Unlike the Baldur’s Gate series where player took control of an entire party of characters, Neverwinter Nights focuses all it’s attention on one main character, you.
At the beginning of the quest, the game allows the player to choose the race, class, sex and physical appearance of their character. Should you so wish you can class your new creation as an entirely new species, be it Dark Elf, Half-Goblin, or Tellytubby.
The problem with this system is that when they say “anything you want”, they mean any of the pre-made models you like in any colours you fancy. Put it this way, having a very dark looking human and calling it a Hobgoblin, really isn’t going to fool anyone. This is where my faith in the game started to lag, rather than allowing you to create your own race, you get to call one of the other races something else? Whoop de doo...
“A plague on, well, everyone really....”
The game opens with our character being enlisted by the local authorities of the city of Neverwinter, who have enlisted your help to stop a virulent plague from killing everybody. In order to accomplish this, you must complete various quests, in different parts of the city. These range from quelling a prison riot to engaging bloodthirsty zombies in mortal combat. The problem with this is that the structure is perhaps too formulaic. After I solved the first two quests the pattern became obvious and unfortunately the game continues in this fashion. ”Find Four Creatures,” “Find Two Solid Leads.” Of course this is offset between various side quests, and strangely I found that there was more fun to be had completing the various jobs that the inhabitants of Neverwinter hire you for than the main, story-line, based tasks. Perhaps what made me feel this way, was the way that the single player game is severely limited in its structure, and it’s approach to you as a character.
According to Bioware, you can be as evil or as good as you want, well that’s quite true, you can indeed be a saint or a demonic engine of slaughter. The problem is that, except in certain circumstances, you get treated the same regardless. It’s very nice if you WANT to get away with it, but half the fun of being bad is that people fear and hate you. Unfortunately NWN just continues with the “Thank You hero of Neverwinter!” response from all of the important characters, regardless of whether you’ve slaughtered its inhabitants or not. It may seem a minor niggle to some, but this is an RPG, surely if you’re playing a role, the NPC’s within the game should respond accordingly to that role, acknowledging your achievements and failures alike.
Bar- bar- bar, Bar-bar-ian
The meat of veg of the game is combat, and this is where the game really shines. Neverwinter Nights takes full advantage of the Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition rules and it shows. Combat in NWN is perfectly handled, and gives the player a true sense of the dynamic game world that has been created. Simple enemies like zombies can be dispatched without too much fuss, whilst more powerful villains require careful thought on how to best tackle them. Do you power up your characters’ strength and simply charge headlong into the fray, or hang back and use magic to wear the enemy down? Better yet, you can do both by hiring yourself a henchmen to complement your character weaknesses or augment their strengths.
Although the henchmen are not bona fide, ‘Party Members’ in the classic sense, they provide much the same functions, such as healing your wounds, opening treasure chests and disarming traps etc. The idea behind these characters is that they do all the things that your own character cannot; making sure that the game does not create a challenge which is ‘impossible’. While most of the time they make themselves useful by slaughtering anything that looks at you funny, they also come with a trunk full of emotional baggage and usually a side quest to boot. Perhaps the only problem with the henchmen is the fact that you cannot control them directly, and they may occasionally get you into more trouble than you’d like (“No no no! Leave that dragon alone! Oh crap he’s spotted me now!”).
The only other problem with the henchmen appears to be their ability to die, just when you really need them, although admittedly this may be down to my game playing skill rather than their weakness.
However, the combat system has its own problems especially when playing using characters with low physical strength such as wizards and bards. The emphasis on close quarters combat makes such characters far too vulnerable in the early stages of the game, and although they can be considerably beefed up, to a point where their magical skills are devastating and spectacular, reaching such a point requires a lot of patience- perhaps to much for some players.
Finders keepers
Perhaps the best part of NWN is the ability to interact in any way you see fit with NPC’s and the environment as a whole, the game allows you to kill virtually anyone you fancy, although such homicidal rampages are discouraged, they can occasionally be rewarding, and certain quests may require you to take a blade to certain unhelpful individuals.
For example in the tavern is a man who holds an ink pot, after talking to him about it I decided I wanted it, killed him, and took it off him, I later found out that it was in fact a plot item for one of the more rewarding side quests (Unfortunately, savaging the local merchants grants no such rewards grrrrr...). It’s these neat little touches that make the game so compelling, what first appears to be an insignificant trinket often enough turns out to be a vital key in a later story-line. This approach makes the game world a fascinating place to play in; you honestly can’t tell what a character’s reaction to you is going to be, if they want you dead, or want you to do a job for them. It’s this feeling of wonder that really raises Neverwinter Nights, and gives the player a sense of existing in a carefully crafted and utterly dynamic gameworld.
Put yo’ handz up if yo’ a multi-playa...
The Multiplayer game is very similar to the single player experience, however multiple characters can attempt the single player chapters with a number of friends. The Aurora toolset bundled with the game allows for almost endless expansion allowing players to create there own single and multiplayer sagas. The toolset is simple enough to use and quests can range from ‘kill the really hard thing’ to more complex dynamic tasks involving multiple NPC’s. Those expecting an experience similar to MMORPG may be disappointed, it appears that Bioware would rather players create their own game world than to all try and cram into one single environment. This means that the multi-player experience is unstable to say the least, with level design ranging from the truly diabolical to those that make the single player campaign look bad.
