The Bottom Line
The most flexible multiplayer RPG to date, with possibilities for online play that are almost unlimited. This game can be expected get even better with time.
Pros
- Feels more like D&D than any computer game yet.
- You can create, DM, and host your own modules.
- No mandatory fee for Internet play.
Cons
- Modules tend to have a lot of seams.
- Environments are a bit lacking in vertical depth.
- Scripting your own modules is challenging.
Description
- Released June 18, 2002. Published by Infogrames.
- Supports up to 64 players online, and allows users to host their own games.
- Uses a 3rd person, top-down perspective like the Baldur's Gate series.
- Excellent fully 3D graphics - not quite Dungeon Siege but certainly nothing to sneeze at.
- Offers an impressive amount of character depth.
- A wide variety of online play is possible, from team on team to cooperative adventures under a DM.
- Small PWs are available, but nothing yet likely to satisfy those who want a true MMORPG.
- Very good module editing tools are included, although making custom scripts is difficult.
Guide Review - Neverwinter Nights
If you're after a multiplayer computer game that feels like D&D, you can't get any closer than this. There are other RPGs, but this is the first to offer both top-notch editing tools and a DM client, which is a genuine innovation in computer gaming. It is now possible to have a multiplayer roleplaying adventure that is actually guided by a human hand, and can be altered on the fly. Character depth is quite impressive and there are good options for quick character creation. Although it achieves an admirable balance between table-top RPG and real-time computer game, controls could be more intuitive and some of the weaknesses in D&D rules are carried over. Just the same, this could herald the beginning of a whole new breed of Internet RPGs.
