ldonyo

I've been playing Neverwinter Nights for over a week now and I thought I would give you my impressions of the game so far.

For those of you that don't know, Neverwinter Nights is based on the 3rd Edition D&D Rules. This means that you don't have to reroll (or use a cheat) to get the stats you want. Each stat starts at 8 and you have 30 points to distribute as you see fit to create the character you want. The classes are similar to the ones in the Baldur's Gate series, ie Fighter, Cleric, Thief, and Wizard, each with their attendant sub-classes and specializations. You also have a number of skills and feats to choose from, which help to further define and individualize your character.

Once you have created your character you will go through the Prelude, a tutorial chapter, in the Official Campaign. This is the adventure that ships with Neverwinter Nights and is playable as a single- or multi-player game. Once through the Prelude, you'll begin the game in earnest.

The graphics are really amazing and scale extremely well, growing in detail and complexity when you zoom in with the camera and becoming less detailed, yet totally recognizable when you zoom out. The game can be configured to run in one of many resolution/color-depth/refresh-rate combinations, all taken from what your video card and monitor can support. There are in-game settings for everything from anisotropic filtering and antialiasing to gamma adjustments. Having tweaked all of these fairly extensively, and without having a single crash or freeze of any kind, I have to say that I am thoroughly impressed by the way Bioware handled this in the rendering engine.

The sound is also truly amazing. Most of the NPCs you talk to will speak audibly for the first sentence and provide text dialog for the rest of the conversation. The background music is great, lending a different atmosphere to each area you enter. There are other background sounds, as well, providing an even more immersive experience as you travel and explore.

I haven't had a chance to try multiplayer as yet. I want to finish the single player campaign first So far, I'd have to say that the RPG of the Year is a two horse race between Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights. They are very different playing experiences and I believe both are fantastic!

What is your opinion?

Magnum_

must...
resist...
temptation...... arghl.... in order too keep social life up and running

I'm not kidding, all these games (nwn, wc3, gta3, gp4, morrowind,...) are takin' too much time :s

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p0mpId0m

The Senile Doctor

the grafics rock... but the game is soooo demanding.. Ican't play it fluidly with anisotrophic and antialiasing @ more than 1280.


I get really frustrated when I play it, coz I have so limited time to play...what I would give to be a student again with three months of vacation... ten days of nonstop nwn playing...
I'm in chapter two now...

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OC-2-the-death
Where the Reverend is doing his Magick, all mortals be silent
Doom over the world