Neverwinter Nights Gold
Brief Description of Neverwinter Nights Gold
Say good bye to family, lock yourself away with the computer and prepare for a challenge. Neverwinters Nights is an RPG based on the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons. This review is primarily about the original campaign. I hope to get up other reviews covering the expansion packs.
The Neverwinter Nights Gold package includes:
- The original game (known by fans as OC for Official Campaign)
- The first official expansion pack: The Shadows of Undrentide
- Some mini-modules (small campaigns you can play)
- A toolkit for creating your own modules
- A DM client
Doesn't sound like enough game yet? Try going online and you can download free modules other players have built, more than 3800 at last count. Don't want to play alone? There are multi player options as well. In other words, this gaming world is huge and still growing.
Game play and hints
When you begin your first game, you'll have to decide whether to take one of the characters set up beforehand or create your own. Creating your own isn't very difficult, and I usually do for games of this type.
Key features of the game interface are the radial menus and the character screen. Radial menus are brought up by right-clicks; on an object brings up one set of menus, your henchman brings up another. Once you have the menu up, left click an option which either does something or brings up a menu with further options. A radial menu can hold many possibilities that way. The character screen has a portrait and a menu which includes (bold items are ones I use a lot):
- the map of the local area
- the inventory (you can also press "I")
- the journal which automatically tracks quests you have undertaken, completed quests and you may store your own notes
- your character sheet - more details about your character
- rest - the only way to rebuild your magic and recharge once a day items
- magic - if you have access to spells, you may have to memorize them in advance
- main menu - load and save things here
- player vs player (only valid when playing with other people)
The 12 spots in your quick bar at the bottom of the screen are very important. Good use of a few of the slots would be: one for the Stone of Recall, one for a long range weapon, one for a close range weapon, one for healing potions. If you use all 12 of those, you can create and access 24 more quick slots by using the control or shift. These are things you will want to be able to do in the heat of battle, so select them carefully.
You will probably die from time to time in the game. Most times this happens, you have a choice. You can respawn your character, which brings them back from the dead but costs experience and gold. Or you can reload the game. Respawning can get quite expensive, so try to save your game progress regularly.
Want to know who to talk to? If they have a true name, they may have something to talk with you about. If they have a generic name: Noble Guard, Citizen, Rogue, you may safely ignore them.
Gripes about Neverwinter Nights Gold
Too little control over the henchmen (actually henchman, you can only hire one in the OC). If you are a fighter who hires a wizard, you expect the wizard to hang back and use magic. Frequently he'll just run into the fray, and you have to work quickly or he'll die. I do like having a henchman, but it does get annoying.
Way too many barrels, chests, piles of rubble that contain objects. It gets tedious checking each of them. Also you can enter many homes of ordinary people and take everything you find.
Lawful vs Chaotic - alignment never apparently changes. You can shift your good vs evil alignment over time, nothing seems to touch the lawful vs chaotic. In fact, I've heard you can quite safely kill most of the NPC in the game without hurting your reputation at all.
Conclusion for Neverwinter Nights Gold
I've always been a fan of the multi-character party, turn based RPG since early Wizardry games. So I've put off buying the single character games for some time. Neverwinter Nights is proof that a single character game can be just as enjoyable.
This is a slash-n-hack style game with you playing one primary character. You'll probably die multiple times. If trying to work out how to take out the enemy before they get you doesn't appeal, do not bother with this game. The gore settings of the battles are quite low in the US version for PCs, but this isn't everyone's idea of fun.
4 1/2 stars of 5, not quite a perfect experience, but a truly excellent one. Order this game from Amazon.com
Some final thoughts on the game.
The new expansion pack, Hordes of the Underdark, was placed on my Amazon.com wish list before I even completed Chapter 1. I find the game very addicting.
You probably should create an account on the Neverwinter Nights forum site. It's good to have a forum for asking questions and getting advice. I also downloaded the hints file from UHS. There are so many things to do, it's good to have some hints.