For me, this game really shone in Hordes of the Underdark. With the level cap expanded to 40, epic spells and feats, as well as amazing prestige classes such as red dragon disciple and also a really good story!
Oh I finished those. I just found the combat so dull that I almost stopped playing them, back when I first played them I had no idea about simulated duce rolls until a few years ago. Round the time I was finally able to play Neverwinter Nights
Faerun was the name you were trying for ! Forgotten Realms is the D&D series name not the actual world, Waterdeep is a large city on the Sword Coast in between Baldurs Gate and Neverwinter . Since we are all about technicalities here
Matthew Shafer I am not too familiar with D&D, but assuming he was right about Waterdeep and if Waterdeep is a famous city in the Forgotten Realms series, there is nothing wrong with his statement.
This game makes me wanna cry. I played this in my early 20s when life was still ahead of me and the world hadn't shown itself to be shit, yet. Gonna start playing through it and the expansion again and check out other MODS
To me, I never really gave this game a chance when I was younger. Things just were too obtuse for me back then and I would often die during my first couple of encounters. Now that I am older I am trying it again to see if I missed something when I was a kid. Specifically, I am now playing through the Aielund Saga as its supposed to be better narratively than the main game.
If I have to be honest I don't consider this to be one of my better videos. I've done better since but with that being said I've also done worse before
I played D & D as a kid from age 8 to 15. NWN came around as I reached my 30's. This game represents a playable version based on 3rd edition D&D rules. I have to say I played the main campaign and was only moderately amused. It was later when I played the Hordes of the Underdark, and saw the full range of what was possible that I was impressed. NWN has a toolset for building your own campaigns. The multiplayer game has endless possibilities. I played as a DM and player for about 7 years on and off and I still have a lot of content saved. I used to work nights and played when other people slept. I stopped when I no longer worked night shift.
Nice review. Just FYI, multiplayer - especially with someone as a DM (or two) really turns this game into one of the BEST ways to play Distant D&D!!! Also, the toolset is a whole level of addiction that reviews seem to ignore. This game probably has the largest collections of D&D* addons in the world and they're Free!
Thanks though in hindsight I could've done this video better & some of my points have been made mute by recent updates, but I stand by my criticisms in regards to the version I played
@@aus741LX would be amazing to see a review of the unique multiplayer aspect of this game. There's a reason it has a healthy online playerbase twenty YEARS after first being released... no other game (except the very flawed/broken sequel) has ever allowed players to create their own MMO-scale world, host it as a persistent always-online multiplayer server for up to hundreds of players, and have live Dungeon Masters who can invisibly manipulate the world around players on-the-fly, creating spontaneous adventures and making the world genuinely reactive in the same way a tabletop DM does. There are very few videos showcasing this stuff, even though so many thousands of people have spent years playing NWN's player-created worlds. I would love to see a new player's reaction to (and review of) that wealth of content. Not least because those online worlds (apart from the 'big two') also showcase the insane level to which NWN can be customised and changed, in terms of its gameplay mechanics, scenery, AI, creatures, items.... everything can be customised, and has been.
You originally found the storyline, which entailed people running around trying to find a cure to a citywide plague a bit hard to believe. So, after a year plus of COVID, is that storyline making any more sense to you? Is it any easier to believe?
No, my issue wasn't that it was people running around. It was that they hired a bunch of random people, most of which had backgrounds with nothing to do with medicine trying to find the cure. Not the quest for a cure itself
Haha! Similar story to mine. I was so desperate to play this as a lad I would even put up with truly horrendous loading times & 6-8fps on a crappy old laptop. It certainly has nostalgia appeal but even as a crpg addict I’d struggle to finish it these days.
I tried hard and couldn't find exactly what part of the game was supposed to be the draw. As I raked through the user manual it seemed to me it was simply leveling up or "watching your character (virtually) get stronger". The other 2 being exploration and learning the rules and adhering to them when making choices about making your character stronger. Which struck me as not 'gameplay' at all. And probably appeals to only a specific personality type. Even as I gave up on it, I lamented that I wasn't the personality type it appealed to.
Not me, I get how they work now but alongside tab targeting combat they make me feel disconnected from the action. Or that my control is limited at best or non existent at worst
Auto combat is really good in this game, and all the infinity engine games have auto combat as well. If one play BG or IWD solo, is nearly the same thing here, but he 3rd edition rules has more options for melee classes (power attack, knockdown, two handed weapon against a damage reduction enemy, one handed weapon and shield against a high base attack bonus enemy). For strategic real time combat there are games like Gothic, but I never liked those too much. Blade Edge of Darkness (Severance) however, has really good and hard combat for me.
i played this before probably 8 or 10 years. I had no idea how dnd mechanics work (still do btw). Bought the enhanced version on steam after completing pathfinder. Seems to age like fine wine.
The combat system of Neverwinter never was made consisting on invisible Dice Rolls because it was the best way to design the combat system but rather to match the Pen&Paper Origin of the Game. Neverwinter, Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale were based on the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Rules
You know. While the story of the original campaign dosen't hold up all that much. I really feel tracking down and discovering what happened to each creature early on was fun. It also did a good job at getting the player ready for what comes next. Also, antiquated? Not convinced. I'd say, different.Closest thing we had recently is Wasteland 2 and many other TRPG. Difference being NWN is "real time" instead of turn based. In reality it is designed to play closer to a turn based game. My biggest bet is that you left everything on default... wich, in this case, defaults to easy. If you want the true NWN experience. The once thats gonna make you use actual strategy. You need to play on "core rules" or higher at a minimum. Otherwise the game is way too forgiving and you are missing out on what truely makes the gameplay great.
this guy is a terrible reviewer who is very biased and should only review modern fps games like cod and modern warfare. he didnt play the game, he did a quick run through to get views etc. theres no appreciation for the depth of this creation , no mention of the community, or even side quests, class nuances etc. he seems to think we all suffer from nostalgia when he doesnt enjoy an old game...this was one of the best games of this era for many reasons, all of which he fails to see.
There's plenty of games we've had 'recently' closer than Wasteland 2 to NWN and NWN is definitely antiquated. There's tonnes of things that can be done better and should be done better.
@@beau-deanmclean5547 I don't necessarily think NWN was 'one of the best games' of that era (1999-2004 let's say.). I can't say there was another game that did everything Neverwinter nights does, but there were many games that did part of what NWN was doing extremely well.
@@aus741LX Actually I love both original sin games as they created a unique universe for it with its own environment and gameplay style. Playing it for the first time was like playing Icewindale or Baldur's gate 2 for the first time back in the golden age. But then they took BS3 and simply moved it into their own DOS universe which felt out of place. It felt more like DOS 3 then BS 3. I would not not want NWN 3 to come out as the forth original sin game. But I do love THQ Nordic regardless
I agree with Dave. This is absolutely worth it for multiplayer, which is as limited only as your creativity. If you want single player, get old school nwn on GOG probs
The only thing about this game is if you mess up on one thing as its order its meant to be in you will have to go back to a later save or you will not be able to move on in the game but other than that its one of the best games i grew up playing on pc
Ehh, coming across as overly picky. It's nice not to have to think too much about each and every combat move. I only ever worried about my health. In fact my biggest complaint about FFVII Remake is I just want the old style of fighting more than new style. This game is definitely not a turd. I will say, though, that the best experiences were from custom campaigns like the Planescape Campaign, Shadows over Heliopolis and Aielund Saga.
I'll be honest some of my points have been made irrelevant, the graphics got a huge overhaul not too long ago & I have warmed up a bit more to this style of combat. At the end of the day though I missed the ideal time to really enjoy it at it's fullest & even then, I'd have had no way to access the custom campaigns.
this is an old video but you missed the multi player online stuff. the reason this has stood the test of time as a game are the persistent worlds online. the toolset lets people make mini mmos that have great communtys and are a ton of fun.
I've always been an unplugged person. Hell thanks to idiocy, not favouritism or malice, on my parents part I didn't learn how to use the internet outside of school until I was15-16 or so. So when I saw the rental copy at Henna St I had no way of playing the pseudo MMO aspect, let alone knowing it existed to begin with. PS: In hindsight this isn't one of my better & if I had the time I would redo it, especially now that there's an actual graphics overhaul that makes it look nicer like a remaster should
I believe it has all extra content and downloads on the disc and from what I've seen read more than 400 hours I know sound crazy I hear 1000 hours game hudge just know graphics even enhanced old school for us die hard RPG from all info I've gathered
@@rogerchandler2241 yeah my PC back on the day chugged like retarded train trying to play this...windows 98 voodoo video card from gateway...lol I am so frigging excited to play BG1-2 , Neverwinter icewind Dale, Pathfinder kingmaker an pillars of eternity 2 on PS4 this winter..... That's like 2000hrs so sick...wish they released them threw out this year instead of all at once....games are not vary new an PS4 has been out for awhile.
Sadly, it looks like the console port is not that good, compared to the infinity engine game ports. I read that the camera is third person only and the multiplayer will come later.
Oh I like turn based combat to, problem I have with the combat in games like Neverwinter Nights & Dragon Age Origins is that the auto attack aspect makes me feel disconnected from the action
Also Beamdog have made NWN:EE capable of handling and using much better graphics than the original game as shown in this tileset demo beamdog created: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1463124598&searchtext= And it is capable of having custom mechanic added to it so it should be capable of running custom realtime combat mechanics. It's just that no one has made these custom features for the game yet.
I just love how my review has just blown up in it's own right. Also going off what you've said I'd love to see Beamdog make a successor to NWN, not with the same writer for Dragonspear though. I mean Jesus fuckin Christ!
@@aus741LX Haven't played that one. Heard it's full of bad puns and bad character interaction. Trent has said he wants to make a full new campaign for NWN:EE. For the most part they've been focusing on making it capable of more and keep it compatible with all the persistent worlds players made.
Same here but I have seen examples of the writing quality, and speaking as someone who spent time in high school studying story telling, yeah Amber Scott is a hack Also his throw-in this out there. I wish Kingmaker had nwn's combat, not because I like it but because as I said in the review it's more engaging. Way more than watching a pair of characters up high wailing on each other in place with heir only reactions being when they're defeated
Only VERY certain plot points, ex: talking to that important fairy? Well only the important stuff is acted , none of the responses that are "optional" are voice acted
I could care less bout graphics especially when its an older game, & i cant hold the game design of a older game against it cuz well, its old... Wit that being said, i wanna give it a go...
I love dice rolls! Combat here is way better than most modern games and is like D&D, which is super fun! I wish modern titles did combat that this! So horrible these days where every title is the same twitchy action. The way NWN does it is more like you’re the general vs. being the front line infantry. I’m guessing u either never played or don’t like D&D. Give it a try and u will see how wrong u are!
My best guess is that he left the settings on default. Same mistake as a friend of mine. This game defaults on easy and becomes only really interesting from the "core" difficulty level. Not even normal. Tad higher. Easy mod is pretty much when you truely are just playng for the story. Sure, youll get boned by a boss a couple of time still depending on your class. But since you can always respawn and assuming you teleport out of the fight...... there is very little place where it truely forces strategy.
So many funny things with dice rolls in this game. I remember a low level module, there was an ogre with a great axe, in a playthrough the brute roll a critical hit and kills me instantly with the first hit. Har battle. The Main campign has some hard monsters at low levels (bloated dire spider, rhinoceros beetle), but then gives you too many goodies so gets very easy later.
apples to airbags homeboy ! nwn is a tabletop D&D game ! the combat plays out like that and really isnt what sells this title . its all the options that make this phenomenal you can pretty much do whatever you can think of to do . i guess if you need to actively swing the sword this isnt your cup of tea . at least u named a decent game . some idiot up the list said champions of norrath was better lmfao . the defintion of a crappy console knockoff. i mean to think that was good you would litterally have had to never play everquest .
"almost put down KOTOR 2 and DAO "...yeah, those are just the best games bioware ever made... :)) u don`t play games like this for the fighting...u can almost say the combat is the least important thing in an rpg.nwn 1 is still the best game in the series and any rpg player MUST play it.just like they MUST plat Fallout 1,2 , Baldur`s gate 1,2 or the icewindale series.and ofc, the best rpg ever made , planescape torment !
Oh I still like those games. Issue for me is that I hate their combat because it makes me feel disconnected from the action. Like I'm an observer the game isn't interested in interacting with, when the combat starts. Fuckin love the combat in stuff like Bladurs Gate 3, Solasta & Divinity in contrast, same with stuff like Witcher 3 or Kingdoms of Amalur
@@aus741LX the witcher series has the worst combat in any rpg :)) it stinks of console ^^ anyway , the old school rpgs were always focused on everything alse but combat, hell , u can finish Planescape without ever fighting once.we`re talking different style of games here.[ BG3 is not a BG game , it`s just Divinity 2 with a conversion mode...kinda disapointed ]
Neverwinter nights is a combat heavy game and the original campaign does not do enough well that it's worth playing if you dislike the game mechanically. Role playing isn't strong in it, characters and story aren't strong, visuals aren't strong etc. Now some of the modules and expansions are worth playing despite the combat and have stronger stories, better writing and characters and much more fleshed out role playing. When game originally released though, these expansions didn't exist. You were buying Neverwinter nights primarily for the mechanics and the toolset. Baldur's gate 3 fits your descriptions of 'how proper rpgs should be' MUCH better than Neverwinter nights. BG3 is a much more role playing heavy game, is a more interactive game outside of combat encounters and unlike Neverwinter night's original campaign where you're forced to fight literally thousands of enemies, many of BG3's combat encounters are optional and basically all of them avoidable. Baldur's gate 3 is a much more authentic follow up to games like Planescape and Baldur's gate 2 than hack'n Slash, mechanical focused Neverwinter nights was.
@@aus741LX Man... this is so trippy. I spent 80% of my teenage life inside that video store. The first time I played NWN I rented it from them! I remember the PC Games were all in a separate room down the back. So bizarre that I stumbled across this video from a fellow Warrnamboolian. Which was great btw. All the best.
@@brady7389 Sweet, FYI this review isn't one of my better videos. In hindsight I should've spent more time playing & the script needed more editing, but I still got my points across just not as well articulated as they should've been I think my later videos have been an improvement, but I still stand by my criticism of the combat. That aside have you enjoyed any of my other videos?
@@brady7389 Just another FYI, I've been meaning to get back in to doing movie reviews but...I just haven't been able to. I want to. But when the lockdowns hit I just lost my mojo & failed to get it back, I still plan to get back in to them but there's no schedule in place for when that'll happen.
I was a man when NWN came out. I didn't play because a watercolor piece of art. I played because I Love D&D games. However, Lady Aribeth is a piece of sh__!! Her betrayal still stings 2 decades later.
I know they cleaned up the graphics a bit for the Enhanced Edition, but man, this looks _really_ good for a 2002 game. That combat really puts me off though, I can't _stand_ combat that uses dice rolls.
@@aus741LX I have mixed feelings about auto-combat. It is a little boring, but what kills it for me is the dice rolls. If I have good equipment and good stats, I want to be able to hit something. Dice rolls are fun in tabletop games, but NOT in video games.
@@samvimes9510 In spite of that I managed to playthrough Dragon Age Origins 2.5 times & have fun the whole way, but that had more to do with the story than the gameplay Looking back at Neverwinter I should revisit it & finish my plauthrough
@@aus741LX I'm not sure but I think Origins uses dice rolls. But either way the combat still involves a lot of strategy. If you sit there and let your party auto-attack you'll die in the first mission. Bioware got better as time went on, and then EA bought them and all the experienced people left.
@@samvimes9510 The degradation and death of Bio Ware didn't happen over night. It first showed with Dragon Age 2 & was in full swing after Mass Effect 3 now thy're on the verge of death from EA's death like grip
@@rogerchandler2241 I am moved by how you suffered the same disability I did all those years ago. Here is information that will make things easier for you and your family www.beamdog.com/news/console-release-dates-game-packs/
I think baldur's gate 1-2, Neverwinter, icewinddale is coming to console's within the next three months...not sure how they look or play I have been searching for info ever since I found out..I wanted D&D games but there is none...also pillars of eternity 2 an Pathfinder kingmaker is coming in December gonna have like hundreds of hours of Western RPGs by the end plus Doom eternal life is good but there is no time to play... should go by fast for FF 7 though they better not screw that up..money gonna be tight.
Henna ST Video Shop, 1990's-2008(ish) They didn't take good care of their rental games so they gradually sold them all off Also Jack's Games Video Shop
See, the biggest mistake you made with this game is play the single player story, and not go to a multiplayer server. Where, with most mmo games, they concentrate on fight fight fight, nwn servers are often role play (rp) based, and many of the persistent worlds allow you to shape the environment you play in, so long as your to is good and has a significant impact on the playerbase and world in which you are playing. E.g. a server I used o play on had a small group of players take up the mantle of the vine knights, a city based defence force against the evil in the woods. They kept order and policed the playerbase within the city and the surroundings. You then had the redbud inn. Based in the darkwoods and one by a half demon called velvet. Very polite and charming player, who ran the inn a a meeting place for ANY alignment or race of player. Be that demon, Devine, vampire, or halfling. The reward for her was the secrets she overheard, and the price they fetched to the right ears. As time went on, many changes happened. The indeed, along with a handful of vampire players, destroyed the old city, but the divine knights took those from the city (players) across the islands through loads of new added content, to a new city. Velvet founded a small town stronghold thanks to blood magic, but this was later taken from y a powerful demon (played by a player who used to be big up in the divine knights...he wanted a change of character). All in all, the game is as good as the toolkit we it to be, which, in the highlands, and handled right, can be better than many of the modern mmo titles. Give one of the servers a try sometime. 😉
Your playing on your grampa box while everyone else is playing on there phone. Dice rolls ? Those are official D&D 3.5 rulez dice rolls bud, wow it sounds like your upset about your purchase. I personally feel like it was the best $10 i ever spent
You're review is trash. It's about the feeling you get when you play it. You're obviously not a fan so your review is very biased. If your gonna just bash it cause your not a fan then don't do a review on it. You are however entitled to your own opinions no matter how wrong they may be.
So who should review it then? Because if a fan did it, it would also turn out biased, wouldn't you say? So lets see if we can find something in between these two types. Someone who thinks its mediocre. Not good. Not bad. The review would then be, you guessed it, mediocre. Should we conclude that all reviews are opinions, biased and can never be objective?
You only covered half of the game. Nobody plays this for the campaign or modules, i tried them once 20 years ago and moved on to the real game, the online servers, along with everyone else who plays. If you are playing this for the single player the jokes on you, and that is why this review got disliked.
lol isnt that crappy console everquest knockoff ! i think dark alliance would give that garbage a run for its money . and where do you get off calling a game that predates the console you played that nonsense on a knockoff ? kids these days . go play
@@matthewshafer9545 lol m8 im probably not as mature as you, but age does not determin credibility nor does it mean quality, that said by the games look it probably inspired champoins, so i can at least thank it for that, but its not for me.
Yeah, I was waiting for those games to be available in PS3, but never happens. It's ok to have variety in the gameplay type (real time with dice rolls, real time strategic combat, hack and slash, turn based).
"This game is hard to look at.". Seriously - games are not about how they look. But, if you have to talk about that: the day Neverwinter Nights was released, it's graphics was stunning as f! There was no RPG like that, and not even one, which looked like that! Now it can look "meh", but back then it was so amazing, refreshing, and innovative as hell!
@@aus741LX the CEP that was released nearly 20 years ago looks better than anything Beamdog has done with it!!! What did they do, give us a few new portraits?
For me, this game really shone in Hordes of the Underdark. With the level cap expanded to 40, epic spells and feats, as well as amazing prestige classes such as red dragon disciple and also a really good story!
Hell yeah
you put down kotor and dragon age origins....are you for real?
He doesn't like dice rolls.
Oh I finished those. I just found the combat so dull that I almost stopped playing them, back when I first played them I had no idea about simulated duce rolls until a few years ago. Round the time I was finally able to play Neverwinter Nights
@@aus741LX kotor has week combat, but origins is great, like a much simpler bg2
The city in Hoards of the Underdark is called Waterdeep. It's one of the most famous cities in the Forgotten Realms.
Faerun was the name you were trying for ! Forgotten Realms is the D&D series name not the actual world, Waterdeep is a large city on the Sword Coast in between Baldurs Gate and Neverwinter . Since we are all about technicalities here
Matthew Shafer I am not too familiar with D&D, but assuming he was right about Waterdeep and if Waterdeep is a famous city in the Forgotten Realms series, there is nothing wrong with his statement.
Waterhaven 🤣
NWN takes positioning into account.
I love this game as well as Baldur's Gate and IWD. You have to know the basi D&D rules to appreciate these games. Especially Neverwinter Nights.
I was unaware of many things as a dumb child. Thankfully I have long since overcome that disability
This game makes me wanna cry. I played this in my early 20s when life was still ahead of me and the world hadn't shown itself to be shit, yet. Gonna start playing through it and the expansion again and check out other MODS
Good for you
ee with all modules is $6.82 on gog right now
lol
@@tictacterminator yeah, i have it on steam
@@tinkywinky4449 your name is tinky winky
The atmosphere of this game is amazing...the music...sounds...even clicking on icons is delightful
games like this and dragon age origins feel like you have more agency if you play a spell caster.
I played an elven muscle wizard in Origins on my 360 back in the day
I freaking adore the game.
Great & I'm plannin to review Baldurs Gate 3 next :D
(After my now late Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning review is done :( )
I like that I have this on my IPhone alone with Baulders Gate2, Icewindale, Planescape Torment and KOTOR. Brings back childhood memeroies
this game is so good back 2004.
This game is a masterpiece.
Plague story is more interesting to me in 2020. Go figure...
To me, I never really gave this game a chance when I was younger. Things just were too obtuse for me back then and I would often die during my first couple of encounters. Now that I am older I am trying it again to see if I missed something when I was a kid. Specifically, I am now playing through the Aielund Saga as its supposed to be better narratively than the main game.
If I have to be honest I don't consider this to be one of my better videos. I've done better since but with that being said I've also done worse before
I played D & D as a kid from age 8 to 15. NWN came around as I reached my 30's. This game represents a playable version based on 3rd edition D&D rules. I have to say I played the main campaign and was only moderately amused. It was later when I played the Hordes of the Underdark, and saw the full range of what was possible that I was impressed. NWN has a toolset for building your own campaigns. The multiplayer game has endless possibilities. I played as a DM and player for about 7 years on and off and I still have a lot of content saved. I used to work nights and played when other people slept. I stopped when I no longer worked night shift.
Nice review. Just FYI, multiplayer - especially with someone as a DM (or two) really turns this game into one of the BEST ways to play Distant D&D!!! Also, the toolset is a whole level of addiction that reviews seem to ignore. This game probably has the largest collections of D&D* addons in the world and they're Free!
Thanks though in hindsight I could've done this video better & some of my points have been made mute by recent updates, but I stand by my criticisms in regards to the version I played
@@aus741LX would be amazing to see a review of the unique multiplayer aspect of this game. There's a reason it has a healthy online playerbase twenty YEARS after first being released... no other game (except the very flawed/broken sequel) has ever allowed players to create their own MMO-scale world, host it as a persistent always-online multiplayer server for up to hundreds of players, and have live Dungeon Masters who can invisibly manipulate the world around players on-the-fly, creating spontaneous adventures and making the world genuinely reactive in the same way a tabletop DM does.
There are very few videos showcasing this stuff, even though so many thousands of people have spent years playing NWN's player-created worlds. I would love to see a new player's reaction to (and review of) that wealth of content.
Not least because those online worlds (apart from the 'big two') also showcase the insane level to which NWN can be customised and changed, in terms of its gameplay mechanics, scenery, AI, creatures, items.... everything can be customised, and has been.
You originally found the storyline, which entailed people running around trying to find a cure to a citywide plague a bit hard to believe. So, after a year plus of COVID, is that storyline making any more sense to you? Is it any easier to believe?
No, my issue wasn't that it was people running around. It was that they hired a bunch of random people, most of which had backgrounds with nothing to do with medicine trying to find the cure. Not the quest for a cure itself
I think some countries tried to handle the pandemic the same way. :-)
I misread your character's name as Adolf Meinkampf, lol
You didn’t talk about the servers. NWN main thing was playing on servers with real human DMs. You should play and review that ;)
facts ! hopefully the dmfi catches on . persistent worlds are ok but nothing like playing against a human dm
Thanks but I'm a solo guy thanks to divergent schedules with me & my friends
Plus it would just be weird if we looked in to each other's eyes
Haha! Similar story to mine. I was so desperate to play this as a lad I would even put up with truly horrendous loading times & 6-8fps on a crappy old laptop. It certainly has nostalgia appeal but even as a crpg addict I’d struggle to finish it these days.
I tried hard and couldn't find exactly what part of the game was supposed to be the draw. As I raked through the user manual it seemed to me it was simply leveling up or "watching your character (virtually) get stronger". The other 2 being exploration and learning the rules and adhering to them when making choices about making your character stronger. Which struck me as not 'gameplay' at all. And probably appeals to only a specific personality type. Even as I gave up on it, I lamented that I wasn't the personality type it appealed to.
aww man i love auto combate with the skills ya gotta activ aate
Not me, I get how they work now but alongside tab targeting combat they make me feel disconnected from the action. Or that my control is limited at best or non existent at worst
Auto combat is really good in this game, and all the infinity engine games have auto combat as well. If one play BG or IWD solo, is nearly the same thing here, but he 3rd edition rules has more options for melee classes (power attack, knockdown, two handed weapon against a damage reduction enemy, one handed weapon and shield against a high base attack bonus enemy). For strategic real time combat there are games like Gothic, but I never liked those too much. Blade Edge of Darkness (Severance) however, has really good and hard combat for me.
>Idly watching gameplay
>Notices character name
>My sides
I really liked the atmosphere and visuals, it felt magical to me
1:59 The city isn't called Waterhaven but WATERDEEP.
Mistakes happen
i played this before probably 8 or 10 years. I had no idea how dnd mechanics work (still do btw). Bought the enhanced version on steam after completing pathfinder. Seems to age like fine wine.
The combat system of Neverwinter never was made consisting on invisible Dice Rolls because it was the best way to design the combat system but rather to match the Pen&Paper Origin of the Game.
Neverwinter, Baldurs Gate and Icewind Dale were based on the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Rules
I know that now. But that doesn't mean I have to like it
You know. While the story of the original campaign dosen't hold up all that much. I really feel tracking down and discovering what happened to each creature early on was fun. It also did a good job at getting the player ready for what comes next.
Also, antiquated? Not convinced. I'd say, different.Closest thing we had recently is Wasteland 2 and many other TRPG. Difference being NWN is "real time" instead of turn based. In reality it is designed to play closer to a turn based game.
My biggest bet is that you left everything on default... wich, in this case, defaults to easy. If you want the true NWN experience. The once thats gonna make you use actual strategy. You need to play on "core rules" or higher at a minimum. Otherwise the game is way too forgiving and you are missing out on what truely makes the gameplay great.
@@Battle-bk8sk No problemo. :) Game is great anyway.
this guy is a terrible reviewer who is very biased and should only review modern fps games like cod and modern warfare. he didnt play the game, he did a quick run through to get views etc. theres no appreciation for the depth of this creation , no mention of the community, or even side quests, class nuances etc. he seems to think we all suffer from nostalgia when he doesnt enjoy an old game...this was one of the best games of this era for many reasons, all of which he fails to see.
There's plenty of games we've had 'recently' closer than Wasteland 2 to NWN and NWN is definitely antiquated. There's tonnes of things that can be done better and should be done better.
@@beau-deanmclean5547 I don't necessarily think NWN was 'one of the best games' of that era (1999-2004 let's say.). I can't say there was another game that did everything Neverwinter nights does, but there were many games that did part of what NWN was doing extremely well.
We need a remake of both NWN1 and NWN2. Oh and NWN 3 of course, unless THQ Nordic picks it up and turns it into and other Divinity original sin game
What is wrong with Divinity? Are you a divinephobe!?
@@aus741LX Actually I love both original sin games as they created a unique universe for it with its own environment and gameplay style. Playing it for the first time was like playing Icewindale or Baldur's gate 2 for the first time back in the golden age. But then they took BS3 and simply moved it into their own DOS universe which felt out of place. It felt more like DOS 3 then BS 3. I would not not want NWN 3 to come out as the forth original sin game. But I do love THQ Nordic regardless
I agree with Dave. This is absolutely worth it for multiplayer, which is as limited only as your creativity. If you want single player, get old school nwn on GOG probs
The GoG versions online bud ! you just have to email them with proof of purchase for cdkey !
might buy this for my switch, it reminds me alot of runescape classic in a way
My reason playing this was the music.
One of the reasons I enjoyed Divinity 2, Lanilor Lane just hits so bloody hard & it was made just to play for a random street!
its not the city of waterhaven its Waterdeep.
Loved this game!
aus741LX: KOTOR 2 combat is so hard!
Me: spams dark lightning
That's what I did back in the day. Gave up on tactics & just spammed lightning every time I went darkside
I love nwn, paladin and sorcerer are my favorites
The only thing about this game is if you mess up on one thing as its order its meant to be in you will have to go back to a later save or you will not be able to move on in the game but other than that its one of the best games i grew up playing on pc
Ehh, coming across as overly picky. It's nice not to have to think too much about each and every combat move. I only ever worried about my health. In fact my biggest complaint about FFVII Remake is I just want the old style of fighting more than new style. This game is definitely not a turd.
I will say, though, that the best experiences were from custom campaigns like the Planescape Campaign, Shadows over Heliopolis and Aielund Saga.
I'll be honest some of my points have been made irrelevant, the graphics got a huge overhaul not too long ago & I have warmed up a bit more to this style of combat.
At the end of the day though I missed the ideal time to really enjoy it at it's fullest & even then, I'd have had no way to access the custom campaigns.
this is an old video but you missed the multi player online stuff. the reason this has stood the test of time as a game are the persistent worlds online. the toolset lets people make mini mmos that have great communtys and are a ton of fun.
I've always been an unplugged person. Hell thanks to idiocy, not favouritism or malice, on my parents part I didn't learn how to use the internet outside of school until I was15-16 or so. So when I saw the rental copy at Henna St I had no way of playing the pseudo MMO aspect, let alone knowing it existed to begin with.
PS: In hindsight this isn't one of my better & if I had the time I would redo it, especially now that there's an actual graphics overhaul that makes it look nicer like a remaster should
This was a 400hr back on the PC...I heard this is coming to console's does anyone know if that's true?
I believe it has all extra content and downloads on the disc and from what I've seen read more than 400 hours I know sound crazy I hear 1000 hours game hudge just know graphics even enhanced old school for us die hard RPG from all info I've gathered
@@rogerchandler2241 yeah my PC back on the day chugged like retarded train trying to play this...windows 98 voodoo video card from gateway...lol I am so frigging excited to play BG1-2 , Neverwinter icewind Dale, Pathfinder kingmaker an pillars of eternity 2 on PS4 this winter..... That's like 2000hrs so sick...wish they released them threw out this year instead of all at once....games are not vary new an PS4 has been out for awhile.
www.ozgameshop.com/search/baldurs+gate
Sadly, it looks like the console port is not that good, compared to the infinity engine game ports. I read that the camera is third person only and the multiplayer will come later.
I would love a mmorpg with this games mechanics and graphics, holy shit bro, I mean identical to nw1
3:03 Turn based tactical > action RPG combat any day of the week for me. Only RPG where I really enjoyed real time action combat was The Witcher 3
Oh I like turn based combat to, problem I have with the combat in games like Neverwinter Nights & Dragon Age Origins is that the auto attack aspect makes me feel disconnected from the action
Try the Kingdoms of Amalur remaster, combat & character progression are fantastic!
Also Beamdog have made NWN:EE capable of handling and using much better graphics than the original game as shown in this tileset demo beamdog created: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1463124598&searchtext=
And it is capable of having custom mechanic added to it so it should be capable of running custom realtime combat mechanics. It's just that no one has made these custom features for the game yet.
I just love how my review has just blown up in it's own right. Also going off what you've said I'd love to see Beamdog make a successor to NWN, not with the same writer for Dragonspear though. I mean Jesus fuckin Christ!
@@aus741LX Haven't played that one. Heard it's full of bad puns and bad character interaction. Trent has said he wants to make a full new campaign for NWN:EE. For the most part they've been focusing on making it capable of more and keep it compatible with all the persistent worlds players made.
Same here but I have seen examples of the writing quality, and speaking as someone who spent time in high school studying story telling, yeah Amber Scott is a hack
Also his throw-in this out there. I wish Kingmaker had nwn's combat, not because I like it but because as I said in the review it's more engaging. Way more than watching a pair of characters up high wailing on each other in place with heir only reactions being when they're defeated
Is the dialogue fully voice acted?
Hell no.
Only VERY certain plot points, ex: talking to that important fairy? Well only the important stuff is acted , none of the responses that are "optional" are voice acted
@@jakegovson1813 thank you for the response
I could care less bout graphics especially when its an older game, & i cant hold the game design of a older game against it cuz well, its old... Wit that being said, i wanna give it a go...
They've updated the visuals since I made the video. That criticism has since been made mute, would recommend you give it an honest go.
I love dice rolls! Combat here is way better than most modern games and is like D&D, which is super fun! I wish modern titles did combat that this! So horrible these days where every title is the same twitchy action. The way NWN does it is more like you’re the general vs. being the front line infantry. I’m guessing u either never played or don’t like D&D. Give it a try and u will see how wrong u are!
My best guess is that he left the settings on default. Same mistake as a friend of mine. This game defaults on easy and becomes only really interesting from the "core" difficulty level. Not even normal. Tad higher.
Easy mod is pretty much when you truely are just playng for the story. Sure, youll get boned by a boss a couple of time still depending on your class. But since you can always respawn and assuming you teleport out of the fight...... there is very little place where it truely forces strategy.
So many funny things with dice rolls in this game. I remember a low level module, there was an ogre with a great axe, in a playthrough the brute roll a critical hit and kills me instantly with the first hit. Har battle. The Main campign has some hard monsters at low levels (bloated dire spider, rhinoceros beetle), but then gives you too many goodies so gets very easy later.
There's a lot of modern titles that use DnD inspired combat. Sucks for you that you've missed out on them I guess, you could always catch up though.
>Thinking XBC2 has more engaging combat or a better combat system in general
Yikes!
apples to airbags homeboy ! nwn is a tabletop D&D game ! the combat plays out like that and really isnt what sells this title . its all the options that make this phenomenal you can pretty much do whatever you can think of to do . i guess if you need to actively swing the sword this isnt your cup of tea . at least u named a decent game . some idiot up the list said champions of norrath was better lmfao . the defintion of a crappy console knockoff. i mean to think that was good you would litterally have had to never play everquest .
"almost put down KOTOR 2 and DAO "...yeah, those are just the best games bioware ever made... :)) u don`t play games like this for the fighting...u can almost say the combat is the least important thing in an rpg.nwn 1 is still the best game in the series and any rpg player MUST play it.just like they MUST plat Fallout 1,2 , Baldur`s gate 1,2 or the icewindale series.and ofc, the best rpg ever made , planescape torment !
Oh I still like those games. Issue for me is that I hate their combat because it makes me feel disconnected from the action. Like I'm an observer the game isn't interested in interacting with, when the combat starts. Fuckin love the combat in stuff like Bladurs Gate 3, Solasta & Divinity in contrast, same with stuff like Witcher 3 or Kingdoms of Amalur
@@aus741LX the witcher series has the worst combat in any rpg :)) it stinks of console ^^ anyway , the old school rpgs were always focused on everything alse but combat, hell , u can finish Planescape without ever fighting once.we`re talking different style of games here.[ BG3 is not a BG game , it`s just Divinity 2 with a conversion mode...kinda disapointed ]
Neverwinter nights is a combat heavy game and the original campaign does not do enough well that it's worth playing if you dislike the game mechanically. Role playing isn't strong in it, characters and story aren't strong, visuals aren't strong etc.
Now some of the modules and expansions are worth playing despite the combat and have stronger stories, better writing and characters and much more fleshed out role playing. When game originally released though, these expansions didn't exist. You were buying Neverwinter nights primarily for the mechanics and the toolset.
Baldur's gate 3 fits your descriptions of 'how proper rpgs should be' MUCH better than Neverwinter nights. BG3 is a much more role playing heavy game, is a more interactive game outside of combat encounters and unlike Neverwinter night's original campaign where you're forced to fight literally thousands of enemies, many of BG3's combat encounters are optional and basically all of them avoidable.
Baldur's gate 3 is a much more authentic follow up to games like Planescape and Baldur's gate 2 than hack'n Slash, mechanical focused Neverwinter nights was.
1 word:
Mods
did you say... Henna Street?
Yep, good video shop. Though they did take terrible care of the console games they rented out
@@aus741LX Man... this is so trippy. I spent 80% of my teenage life inside that video store. The first time I played NWN I rented it from them! I remember the PC Games were all in a separate room down the back. So bizarre that I stumbled across this video from a fellow Warrnamboolian. Which was great btw. All the best.
@@brady7389 Sweet, FYI this review isn't one of my better videos. In hindsight I should've spent more time playing & the script needed more editing, but I still got my points across just not as well articulated as they should've been
I think my later videos have been an improvement, but I still stand by my criticism of the combat. That aside have you enjoyed any of my other videos?
@@aus741LX not yet, but I will!
@@brady7389 Just another FYI, I've been meaning to get back in to doing movie reviews but...I just haven't been able to. I want to. But when the lockdowns hit I just lost my mojo & failed to get it back, I still plan to get back in to them but there's no schedule in place for when that'll happen.
I was a man when NWN came out. I didn't play because a watercolor piece of art. I played because I Love D&D games. However, Lady Aribeth is a piece of sh__!! Her betrayal still stings 2 decades later.
I know they cleaned up the graphics a bit for the Enhanced Edition, but man, this looks _really_ good for a 2002 game. That combat really puts me off though, I can't _stand_ combat that uses dice rolls.
For me it's how the combat is automatic, makes me feel like my control over the combat is minimal at best to non existent at worst.
@@aus741LX I have mixed feelings about auto-combat. It is a little boring, but what kills it for me is the dice rolls. If I have good equipment and good stats, I want to be able to hit something. Dice rolls are fun in tabletop games, but NOT in video games.
@@samvimes9510 In spite of that I managed to playthrough Dragon Age Origins 2.5 times & have fun the whole way, but that had more to do with the story than the gameplay
Looking back at Neverwinter I should revisit it & finish my plauthrough
@@aus741LX I'm not sure but I think Origins uses dice rolls. But either way the combat still involves a lot of strategy. If you sit there and let your party auto-attack you'll die in the first mission.
Bioware got better as time went on, and then EA bought them and all the experienced people left.
@@samvimes9510 The degradation and death of Bio Ware didn't happen over night. It first showed with Dragon Age 2 & was in full swing after Mass Effect 3 now thy're on the verge of death from EA's death like grip
This is what Divinity: Original Sin 1/2 copied off of.
lol no
More like DOS was 'copying' Baldur's gate. Neverwinter nights is a bit different.
Just love know more about neverwinter enhanced edition for ps4 that's upcoming and balder gate 1 and 2 for ps4 in Sept not seen any video of them
Personally I'm more curious to see how they port Baldurs Gate & Icewind Dale to the consoles
I never had computers that could play balder gate enhanced edition or neverwinter so reason I like know more about them for ps4
@@rogerchandler2241 I am moved by how you suffered the same disability I did all those years ago. Here is information that will make things easier for you and your family
www.beamdog.com/news/console-release-dates-game-packs/
I think baldur's gate 1-2, Neverwinter, icewinddale is coming to console's within the next three months...not sure how they look or play I have been searching for info ever since I found out..I wanted D&D games but there is none...also pillars of eternity 2 an Pathfinder kingmaker is coming in December gonna have like hundreds of hours of Western RPGs by the end plus Doom eternal life is good but there is no time to play... should go by fast for FF 7 though they better not screw that up..money gonna be tight.
When/where the fuck could you rent a pc game?
Henna ST Video Shop, 1990's-2008(ish)
They didn't take good care of their rental games so they gradually sold them all off
Also Jack's Games Video Shop
@@aus741LX I'm not sure that was ever a thing on this side of the pond.
Dat stuttering
See, the biggest mistake you made with this game is play the single player story, and not go to a multiplayer server.
Where, with most mmo games, they concentrate on fight fight fight, nwn servers are often role play (rp) based, and many of the persistent worlds allow you to shape the environment you play in, so long as your to is good and has a significant impact on the playerbase and world in which you are playing.
E.g. a server I used o play on had a small group of players take up the mantle of the vine knights, a city based defence force against the evil in the woods. They kept order and policed the playerbase within the city and the surroundings.
You then had the redbud inn. Based in the darkwoods and one by a half demon called velvet. Very polite and charming player, who ran the inn a a meeting place for ANY alignment or race of player. Be that demon, Devine, vampire, or halfling. The reward for her was the secrets she overheard, and the price they fetched to the right ears.
As time went on, many changes happened. The indeed, along with a handful of vampire players, destroyed the old city, but the divine knights took those from the city (players) across the islands through loads of new added content, to a new city. Velvet founded a small town stronghold thanks to blood magic, but this was later taken from y a powerful demon (played by a player who used to be big up in the divine knights...he wanted a change of character).
All in all, the game is as good as the toolkit we it to be, which, in the highlands, and handled right, can be better than many of the modern mmo titles. Give one of the servers a try sometime. 😉
Really? That's a shame. Was hoping to pick this up to enjoy singleplayer.
@@Irraptured single player is ok. Nothing special.
HOTU was pretty good tbh
lol he didnt pay for the game dude ! seems if you can copy a cracked exe file into a folder its time record and post on youtube !
@@davelewis3775 where can I find this server?
Your playing on your grampa box while everyone else is playing on there phone.
Dice rolls ? Those are official D&D 3.5 rulez dice rolls bud, wow it sounds like your upset about your purchase. I personally feel like it was the best $10 i ever spent
You just hate me cause I'm black!
@@aus741LX facts....
You sound exactly like the SkillUp guy
We're both Australian
You're review is trash. It's about the feeling you get when you play it. You're obviously not a fan so your review is very biased. If your gonna just bash it cause your not a fan then don't do a review on it. You are however entitled to your own opinions no matter how wrong they may be.
well in his defense he didnt pay for this game so he cant really objectively review it ......i suck at defense
So who should review it then? Because if a fan did it, it would also turn out biased, wouldn't you say?
So lets see if we can find something in between these two types. Someone who thinks its mediocre. Not good. Not bad. The review would then be, you guessed it, mediocre.
Should we conclude that all reviews are opinions, biased and can never be objective?
You only covered half of the game. Nobody plays this for the campaign or modules, i tried them once 20 years ago and moved on to the real game, the online servers, along with everyone else who plays. If you are playing this for the single player the jokes on you, and that is why this review got disliked.
go for champions of norath 1, not 2
not balders gate,
as far as im concerned these other games are just cheaper versions of champions.
lol isnt that crappy console everquest knockoff ! i think dark alliance would give that garbage a run for its money . and where do you get off calling a game that predates the console you played that nonsense on a knockoff ? kids these days . go play
@@matthewshafer9545 lol m8 im probably not as mature as you, but age does not determin credibility nor does it mean quality, that said by the games look it probably inspired champoins, so i can at least thank it for that, but its not for me.
@To Release is To Resolve ah interesting, that does explain so many similaritys between them thanks for the tip.
i loved champions of norath as a kid so many countless hours playing co op, i wish they would make games like that again
Yeah, I was waiting for those games to be available in PS3, but never happens. It's ok to have variety in the gameplay type (real time with dice rolls, real time strategic combat, hack and slash, turn based).
This game is hard to look at. Beamdog hasn't done anything noticeable to make it worth playing again
"This game is hard to look at.". Seriously - games are not about how they look. But, if you have to talk about that: the day Neverwinter Nights was released, it's graphics was stunning as f! There was no RPG like that, and not even one, which looked like that! Now it can look "meh", but back then it was so amazing, refreshing, and innovative as hell!
They just released an overdue update that overhauls the graphics
@@aus741LX the CEP that was released nearly 20 years ago looks better than anything Beamdog has done with it!!! What did they do, give us a few new portraits?
I remember the game to be boring as hell.