Neverwinter Nights Diamond - quality of official campaigns?

[Scrav]

I got an email from Impulse last night with their weekend specials (25% off Infinity Engine game bundles and Neverwinter Nights Diamond). I'm quite familiar with the IE games, but Neverwinter Nights caught me eye.

I've played the original Neverwinter Nights, but never really ventured into the campaign of the original game as it got a lot of bad press, so pretty much tinkered with user made content of the early days.

The blurb on the Diamond edition is that all the included campaigns add up to over 100 hours of gameplay. Does anyone have an opinion of the quality of these official campaigns from a stand alone rpg perspective?

[DoctorNarrative]

GOG has it DRM free if you care about that sort of thing.

Anyway, NWN is a game a lot of people like and a lot don't. I personally thought the main campaign was a little too slow and boring at times, but a lot of the modules and expansions are very good. Note that some of the official modules are not in the Diamond Edition and can no longer be bought anywhere.

If you like RPGs of this type the collection is well worth $10 or whatever it costs now. If you find the main campaign to be boring then skip right to the expansions or look up the best modules online. You're guaranteed to like some of it I should think.

[Thrasher]

I thought the Hordes of the Underdark expansion was pretty fun and the best of the lot.

There are also some fantastic user made single player campaigns that beat the poop out of many other RPGs.

[dteowner]

I was one of the 5 people in the world that actually liked the OC of NWN1. It really did suffer from a repetitive structure (chaps 1-3: do something in each of the 4 compass directions, move on) and the story wasn't earth-shaking, but I thought that it did a nice job of nudging RPGs back toward old skool spreadsheet gaming (emphasis on character development and gameplay). I thought the OC was very good. I had the most fun with SotU, although I couldn't really say why. I think HotU was probably the best designed expansion pack just like Thrasher, but I personally don't care for epic level D&D so it was my least favorite of the 3.

Thrasher is completely correct about the user mods. NWN was designed as an Erector Set to make it very mod-friendly. Blew the doors right off the other supposedly mod-friendly game of that time, Morrowind. Some of the user-made modules are absolutely stellar, particularly ones made after the Community Expansion Pack really took off.

[Thrasher]

I too liked the OC, and SotU. The OC has one side quest that I can't forget to this day, it was that good.

NWN was my first cRPG. The fact that I went into it with few preconceptions except playing and DMing PnP first edition D&D may have something to do with my opinion.

[Warmark]

I originally bought NWN1 when it first came out and played about halfway through the original campaign and found it too dull to finish and ended up giving the game away.

When I saw it on sale at GOG a few months ago I picked up the Diamond Edition and have had a ton of fun with it.
I skipped the first campaign this time around and started with the first expansion SoU, it was good and HotU the second expansion was very good.

But some of the modules I've downloaded at Neverwinter Nights Vault have been excellent, so NWN gets a thumbs up from me.

[JDR13]

I'm in the same boat as a lot of people.. I played some of the OC, hated it, and never tried any of the expansions. I've been meaning to grab NWN Diamond and give it another chance.

I've never purchased from Impulse.. what's the general opinion about that site? How do they implement their DRM?

They're also currently selling Drakensang: TRoT for only $14.99.. very very tempting..

[Scrav]

Their DRM is usually Steam style - install and activates automatically, then can run stand alone without internet access.

I took the plunge and bought NW Diamond edition. Turns out I had gift card credit for some unknown reason and it ended up just costing me 50 cents (Maybe something to do with the Elemental debacle). :D

I really wanted to get Drakensang as well, but it was region locked to me... (Australia). That's my main beef with Impulse, most of the good stuff is region locked.

[JDR13]

I really want a retail copy of The River of Time, but I might have to take the bait for that price.

I wonder why some titles would be region locked when others aren't…

[Maylander]

HotU pretty much saved it as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, once you've got everything (and you do get everything in the Diamond edition), even the OC is enjoyable as there are tons of ways to build characters.

Personally, I still replay NWN from time to time. It's far better now than it was as a stand alone game. However, I still feel SoU is fairly poor.

[DoctorNarrative]

Anyway, once you've got everything (and you do get everything in the Diamond edition),

No you don't, as I said before. You are missing several premium modules.

[blatantninja]

The GOG listing has something called "premium modules re-installer", does that not mean it includes the premium modules?

[Warmark]

The GOG listing has something called "premium modules re-installer", does that not mean it includes the premium modules?

I got these three Premium modules from GOG included with the game(Kingmaker, Witch's Wake, Shadow Guard).

And to really kick NWN1 up a notch or two I can highly recommend Chico400's texture mod- NWNCQ Project V1.3 (http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Hakpaks.Detail&id=7848&comment_page=16#Files), it was a huge difference in the quality of graphics after installing all the features in it.
It's also worked well with every module I've played.

[Thrasher]

More premium modules (that are larger in some cases) are described here:

http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Premium_module

Atari doesn't offer the other modules anymore. But the unreleased modules can be found on nwnvault.ign.com

[DoctorNarrative]

The premium modules not in the Diamond Edition unfortunately require a constant internet connection that has never been hacked, as far as I know. Since they are not sold anymore you basically can never play them if you didn't already buy them.

[Thrasher]

Damn, really? Has anyone tried one of these recently to see if they still work?

[blatantninja]

I thought they shut down the authentication servers anyway? Did they not release a patch so that people could play their games?

[Thrasher]

Maybe there are some "unofficial" patches out there. I still want to play some of the premium modules I never got to...

[DoctorNarrative]

I thought they shut down the authentication servers anyway? Did they not release a patch so that people could play their games?

The servers still work I think, you just can't get get access unless you already had it. And I've searched far and wide Thrasher, but have never found "unofficial" offline versions. It's a bummer. I really want to play Pirates of the Sword Coast, if nothing else.

[Thrasher]

I don't want to ruin other people's chances to play these unavailable modules, but in the past I have found "unofficial" PotSC, ID, and WCoC. You have to change the code in the key file, and then they will work, supposedly. But I would have thought someone should have hacked the online authentication by now.

[DoctorNarrative]

Hmmm... well next time I reinstall NWN I'll have to google and see if I can find them. I never bought any modules when the game came out for whatever reason and would like to play them.

[Thrasher]

I can PM you some links if you sign in blood you have no affiliation with law enforcement or Atari. ;)

[JDR13]

I'm quite sure those premium modules can still be found and played. You might have to visit one of the seedier areas of the web though. ;)

[DoctorNarrative]

I can PM you some links if you sign in blood you have no affiliation with law enforcement or Atari. ;)

That'd be cool… I promise to only turn you in if you sleep with my sister.

[Alrik Fassbauer]

I was one of the 5 people in the world that actually liked the OC of NWN1.

I liked it as well. The only part really distracting me from playing further on was that … lizards creatures thing … err, I don't have the right words ffor it, vbecause I know only so little about it (I mean setting-wise) …

That made me stop the game, alas !

Unfortunately Kingmaker etc. never reached Germany. I must import it iof I want o play it (and I plan to, since it seems to be cheap).

The Diamond Edition also never reached Germany. I'd like to personally ask an Infogrames/Atari rep why.

Some of these "Premium Modules" are still sold via Amazon Marketplace, I think.

[Relayer]

The NWN OC is dull, very slow and just uninspired. It feels like a demo for the toolset which would have been fine if it was just one chapter long but as it is it overstays its welcome.

I guess if you play it, play it on hard. I remember on regular there was no challenge at all which made the game more of a chore.

Shadows Of Unrentide was an improvement. Still a bit on the dull side but had a nicer variety of locales than the first and short enough to offer a decent play through if you can stick through it. Nothing special though.

Hordes Of The Underdark was the best of the bunch - fast paced, challenging battles and just more fun to play overall. THIS is how the OC should have been done.

So just like with NWN2's Mask Of The Betrayer, NWN is worth getting just for HoTU (though NWN2's OC was much better than NWN's - but still nothing great).

[MysterD]

I agree w/ Relayer on the order of how things went for NWN - from best to worst:
Hordes, SOU, then OC.

Same goes for NWN2, as well - Mask is great.