Neverwinter Nights?

[endtherapture]

In between Bioware bringing out BG2 and bringing out Dragon Age, there was a bit of a barren age for D&D fantasy party based RPGs. In this gap was the NWN series. I have fond memories of this series. The original game was a bit naff, with the standard Bioware story, but the expansion packs were both fun. The main time sink for me though, was playing user-made modules and making my own via the powerful, yet simple, editor.

The sequels editor was a lot more complex but the single player campaign was far superior, really the closest we ever got to BG2 in a time before Dragon Age was out.

What are your memories and experiences with the NWN series?

 

[DoPo]

Well, for NWN, let's see:

The OC was...bland. That's how I can remember it - there was...stuff happening. I recall bits and pieces but it wasn't terribly interesting. I remember I played it with a cleric and soloed the entire game because clerics were quite OP.

The expansions (SoU and HotU) I quite liked, however - I played each twice (well, since they both were supposed to form one giant overarching story, I technically played that twice). The Epic levels were a really nice thing to to and even though everyone would get OP, it was quite a different experience than soloing with a cleric - it was pretty fun.

 

[Scootinfroodie]

2000 - BG2, IWD
2001 - 2 IWD expansions, Throne of Bhaal
2002 - NWN, IWD2
2003 - 2 NWN expansions, Temple of Elemental Evil
2004 - 3 NWN modules
2005 - 1 NWN module
2006 - NWN2
2007 - NWN2 expansion
2008 - NWN2 expansion
2009 - NWN2 expansion

Doesn't seem to barren to me. I've left out a few I haven't played as well
Also if we're counting DA as a "DnD" game, there's a lot more that ought to count as well

As far as NWN goes, I still need to play more of 2. I've purchased multiple copies of 1 because something always goes missing, despite the fact that I've only ever enjoyed the modules. I've also always been more partial to the IWD/BG UI than NWN's radials in radials madness

I also recall being disappointed when I found out that, contrary to the BG2 loading screen, I could *not* import my Bhaalspawn

 

[The Madman]

Love the NWN games and have played both extensively, I consider them hallmarks of the PC rpg genre and a must-play for any fans of said genre.

The base campaigns aren't always fantastic; NWN1's original campaign was terrible, easily Bioware's worst to date, but as mentioned the expansions (Hordes of the Underdark especially) are pretty good and while NWN2's oc was merely 'alright', Mask of the Betrayer it's first expansion is great, easily the high point for the entire franchise in terms of developer made campaigns. But apart from all those what really makes the NWN series great are the fan-made campaigns.

I've played dozens for both games and while most are merely alright and others complete rubbish, there have been a few that turned out to be just as memorable and enjoyable as many retail rpg I've played. There's some great high-quality fan stuff out there for the series and I've always thought it's a shame how few people have played some of them.

In any case great games, some of my favourites even. Both of them.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Yeah, really liked the 1st one, I even thought the original campaign/adventure/whatever was good, really liked it. The one in that old buried city in the desert was cool too. I went with a Theif, prestige classing into a shadowdancer with some ridiculous armour and had a pair of magical rapiers that did frost and acid damage on top. Seeing as shadowdancers could go into stealth at virtually any time you could just backstab your way through virtually everything.

It's the only Bioware game I've ever liked, can't stand any of the others.

NWN2 was ok, I liked the characters, but the "chosen one" storyline put me right off and it felt kind of clunky in comparison to the first. I never got to finish it, the 3rd or 4th time I had to restart because of some bug I said fuck it, not doing that again.

 

[Starbird]

In between Bioware bringing out BG2 and bringing out Dragon Age, there was a bit of a barren age for D&D fantasy party based RPGs. In this gap was the NWN series. I have fond memories of this series. The original game was a bit naff, with the standard Bioware story, but the expansion packs were both fun. The main time sink for me though, was playing user-made modules and making my own via the powerful, yet simple, editor.

The sequels editor was a lot more complex but the single player campaign was far superior, really the closest we ever got to BG2 in a time before Dragon Age was out.

What are your memories and experiences with the NWN series?

Enjoyed NWN1 until the end, which sucked. LOVED HOTU though.

NWN2 was a big letdown. So many cool things but awful enemy design, lame spell graphics and awful engine. Oh, and buggy as hell.
Mask of the Betrayer was amazing though.

Storm of whatever was horrible though.

The big dealbreaker going from NWN 1 to 2 was the amazing, intuitive and powerful editor was made into a buggy, cumbersome and extremely user unfriendly monstrosity. Especially interior and dungeon design...I flat out refuse to believe that the devs used this without some sort of wizard.

 

[Estelindis]

I love NWN mainly for the community of module-builders, scripters, custom content-makers, etc. It's still quite alive today.

 

[Schadrach]

Wasn't too fond of original campaign, liked the xpac campaigns, played a *ton* of user modules, some of which went well off the beaten path.

NWN actually introduced me to an author I'm very fond of (Stefan Gagne, aka Twoflower). He did a few series of NWN modules (Penultima, Penultima redeux, Elegia Eternum, Excrucio Eternum, and the never completed hex coda), and later a litany of other things including an open setting that he killed off pretty quickly as a failed experiment called i am ikon and two series I really liked (Anachronauts and City of Angles) and another he's just started (Floating Point).

 

[The Madman]

The big dealbreaker going from NWN 1 to 2 was the amazing, intuitive and powerful editor was made into a buggy, cumbersome and extremely user unfriendly monstrosity. Especially interior and dungeon design...I flat out refuse to believe that the devs used this without some sort of wizard.

As someone who has played around a fair bit with both editors, you're right that the original NWN editor was far more intuitive to use but you're also wrong if you're implying NWN2's editor was somehow less powerful. You can do some pretty amazing stuff with NWN2's editor and there are a slew of fan plugins available to streamline the use and usability a bit, making it by far the more powerful of the two games editors especially seeing as the original NWN was limited to a tile-based system even for exteriors. The lighting is also pretty nifty allowing modders to do things like the brooding gothic Misery Stone mod that wouldn't have even been possible using the original NWN's editor.

So it's not all bad, just takes a fair bit more getting used to. No wizardry required!

 

[Frission]

It was nice. Not as complex as Baldur's Gate, but it was still a very good game in it's right.

 

[sXeth]

Had all the NWN1 stuff, up to the premium modules (Nowadays you'd call them DLC). First OC was blandy fetch hub+4 dungeon junk in prettymuch every chapter. SoU's OC tried some stuff, but suffered from poor scaling, and what seemed like a very chopped up and rushed story. Not sure I ever got through HotU's, due to it not working well/at all in MP mode, and later chapters suffering a major difficulty spike if you didn't go for specifically OP builds.

I bopped around the Persistent World scene for a good 8-10 years though. Consequently never really did pick up NWN2 (it had issues supporting them, not to mention my rig couldn't run it at the time). I found it kind of amusing that there was stuff like PRC that added hundreds of classes/spells/races/etc when the official expansions basically only dribbled out 4 or 5.

 

[endtherapture]

Did anyone play the mod Crimson Tides of Tethyr? That was one of the top mods I've ever played. It was amazing with scripted cutscenes, custom tilesets. I might give it a go again after I finish Dragon Age.

 

[Adultratedhydra]

NWN1 and its expansions were great if a little long in the tooth now.

2 and its expansions were great. Managed to carry one character all the way through and then made a Paradox when storm of Zehir was released.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Funny that you should mention it, since I've actually been replaying NWN2 for the last week or so maybe, since I got it cheap on gog. (Already had it on disk, but didn't have any of the expansions.)

I may have made somewhat of a bad build going Sorcerer (6)/Red Dragon Disciple (10) and now I've thrown Eldritch Knight into the mix.

Soon I'll finally be able to play Mask of the Betrayer.

 

[Adultratedhydra]

Funny that you should mention it, since I've actually been replaying NWN2 for the last week or so maybe, since I got it cheap on gog. (Already had it on disk, but didn't have any of the expansions.)

I may have made somewhat of a bad build going Sorcerer (6)/Red Dragon Disciple (10) and now I've thrown Eldritch Knight into the mix.

Soon I'll finally be able to play Mask of the Betrayer.

MotB had a ridiculous difficulty jump but i cant recall where it was. The party comp i ended up with also didnt sync up well with a duelist. It was a slog and a half for awhile there v.v