Neverwinter Nights

aka: NWN, Wu Dong Zhi Ye
Moby ID: 6771
Windows Specs
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Description official descriptions

A plague known as the Wailing Death is terrorizing the city of Neverwinter. Lady Aribeth summons an adventurer, who teams up with her fiance Fenthick Moss and his friend Desther to capture four monsters which are needed to prepare the cure. However, the matters become more complicated when the protagonist is attacked by mysterious assassins. It seems that an evil cult is behind the infestation, and the hero must find out what its ultimate goals are, and eventually save the city.

Neverwinter Nights is a role-playing game based on the third edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. The game utilizes 3D graphics with a zooming function and free camera rotation. Combat is handled in real time, and is similar to that of Baldur's Gate series, allowing the player to pause in-battle to issue orders. Unlike other RPGs that utilized this system, Neverwinter Nights allows the player to fully control only one character. Various "henchmen" may join the hero during the journey, but their functionality as party members is limited, as they cannot level up, have no inventory, and only follow general commands.

The multiplayer modes include Dungeon Master, in which a "DM" controls the traps and battles set for other players in the dungeon, and a range of game types such as hunting for treasure or a simple death match battle between players. The game also comes with an extensive tool kit for the construction of custom adventures. It allows players to create their own maps using a tile system. It is possible to add objects to the areas and even produce scripted events, cutscenes, and conversations.

Spellings

  • 无冬之夜 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 絕冬城之夜 - Traditional Chinese spelling

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Credits (Windows version)

313 People (287 developers, 26 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 88% (based on 73 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 199 ratings with 10 reviews)

Excellent computer RPG

The Good
The story, the new rules (3rd Edition), the depth of character development, the graphics and artwork, the gameplay.

The Bad
Only one henchman instead of a party, sometimes the graphics look rather blocky,the dialogues and the GUI were better in previous titles.

The Bottom Line
When I first played Neverwinter Nights, I had a feeling like I was returning to a place I left long time ago. Actually, back in the 80s, I was addicted to "Pools of Radiance" (TSR/SSI), the game made me spent hours, weeks and months in front of the computer. 3 hours into NWN I knew this was going to be more addictive for me than "Baldurs Gate" or "Icewind Dale", and 10 hours later, I was proven right. The new, more detailed skill/feats system is sometimes as motivating as the one found in "Diablo 2", and it lets You customize Your main character in a lot of ways within the boundaries of the class/race. The combat looks great, better than ever before, the weapons are fantastic (double bladed sword a la Darth Maul anyone ?), and the talents show in combat (multiple hits, hitting specific parts like arms/legs etc). The gameplay is really at the same time classic and innovative, the story is deep and the characters as cliched and typical as You might exspect from an epic fantasy game. The graphics are well done, not as good as Dungeon Siege, far behind Morrowind, but You will apperciate the little details and the general look after a while, because the lighting/shadowing system is truly atmospheric. The dialogue/interface system is the only point where I would say that is average at best. In previous Bioware games, this part was good enough, but here, the system looks a bit halfbaked because for example there are two windows where You can follow the dialogue (main event window/dialogue window), which is not necessary. Also, the windows such as automap, inventory etc look like they can be moved around (windows style), but they are fixed in place and can only be resized. Speaking fo dialogue...this part could have been better, in fact in NWN I found myself clicking away the dialogues as fast as possible, because it just feels a bit clumsy to have to read through them. This was easier and more pleasing to the eye in BG, IWD... But these are just minor problems, the improvements are too good in comparison, and I want to recommend this game to any serious roleplaying gamer.

Windows · by Emmanuel Henne (23) · 2004

Close to Perfection! Unfortunately, we spoke too soon...

The Good
The first time I saw it, one word came to mind: Wow! And it did win the first impression.

In the history of Advanced Dungeons&Dragons (AD&D), the Neverwinter Nights no doubt was the closest thing to bringing the concept into reality. Neverwinter Nights successfully created beautiful 3D creatures/monsters in an (almost) stable environment.

This would be the first game ever where you can respect the sheer 3D animated graphics of a Dragon.

The game engine is incredible. Editing your own dungeon, you can create a multitude of creatures all in once big map and watch them slaughter each other. It's basically a home 3D movie. Just bring-out the pop-corn!

The Bad
We spoke too soon...

Eventually the nothingness saw through. Players like myself restart the game a couple of times just to get a touch of the game play, to prepare for the final "perfect, planned and serious" game playing. That's when everything started to go wrong...

After my 4th replay. I realized the game was B O R I N G. It actually started to become boring the second-time around. There was one thing AD&D games always lacked: Intelligent Dialog and an overall good plot. AD&D was basically all action and not enough brains - unfortunately AD&D was always a game for "Fighters...never for Magic-Users". Neverwinter Nights is a statement to that fact. The dialog feature was ugly, empty and (again) boring. In games with good plot and story telling (e.g. Final Fantasy or Ultima) conversations with NPC's is an important aspect if not part of the soul of the game. You "thirst" for such conversations as the information was solid and fun. My experience in Neverwinter Nights (most of the time) was the lack of conversation, due to the fear continuous mouse-clicking due to the long and boring dialog.

Again I proved (well, to myself at least) 3D graphics somehow aren't - how do you say it...artistic? The rough edges, color and occasional bugs just can't seem to defeat the beautiful 2D graphics. It lacked detail. When something lacks detail, it becomes general. General=boring. Imagine playing a single Counterstrike game for 2 hours. No, for a total of 2 hours, but a single multi-player map that you play for 2 hours. Boring, eh?

Neverwinter Nights also introduced "Feats" which they claim was adapted from Fallout. Nice try, unfortunately not. Tell me, does anyone of you like to be restricted in your options in creating a character? Do you want create the best damn character ever? Yes. Easy enough. Don't understand why game developers have the !@#!$!@$ habit of restricting character development. YES I WOULD LIKE TO POSSES ALL THE SKILLS/FEATS OFFERED IN THIS GAME! Or at least give me a technology map like in Civilization so I can plan ahead without !#!$!$! restarting every time I make a wrong choice. Character development is supposed to be fun and to be anticipated. However, each time I gain a level in games like this, it take 10-20 minutes to figure out which feat/skill to upgrade in fear of making a mistake.

In Neverwinter Nights and some AD&D games, the perfect character becomes a problem in relation to multi-class characters. If it's a single class character, hey no-problem. But who can resist the unique combination of the multi-class feature. Unfortunately, there is a restriction to levels eventually leading to a restriction of skills and feats. Oddly, this level restriction is different from prior AD&D games. Usually, in multi-class, the levels are restricted to a maximum level per class. For instance if your a Mage/Fighter. You probably can reach the level of 8 for Mage and 9 for Fighter. If you were a single class, it would be 10 Mage and 11 Fighter. Fair enough. In Neverwinter Nights, the restriction is an accumulation of levels. It's like this: The maximum level for a single class is Level 20. If you have a multi-class character consisting of 3 classes (e.g. Mage, Thief, Fighter), the maximum level is the accumulation of the three. So Mage+Thief+Fighter=20. You might as well eliminate the multi-class in the first place really... It feels like your half-way on the road to nowhere.

'Scuse my swearing. I have high-blood pressure...hehehe (kid's don't try this at home or anywhere for that matter...)

The Bottom Line
Still worth playing though. Need very high-spec PC to play by the way.

Windows · by Indra was here (20756) · 2003

Not what I expected...

The Good
Compared to Bioware's earlier D&D Games, (Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate etc.) this offering is, I suppose, graphically superior.

The ability to view the Forgotten Realms word from many angles, to zoom in out, to assign a unique hairstyle to your character - are all welcome additions. As are the graphical effects when dealing with shiny surfaces, e.g. water and metal armor. Magical spell effects are quite astounding too.

A very useful addition to NWN is the Toolset, relatively simple to use (especially if you know anything about C+). Creating modules can become very complex though.

The Bad
There are several reasons why NWN just doesn't quite come up to what I normally expect from AD&D games.

Firstly, let me explain the "Tardis" effect, named in honour of Dr. Who's H.Q. What happens is: you see a small temple; you go inside said temple; you view main area... then, you realise that there is no way in the Nine Hells that the room you are standing in should fit into the building you just entered. C'mon here, someone fire the continuity people.

Then there is the musical score. Don't get me wrong, it's nice and all, but compare it to Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale and there is a stark contrast. The previous games' music was inspiring, unlike the insipid and unremarkable drone which buzzes through most NWN areas.

The final point is the something to do with the toolset. I'm sure everyone agrees that AD&D games REALLY need atmosphere. I love the feeling of watching an area loading screen with the anticipation in my mind, "What will this area look like? " or "How have the Game Artists captured the Cloakwood using their fine painterly skills?" Instead, in NWN, there are things called "tile-sets". Instead of artists creating a unique image, someone has re-hashed one of about 6 tile-sets (called things like "Forest" or "Cavern" for instance) by moving around furniture or doors. There are no glaciers or volcanos in NWN. YAWN.

The Bottom Line
I could pick far more holes in this game (like all the unfulfilled promises of riding horses and jumping and swimming). But instead I'll say it's mediocre, the infinity engine is still the best. Play IWDII if you really want a good AD&D adventure.

Windows · by emmamomocat (29) · 2003

[ View all 10 player reviews ]

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Neverwinter Nights appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Advertisement

To coincide with the US release of Neverwinter Nights, Infogrames bought a full page ad for the game in the men's magazine Maxim. The interesting detail is that unlike other publicity for the game this one was a unique layout that mimicked the monthly "Have you seen this girl?" one-page pictorials of the magazine, which contain a full-page picture of a hot babe along some minimal info à la Playboy (likes, dislikes, etc.). In this case the pictorial shows a nymph named Anna, (wearing nothing but some seashells and vines). Her comments in case you are interested include: "I'm all about beauty but height has never been an issue" (on her dream guy) and "I'm not just a fantasy girl" amongst some other stuff.

Engine

Neverwinter Nights uses the Aurora engine, but originally it was going to use the Omen engine, developed by Bioware for their third-person action title MDK 2.

German version

In the German version, the in-game gore setting was removed, i.e. permanently stuck on the lowest setting.

Intro

Although the opening intro has literally nothing to do with the main game besides the symbol on the sword, a keen observer may notice that the hero wears the same armor as Lord Nasher of Neverwinter, and their basic facial features seem to match, although the hero at the beginning is clean-shaven and far younger. According to The Art of Neverwinter Nights, a compendium of all the artwork that went into making the game and bundled exclusively with the Collector's Edition, it is in fact Lord Nasher.

This video sequence premiered at the 2002 Game Developer's Conference in San Jose, California.

Music

The game's music files are listed with a *.bmu file extension, but in actuality they're encoded in plain-old MP3 format. So basically, you can listen to them in Winamp without any special form of decryption required.

Neverwinter

The city of Neverwinter is located south of the Spine of the World where the Icewind Dale games take place, and north of the Sword Mountains, the northern extremity of Baldur's Gate.

Online servers

The game's online servers which were hosted on GameSpy were shut down on 5 December 2012.

Ports

Original plans were to include the Linux and Mac versions (and eventually a BeOS version) in the same box as the Windows version. Though the game code was said to be fully portable, various design decisions - most important: the use of the Miles Sound System, which was not available for Linux at that time - delayed these versions for over one year. Official movie support and the Aurora toolset were never finished, the BeOS version was never released at all.

References

In the courtyard of the Arcane Brotherhood you can hear the chant used by the temple healers in The Bards Tale 2: Destiny Knight (Amiga version).

Support

Publisher Atari halted support for the game in May 2006, with no more patches or premium modules for the original game.

Violence

Tweaking some of the game's configuration files makes the violence in the game much more graphic. Several mods for the game use configuration files tweaked in this way to create a more visceral effect.

Awards

  • 4Players
    • 2002– Best PC Role-Playing Game of the Year
  • Computer Games Magazine
    • March 2003 (No. 148) - #2 in the "10 Best Games of 2002" list
  • Computer Gaming World
    • April 2003 (Issue #225) – RPG of the Year (Readers' Choice)
    • April 2003 (Issue #225) – Best Development Tool of the Year
  • GameSpy
    • 2002 – PC RPG of the Year (Readers' Choice)
  • PC Gamer
    • April 2005 - #35 in the "50 Best Games of All Time" list

Information also contributed by Alan Chan, Iggi, Jason Musgrave, kbmb, Michael Palomino, PCGamer77, Sciere, Zack Green and Zovni

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Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

Macintosh added by Corn Popper. Linux added by Iggi.

Additional contributors: Droog, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Christian Boel, Sciere, Pedro_Hebeler, Zeppin, Paulus18950, Patrick Bregger, Plok, FatherJack.

Game added June 24, 2002. Last modified March 6, 2024.