Neverwinter Nights Platinum Edition

Review: NWN Platinum Edition

System requirements (min) – P4 1.6 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 64 MB DirectX 9 compliant graphics card, 6 GB available space… yeah like u guys are gonna bother readin this

Vandy’s rig (max) - X2 4800+, 2 GB RAM, 7900GTX graphics card, 888 GB available space

My Opinion - Like the byline says NWN (include SoU and HoTU when I say NWN hereforth), was my favorite RPG of all time, until KOTOR/KOTOR 2 came along. Now it's a tie! The indescribable pleasure you get creating a character after your own heart, making him/her powerful or adding the odd quirk. Then you get to play that character controlling it (read as him/her), customising it and sharpening skills as you gain levels. Finally the setting for your character is an epic storyline, set in the fairytale like, yet immensely believable world of Forgotten Realms.

A welcome, if brief escape from reality, and it makes Tolkien's fairies, trolls and ogres seem much more believable... Well nuff rambling...here we go

GAMEPLAY (with a few story spoilers):

The essence of any good RPG - infact any good game. it isn't easy inculcating D&D rules to an RPG and keep it interesting, but NWN achieved that delicate balance of playability without the boring D&D rules making their presence felt, yet they supported gameplay. I won't get into D&D here, needless to say, its a 200+ page booklet by itself.

RPG's are all about characters after your own heart, after all who wouldn't want to be a greatsword wielding paladin, smiting evil. Some might want to satisfy the bloodlust inherent in all of us, by becoming the furious axe wielding barbarian, or even a sneaky rogue 'a blade in your gut shortiee'

The addition of prestige classes adds a layer of customisation to the class structure, which were already diverse. Throw in racial feats, and you have additional replayability

NWN gives you immense freedom with characters, multiclassing is also very possible and highly recommended at times.

A very brief look at NWN gameplay would be - build a character, visit towns to pick up quests,(OK some can be picked up outta town as well)

The Story of NWN (and the expansion packs btw) are suitably epic, though the original story was the best for me, SoU seemed too brief, while HoTU was more for the epic levels and character abilities, and less about a story.

Character interaction is enjoyable in NWN, and you'll need to interact with many secondary characters to get side quests, upon completion of which you'll recieve gold, (the currency of NWN) and of course experience points, the ladder you use to level up.

The combat system follows strict D&D style, and your fighter will swing, block and parry realistically. Of course opponents will as well. In case you are playing as a mage (wizards, sorcerers etc) you'll be busy filling up those spell slots for quick spell casting. With a dazzling array of spells with some award winning

names like Weird, destruction, finger of death.....have fun!!

SIGHTS & MUJJIK

NWN is graphically rich, Faerun comes alive across your adventures through towns, villages, hills, marshes, and caverns, to deserts and even snow capped mountains. Typically NWN has just about every conceivable locale on display.

Combat animations are great, and spell casting realls scores over swordplay. Your spells look ultra realistic, just cast fireball on an enemy, and watch as the ball curves and matches trajectory to hit him as he runs around. Summoned creatures look great, and even area effect spells and duration spells all look the job. Very well done

HoTU adds rudimentary facial animations during some cut scenes and dialogue, nothing extraordinary but welcome nonetheless

Sound wise, NWN is OK, no great shakes. Audio does what its supposed to do, a little more, and that's it. Voice acting is decent, and your character has a gamut of options AFA voice customisation goes. Adding your own voice to your character would be superb, but its not there... Wish for the moon, get mars

Overall nothing to complain on the visual and aural front. I'd give it a 6/10 rating for audio and a 7/10 rating for graphics. It was the best looking PRG of 2001 though.

Summing it up - Fan of the genre? Play it...

As usual, screenies will follow after I fire up the game at home, and play it. This little review comes from office, the result of a little spare time on my hands.

A really great game, one of my Top 10 games of all time. 9/10 all the way

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