Baldur's Gate 2 V.S Neverwinter Nights

thrudd

Ok I know what a lot of people will say, 2 Completely Different Games , Different Engines ect... I have to be Honest and I would gather this is also a Matter of Opinion but I Enjoy the Infinity Engine Games much much more!!!! I purchased the head Start for Neverwinter Have been playing it , Went back to Baldur's Gate 2 to play a couple Different Groups I have Recently created ( 1 new just started,4 groups are in Chapter 4) Mind you I played BG and all the Infinity Engine games back when they were first released in the 90's Including NW. I continue to enjoy the Infinity Engine........ I guess I'm old School ,These Games always take me back to the 80's with my buddies playing in the basement rolling the dice..... Just wondering if anyone had any opinions on this??? I also kind of am a little disappointed that with the Release of NWN it looks like any NEW Infinity Engine Games in the Near Future are very Slim ...( unless the ever find the source code for IWD2) . I will continue to Replay BG2 and wait on Patch 2.5 for IWDEE so I can replay that with a bunch of new parties!!!! Cant wait for that!!!

DJKajuru

To be fair I won't mention writing or story. NWN has a nice 3E feel with its dwarven monks, half orc barbarians, feats and multiclassing system while BG and IWD show ADnD in all its glory.

Contemplative_Hamster

I played NWN quite a lot back in 2004-ish. Devoted quite a lot of time to developing character builds, etc. But I'd never rate it anywhere near BG or BG2.

Arctodus

Gameplay wise, what I remember from NWN is that it was a missed opportunity for me. I like the variety of builds that NWN gives you (even though I'm not a big fan of prestige classes), but it all became pointless to me because the game was too easy. The BG saga is harder than NWN, and that is a big deal for me, even moreso now that I can't play without a thing called SCS and play no-reload. I became through the years a player who likes to be challenged in an intelligent and subtle way, and that's exactly what SCS does. That's why I prefer by far the BG saga to this day.

So, NWN was a missed opportunity for me, because, if something doesn't put up enough of a challenge, all the metaknowledge and variety of builds is not as significant. I really don't care about graphics, just about a good and intelligent challenge.

However, I must say that I only played single player, and never tried the different mods the game offered back in the day. I simply played the OC, which didn't do it for me. Maybe there is some difficulty mods out there that would do it for me. If there was something that would be an equivalent to SCS in NWN, I'm pretty sure I could sink a lot of hours in the game, because I acknoweldge that the game offers plenty of opportunities built wise - much more than the BG saga actually. Maybe I'm simply uninformed about some of the possibilities NWN offers, but until the day I can found something that will catch my attention as much as SCS, I will keep to try to no-reload the BG saga.

ThacoBell

Not really a fair comparison. BG2 focuses on a tight story with tons of companions and interactions between them and the player character. The focus is a single player experience.

NWN is focused on user created content (like LittleBigPlanet). With a very robust toolkit for making just about anything in the game. Persistent worlds that are entirely made by the community. Thousands of modules, graphical packs, races, classes. Its like comparing your favorite movie to the box of legos in the other room.

Raduziel

Arctodus said:

However, I must say that I only played single player, and never tried the different mods the game offered back in the day.

I don't usually say this, but seems like you played NWN wrong. At least in a non-optimized way.

Except for HotU, I never played the campaigns more than once. But an RP PW server and the many mods provided by the community kept me playing NWN since 2003.

I live in a huge country (Brazil) and NWN gave me the opportunity to make true friends everywhere. We usually travel to get hosted in each one's house. Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Brasília, Paraná, Bahia, those are the states that I visited almost for free thanks do NWN.

Arctodus

Raduziel said:

Arctodus said:

However, I must say that I only played single player, and never tried the different mods the game offered back in the day.

I don't usually say this, but seems like you played NWN wrong. At least in a non-optimized way.

Except for HotU, I never played the campaigns more than once. But an RP PW server and the many mods provided by the community kept me playing NWN since 2003.

I live in a huge country (Brazil) and NWN gave me the opportunity to make true friends everywhere. We usually travel to get hosted in each one's house. Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Brasília, Paraná, Bahia, those are the states that I visited almost for free thanks do NWN.

To be honest, I'm pretty sure it's the case, so there's no harm done. However, I have no interest whatsoever to play multiplayer. NWN is probably not the game for me then.

Raduziel

@Arctodus I strongly recommend that you give it a try. You don't need to multiplayer, but at least try some community made single-player campaigns.

Arctodus

@Raduziel I probably will at some point. I'm gonna wait for the dust to settle a bit, search for the most popular mods and/or those that attract me the most and have a go at it eventually.

Candy_clown2

Neverwinter really wins the battle if you ask me. Because you don't need to equip all the items ..again.. if one of your party members dies. Also the gaming experience (not xp) neverwinter gives is a bit better in my opinion. Fire really looks like fire and glowing items really glow. A lantern in bg1 really doesn't glow at all and although it seems to look nicer in bg2 it still doesn't match nvn. Although I have some love for bg, I truly enjoy nvn a lot more. I enjoyed it more in the past and present.

Candy_clown2

I want to add to this that the controls or the fact you basically just focus on one character makes it easier to go forward or make progress in the game. One thing I've noticed playing nvn on both my mobile phone and tablet is that a bigger screen really changes the experience. On my smaller phone the controls were a bit annoying and the graphics not that special, but on a tablet you can see more details and the controls not annoying anymore.

ThacoBell

Meh, blocky graphics, no party, meh story. Its not really a contest at all. BG2 is so far out of NWN's league, that if NWN violently exploded, BG2 wouldn't even hear the echoes.

Skitia

Singleplayer: BG2. If I want to play alone, I'm going to pick BG2 over NWN 9 times out of ten. The one time would be if I'm playing my own custom made module or someone elses.
Multiplayer: NWN. There are rich PW and other servers out there that basically provide endless hours of content. The Baldur's Gate experience is hard to have as rich in comparison with multiplayer.

megamike15

baldurs gate i see myself replaying more

if i play nwn it's the expansions or fan modules.

ThacoBell

@Skitia My problem with NWN, is that the gameplay is just kinda clunky and not very fun. It doesn't really matter how good created content for it is, if the only way of interacting with that content is boring/annoying. The game is seriously flawed from the perspective of actually trying to play it. You can really tell it was concieved as a toolset first and a playable game, like, third-ish.

BelgarathMTH

<shrug> I like both. Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights are both part of my annual game rotation. I usually play at least part way through each of them once a year. I think some of that is nostalgia rather than anything objectively good or bad about the games. They all provided me with distraction from real life during times of my life when I really needed it, and they remind me of being younger.

I think comparing them is a little like comparing apples and oranges. One is second edition, the other is third edition. One is party oriented, the other is solo oriented (although NWN 2 brought the party play back). One is 2D, the other is 3D. One is isometric, the other has free camera. One has tactical combat, the other has action-oriented combat where build and gear make more difference.

NWN is closer to a Diablo or World of Warcraft play style than BG. (I play those games, too.) I'd say NWN is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum from roleplay-story to action-hack'n'slash.

Sometimes I want a lot of characterization and story, but sometimes I want to just mindlessly attack monsters. Sometimes I feel like managing complicated strategy and tactics, but lately I just want to breeze through combat on automatic pilot, because it clears my mind of worry. I don't want to feel suspense or tension, but rather I want to be relaxed and engaged in concentration on something without feeling much anything.

Each game fits different moods I might be in at any given time, and scratches different kinds of itches.

lroumen

Only once did I get past the city quests in nwn. Then nwn wanted a patch that permanently booked my save and after reinstalls my sou key was never recognised anymore so my characters did not have tumble and extended parry or something and then I just gave up on the game.

WarChiefZeke

Baldurs Gate is the better game, Neverwinter Nights is the better ruleset. Ive spent quite a bit of time in both but lean towards Baldurs Gate for its massive amount of content that seemingly never gets old.