Neverwinter Nights

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Description

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.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Trailer

Alternate Titles

• "絕冬城之夜" -- Chinese spelling (traditional)
• "无冬之夜" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
• "Wu Dong Zhi Ye" -- Chinese title
• "NWN" -- Common abbreviation

Part of the Following Groups

• 3D Engine: Aurora
• Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Setting: Forgotten Realms
• Dungeons & Dragons (D&D / AD&D) licensees
• Fantasy Creatures: Dwarves
• Fantasy Creatures: Elves
• Gameplay feature: Character development - Skill distribution
• Middleware: SDL
• Neverwinter Nights series

User Reviews

Disappointed	Windows	The Fabulous King (1333)
Neverwinter Nightmares	Windows	Unicorn Lynx (181725)
Close to Perfection! Unfortunately, we spoke too soon...	Windows	Indra was here (20928)
Perhaps what AD&D fans have been waiting for, but as a computer RPG, it stinks.	Windows	kbmb (435)
Not what I expected...	Windows	emmamomocat (33)
Worth playing? YOU BETCHA!	Windows	Jeanne (76511)
A huge letdown for fans of the BG and Icewind Dale series	Windows	OlSkool_Gamer (102)
Excellent computer RPG	Windows	Emmanuel Henne (26)
Neverwinter Nights is a very ambitious game that almost lives up to my expectations	Windows	Droog (522)
In 1 word AWESOME	Windows	Emiel Slot (3)

Critic Reviews

Legendra	Windows	May 28, 2003		100
AppleLinks.Com	Macintosh	Aug 31, 2006		100
PC Gamer	Windows	Sep, 2002	95 out of 100	95
GameSpot (Belgium/Netherlands)	Windows	Jun 27, 2002	93 out of 100	93
Mac Gamer	Macintosh	Sep 23, 2003	93 out of 100	93
GameSpy	Windows	Jun 22, 2002	91 out of 100	91
Gameplanet	Windows	Jul 23, 2002		90
Jeuxvideo.com	Windows	Sep 18, 2002	17 out of 20	85
Joystick (French)	Windows	Oct, 2002	8 out of 10	80
Eurogamer.net (UK)	Windows	Jul 31, 2002	7 out of 10	70

Forums

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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.

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

Related Web Sites

• Neverwinter Nights (official website)
• Dice to Clicks (An Apple Games article about the Macintosh version of Neverwinter Nights, with commentary being provided by Project Director Trent Oster (July, 2003).)
• Enabling and using the Debug Cheat Mode (by Darklord)
• FAQ and Walkthrough (by Orest)
• FAQs & Guides (Comprehensive links to numerous Neverwinter Nights files on GameFaqs)
• GameSpot Game Guide (by Ron Dulin)
• Hints for Neverwinter Nights (Stuck in the game? Use these question and answer type hints to get you to the solutions.)
• iMod: Neverwinter Nights (An introduction to modding NWN on a Mac.)
• Neverwinter Haven (Fan Site)
• Neverwinter nights Adventures (Nice brazilian site for this game...)
• NeverwinterNights.com (Official Game Page)
• Neverwinter Night Stratics (General news, building strategies for the editor and lots of modules.)
• Neverwinter Web Ring (A group of fan sites and shrines devoted to Neverwinter Nights.)
• Walkthrough on BellaOnline (A chapter by chapter guide)