NWN's combat plays out pretty similar to what most computer RPG players can expect. Click on an enemy, and your character will run over and start attacking. Combine this with hotkeyed spells or special abilities, and it's a painless affair. Combat is in real time, not turn-based, which is probably the game's biggest departure from the 3rd Edition rules. It works nicely, and the player can pause the game at any time to change orders or set up something tricky.
Those that are expecting a story as good as the ones in previous Bioware games may be a bit disappointed. The villain(s) aren't hardly villainized well enough, which left me with an apathetic sort of attitude and a lack of motivation to actually finish the game. Compare this with Jon Irenicus and the Bhaal storyline from Baldur's Gate 2, and it's a world of difference.
Of course, RPG's aren't just driven by the main storyline. Both the required and optional quests are a large contributing factor, and NWN's quests are mediocre. There are plenty of mysteries to unravel as you go, although none of them are very exciting. The main character is mostly sent out to either kill some bad guy or retrieve some item of power - usually requiring you to deal with, you guessed it, some bad guy in the process. You can sometimes worm your way out of a fight, but it winds up having little effect on the storyline, and you miss out on a few items (and sometimes some experience as well).
There are quite a few side quests in Neverwinter Nights, and also some interesting gear that can be created or assembled from lesser items. The problem is that it's all very simple; most side quests can be beaten in a few minutes, and any items created by the player don't really affect the core gameplay too much. Combine this with the inability to visit the areas from previous chapters, and the whole thing seems like a step backwards for Bioware.
Players who choose an Evil alignment do get to finish some quests in their own little evil way, and cause a little havoc at the same time. It starts off rather simple, where you can demand extra gold for completed quests. But by the end of the game, some of the quests are a little more complex and can involve your character's alignment far more. Still, when it comes to the game's main plot, the story won't be much different no matter what alignment you are. The end is the same, despite the means.
All in all, the single player experience in NWN is somewhat engaging, is long enough to satisfy most RPG players (I'd put it at about 30-35 hours total), and is a pretty decent game. It's not quite to the level of the brilliant gameplay found in Bioware's last major title, Baldur's Gate 2, and while that's certainly disappointing, but that doesn't make it a bad game.
The most hyped portion of NWN is its online component. To start, players can go through the game's single player campaign together in a cooperative online mode, but most players will tire of it after a short while. The campaign just doesn't have anywhere near enough online replayability to stay fresh for long, which will bore players by the time they've beaten it once. They'll be itching to play custom modules before long, which leads to the game's greatest potential: module authors and online play.
Combining the Aurora editing tools with the ability to become a dungeon master, Bioware has made a game that could start a new sub-genre of online gameplay. Picture it: hundreds of game servers, each with uniquely-created content. The dungeon master who'll be overseeing your game, adjusting the difficulty, spawning monsters, and making it unique, is the person who wrote the module you're playing. The idea sounds great, but is this actually going to happen on more than a few game servers? It's uncertain.
One of the problems a lot of would-be module makers are currently finding with the Aurora editor is that it's tough to make custom modules easy for any DM to use. Most of the good modules will require extensive level editing as well as lots of plot and dialogue scripting, increasing the chance for bugs and other problems with the modules.
What may wind up happening is that the only people who can actually correctly DM their custom modules are themselves - documenting what to do in a bunch of "what-if" scenarios (which may be necessary for keeping the players of a module interested) is going to be a daunting task. What happens if this player tells an NPC he doesn't want to do a quest? What if he kills that NPC instead? What if he decides to kill a guard in town? The above examples can be solved without too much trouble, but there will almost always be something the module maker didn't plan out accordingly. In short, the possiblities for random internet players to generate trouble for the DM are endless, and the modules will have to be very detailed, and known inside and out by the DM, to keep the game flowing.
It remains to be seen just how far people will take NWN's mod capabilities. At the very least, I can see circles of friends all playing online instead of in the same room, taking part in a DM's private, custom adventure. Here, there are no random players, and in-game situations can be controlled more easily. But this scenario sure doesn't sound very common to me; the public portion of NWN's online gameplay will likely be the deciding factor whether players really enjoy it or not.
Neverwinter Nights includes lots of speech, sound effects, and music on its 3 CD's. Most of the speech is done very well, and the player has plenty of different voices, male and female, to pick from for the main character. The game's other major characters are all well acted, although some players may find themselves skipping past a good portion of speech because they can read it faster than it is delivered.
The game's sound effects are functional, although nothing really stands out as being great. Swords ring, fireballs explode, and doors clunk shut - everything sounds unique, but nothing is all that impressive. NWN's music was done by Jeremy Soule, who has done the score for so many of these D&D games. If you've heard his work before, it's more of the same from him. There are a few highlights where the plot combines with the music to a great effect, but most of the exploration and battle music is mainly just decent.
It seems like Bioware has spent a lot of time working on their online system, what with the Aurora tools, DM client, and gameplay that's quite obviously built around the multiplayer mode they envisioned. These efforts have made the single player game too simple and linear, though, especially compared to the company's last few games - the story is not as engaging, the quests aren't as fulfilling, and the characters aren't as memorable. The only real hope for greatness in NWN's gameplay resides in the content-creating module authors.
Is Neverwinter Nights worth your gaming dollar? It really depends on whether you've played previous D&D RPG titles, and how much you're itching for a multiplayer RPG. If you've never played the Baldur's Gate series, Planescape: Torment, or Icewind Dale, it's a fine single player game with the possibility of some very engaging multiplayer action. If you've already had enough of the type of game listed above, though, and don't really care that much for the online aspect, you may want to skip it.
