Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Highly addictive"

Neverwinter Nights has gotten a lot of gameplay hours from me. My recorded hours are up in the fourteen-hundreds, mostly due to the excellent online Roleplaying communities. The single player is great, the story able to hook you and drag you in. But really, the Multiplayer is one of the game's most important aspects, and you can even play the single player campaigns on the internet!

The gameplay is excellent, with an understandable interface. The game uses a right-click menu to do most of it's commands quickly, the menu being a circle of menus with various sub-menus, or simply a command in of itself, organizing itself depending on what you right click on. It also uses the classic user interface for players who just can't remember the right-click menu. As for the play itself, you can go in to a few different view modes, including the Chase Cam and Overhead Cam. Chase Cam stuffs the camera behind your character and is pretty much a classic third person view, while the Overhead Cam Makes it easier to see things and plan all around your character. Combat is simple enough, running in and clicking on something to start attacking it, and individual classes get some options on what to do in combat, ranging from magic, to melee, and all the way to hand-to-hand and archery.

Speaking of classes, the class system is based on the 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons class system, with a few modifications to make the game make sense. Not all classes are included, but you get quite the selection still. Want to be a druid and control the forces of nature, talk to animals, and throw powerful summoned creatures at your foes? Pick a Druid. Want to shapeshift as well? Get the Shapeshifter prestige class, to make your shapes more... Versatile and interesting. Want to simply smack things around with something large and painful? Be a fighter, or a barbarian. How about calling upon the powers of your Gods? You can be a Cleric, a mage, and even a Sorcerer. There are many more classes than that, but it was just a basic overview.

Ah, and the Gods, you must be wondering to yourself. What are they? Neverwinter Nights has a pantheon of dieties from the Forgotten Realms ruleset of DnD, ranging from your Chaotic Good dieties to your Chaotic Evil ones. Ever wanted to worship a God of chaos and murder? Cyric is the one for you. Law, order and honor? Tyr. Luck and adventure? Tymora. A range of possibilities for most any personality. Heck, you could be a rebel and pick the goddess of sensualists, Sharess, whom is a goddess from our world. There is a history behind that, however, but you should find out about that on your own.

What is Chaotic Good and Chaotic Evil, you ask? Simply the alignment system. You get nine choices from these five categories: Lawful, Good, Evil, Neutral, and Chaotic. These branch out in to the nine choices of: Lawful Good/Neutral/Evil, Neutral Good/Evil or True Neutral, and Chaotic Good/Neutral/Evil.

Now to get on to sound. The sound is well made, everything unique and vivid. You get the sounds of rain, of wind, even animals. Usually the sound of the animals you hear dictate what happy little forest critters you'll find in the area, though they're most likely not happy or little. The music is nice, but it will more than likely get repetitive.

The graphics are excellent for a game made in 2002, and even today still look great. Excellent lighting effects while not being too demanding, with detailed tilesets and statics. Character animations are nice as well, though sometimes a bit too robotic. In combat, you get to actually see your character parry a strike, or block a strike with their shield. Add in lighting effects to the resulting sparks from a parry, and you've got enjoyable combat.

Now, for the Multiplayer I've been talking so much about. While the Multiplayer most likely won't hold much value for people who don't enjoy roleplaying, others will find it enjoyable. I myself enjoy going in to a roleplaying game and acting like I am that character, through typing and actions. The community is mostly friendly, though some servers are just not up to par in that respect. This is where my large amount of hours came from. I am an avid roleplayer, and it is where I learned to type so fast, so well, and to put sentences and words together seamlessly without a thought.

I recommend this game to anyone who enjoys a good roleplaying game, or enjoys to roleplay with others. If you just like Dungeons and Dragons, this is also a great game for you.