A Thorough Look at Neverwinter Nights
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 พ.ย. 2024
- 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.
__TABLE OF CONTENTS__
Neverwinter Nights 1 Main Campaign-- 00:24
Shadows of Undrentide-- 28:22
Hordes of the Underdark-- 38:23
Witch's Wake-- 52:43
Shadowguard-- 59:37
Kingmaker-- 1:03:30
Pirates of the Sword Coast-- 1:09:48
Infinite Dungeons-- 1:15:40
Darkness Over Daggerford-- 1:18:38
Wyvern Crown of Cormyr-- 1:31:37
Neverwinter Nights 2 Main Campaign-- 1:41:17
Mask of the Betrayer-- 2:10:36
Storm of Zehir-- 2:36:23
Mysteries of Westgate-- 2:51:06
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/ noahcaldwellgervais
My sister Emily took her own life last year and she loved this game; I’d always sit behind her computer chair and watch her play because I didn’t have the attention span to play it myself. The description you gave of Lady Aribeth in Hordes of the Underdark, about her “hidden anguish over the knowledge that she didn’t want to be herself”, that’s just how my sister felt. But before then I remember us doing impressions of Deekin in the most annoying pitch possible and cracking each other up and that will always be a fond memory for me. Watching and listening to this is so comforting and helps me feel a sense of closeness with her, thank you.
That's a great memory, I'm glad you have this connection still.
rip
Thank you for sharing, Natalie
Wow, very personal... Thank you so much. A few tears are shed upon reading about a short clip of you life...
No one ever really dies... it's just the vehicle that wears out.
Hey, thank you for sharing this with us. I'm sorry about your sister. I hope you and your family find peace.
I'm Stefan Gagne and I made the HeX coda, Penultima, and Elegia Eternum community modules for NWN1. I very, very nearly created a premium module for Bioware -- the HeX coda was supposed to be released as official DLC. But after a very long delay (several months) before I could get started while the corporate side of things got their house in order, it was cancelled due to conflicting IP interests with WOTC and I ended up releasing it for free. A complete mess, honestly, and one of the reasons I stopped making mods.
Also, I feel the main focus of these games wasn't really the official campaigns themselves, but the toolkit and the assets added to it with each expansion. That's where the excitement lie, and may help explain why the reviews of the base games themselves are so tepid -- people who invested in the NWN "ecosystem" did so to play community mods, with the campaigns as afterthoughts in the player's eyes.
I still remember elegia eternum all these years later. I remember at the time it was meant to be part one of a trilogy. Did Excrucio eternum and the third one ever get made?
Thank you for your work. Elegia Eternum is my favorite NWN module and one of the strongest memories I have from years of playing the game with different modules and campaigns. Whenever I make a new NWN character to run through a few modules, I play through it again. It's a shame HeX coda didn't work out.
You honestly made some of my favorite content for those games, particularly the end of Penultima Rerolled, and I was always hoping you'd get back into mods. I'm looking forward to your Arcade Spirits game pretty strongly (and anyone reading this who loved Stefan/Twoflower's mods and hasn't seen or heard of the Arcade Spirits VN, search it up!)
Excrucio was made. The third one I'd done some preproduction work on before deciding it wasn't working very well.
I thought long and hard about whether to include HexCoda, and I'm sorry if you feel snubbed. You are a beautiful creative mind and I wish the best for you.
i started to learn english because of this game years ago.i had dictionary with me all the time and i translated every sentence in that game.
Thumbs up for your dedication!
Me too. I was always alt+tabing and checking words on Babylon. Anyone remembers Babylon?
Haha, thats me with daggerfall.. just the box and manual been german
I did the same as a ten-year-old playing Police Quest!
Badass bro
The best thing about Deekin is that at the very end of Hordes when Mephistopheles is turning your companions against you, while you can mitigate this with good Persuade/Intimidate rolls or simply command them to stay on your side with their true name, Deekin will stay loyal if you just tell him that betraying you would hurt your feelings.
Deekin was one of the most memorable NPCs in all NWN. Inspired me to roll a kobold of my own for 5e. Love him.
@@Ad-im1ne too bad his brethren are nothing more than gibberish bloodthirsty marauders.
YOU WANTS DEEKIN?
@@ReallyJuicyTV Hah. Well kobolds simply are on a somewhat shifted bell curve toward evil, it's not universal.
W Deekin
Literally one of the best games ever made.
Me and my father spent more than 10 years building an entire world in the Neverwinter Nights world editor.
People have played for years on it. And we even upgraded the first time players into the new "pantheon", so when they came back almost 7 years later, they made new characters and worked on worshiping their previous characters godhood for blessings and curses.
Top 5 games of all time. Bar none.
That sounds like one of the best gaming experiences of a lifetime, well done!
That's a really nice testimony of what experiences this kind of system can bring.
great for the few, but for the many it won't appear on the greatest games list or greatest RPG lists. It isn't on mine by far
No kidding?
What's the name of this world you created? Got a download link?
Tomi cheerfully saying "Ayyyyee it's done" as he attempts to path to a trap to disarm it, and then accidentally triggering it and taking it in the face, is a family meme amongst me and my brother. That is my take away from this franchise. Love the video Noah.
That sounds like the kind of luck my brother's rogues tend to have.
It's great to see it in action and getting attention even after all these years.
I've been working on NWN DLCs back in the days, and was part of the modding group Dragonlance Adventures.
Infinite Dungeons, Kingmaker, Wyvern Crown Of Cormyr, Pirates of the Sword Coast. Many of those expansive tilesets from these DLCs where largely my work. Went under the handle 'Velmar' back then. Awesome times, with awesome people. Some of us scored jobs at Bioware, and one even being responsible for animating for KOTOR cinematics.
I still remember how much work it was to get that Drawbridge working, or the amount of heart's blood that went into getting the horses to work and look as brilliant as they now are.
Love the work this community has done, like the City Of Doors Initiative (CODI) and Dragonlance Adventures (DLA) , who then got into creating these DLCs.
The community has always been what has made NWN the best RPG to date in my opinion.
Totally amazing, thank you for your hard work, I still play NWN today. The tile sets were what made NWN NWN.
Thank you for your work. 'Kingmaker' was excellent.
When I speak with people about gaming, there are some people who tell me how many time they've beaten... say, Zelda or Final Fantasy, how they beaten the game for eighteen time and they can play those games for years.
That's when I show them NWN and say, I've been returning to this game for nearly two decades now, and I STILL have new things to play, new campaigns to beat, new modules to explore, new stories... At some point, the community recreated so many official 3.5 modules, you could pretty much solo play (or explore with multiplayer!) the entire 1 - 20 lvl campagin, starting with Sunless Citadel! This has been the best purchase, the game that keeps on giving, and Role Playing communities on perpetual servers beat any MMO I've ever played.
i agree
People these days talk about long videos they watch again and again like a favourite film, but for me this is the one I keep coming back to. Three hours of detailed, earnest, personal and compelling writing on a lost corner of RPG history. It's like a documentary being narrated next to me on the couch. Thanks, Noah.
What he said, yea
I'm so happy Noah is getting more and more traction. The man has... quite literally... the best scriptwriting I've ever heard on youtube.
in the beginning, when he says it "isn't" as classic.. well look at the views and likes now :)) pretty classic to me
Look for the 7 hour retrospective videos of morrowind and oblivion idk the name of the creator rn
This one is my favorite.. even lost a job to it 😂
To this day I consider Mask of the Betrayer perhaps THE most underrated gem in RPG history. So far above the base campaign.
100000%, yes, absolutely. And what an unexpected addition too, after the wtf ending of nwn2
Yeah mask of the betrayer was excellent
Can it be played and enjoyed without bothering with any of the other NWN games?
@@FSVR54 I'd say so. It levels new chars to 18ish and references events and characters from nwn2 but. Its core plot and themes are standalone.
@@FSVR54 in my opinion yes, absolutely! the previous installment, the Main game, kinda uh... kinda finalized that part of the story. you're not missing out 😅
"I AM A HAWFLEEN THEEF, AH AM AH AM" is probably the greatest thing I've heard in your videos. Thank you so much.
Randomly skipped to that part of the video on first watch lmao
Hes tomi undergallows the halfling theif you get in base game campaign.
Yeah that is probably one of my favorite random quotes I imitate when I need a good laugh 😆
"I'VE LOST MY MAGICAL SUPPOSITORIES" is my personal favorite
"He's a can opener with a backstory" made me chuckle too
Your script writing is so incredibly good. Half the joy of watching your videos is hearing your word choices. It feels very clever and musical.
The repeated references to KotOR are really making me hope there's a thorough look at it on the horizon.
Me tooo ^_^
Fucking yeah. I would love to hear noah ramble about how kotor games try to subvert the dark side/light side narrative of star wars story, like with the plot twist of kotor 1 then especially kotor 2's kreia.
The twist in Kotor 1 always messed with me. Not exactly just because I was surprised, but it always made me question if my character was even... Like a real person? How much of his personality was just programming?
Like it's always kind of felt to me in a lot of games in the first place that your character tends to be so good that they've got this unreal feeling to them. That no one really would ever go around acting like that, and I think Kotor 1 really capitalized on that feeling to such a degree I almost went dark side halfway through out of sheer petty defiance.
@@Demonjazz420 consciousness is really fragile. That's really why i never believe in souls. The self really is just the arrangement of brain cells and chemicals whithin, plus the input from all over your body. They are reallu fragile, behavior, personality and all tour personal quirks can be manipulated, and easily destroyed, literally and figuratively.
I mean, your gut bacteria can affect the food you are craving, in turn can affect your mood and personallity, how can the soul be eternal outside your body when even a unsignificant chemicals secreted by unicellular cell life can change you?
Kreia approves dont let the force manipulate you into being a good guy for goods sake only if you really want.
"The increasingly mechanically minded BioWare that will be releasing Anthem soon"
😬
This didn’t age well did it 💀
@@hamil3115 Anthem was well named. As long as you added the correct subtitle - Anthem: To The Death Of A Company
Not entirely their fault. Everything went downhill after EA took over.. As with every developer copmany that EA consumed..
RIP Bioware.
@@antonyduhamel1166
Bioware, as in the company that made such excellent RPGs as NWN, BG, KOTOR, ME, and DA (among other gems like Jade Empire), is long dead (the talent from these games is almost all gone, moved to greener pastures as it were). This is what EA does, it takes a company that makes great games, and slowly hollows them out while driving them towards "mainstream" format abomination's in the vague shape of our loved ones. When they are milked dry and the talent has been thoroughly squandered, they sacrifice that company to the dark gods to fuel the sales of their newest "insert cloned sports game number 20XX here".
They killed Visceral and forced Dead Space into the grave (and DS3 was STILL GOOD despite their machinations, such tragedy), they consumed Bioware's innards and now possess it's shell like corporate crab, and many other studios have similarly met their fate. The worst part is, Bioware can still make good games, even the less well recieved games like Inquisition, had so much potential and it's clear real talent went into it (the whole MMORPG mechanics schtick was clearly appended to the game at the behest of the executives).
Bioware is just another example that tells us corporate management should stay far away from game development and simply focus on what they know. Because EA is the antithesis of King Midas, everything they touch rots away and loses all value.
This is probably my most rewatched video on youtube. Words cannot describe how much i love your channel aswell as NWN1. Thank you for the great content Noah.
Same for me.
im back here again holy shit man. this video is just so nostalgic for me, even though i only discovered it back in 2021, when i started playing nwn1. i played nwn1 and watched this video through some of the hardest yet strangely calm times in my life. its still my most played game on steam and this video is still probably my most rewatched on youtube. thank you noah, you got me into crpg games forever.
As a DM, the description about campaigns that never come together feels very real :(
Me: *plans an into Battletech scenario and plays it with friends*
Everyone: That was amazing, we should do that again.
Me: *plans a Battletech RPG campaign*
Everyone: Battletech is lame. I'd rather play D&D.
Me: 😐
I remember creating a world where splinters of time got pulled into a dying universe, where the raw energy of an ancient wizard fighting against the forces of entropy itself created a massive red star that all these different worlds orbit. But all that made way into a slightly more intimate *first* adventure (not the first tabletop game for any of the players, mind you.) Where the party was tasked with working out the disappearance of Queen Victoria, who had become an unseen protector goddess to a powerful, Magitek New England empire. The party made their way into a secret marble maze under London whilst looking for suspects, where nobles unsatisfied with the queen's hands off rulership decided to make their own nation, where the laws they wrote bent even the very stone to their will.
It all ended after my older sister wanted to DM, and ended up buying a boxed adventure set that we played instead, which was mostly just killing zombies in a crypt, until there was suddenly a super powerful necromancer that I'm pretty sure she homebrewed in, that ended up wiping the floor with the entire party. Xander the Brave, level 2 bard, will be missed. :,(
i found this game for cheap in a store when i was like 11 and i spent hours playing through it. it was my first rpg experience, my first dnd experience, and honestly i was blown away. it's still one of my favourite titles, i love it so much and i always come back to it and replay it every couple of years (particularly hordes of the underdark). but as you mention at the beginning, i hardly ever see it mentioned anywhere. needless to say i am so glad to have 3 hours of content dedicated to it, even if it probably won't be 100% positive. i'm just glad seeing this title talked about at all!
I was playing though the first campaign and I definitely... I definitely understand why people DONT like it, but uh.... it's actually way more beyond that one thing. You can do so much in this game it's actually incredible
I loved Neverwinter Nights. It may not be as famous in the general gaming community but I think it's still got a special place of honour in the modding community.
it is a classic NWN 1, shit man it's multiplayer modules are the bedrock and the best RP servers almost anywhere. I been on this game for about 10 years.
I love this game could i join you in the multiplayer?
Best game ever made
@@763jtc nwnlist.herokuapp.com or google NWNList Scry for all the active unique servers, the webpages usually describes what addons they need.
I've watched or listened to thousands of hours of gaming youtube over the years. I always come back to this video. It is the finest game analysis on the platform
Your totally right, top quality right here
And this is free. Absolutely amazing content here.
The intro song is Broadsword by Jethro Tull, folks. Just in case you were wondering.
I'd comment about something else in the video, but 3 hours is so daunting that I've only made it past the intro.
I see that you are looking for a different game than Dota.
It would be very entertaining to see a video of "The Only Way To Play Wierd Open World Turn Based Role Playing Video Game From Early 2000''.
Also Erick, we all love you. Don't leave youtube pls.
I was just listening to Locomotive Breath...
Erick Wright Greetings from the dota world.
no its backstreet boys and i want you back
This was an amazing trip down memory lane. In highschool, I spent hundreds of hours in NWN, particularly in its user-made module community; I even made one myself! It was _horrible,_ but that's fine - I'm someone with no interest in programming or game design, and haven't gone anywhere near the field since, so I consider it a victory that Aurora was such a simple and approachable game engine that it got me, a rando with no computer background, to build levels, set quest triggers and write dialogue trees.
You've wisely chosen to restrict yourself to the official content, or we'd never hear the end of it. However, I still remember my awe at discovering the custom module community; my bandwidth was so bad at the time that I could never download the more famous and expansive campaigns, so I stuck to the shorter ones, the most highly rated of which were the Chris Huntoon horror modules. Some of my most vivid memories from NWN come not from the BioWare campaigns or even the expansion, but from those bite-sized ghost stories, made all the more effective by the limitations of the engine shifting the burden to the player's imagination.
SNS,you captured the uncapturable greatness that eludes all the bitter,cynical attempts by trolls to meme this Black Swan of a brilliant game series as if dropped in to time by a race from the future
This game was my life and is for many people
Noah graces us like a dream, a wisp of happiness until he fades away for a while. But man, does give us something substantial to chew through when he delivers. Thank you Noah, you are incredible!
Mask of the Betrayer is a masterpiece. I'm glad I hit all of the Safia story naturally, given how much is so easily missable, but I missed out of The Dove almost entirely.
The NWN2 OC pretty much just tackles "What does it mean to be a hero?" Everyone is a hero of their story except for Garius funnily enough. Even the King of Shadows, in his long backstory, is the hero that protected ancient Illfarn. Khelgar becomes a legend of his clan, Elanee can save the druids, Neeshka literally learns that sticking to your morals and loyalties despite it being hard, is heroism in its own right, and she always admired that you were a hero, now look, she is too.
MotB tackles Love. But from every angle. Love of God is faith, when does that get challenged? Love of a person is romantic love, what challenges that? Love of family is an oath, an honorific love, what challenges that? and so on. Beautifully crafted, and so well thought out, both serving their respective purposes so well
There's a hilariously silly way to kill the dragon in Shadows. If you lure it out the bull pen area and then trigger the stampede, the bulls actually have enough numbers to kill the dragon usually by themselves and easily with your help. It's hilarious and it's an experience that's stuck with me for over a decade now.
As much as I love the explorations of major franchises on this channel, Noah is absolutely right that there's something truly exquisite about looking deep into the only-just-remembered, not-quite-classic games as well. It's that pathfinder feeling, but in an academic sense.
There are a lot of games which are at least interesting in how they fail.
What? Pathfinder is still the second most popular tabletop rpg. It's being played more than 3.5 itself which hold the third spot, actually 3 times more. The difference between "D&D" products and literally everything else is huge. (4th place and forward. Though 4E is completely dead.) This is from statistics from virtual tabletop services and online polls.
To clarify, I meant pathfinder as in "one who finds new trails," not Pathfinder the RPG.
In essence, it's the feeling of exploring the untraveled woods around your home, as opposed to the well-worn hiking trail a fifteen-minute drive away.
This game leading up to HotU was such a Black Swan that it seems all the big media gaming complex were befuddled and just pretended to not recognize it as it became huge with ADD players,yes?
the best thing about NWN - the custom modules. it boggles the mind that you can get tens of hours of content from one module alone, and there are entire series of them, catered to all different classes, alignments, and play styles. there are full fledged campaigns made by one or two people that are miles better than any of the premium stuff.
right now I’m playing through Almraiven and it’s been nothing short of amazing.
I loved NWN as a kid but I was the only one out of my friends to play it or even really know what it is. So all the memories I took away from the game were kept to myself.
So having this games memories be something I had never shared with anyone and hearing Noah belt out “IM A HALFLING THIEF I AM I AM” broke me harder than any other line he’s delivered. Glad to see someone else with a deep-seated resentment of Tomi after all these years 😂
I can think of no higher compliment for you than to say that you have greatly enriched my life. I return to your videos time and again to reconsider some of the broadest strokes of my life. Your voice is an old friend in this house, and I consider your thoughts with the same depth as Blake or that scoundrel S. Johnson. You are the Jack Kerouac of video game commentary and will be remembered as such
Only have one Rogue? Excuse me Sir, but creating a wizard/sorcerer with Pixie familiar and bringing Li'nu as companion gives you the 4 basic component for a well rounded party:
Tank/Meatshield: summons
Locks/Traps: Pixie
Healer/Support: Linu
Blaster/Crowd control: your arcane character.
That's how I comfortable beat the game
Needless to say that Linu is (for NWN standards at least) a much more interesting character than Tomi.
EDIT: also, great video, I sat through the whole thing and really enjoyed it.
Lmao you'd probably do well with the more difficult online servers
Wizard/Sorcerer has Find Traps/Knock spells to be undependable from rogues and pixies, or a f*cking fireball to bash through the door and summons to trigger traps. You don't need a rogue in a party if you're a wizard/sorc, even in the most trap-heavy modules. Not even pixie. Take a goddamn panther instead.
I played this game recently (2019) and enjoyed it wholeheartedly. I still thought the innovative mechanics created some excitement and playability - even today. I will return to it in a few years, I’m sure. Thanks for appreciating this game to the point of showcasing its pros and even its cons.
To be fair it is absolutely not neccessary to take Tomi along even if you're not a rogue, I've played through the whole thing more times than I care to count and as far as I remember I've only taken Tomi once (having no more love for him than you do). The vast majority of traps in the game will not instantly kill you or even do severe damage, and mostly anything locked can also be bashed down or blown up with a different class.
For what it's worth, after a half-dozen plays-through, my favorite team was definitely my Half-Elf Rogue and Sharwyn the Bard. Seriously. If you build her just right, you are goddamned buffed to the *hilt* for every fight. /memories :D
I ran a barbarian and hired Daelan for the fun of beating everything to a pulp.
I think I've used Linu the most out of all the companions, having someone along for buff/heals helps a lot plus the OC is PACKED with undead so clerics are just generally good.
I usually play as a sorcerer or wizard and take the Pixie familiar to handle all roguely duties. That way I can take the half orc barbarian guy as my companion and have a meat shield to hide behind.
Could also take a different familiar though and just handle the rogue stuff with judicious application of the Knock and Find Traps spells.
@@chriswhinery925 me too and when the Pixie and Daelan can't cope, poymorph to an Umberhulk.
3 hours? noah, you brilliant man you. this makes my day and its only 9am. time to watch.
Neverwinter Nights 1 is my favorite game of all time, since I played it in the early 2000s and still now, almost 20 years later.
Same , honestly if the PvP arena servers were still up I'd still be having fun on them
Amazing, amazing work.. I love these channels that discuss and analyze games as in depth as this, keep it up!
Noah's writing IMO is the best.
@@davidsabillon5182 Joseph for me, especially his newer stuff! Whitelight also really stepped up his writing style
@@Corrupted nigga i saw you on joseph's a lot too, you not lying
This is my favorite video of yours to date, surpassing the Baldur's Gate retrospect. This was such a massive under taking and I appreciate the time and effort you put into making this.
5:50 Eh, that point about dialogue boxes isn't fair. It's because you're playing at a higher resolution. They weren't designed to scale with modern resolutions. On launch it would've covered a third of your screen. And when you had shops open, shop + inventory would take up above 90% of the non-UI screen estate.
yeah i hate it when people complain about text being to small because they were using a ui mod that made the resolution bigger then what it was suppose dto be.
Of the entire Neverwinter Nights series, those that are set in "epic levels" I've found most compelling and enjoyable.
I prefer Hordes of the Underdark over Neverwinter Nights main campaign. And Mask of the Betrayer over Neverwinter Nights 2. Their clever use of mythology, multiverse and setting's history and character drama. I know of Aribeth because of the NWN1 prologue. I would never forget Lady Aribeth de'Tylmarande after meeting her among the frozen wastes of Cania...
The Premium modules for NWN hadn't got localized here officialy, so, sadly I got to them a bit too late to try them out, but few of the fan modules I've enjoyed immensely.
Though, NWN1 forever will be infinitely closer to my heart, than its sequel, as much as Skyrim could never replace me the dusty shores of Vvardenfell...
"Your old pal Tommy isn't real as a person or a character, he's a can-opener with a back story" 😆
I always play a Rogue, I've never played anything else in the game so maybe that's why I love it so much :P
I just need to tell you how much I absolutely love your character names. I find myself pausing briefly to catch each name, going "oh, that's my favourite," and then you hit me with "Paulie Wannacracker" and "Gary Indiana" and I find myself wondering what other names you've come up with for your tabletop lives.
Also, as always, fantastic video from start to end. Thank you so much for making these.
I'm a big fan of "Ford Ranchero"
Noah "This Is My Biggest Project Yet" Gervais 😍😬
But is it JUSTIFIED?!?!
"so far" would be the better term.
@@broadcaststsatic and now there is even more with enhaned verison
I remember when i was 11, got the game, talked my father and brother who was 10 atthe time to play it with me and they fell in love just as fast as i did. played through main campin, hordes of the underdark several times and shadows of underdeep (probs messed up the modules names, its been a while). something about how simple it was to play yet complicated rules that made me think for hours when i tried to make a character as strong as possible or when we tried to make the perfect party....I spent hundreds of hours playing this game and I dont regret a single one. sure it doesnt stand up to baldurs gate or planescape but as you said this game is a platform. Made to show you what you can do with the this tool. it was so ahead of time. I hate when people give this game shit but all your points were well justified in the greater perspective.
When I came across this video, I thought... "Whose going to listen to 3 hours worth of discuss?" Well, I guess... ME!!!
Well done sir! This is the first time I've come across one of your videos. I just got into playing Storm of Zehir. I had played NWN2 when it first came out. Played well into Act 2, but never finished it. Had messed with Storm of Zehir several years back. But only a few hours in. Just discovered Kaedrin's Class Content, so decided to give it another try. I'm now well into Act 2 of SoZ, and I do believe I will finish this one.
Because I've been looking at a few NWN2 videos as a guide for a handful of things (namely how to craft in SoZ)... I reckon this particular video popped up in my feed. I'm so glad it did. I found this video thoroughly entertaining. And I loved hearing your take on each edition.
I love the structure of SoZ. I love the World Map. I've never really played paper D&D. But I've played some tabletop RPG games like Descent. I really enjoy the "campaign" editions of Descent where your party can freely travel around an open world map. Your party has to make decisions together on where you'll go next. And of course your destination... and the experiences while journeying there... help determine how your adventure unfolds. It is the adventure. SoZ feels very much like that experience. And I absolutely love that you get to create each character in your party. In my imagination I've given each a backstory. So for me, I'm getting to have my very own World Map RPG adventure... without needing to carve out the time to get a handful of adults together to play PnP D&D or Descent.
I did skip over the latter part of your SoZ segment, as to not spoil the second half of the game. I'm looking forward to checking out the Baldur's Gate video that you done the same for. For me, Baldur's Gate II is the greatest RPG of all time. Might be the greatest game of all time. It's a special one. I have found memories in college with myself and my two best friends adventuring together in BGII.
That's one of the major things that extremely frustrates me with these new RPGs that all keep claiming to be BG predecessors... yet none of them have multiplayer. BG done it back in 1998. So we are now 20 years on... in a world that's built on online interaction... and these developers can't make their "Baldur's Gate clone" as a multiplayer game. Mind boggling!!! Anyways, sorry for the rant. I had to say it. It's all I can think of as these new RPGs come out. And while I'm currently playing SoZ solo... it puts a big smile on my face knowing that several of my friends can join in and enjoy the adventure with me.
But back on topic... this is a great video! I thoroughly enjoyed it! You should take great pride in this year long effort that came out fantastic! Thanks for sharing it all with us!
Three hours ago I would have scoffed at the thought of a three hour video on nwn, yet here I am and time well spent. Such a great quality video, masterfully written and no waffling whatsoever. Thank you!
I spent about a decade playing in persistent worlds. It was the most amazing gaming experience of my life. With the tools they gave you, to build your own world and real people could come and interact through RP or PvP or whatever, anything was possible.
One thing I wished you had talked about with Kaelyn the Dove is that she's a mirror image of Trias from PS:T - a betrayer of the heavens who actually truly is altruistic and noble. Clearly the same archetype as Trias and Atris from KOTOR2, all written by Chris Avellone. I'm not sure how to take it that his last take on the Righteous Betrayer is someone who is for once utterly sincerely good.
MotB isn't quite my favorite game ever, but it is one of about 3 games that when I'm playing it I feel like it was made just for me.
Just have to say, I have gone through all of his content several times now. Was a great way to pass the time while I had to sit on my ass for 7 months after a major knee surgery. Actually found a few good channels during that. Civvie, while on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, is another great channel.
Dude, Civvie11 is so good! I love both him and Noah’s channels!
This is the second game I own most: 3 copies bought, against 5 for BG2...
I actually enjoyed the original campaign: the plague, spread by the clerics, the unjust execution of Fenthik, the fall of Lady Aribeth... I particularly enjoyed the part where you had to judge the guy that wanted to be a good lich and the demon that tricked him into slaying all the village children.
I'll try to be brief here, but I really think that Neverwinter Nights 2, in its complete form with the expansions, is an incredible experience and one I remember very fondly. It's a forgotten gem, a comfortable little time capsule of 2007-2008. I know it's just nostalgia speaking but I think both the first game in its enhanced form and the second full games are perfect in and of themselves. Perfection in its strange imperfections.
When I was a kid, my friend let his mom's boyfriend play NN on his computer. In a month, his mom and her boyfriend were broken up. The dude couldn't stop paying NN.
NWN is a classic to me. I love these games. I just want Obsidian to make another one, weh.
My dream game: Actual NWN, in a modern engine.
The closest thing we have is Fantasy Ground I think ? Not sure, I don't actually play it.
But I am not sure a "full modern NWN" would work as a business model. It would be niche, it would be costly, it would spawn free content... a true financial nightmare !
I never said it would happen. But then... Bethesda makes games that spawn free content, and we all seem to eat that like candy, so maybe it's not an impossibility. Also, D&D is hardly what I'd call Niche these days!
I hope Obsidian never touches the legacy of NWN ever again. They're screwed up massively with NWN2..
Yeah, I really don't understand the hate. Noah makes some fair points throughout, but I liked the story. Maybe he's looking at it from the perspective of a hardened grognard that's been overexposed to the genre's cliches and thus becomes easily irritated by them; I liked the story of NWN when I first played it closer to release, and even when I replayed it recently I still liked it.
The single party member hard limit is the only thing I wholeheartedly agree sucked big time for single player play through.
Who even needs sleep when you can listen to Mr. Caldwell-Gervais talk about video games for three hours
this guy really is in a league of his own in contrast to other youtubers
Watching this at 3:42am. I agree
Would love to see a review of Pathfinder: Kingmaker.
I remember watching my dad play this game when I was little. I'd sit beside him on my little stool and watch him play a ton of games you talk about on this channel (F.E.A.R., American McGee's Alice, etc.). I clicked this video because I vaguely remember going through story beats, which I don't remember the context, but just remember how they made us feel. And joking with him about Deekin, who looked like one of our dogs. He's been passed away for a few years now, but he was sick my whole life. He was almost always bedridden, and he played video games to pass the time. The man 100% Witcher 3 at the peak of his illness.
I'm rambling, point is, this video and many others you make bring back many buried, wonderful memories. Thank you.
I recently started playing some fan modules for a Neverwinter Nights 2. I got to say, my love for this game is amplified tenfold seeing the amount of love and care that some of these fans have created in these modules. My favorite one by far is a module called Crimmor.
Best game ever made probably, played for years, modded the shit out of it, still finding new ways to play and im not bored
I have friends who I played D&D with all through college, but who have still never touched any BioWare games before KotOR. All through college, when Mass Effect was in full force and we all gushed about the series, I kept begging them to play my babies Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment. They never did. Downcast, nearly a decade later, I listened to your videos on those games... and it's brought me great joy.
I never played Neverwinter Nights, and yet, having watched this video, I now feel almost like I have. I don't have 200+ hours to sink into anything anymore... but I feel like I have a satisfying understanding of this important piece of RPG history. Thus, I am going to have my friends watch/listen to your videos on BG and PS:T. They may never play them, but at least they will appreciate them, and I can rest in peace. Thank you, Noah.
this is just one of those videos i never get tired of rewatching
YES! This was one of the first RPG games i've ever played and it still holds a serious place in my heart. I love it so much despite how hard it is.
One of the best parts of my childhood. Not sure if that’s sad or cool but now I have this pfp and I’m always happy when someone recognizes it!
This is such a comfort video.
I love coming back to it so ofter.
3 hours.. I'm so happy
When you want to learn *almost* everything about a game series completely, you watch one of your videos
3 hours covering a series...not just ONE game like Joseph Anderson would drone on about.
Difference between Noah and Joseph is Noah understand the medium as a game and explain why the game itself is what it is and how it end up like that, with a deep analysis of RPG storyteling.
I have the feeling that Joseph on the other hand didn't understand what the games really are. He don't play them, he "work" them. Most of the time his critique is based around literal nitpicking and failure to understand the game premise. There are exceptions like his Edith Finch videos. That's maybe because Edith Finch is a walking simulator and instead of his stubbornness to do "100%CompletionistIWillDoItMyWayTheRunAndThenBeCompletelyBurnedOut" he was forced to play the game as it was intended. Also mandatory reference to his baby and dark souls.
I am going to watch every moment of this. I know he already covered VTM:B as half of a 42min video but I would love to see a 3h essay.on it.
To be fair, the reference to his experience as a father in his Edith Finch analysis is one of the most heartfelt moments in his videos.
Even with its short comings, I adored NWN2 and its expansions. Obsidian has a special place in my heart with KOTOR 2, NWN2, and Fallout New Vegas.
To bad they fall too.
"...traps." Sorry, is this a non-monk word that I have too much dexterity to understand? :D
Yeah i play it as a monk too and had no problem with traps. And you can just punch opern nearly everything if you have a bit of elemental damage.
This and all the saving throws and resistances. I remeber running a righter and was complaining how he always gets stunned by everything. Later I played a monk and was pleasantly surprised how,for the most part, he is not affected by anything.
Alternatively play a druid and just run your animal companion ahead of the party.
This is a masterwork exploring both titles and all the canon DLCs. You sir are awesome. So much depth. Wow I am blown away. I reloaded NWN 1 just to play the two new scenarios based on your review. Thank you!
And now I am part of an online community of play still going strong after all these years. It is very active and I couldn't be happier. Look up Calanar Elfriend on the Forgotten Realms Cormyr usually in Greatgaunt or theirabouts. This is all thanks to this in depth review. Again thank you.
"...but no, instead, it's just me and Tommy in our two-man production of No Exit."
That was too damn funny.
NWN2's ending is literally "rocks fall, everyone dies."
Technically, The expansion pack, Mask of The Betrayer, IS the definitive ending of NWN2.
Wow, this is probably not the first video where you've used it, but the audio for this anaysis is so much better than your old stuff. Really crisp.
What a damn masterpiece of a video this is - rarely, if ever, has a video essay reignited my passion for a game, book or movie quite like this one. Very much appreciated.
I am only 45 minutes in, but I had to leave a comment, because I would not even be this far into the video if your insight was not so clear, and so well formatted. Your musings on this game, Dungeons and Dragons, and the crpg genre as a whole, are a pure joy to listen to, and I've never even played NN.
The 3 hours were quite daunting for a game I understood so little of at the time. But well it accompanied me through cooking, eating and a bit of casual gaming, had a great time. It truly felt like an adventure audio book at times.
"Hooray for me and the sound of distant traffic"
What a brilliant line sir.
Thank you so much for your amazing gift of the written word, please write a damn book
Noo, I hate reading.
@@ProfesserLuigi dude, obviously he would recite the audio book for it, on board now?
Me: I would like to introduce you to my religion
You: What is your religion?
Me: "Insert Noah's Audiobook"
You: I'm interested
this might sound wierd but i know i'm not alone in this - i play one of his videos at night, for whatever reason the combination of his voice and the writing helps me fall asleep. must have listened to his entire catalog at least 3 times this way.
@@MaceValor His calming voice can do that
I'm playing NWN right now and I really like the story. It's simple, yes, but alot of the quests inside the story are really fun. I love the one about the two brothers that are stuck in a time pocket because of the horrible sacrifice one of the brothers did to a demon, and it's your job to figure out what happened. And when you meet the demon he's like "Yeah, I'm a bad guy, but please cast your judgment on the brothers fast so I can get out of this time prison." Also the inventory sounds are pure nostilgia.
Addendum, the last part of the story is stupid tho. I just wanted it to end, the constant hissssssing drove me insane. But I would say 3/4th of the main campaign is good. While the expansions rule and are fun throughout.
@@wiiseeyou the constant cats meowing and hissing in Port Llast annoying.
I come back and watch this video every few months. It never gets old. God bless you for the amazing work on this channel. It is appreciated by many.
Watching game reviews like this reminds me of how little I pay attention to noodly details while playing them.
I've played through Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights a couple times each and loved them.
I never bothered to form an opinion on graphics, story, characters, or other aspects of game design. I just played, passed the time, and had fun.
I both feel embarrassed for being too ignorant to notice such things but also fortunate to be able to enjoy a game without being distracted by those things.
It's not ignorance, its engagement. You don't notice these things because you're not just playing the game, you're part of the game. One of the magical things about the medium is that you can easily be sucked into the world as a participant of the story. Your Bhaalspawn isn't just that guy, he's your place, you carved out in the world. Your champion of Neverwinter isn't just some adventurer, she's the window into the world for you, and you help shape that world, if only in mechanical ways.
@@SageofStars Dude 100% I couldn’t have said it better myself. I love RPGs but strong narrative is honestly secondary for me. Primarily I want to be drawn into the world and feel like my character. If one of the NPCs isn’t fully justified in the decisions they make, that’s fine to me, as long as I can make my own character decisions and remain immersed.
@@SageofStars Excellently said
"I can't find my magical suppositories..." If I live a thousand years I swear I WILL find a way to use this statement.
Why wait? Say it tomorrow
I'm fond of NWN. I especially like that it was multiplatform, supporting Macintosh and Linux natively as well as Windows. It was also translated into many languages, and I have used it to help me learn foreign languages. In addition to all of that, it really did offer a good multiplayer experience, and I enjoyed playing it with a friend in college.
I run gentoo Linux and I still have NWN in my games library (one of the gentoo package builders got it working and it hasn't broken yet)
The original campaign of NWN2 had a really dark ending.
I mean, I was hoping to see a more soft side of Qara after all the adventures together, to see Grobnar become a famous bard, to enjoy some time with Elanee but...they just died.
The heroes you came to know and love sacrificed themselves, and all their hopes/projects are ended by a collapsed ceiling.
A game that I absolutely loved hit me quite hard.
Me too man. It’s kind of funny, I think of the original campaign as like it’s own a video game, and the expansion Mask of the Betrayer as a sequel to that game.
I blame George Ziets who was creative director of MOTB. He wanted MOTB to be dark and wanted to break away from classic high fantasy of the main campaign. So it was probably his call to kill of the original companions to add more 'dark' to his game. I was disappointed with MOTB because it was not the follow up story that should have came after the main campaign. It should have been its own game entirely.
@@andrewvincent7299 I agree that MOTB was too dark, however I must say it had great moments and ideas, such as the queue of bad guys waiting for the slumbering coven, or teaming up with a blue dragon during the final assault.
I came for the NWN, growing up with it; I came back because Noah's voice is incredibly soothing and this review is a perfect aid for relaxation and sleep. It's just... fucking great.
Was just recently looking at screenshots of this game and expansions, I’m amazed how good the lighting shadows and textures still look today. Even for real time graphics. All the little details in the texture work is so well done. Beautiful timeless games 😊
I need to sleep! Why would you give me over 3 hours at this time of night!? Hands down my favorite video game content creator. I've had trouble finding longform videos on Neverwinter so this is really appreciated.
>Be me at 1AM when a new NCG shows up in notifications
>"I'll just check it out to see what the subject is and then crash."
>Its Neverwinter Nights
>ohshit.jpeg
Looks like Im here for the next 3 hours. Sorry co workers.
Neverwinter night is an engine first alias Aurora that completly shaped the face of crpg games. A enhanced version was used by CDProject to create the first Witcher. It tell us how powerfull was that engine
Modified versions of the Aurora engine was used to make NWN 2 and it's two expansions, The Witcher 1, and Dragon Age Origins and it's sequel. It was a great engine, it's a shame it was abandoned.
Noah you could've totally just killed all the mephits in that puzzle and sorted them by moving their bodies. I can't believe anyone actually did it the other way
I'm revisiting this video after deciding to download this game again and bear with the bugs it had. This is definitely the best video about Neverwinter Nights on the internet. Hope you're doing well my man❤
When this game came out I was 13 and I will forever Remember the Charwood segment. You might say it left me
Charred
Your Story telling and narration is pure perfection, You should do audio books, you have the voice for it
Me: "I cant find anything interesting to listen to for a couple hours..."
Noah: "I gotchu fam."
5 years ago you created this masterpiece of a video. Thank you mate. I do love NWN and NWN2.
this guy has been talking nonstop for 3 hours, talk about dedication
Having a pixie familiar as a wizard that can unlock and disarm is essential. The other companions are much better than Tomi imo.
Yes. This. I wonder if Noah didn't get that in 3 playthroughs, is his point can be considered correct at all.
@noah you did a great job on recording 3 hour teletexted podcast, and i am only on 30 minute mark but sorry all i hear is "nwn is not a classic". I disagree. It is, but it is just not as old as bg. Yes its nieche game, as dnd is in general. And you can consider the campagne being bad and cliche. But dnd is also rooting on those cliches and nwn was the best rpg of its time and still is(not the dragon age).
@@ostelaymetaule NWN1 is pretty bad. I'm playing through it again for the third time since like 2005. The basic campaign is mundane and the problem with the traps is they're very strong relative to the difficulty in disarming them. If there's a trap which can dump 70 damage on me at level 5 I probably should not be able to disarm it.
When people talk about nwn they mean SOTU and not the OC. When people talk about NWN2 they talk about MOTB and not the other stuff.
If you want to criticise his choice to use tomi everywhere, blame that on tomi being the only thief character instead of more diverse cast, in an RPG and the difficulty in playing a rogue yourself and the lack of trap disposal on other classes.
@@ostelaymetaule It's definitely a classic!
Glad I saw this comment, I really want to give this game a look (It's a shame it didn't even reach the Jade Empire level of fame and repute, let alone the KOTOR ones) but didn't love the idea of playing a rogue or being locked to one companion. Wizard sounds fun though, presumably I'll be taking a fighter to get beaten up instead of me
@@RaidsEpicly I'm playing through it myself right now. I went a Conjuration Wizard with Pixie as a familiar to lockpick, a bunch of Conjuration summons as meat shields and Daelan Red Tiger Barbarian as the damage. Pixie unlocks everything in the city of Neverwinter so far.
Neverwinter Nights 1 is definitely a classic
yeah, i have a bit of a problem with his opening statements
@@legitcrack6438I don’t think he’s making a statement of quality, just a descriptive statement that NWN isn’t talked about nearly as much as games like BG2, TES5 or TW3.
I adore NWN 1 (and 2 to a lesser extent) but I have to admit that these games didn’t have the same impact on gaming as a whole than some other rpgs before or after.
Never finished the main story, remember playing the expansion about the underdark, play it like 50 times every time with different build always with that funny kobold companion. Best companion in the entire game.
Deekin!!! Best companion
Neverwinter Nights 2 should definitely be a classic. It's Obsidian's most underrated game I'd say, relative to how good and lengthy it is. Pillars of Eternity doesn't feel as much of a Baldur's Gate successor as NVN2 does, and yet no one seems to remember NVN2 much, sadly. Ppl should definitely rediscover NVN2, they just don't make RPGs like that anymore.
Honestly if you closely inspects screenshots of these older games and really look at all the little rocky textures and everything they still look amazing to me. I have a newfound appreciation for these games.
I'd put nwn 1 and 2 with their expansions as true classics but my bias is my love of the Forgotten Realms world and my familiarity with 3rd edition (and 3.5 for nwn2) dungeons and dragons made the leveling so much more easy to understand. The expansions and later nwn 2 took so many of the problems with the first game and solved them and it's stunning how faithful they could remain to the table top rules and rolling for everything from Initiative to Spot Checks, Attack Rolls and saving thows.
The thing that stands out after so many playthroughs though- sure you put mass effect and dragon age as classics yet each class and prestige class in nwn plays differently, the skill choices you make create a wildy divergent play style, so many more options then bioware would ever offer in subsequent games from KOTOR to Dragon Age to Mass Effect.
The main benefit of this game is its implementation of D&D, the awesome toolset with scripting and a massive nwnvault of community content. Rose of eternity series of modules were great and made by one guy with some contributors. I also played one with a horror hellraiser theme, certainly enjoyable and different experiences to be found in the nwnvault.
Lets not forget the online persistent worlds either, depending on which ones you played there was either quality gameplay or if you were grinding the crap out of bosses... dominating everything... you might "draw the ire of the DM" suddenly spawning bonus rounds of deadly trials and be rewarded with some exclusive items..
Yesss, you did an amazing job with this video!
Personally, I don't remember much from the original campaign but I fell in love with Hordes of the Underdark (especially because of Deekin and Valen) and NVN2 and I remeber enjoying them much more than the BG series.
After watching a few of your videos on games ranging from pilars of my childhood to one's I'd almost forgotten I played, I'm deeply impressed with the writing in your scripts. Your ability to find a consistent, thoughtful density for writing leaves me feeling neither like I'm missing out on anything, nor falling too deep down rabbit holes of semantics. Hours in I still feel like there's intent, trajectory, and still deep nuance to the subtopics and details you're covering.
Countless hours spent in that game when it got released, especially online where I made maps, DM'd adventures and enjoyed others doing the same. Love the game and world.