I was looking around the GOG.com store and i saw that Neverwinter Nights was for 9.99 so i was wondering if it is worth it or not (it comes with all expansions)
I had a lot of fun online multiplayer worlds. Not so much the single player campaigns yet MOTB was supposed to be good.
MoTB was one of the neverwinter nights 2 expansions, I want to assume that it's never winter nights 1 xeroshi is talking about
and I would say go for, for only 10 bucks, you get a decent playing experience for probably around 50 hours or so ( maybe more because you are not familiar with the game) and then drag characters over to the other expansions and continue playing,
I think 10 bucks is a fair price for the whole pack
The OC of NwN1 was terribly boring for me. I don't think that in all these years I've managed two complete playthroughs of it. However I believe its expanion packs make it worth to purchase. Everyone praises Hordes of the Underdark for its well written plot and Gelatinous Cubes! Although my personal favourite still remains Shadows of Undrentide that managed to show quite exotic places of the Anauroch, amongst other locations.
If you're looking for community created mods, modules, or persistent worlds with living multiplayer servers. This is your game. There are seemingly thousands of things fans created for this game.
I was looking around the GOG.com store and i saw that Neverwinter Nights was for 9.99 so i was wondering if it is worth it or not (it comes with all expansions)
If you see Neverwinter Nights as a continuation of the Baldur's Gate games, then no. Neverwinter Nights is terrible. If you see it as a game that enables you to make your own adventures, play hundreds of others' adventurers and play online for actual roleplaying, then yes, Neverwinter Nights is amazing.
Though Hordes of the Underdark is pretty fun in general. It's the highlight of the official campaigns.
Same goes for Neverwinter Nights 2. Only with much more stuff in it. Ton of modules and online worlds that are still full to this day, after a decade it was released (2006).
Also Mask of the Betrayer is the highlight of the expansions. But in general, the NwN2 campaigns are superior to the NwN1 campaigns.
TL;DR: Don't pick NwN1 for the story or the NPCs, pick it for the tons of quality modules and PWs.
I really enjoyed Shadows of Undrentide. It was much better than the original Neverwinter Nights campaign, which I also quickly tired of as others have mentioned. I also enjoyed Hordes of the Underdark, especially as it was a continuation of Undrentide. I played both numerous times. I have never played NWN2.
On the modded content, this is what made NWN special. There was a lot of great content available, especially for low to mid level characters. For me though the pinnacle of NWN was not the official campaigns even, but instead the Aeilund series, which allowed you to progress from a 1st level character all the way to level 40 by the end. It took hours and hours to play this and was released over the years in various installments. I think it was an outstanding fan-created series and better than the official content.
for the never winter nights series, I would say that storm of zehir expansion for nwn 2 has to be my favourite, I've always been a fan of the create your own party gig, so that was a nice bonus, plus the item creation in storm of zehir, holy crap is it nice, I found the other nwn2 game/expansion way too much hassle/effort in making magical items, but for me storm of zehir does it beautifully, plus the trading system is pretty neat as well, it took me a little time to figure it out in the beginning but once I did, I thought it was a neat mechanic
Also, something to note. It's not "Never Winter". It's Neverwinter, like the City of Neverwinter that is above Waterdeep and below Luskan, on the Sword Coast.
Also, something to note. It's not "Never Winter". It's Neverwinter, like the City of Neverwinter that is above Waterdeep and below Luskan, on the Sword Coast.
(and yes, NWN is definitely worth it for Hordes of the Underdark and its many great mods (e.g, Aielund Saga & Swordflight)! NWN2 is good for its official campaigns - especially MotB.)
These are covered on my blog, which is 80% about NWN and 20% Baldur's Gate.
Considering you meet one of the funniest NPC's in any game ever in SoU, I'd say it's worth it
I'm joking a bit, but it's actually semi-true. I agree with many of the above in that the main vanilla campaing isn't really that great, the strenght lies in the expansions and with mods (as always). For me, SoU was the best expansion, but HoTU was great as well. Deekin is actually my favorite NPC ever but I don't think he alone is worth the buy of course.
IMHO, NVN is at it's best in the mid-tier before you get too high-level and well-equipped. It's the same as with BG for me, once I reach end-game BG2 or crossover into ToB, I lose interrest. So that's one of the reasons why SoU was 'better' IMHO.
IIRC, 'twas over 10 years ago I played this at least, you could be kinda evil as well. I had a MP session with a mate of mine going on in SoU IIRC and one sidequest had me entering a house to clear out some goblins for a mother and also saving her baby. In the end I could ask alot of gold from her to give her the baby back, which she couldn't afford. So I kept him and left the weeping mother there. Yeah, that was kinda bad. Had that baby in the backpack for a long time afterwards. Taught him everything I knew. That baby is Bill Gates today. True story.
the strenght lies in the expansions and with mods (as always).
What mods have you played?
It was a long time ago, long before nexusmods, and I don't remember names of any mods anymore. I played quite a few player-made maps and quests, even some my friend made, but I never really modded the core rules much. I did enjoy goofing around with the toolset myself from time to time, but never created anything worth mentioning :P
(and yes, NWN is definitely worth it for Hordes of the Underdark and its many great mods (e.g, Aielund Saga & Swordflight)! NWN2 is good for its official campaigns - especially MotB.)
These are covered on my blog, which is 80% about NWN and 20% Baldur's Gate.
The NWN community is so friendly, talented and selfless.. plus, self-promotion is not the style of the builders.. which is why I go out of my way to commentate and catalogue their efforts.
I'm currently taking a break from NWN to showcase Baldur's Gate 2 in ridiculous detail. I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew with this one..!
The NWN community is so friendly, talented and selfless.. plus, self-promotion is not the style of the builders.. which is why I go out of my way to commentate and catalogue their efforts.
I'm currently taking a break from NWN to showcase Baldur's Gate 2 in ridiculous detail. I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew with this one..!
I remember really enjoying the NWN community now that you mention it, I remember being excited to go NWN vault and stuff to see mods or to try them out.
NWN's excellent Aurora Engine was built from the ground up to accommodate custom adventures, with limitless modding capabilities and the option to have an actual live DM on your gameserver. Sadly, with the recent collapse of the Neverwinter Vault once hosted by IGN, many great mods were lost forever, including a few of my own creations.
NWN2, on the other hand, feels clunky as hell. The awful music (yeah, why not have an orchestra with a chorus whine like there's no tomorrow when you encounter something you can kill with one hit), awful sound effects (whenever you cast a spell, be prepared to hear someone stir their bloody tea vigorously) and even worse visuals (NWN looked far better IMHO) really make this a horrifying experience. If playing this crap at all, play Storm of Zehir which is, thanks to some technical improvements, much more playable than the OC and MotB. If you're still interested in the OC & MotB storylines, better watch a let's play or something, as there really isn't much variation in terms of story development anyway.
The Aielund Saga is a BG-esque campaign. Other BG-esque campaigns are Crimson Tides of Tethyr, Darkness Over Daggerford and Swordflight. These have been covered by me, too.
If you enjoy large-scale dynamic sieges/battles, which are virtually non-existent in vanilla, there is an excellent action-strategy mod called Good vs Evil 3. Find it here. A few years back, I had been working on a largely expanded and rebalanced total conversion of it set in a universe of my own invention, but unfortunately much of my work was lost when the original Neverwinter Vault was closed and I decided to discontinue the project. Still, John's creation is fun to play even in its unaltered state and a very good framework to build upon, should you want to create a strategy mod of your own.
I have been playing NWN for like half a year almost every saturday online with some friends now.
If it wasn't for my friends, I would have probably died from a skull fracture by now, because I would have just repeatedly slammed my head into the table over and over in frustration.
NWN is a very different game from Baldur's Gate. The story is bland at best, so are the NPCs. Terrible level design, it is super easy to get lost because everything looks the same. Camera and controls are INFURIATING. Don't even let me start on the uuuugly armor and clothing designs. Oh, also a ton of gamebreaking bugs, though that might just be the multiplayer.
I guess this game only really speaks to the dungeon crawling crowd, though even then there is better stuff out there.
The add-ons are not as painful as the main game, but unless you really got nothing else to play, you can skip this one without missing out.
Comments
and I would say go for, for only 10 bucks, you get a decent playing experience for probably around 50 hours or so ( maybe more because you are not familiar with the game) and then drag characters over to the other expansions and continue playing,
I think 10 bucks is a fair price for the whole pack
If you're looking for community created mods, modules, or persistent worlds with living multiplayer servers. This is your game. There are seemingly thousands of things fans created for this game.
If you see it as a game that enables you to make your own adventures, play hundreds of others' adventurers and play online for actual roleplaying, then yes, Neverwinter Nights is amazing.
Though Hordes of the Underdark is pretty fun in general. It's the highlight of the official campaigns.
Same goes for Neverwinter Nights 2. Only with much more stuff in it.
Ton of modules and online worlds that are still full to this day, after a decade it was released (2006).
Also Mask of the Betrayer is the highlight of the expansions. But in general, the NwN2 campaigns are superior to the NwN1 campaigns.
TL;DR: Don't pick NwN1 for the story or the NPCs, pick it for the tons of quality modules and PWs.
On the modded content, this is what made NWN special. There was a lot of great content available, especially for low to mid level characters. For me though the pinnacle of NWN was not the official campaigns even, but instead the Aeilund series, which allowed you to progress from a 1st level character all the way to level 40 by the end. It took hours and hours to play this and was released over the years in various installments. I think it was an outstanding fan-created series and better than the official content.
A link is here to the homepage:
http://stephenlnowland.com.au/savant/act1.html
Love NWN.
It's not "Never Winter". It's Neverwinter, like the City of Neverwinter that is above Waterdeep and below Luskan, on the Sword Coast.
Too many people make this mistake on many forums, it seems.
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Neverwinter
How to Mod NWN
How to Mod NWN2
(and yes, NWN is definitely worth it for Hordes of the Underdark and its many great mods (e.g, Aielund Saga & Swordflight)! NWN2 is good for its official campaigns - especially MotB.)
These are covered on my blog, which is 80% about NWN and 20% Baldur's Gate.
Enjoy!
I'm joking a bit, but it's actually semi-true. I agree with many of the above in that the main vanilla campaing isn't really that great, the strenght lies in the expansions and with mods (as always). For me, SoU was the best expansion, but HoTU was great as well. Deekin is actually my favorite NPC ever but I don't think he alone is worth the buy of course.
IMHO, NVN is at it's best in the mid-tier before you get too high-level and well-equipped. It's the same as with BG for me, once I reach end-game BG2 or crossover into ToB, I lose interrest. So that's one of the reasons why SoU was 'better' IMHO.
IIRC, 'twas over 10 years ago I played this at least, you could be kinda evil as well. I had a MP session with a mate of mine going on in SoU IIRC and one sidequest had me entering a house to clear out some goblins for a mother and also saving her baby. In the end I could ask alot of gold from her to give her the baby back, which she couldn't afford. So I kept him and left the weeping mother there. Yeah, that was kinda bad. Had that baby in the backpack for a long time afterwards. Taught him everything I knew. That baby is Bill Gates today. True story.
The NWN community is so friendly, talented and selfless.. plus, self-promotion is not the style of the builders.. which is why I go out of my way to commentate and catalogue their efforts.
I'm currently taking a break from NWN to showcase Baldur's Gate 2 in ridiculous detail. I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew with this one..!
...
I played NWN to death. All campaigns. Starting with SoU, then the NWN OC, then HotU. Then the other campaigns... You get to ride horses!
...
I prefer BG though. The 3D is cool, but not as artistic as the isometric view.
NWN2, on the other hand, feels clunky as hell. The awful music (yeah, why not have an orchestra with a chorus whine like there's no tomorrow when you encounter something you can kill with one hit), awful sound effects (whenever you cast a spell, be prepared to hear someone stir their bloody tea vigorously) and even worse visuals (NWN looked far better IMHO) really make this a horrifying experience. If playing this crap at all, play Storm of Zehir which is, thanks to some technical improvements, much more playable than the OC and MotB. If you're still interested in the OC & MotB storylines, better watch a let's play or something, as there really isn't much variation in terms of story development anyway.
Cavalry from The Aielund Saga.
The Aielund Saga is a BG-esque campaign. Other BG-esque campaigns are Crimson Tides of Tethyr, Darkness Over Daggerford and Swordflight. These have been covered by me, too.
A few years back, I had been working on a largely expanded and rebalanced total conversion of it set in a universe of my own invention, but unfortunately much of my work was lost when the original Neverwinter Vault was closed and I decided to discontinue the project. Still, John's creation is fun to play even in its unaltered state and a very good framework to build upon, should you want to create a strategy mod of your own.
If it wasn't for my friends, I would have probably died from a skull fracture by now, because I would have just repeatedly slammed my head into the table over and over in frustration.
NWN is a very different game from Baldur's Gate. The story is bland at best, so are the NPCs. Terrible level design, it is super easy to get lost because everything looks the same. Camera and controls are INFURIATING. Don't even let me start on the uuuugly armor and clothing designs.
Oh, also a ton of gamebreaking bugs, though that might just be the multiplayer.
I guess this game only really speaks to the dungeon crawling crowd, though even then there is better stuff out there.
The add-ons are not as painful as the main game, but unless you really got nothing else to play, you can skip this one without missing out.
...
They are different games. I enjoy NWN very much. I cannot comment on NWN 2 as I have not played it.