. Now, all you non-D&D players out there, don't freak out. Neverwinter also does a tremendous job of providing you with a tool, in the way of the Recommend button, that takes all the detail out of the rule set and makes the decisions for you, and makes them very well. This game centers around your character and the plot, both things that Dungeon Siege sorely lacked. Neverwinter Nights has some failings in even the places where it rivals Dungeon Siege. While the graphics engine of Neverwinter Nights is equal to that of Dungeon Siege, it is excessively more demanding of top notch hardware to run it. It is a shame to see two very similar games on the market: one that can run beautifully on some rather meager hardware, and another that chokes on anything but the most recent. I could go on and on about the incompatibilities between this game and the 3dfx Voodoo series of cards which are still popular with many gamers, but I will leave it only as a mention and a frustration. Neverwinter Nights however excels in the audio department. The environmental and multiple speaker support worked right out of the box and the music and ambient noises were marvelous to hear. The NPC speech, too, was well scripted with a wide range of voice talent that was a pleasure to listen to as much of the game plot is advanced through conversation with the people in the game.
Diablo II If there is one thing that Diablo II did is make you come back again and again and again for more gaming. At least, it did for me -- to the point I was looking for a twelve step program to break myself of it. As it happened, Civilization III was the catalyst to my departure from Diablo II but that was only replacing one addiction with another... I digress. The fusion of hack and slash combat with a certain amount of character generation was a perfect mix that few games can achieve. It's hard to say whether Neverwinter Nights will achieve this level. The richness of the plot works against the replay-ability in some ways as the combat is secondary to the story. By contrast, the combat was primary to Diablo with the story being a mere backdrop. Neverwinter Nights has an extraordinary potential to be a game that can be played over and over by virtue of the module system. Much like D&D itself, the true appeal of the game is in the ability to take your characters into new and exciting situations. With the Aurora Toolset, Neverwinter Nights has the ability to match this appeal in a computer game. But, this will depend greatly on the community and the production of quality modules to play that are challenging for a variety of character classes so that people will play them repeatedly looking for a new twist on an old story. As it stands, the combat system in Neverwinter Nights is a beauty. The radial action system is a true innovation in controlling 3D games and once you get used to it, it is absolutely amazing. The campaign has enough combat to keep you on your toes and enough story to keep you interested. With intricate spell effects and detailed character actions, the game is filled with eye candy for the player to enjoy. Morrowind Here was another game that impressed me from the start. The completely non-linear structure of the game harkened back to the days of Ultima where you wandered the world looking for adventure all the while progressing towards and ultimate goal on your own line, not by being pushed there by a predetermined story. Neverwinter Nights has some aspects of this type of play. Your journal, much like that in Morrowind, keeps track of your interactions with people in the game and the tasks that they desire for you to perform. Not nearly as expansive as Morrowind, the campaign in Neverwinter Nights does have quite a few quests that appear and you can choose to do them in a variety of ways. It is exciting to see this coupled with a true arc story that permeates the environment keeping you moving towards a goal. Morrowind suffered in some ways from being too expansive and making it too easy to lose track of what you were doing by overwhelming you with choices. With the right blend of non-linear stories and quests and a central storyline, modules for Neverwinter Nights can achieve the promise of what Morrwind attempted to build. Putting it all together Put the Dungeon Siege graphics engine in the rest of Neverwinter Nights and you would probably have as close to the perfect game as you could build. The Dungeon Master aspect of Neverwinter Nights is truly original and a great component to the game. By giving all of the D&D players of yesteryear a place to exercise their skills at running a storyline, they have ensured themselves a long lasting community of gamers that will continue to expand the game. It is in these modules that the future of Neverwinter Nights lies. With the right, high quality modules, you can bet that this game will be one that is played for years to come by its fans. As with any role playing game, the game is only as good as the stories that are told. My grade for this game reflects on the important things that Neverwinter Nights has achieved by bringing the richness of D&D gaming and stories to the PC, something that every game that has come before has failed to do in one way or another. It is somewhat disappointing that Bioware was not able to meet the level of graphics optimization that Dungeon Siege did as well as the no loading ability of that game. It is unfortunate for gamers to have to feel as if they are taking a slight step backwards when playing the game, because it is such a superior game in nearly every other aspect. This game is one to keep your eyes on even if you find the original campaign lacking in some way. The community is huge and hungry for quality module productions, especially after what many felt was a disappointing release of community tools and features from Dungeon Siege. The intricate game mechanics of Neverwinter Nights is a wonderful system for people to build their worlds upon. Diablo II had a rich environment filled with unique items and complex calculations that people could strive to combine into the best character they could. Neverwinter nights has matched its predecessors and taken role playing to the next level. |
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