NWN - A Thorough Look

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Noah Caldwell-Gervais had a good look at Neverwinter Nights and the 14 respective official campaigns.



This is a video critique and retrospective of all 14 official campaigns released for Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2, between 2002 and 2009. It looks at how each module and game tries to stand out from the others, and how they all uniquely tie back into the legacy of the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop experience. There are TOTAL SPOILERS for all the campaigns, but they're there to provide context and definition for those who don't wish to spend the hundreds of hours it takes to make this journey themselves.
Click to expand...
More information.
 
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Such summary is unnecessary. The whole vanilla campaign is such bs I couldn't believe it's Bioware's product.
 
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I recently tried to play NWN again.
I couldn't. The game was ugly as hell when it came out - and the EE didn't improve anything.
Those incredibly pixelated icons everywhere, the "large" font is just a pixelated upscaled variant of the normal font, the textures, the hover effects when leaving a level, the spells, the terribly "modern" UI, just… everything is so damn ugly.

Meanwhile, I replayed Turok recently and it was awesome.
So it definitely isn't the age that deters me, it really is the ugliness - barely played the game when it came out, either.
 
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Aged badly! Recently tried to play this amazing game, that looked so superb on my old monitor then, now it looks like SHT. Cannot bear. Also the gameplay now seems to hail from a brain-dead universe, where every creative thought was suppressed into a boring grey mold. ugh.. My only memory of this game is how good the game looked THEN in small resolution with that black-armored knight carrying his giant sword on his back and it was dripping green poison. I watched that excellent particle effect with mouth agape then.
 
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This is another game I've been meaning to play, but just haven't gotten around to it as of yet. I mean the newer version of course, not sure if all the extra campaigns would appeal to me but I'm sure I'd give a few of them a go.
 
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Replaying NWN2 OC again currently. NWN took various attempts over 10 years for me to get through, and this also. I believe I WILL finish it this try though, through determination alone. My biggest beefs with it now are only 4 in party, and inability to set formation. I always had a hard time creating a character too, because the story defines you as a teenager leaving your village for the first time which is too restrictive for me.
 
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Aww, this looked pretty interesting. I was looking forward to hearing more about those campaigns I never played (think I played 5/14) Then I saw that the video was over 3 hours long…:roll:

I plan to replay all of the NWN goodies once the "facelift" involved in the Enhanced Edition has moved a stretch further along than it has yet. (so maybe…late 2019 or so)

"New character and weapon models for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition are getting closer! As soon as we’re ready, we’ll be sure to share a few amazing screenshots!"
(from the Beamblog)
 
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NWN is awesome, but the original campaign is a waste of time. Play The Aielund Saga instead.
 
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TheSHEEEP said:
I recently tried to play NWN again.
I couldn't. The game was ugly as hell when it came out - and the EE didn't improve anything.
Those incredibly pixelated icons everywhere, the "large" font is just a pixelated upscaled variant of the normal font, the textures, the hover effects when leaving a level, the spells, the terribly "modern" UI, just… everything is so damn ugly.

Meanwhile, I replayed Turok recently and it was awesome.
So it definitely isn't the age that deters me, it really is the ugliness - barely played the game when it came out, either.
Click to expand...

I spent $40 on the NWN EE simply because I had money to burn.
 
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A decent game for its time, although I still dislike the limited party control and the interface. None of the campaigns I played really grabbed me.
 
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rjshae said:
A decent game for its time, although I still dislike the limited party control and the interface. None of the campaigns I played really grabbed me.
Click to expand...

purpleblob said:
Seconded, it is the best NWN module I played :) Love it.

Personally, I don't think NWN aged badly, I still play it :D
Click to expand...

Try The Girl in Ill Humour. I know the author real well.

---

The graphics on the game were at least a year out of date on release due to Bioware's legal dispute with Interplay. Its still improved if you look at the 1999 screenshots vs the 2002 ones. When the free camera hack came out you could zoom into the detail and it was a lot better. But compared to Dungeon Siege and Morrowind it was pretty bad but NWN offered a lot more than those two games did. The Vault had to shut down the haks that added DS assets to NWN which many at the time thought was perfect artwork for it.
 
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All the naysayers can kiss my A**.:kiss:

NWN 1&2 are the best D&D games ever made.

I spent thousands of hours playing both as modders continue to make new content years after their release. Not many games can say the same in the last ten years.
 
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After BG and BG2 I was so excited about NWN that after they finally realeased it it took me quite long time till I was able to admit to myself that I actually hate it. Today I can safely say this was one of the biggest disappointments in my personal gaming history.
Visuals were only part of the problem for me, but generally said, I did not enjoy time of early 3D games.
 
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I didn't care for Neverwinter nights. I really liked it at first, but then several things started to annoy me. The graphics were pretty bad, and the world was very limited. Especially in terms of how everything would start to look the same and with reused graphics everywhere and generic streets in the city, it just did not feel like a real place.

Not anything like the Baldur's Gate city in the infinity engine games. Neverwinter nights I know is very popular among some old school rpg gamers. This is one of those games where I think I am out of step with many who are rpg hardcore fans. Same with the Planescape game, most people think it was amazing, with great writing and such a philosophical masterpiece. etc. Meh. I thought it was merely "ok". Nothing special.
 
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Barghest said:
Is there a summary of best->worse ?
Click to expand...

Sorry for the mild necro, but I noticed your post today & you never got a real answer to this & I happened to read about the answer to this only yesterday while researching something completely different.

This guy here has played a gazillion NWN modules and been kind enough to report back:

https://neverwintervault.org/blog/greg/2019/mar/best-nwn-modules-according-greg-ad-2019

And he also kindly add links to other users who have made extensive lists so that you are not solely influenced by his own taste bias. Also, as Purbleblob says, some of the official modules/expansion are also great and you can rely on her recommendations there as well in this thread.
 
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