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I've been spending waaaay too much time playing Neverwinter Nights recently and I just wanted to mention that it's absolutely fantastic. I'm not really an RPG gamer, and I usually avoid them but this time after much hemming and hawing and noticing the local game shop had a particularly worthwhile discount on it I picked up a copy. I've not been able to put it down since.
The premise of the game is simple. After walking through the character creation process (either creating your own from scratch or picking from a selection of defaults), you begin the game as a young adventurer at the Neverwinter Academy. Whilst completing your training you learn that a plague, "The Wailing Death" has swept through the city, causing civil unrest and generally bringing the once-thriving city to its knees. A cure has been discovered, involving four mysterious creatures, but they escape into the city during a bungled raid on where they were being stored for safe keeping...
From these humble beginnings the plot grows, twists and keeps you involved as you work your way through objective after objective. Time and again, you find yourself embroiled in one of many sub plots as characters you meet on your travels get fleshed out, bringing additional depth to the world you find yourself thrown into.
The 3D engine is spectacular, especially at the highest detail settings with realistic lighting and shadow effects, and grass that sways in the wind, although you'll need a beefy machine to do them justice (I chose a high-resolution 1280×1024 display mode with the lowest detail on my Athlon 850, but it still looks great). Underpinning the gameplay is a complete implementation of the AD&D 3rd edition rules which means very little to me but sounds impressive and seems to work well. At least, as far as I can tell.
There are a few things that spoil the party however. Particularly noteworthy is the pathfinding algorithm which is really quite poor considering the high quality of the rest of the game (you really start to appreciate Lionhead's Black and White pathfinding after playing NWN for a few hours) which means far more clicking around guiding your character than you would necessarily like. Or worse, backtracking to retrieve your henchman, inexplicably stuck behind a chest somewhere on a level if you're not too careful. Also, combat is not quite as involving as it could be, basically consisting of clicking on the enemy you wish to attack, although given the amount of fighting you have to do this is probably not as bad a thing as it could have been.
But these problems aside, I'd have to say that Neverwinter Nights is probably the best game I've played, on any format, since "Ocarina of Time" on the N64. And even if it's not quite as much fun as that, it gets damned close at times, and if you enjoy gaming you won't be disappointed.
I've not even touched on the multiplayer aspect of the game. Nor the inclusion of the same tools that were used to create the game in the first place - allowing you to extend the game to your hearts desire. Everything you see in the game, visual, aural, scripted or otherwise, can be recreated with these tools. Mind-blowing stuff.
Anyway. What I really wanted to say, in a succinct but compelling way (I've failed abysmally, haven't I?) is: Get. This. Game. 8)