As a remake it is the minimum passable improvement. Camera controls are not that better especially in case of mouse and keyboard. Graphics wise the difference to the original is nothing that you ll notice. On the bright side multiplayer works (even though it 'll take some time to have some good servers available made by players, though I am not sure if support for persistent worlds is in with this remake...). Also I had no crush or any major bug up to this point, interface seems to work ok for mouse controls (have not checked gamepad). It feels as clunky as the original and I m pretty sure there is a missed opportunity with this remake. In any case I do not think it does not worth the 20ish euros I paid as owner of the original in preorder, but paying 30ish after its release it kind of too much, unless it is the first time you play this and love old style crpgs. In any other case you 'll probably be dissappointed. 3/5 seems fair for now, unless there is continuous support and improvement in the future.
The fact there are still multiplayer worlds, that are persistent, with real people as DMs managing and creating stories should be enough to give you an idea about the quality of this game. No other game brought people together in small DnD worlds in a persistent fashion like this one, and every game that tried to copy this feature failed, including its successor. Closest you can come to pen and paper experience. It strikes a perfect balance between pen and paper atmosphere, but with even better rhythm and pace due to it being real time. Enhanced Edition is a welcome addition that solved multiplayer issues, made downloading custom content (required to join custom multiplayer servers) easy and generally more approachable to the new player. Prices on DLCs could be toned down I admit, but there is so much free content out there it is not even a big deal. Just search for free neverwinter nights modules.
I admit it might be a tiny bit of nostalgia affecting this review (hey its GOG, 99% of all reviews here are..) but this game surely deserves it as much as any. First, the music. I mean, one of the top game soundtracks of all time. Not the most memorable, it was not too popular a game anyway, but it's amazing what one composer achieved back then. Second, the split screen multiplayer was so much fun it could be illegal. Considering we had the game in a Shareware CD from some PC magazine, the fun value was infinite! As for single player, it was basically Sonic the hedgehog speed, but someone made him a bunny, gave him multiple guns, far cooler music, sprinkled more humorous menus and scenario and.. all in all was a better game in my opinion, but less people played platform games on PCs back then so the success was not comparable. All in all one of my favorite GOG releases!
