While the game does a relatively admirable job of explaining each of these choices, dedicating half the play screen during character creation to the task, those unfamiliar with the rules may wish to pick a premade character. Even for those familiar with the pen and paper ruleset, this is a tedious, complicated process that involves picking a race and class and - since Neverwinter Nights is based on the 3rd Edition ruleset - a variety of skills, feats and perhaps spells, varying depending on what race or class you chose. You are one such hero, and as is the norm for a Dungeons and Dragons game you’ll need to create your protagonist. The graphics werent good at the time, nor have they aged particularly well. While there is the odd bit of witty banter here and there, the characters mostly fall flat, and what clever writing exists is often buried under paragraphs of utilitarian chatter that serves little besides offering crude flavor and a reminder of what you’re supposed to be doing. Aside from the main narrative you’ll of course be able to undertake various side quests which, while tracked well enough in an in-game journal, very little indication is given about what characters will offer these quests nor how exactly you need to go about completing them. As the story progresses you’ll leave behind the city of Neverwinter, your search for a cure will turn into a search for an evil cult, and as is apparently required for any game set in the Forgotten Realms your adventure quickly turns into a mishmash of important locales, brushes with out-of-place but prominent lore and cameos that don’t make a whole lot of sense. The game’s plot is serviceable enough, if uninspired - a plague of mysterious origin has afflicted the city of Neverwinter, and all other remedies failing, the city has set out a call for heroes to come help the city from this scourge. There’s no doubt that there’s a whole lot of game here, even if the asking price of $50 is somewhat steep considering you can get the same game - arguably a superior version, as you’ll see - on PC for a mere $20, and often much cheaper during many frequent sales. The amount of content you’ll be getting with Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition shouldn’t be in doubt, as it comes with a fairly lengthy four chapter campaign, two sizable modules (Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark), six “premium” modules and four “other” modules. While moving forward both technologically and conceptually - being one of the first games to use the 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons ruleset - they looked backwards for inspiration, finding it in the form of the original Neverwinter Nights (1991), which itself was one of the first online multiplayer role playing games, using graphics and mechanics similar to the Gold Box series of Dungeons and Dragons games (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, etc.) Given its impressive pedigree and the commercial successes of Enhanced Editions of the aforementioned Infinity Engine games, it was little surprise when Beamdog announced the development of Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition, which joined its fellow games on console late in 2019. Having made a great first impression with its earlier Infinity Engine games, they sought to cement their legacy as one of the industry’s best and move into the third dimension with Neverwinter Nights. At the turn of the millennium, Bioware was a burgeoning force in the western role playing game market.
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