Delta Wowf UwU

442 Followers

Games, Posts, and People

The Good Neverwinter

Translate

It would seem I forgot the definition of monthly, odd. It is also a new year. I haven't posted one of these in three months, you know how it is, get distracted by other things and don't have the time to set aside time for your hobbies.

Hello dear viewers, I am your most humblest of reviewers, Delta the Wolf. Today we will be reviewing Neverwinter Nights. This is a game from 2002, yes, but not much content can be found about the game after the recent Enhanced Edition updates, which isn't to be confused with the MMO "Neverwinter." So now, let this review help fill that frustrating lack of finding anything related to the game post 2005. For once, this wolf isn’t completely out of date! (or he is just telling himself that >w>)

First up as per usual when we review paid games, the price is $10 USD around $30 on mobile this review can also cover the PC version of NWN the price on PC will be a solid $20 for the base game and $40 for all dlcs, the base game includes three official campaigns totaling well over 40 hrs if you are a completionist. Now is it worth it?

Storage:

Neverwinter nights is large.

4gbs base

5gbs PRC

9GBS PRC+HD pack full

8gbs CEP+PRC

12gbs CEP+PRC+HD

Mod installation:

As this is a D&D game, community driven content is the lifeblood of the game, even in some cases, surpassing the quality of content in the base game. So with that being said mod installation on PC is easy, plenty of guides exist so I won't bore you with that; however, on mobile the mod installation is a slightly more annoying process especially if you are on Android 10+, so below is a small guide on how to install mods on mobile.

Note that mobile and PC have a good number of campaigns available ingame.

Installation guide:

Graphics:

In terms of models, Neverwinter nights shows its age, but in terms of lighting, that is where the game truly shines. The models are mostly old school low poly models, some like the werecreatures looking outright ugly and hard to look at, but this issue can be solved with mods if you have the time and patience to search for them.

The Wererat

One of the main mods to fix this would be the Beamdog HD artpack (community updated), the mod has a substantial performance cost if you try running the full version of it on mobile; however, there is a lite version that can be found on the vault. Personally I would not recommend it as all it really does is enhance most vanilla models, adding details you would never notice unless you are really looking. (Like chest hair and cloth textures) There are other mods out there if you want the game to have a face lift with a less substantial performance cost.

Is this worth the performance?

Lighting, the lighting in the enhanced edition is beautiful, if you run campaigns specifically made for the enhanced edition of the NWN it can look fantastic for a game of its age. The lighting is dynamic in nature, one of the few games on the mobile platform with it, but this comes at a major performance cost to run and it will heat an average phone, unfortunately you need good hardware to run EE lighting set to maximum, but don’t fret! With some tinkering with settings you may be able to get EE lighting to run on a Snapdragon 635, of course you won’t be able to run any HD mods, but everything has a cost I’m afraid.

RTX on & off 2002 edition:

Laid back version of the upcoming segment can be found here, note that it does not completely follow the same script:

Content, mods, and gameplay:

As I briefly mentioned in the segment on price the game has a whopping 20+ hours of content at base; however, debatably, only some of it is good. So let us delve into what the content is like shall we?

Wailing death

is the OC, the original campaign. It follows you, a novice adventure thrown into an event threatening Neverwinter and as you play through the second chapter you’ll learn it also threatens all of Faerun. This is a pretty standard plot in the forgotten realms. To not spoil much I will end the review of the story here as it is masterfully set up for you to slowly learn everything about what is going on, so this is where we start reviewing the gameplay. The prelude serves as NWN’s tutorial, slow, but necessary, you are able to rush this of course. Chapter 1 you basically help solve the troubles of four districts of Neverwinter, there are some side quests here but it is general a slow and boring chapter, not great in a replayability sense, but you may find it fun on your first go. Chapter 2 takes place in a small village… did you really think it would be that simple? Chapter 2 is the same as chapter 1 basically, but this time you have a lot more exploration, fighting, side content, and more, this is where the real game begins. You have dragons, worlds in snow globes, werecats, and a lot more! So much replayability but very long. Chapter 3 takes place in Luskan, it basically follows a similar loop to Chapter 1 (don't be like me and think chapter 2 is 2 & 3 and that Luskan is 5 >w>). Chapter 4 is the grand finale so I will not continue as to not spoil anything.

Shadows of Undertide.

Less of a grand conspiracy than Wailing death, Shadows of Undertide is only 3 chapters long too. The campaign in general is pretty linear. Chapter 1 sees you starting off on the hero's journey, it is a solid, albeit repetitive entry into a grand story, you basically just collect artefacts in massive space, it has some good RPG elements and offers some replayability even if only for completion. Chapter 2 sees you stopping a lot in a desert, I personally had issues when I played the campaign understanding where chapter 1 ended and chapter 2 started, chapter 2 has some interesting moments, but the whole thing is linear. I cannot give a review for chapter 3 as I have never played it.

Hordes of the Underdark

Hordes of the underdark is like SoU, if it was an endgame campaign; however; the second chapter is the best part. Let’s dig in shall we? First up, despite being a sequel you don’t have to play SoU to understand the story, there are only one or two returning characters and both play minor parts. Chapter 1 is rather linear, it starts during a bar fight and slowly develops into a grand conspiracy, unlike Wailing death the gameplay is more linear, without much side content, there is, however, some exploration offered in the first parts of it, offering some challenges and some good rewards. Chapter 2 is the meat, potatoes, and desert of this chapter, it features linear exploration that feels like progression, replayability, romance, roleplay, and much more. Chapter 2 is the part that made me love HoTU, so I am being a biassed wolf here, but it also takes place in the Underdark, always a fun setting. Now Chapter 3, no spoilers, this chapter serves as the lead up to the final boss, it is basically an ‘epic’ finale, unfortunately it is the most linear feeling part of the story. It has a lot of puzzles to make up for this and an infamous connection to OC, it is a decent chapter but nothing to write home about. The most memorable scene from it is if you play a female character you can become the sleeping mans true love who he has been waiting centuries to meet.

Deekin, the Kobold bard returning from SoU

Now that we spent way too long reviewing the official campaigns, let us go onto gameplay, the gameplay is an upgraded version of Black Isles real time turn based combat system, real time turn based, what? This doesn’t make sense? Well let me explain. Turns happen in the background, you can pause and play to strategically make moves with classes like spell caster, it is generally the same combat as 3.5E but automated, less imaginative due to being translated into a game, and a bit complicated for classes that use magic.

Background turns in action.

You can quick slot spells to make activating spells easier. The combat is not for everyone, especially if you choose a basic class like fighter the main things you’ll be doing is health potions, retreating, and changing fighting moves. The amount of player involvement ramps up if you play something like mage, or anything other than fighter, fighter is just bonking things until they die.Speaking of which let us mention the classes in the base game, at base there are 11 starting classes and 12 prestige classes, a solid number of classes in total. This is honestly enough if you play the official campaigns and if you are not one for overly complicated character building, as there are more than enough feats for the base game to offer hundreds of unique combinations. For example a monk shifter focused on becoming a dragon or a paladin red dragon disciple focused on showing the world what a half dragon can do (I would recommend some furry mods for this one so your character can look the part though); however, most of these classes have the issue of being martial in nature. If you want more variety in gameplay you will need to go with Player Resource Consortium or PRC.Now PRC, PRC is an absolute beast, it adds over a hundred classes (starting and prestige included), plenty of diversity, and makes building characters an absolute nerdy mess. It also adds a tonne of new races. Do you want to play as a dragon wyrm paladin? Yeah, go for it, that is possible. Tiefling Shadow Thief of Amn? Yeah go for it!

You can also break the rules of fantasy with armoured mages!

Unfortunately going for prc comes with the complexity of finding modules that support PRC, the PRC discord has a pinned link in the modules chat of a drive with all of the modules that have been updated for PRC compatibility. On the PC version of NWN there are also some campaigns listed in the community tab that were made for PRC, which means they will incorporate PRC features. Do be warned that PRC does take about a couple hundred megabytes of space.In addition to PRC you may want to get CEP 2.X as it is required for some high quality campaigns, but it is over 3gbs large. So this will not be for everyone.

Before we end off I would like to give my personal recommendation to the AL saga (not the Aielund, never played it) it supports PRC and is pretty well written, it is also a cancelled premium saga (except AL3 which is a premium campaign). Crimson Tides of Tethyr is the best from the saga in my opinion, but the updated version of Siege of Shadowdale looks fantastic, but unfortunately has not gotten PRC support as of the publishing of the review.

In conclusion,

NWN is rather dated in some regards, the official campaigns are hit or miss, the gameplay without PRC is serviceable for the official content and casual play in general. If you want more complicated gameplay you can always install PRC.

On that note, fir auld zing, auf wiedersehen, raise a parting glass, til we meet again on the eve of the next harvest moon.

I am as always,

Your most humblest of reviewers.

Delta the Wolf.

Notes:

Some of my characters

Warwick the Barbarian Knight of Thay (also a werewolf, also my best char)