Posted on: October 26, 2022
SplendiferousFinch
Games: 27 Reviews: 13
D&D: No Friends Edition
Pouring so many hours into Neverwinter Nights back in the day, it pains me to say this: the game has not aged gracefully. Unlike the Baldur's Gate series or Icewind Dale 2, NWN was limited by its technical capabilities and offered a dialed-down D&D experience compared to the aforementioned Infinity Engine classics. Basically, imagine you're that one kid with only two friends who were into D&D back in the 80's/90's and so the kid taking the role of DM needs to adapt the campaigns to merely two adventuring misfits. NWN in a nutshell. For starters, the default campaign is just underwhelming. The story is intriguing and well-written, sadly the gameplay doesn't match the writing. By far the worst aspect of the campaign, aside from the aforementioned "two-man D&D unit", is your complete lack of control over your one henchman's equipment and limited control over their actions. The only NPC even remotely suited for the role of tank is Grimgnaw the monk, so the campaign basically pushes you into playing a tanky melee class (that is, if you don't want a AI-controlled tank that dies as often as Kenny McCormick). Compared to the Infinity Engine D&D adaptations or to NWN2, NWN feels like playing a hybrid between World of Warcraft and Diablo 2 (you'll learn to love your "Hearthstone" in a hurry). Now that the negatives are out of the way, it's only fair to mention the positives. Hordes of the Underdark is a fantastic expansion, blowing the previous two official campaigns to kingdom come; you finally get something at least resembling a D&D party (3 people) and you get to customize your party's gear. It only took BioWare three tries to actually get it right. There's also several official modules well worth your time (Kingmaker, Wyvern Crown of Cormyr, Darkness over Daggerford. But you still have to trudge through a lot of muck before you find the diamonds in the rough. I think the main reason this game still gets such fond recollection is the very user-friendly module creator.
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