Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition

A bit older, but still definitely a great game if you like leveling, and puzzles, and hacking at things, or shooting them, or casting spells...

Enjoyable DnD game.
Lots of replayability from online and custom campaigns.
8🧙/10🐉

This game is just as much fun as it was 20+ years ago. I keep trying to get into Baldur's Gate 3 for a second playthrough, but I always find myself coming back to Neverwinter Nights instead.

Enhanced Edition has some upgraded textures/lighting/etc effects, but is more or less the same game you played two decades ago. Even more, this game is updated regularly by die-hard fans who epitomize the idea of a "labor of love".

All of the multiplayer goodness the original game had is present here as well! My favorite moments playing video games with strangers online as a kid were in fan-made NWN modules, and the Enhanced Edition keeps that going strong.

So many of your favorite voice actors have roles in this game (Grey DeLisle AKA Sharwin AKA Azula from Avatar, OG Viconia Devir, etc; Steve Blum AKA Daelin Red-Tiger, Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop, Grunt from Mass Effect, the Toonami Guy, etc; Wendee Lee AKA Aribeth, Fae Valentine from Cowboy Bebop, literally a million other voices you'd know, etc).

A Bioware gem from Bioware's golden age, before the company s**t it's entire pants and became a corpse EA likes to use as a puppet to this day.

Neverwinter Nights remains one of my favourite games of all time. It's great to see this revitalized with updates and curated premium modules. It's one of those games you can play over and over again as there's enough content out on the ether to make this a forever-game.

Don't be fooled by the few hours of playtime displayed here; I first played the game in 2002 on CD-ROM. Also, I'm using the editor without launching Steam, so my hours aren't displayed. I discovered Aurora and taught myself to code with the editor. I made a mod in 2003 and stopped playing for several years when Gamespy stopped working.

I came back in 2018 when I saw the game was available on Steam. I think I must have bought 7 or 8 copies of the game, which I gave to friends and also for my servers.

Honestly, thanks to the Aurora editor, which gives this game immortality. I honestly believe that the editor makes this the best game ever made by human hands, including the half-aliens. The more they unlock, the more I'm able to push the boundaries of space and time to create a unique module that feels like a whole new game.

If you ever get bored with this game and want to discover something completely new, I invite you on a brand-new adventure that will be released in the summer of 2025.

https://youtu.be/afWD9KPvq8U

Neverwinter Nights is a wonderful power fantasy RPG from the early days of 3D games. While worse in storytelling than its predecessors and worse in gameplay than its successors, there is a nearly limitless amount of potential with the toolset and all of the modules that have spawned from it.

For myself, it's a wonderful ball of nostalgia to load up a classic class and romp through the 3 main campaigns. While unbalanced and suffering in writing in places, it feels like a prototypical Bioware game before they started flexing their 3D game muscles in following entries like Knights of the Old Republic. I'm glad to have this update version so that I could finally clear my broken game from 20 years ago when my level 13 gnome wizard could no longer level up. While it's nothing gamebreaking today, I recommend giving it a go for some RPG exploration from yesteryear.

Played and modded this game since its original release. Alone or with friends, it's the closest computer experience of DnD, sat round a table with your mates in the 80's.

The fact you can make your own persistent worlds (like I did) and modules for it gives it almost infinite replayability. Currently back into it after a 15+ year gap, and finishing my already massive persistent world adventure.

The game itself isn't very good in my opinion. However, it's one of the best options around for DnD multiplayer roleplaying with all of the online servers. I have over 6000 hours in the game, so obviously the game itself hasn't held me back.

This game is an enhanced for modern machines version of an all time classic.

Pro's:-
- Graphics are ok but rather dated.
- Sound is Good.
- Story is Good.
- Character Design/Development is Good.
- Companions are Good.
- DLC's/Expansions are good.

Con's:-
- DLC's take you away from the main game.

Neverwinter Nights is a RPG from 2002 made by BioWare. It’s based on Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition rules. You create a character, pick a class, and go on story-driven quests. The main campaign is decent, with a good mix of combat, dialogue, and puzzles.

The real strength is the toolset. You can build your own adventures or play thousands of custom modules made by other players. Some of those are better than the original story. There's also online multiplayer with custom servers, some running for years with deep, roleplay heavy worlds.

Combat is real time with pause. Graphics are dated now, but the game has charm. The Enhanced Edition helps with modern systems and fixes bugs.

Great D&D game. Several campaigns to choose from. It could use some polish, but still very solid game using the 3rd edition ruleset. 8/10

Played Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition back in the day. Enhanced Edition runs well and makes it much easier to get new modules both official and community-made so you pretty much always have a new story to play. 416 hours at the time of this review and I still haven't seen all there is to see.

For those who love DnD 3e/3.5e I highly recommend this game. Especially for those which desire to customise their character the way they like.

I highly recommend as mod, the Player Resource Consortium by StatoVarius, which expands the game with more options found in 3.5e.

One of the best early Dungeons and Dragons PC games ever made. I've played through all Acts several times and enjoyed it immensely.

Classic D&D style game, very accommodating to mods, loads of user content. 10/10 would highly recommend.

Have to give it a thumbs up, but I wish more companies made quality 4,5 or six character turn based games, like Temple of elemental evil, or pool's of radiance, ruins of Myth Drannor. I just get bored with the combat in games like this.

This game captures a feeling most RPGs can't today. 10/10.

90% of my playtime here is on the Arelith server, which I can't recommend enough. Custom content and tuned balance for whatever you're looking for. A game to jam with your irl friends, a place to meet random folk and develop long intimate character relationships, and a way to satisfy your 3e munchkin brain.

The community modules are very creative. This is an excellent platform for storytelling.

Incredible Persistent World servers compliment a fantastic game that STILL receives new modules to this day.

My time to Hobbitmax.

This was one of the very first PC games I ever played. My dad helped me get set up with a character when I was about 7 or 8. My dad and I don't have the best relationship, but our mutual love for video games, D&D, and D&D-related video games is something I really treasure. Having played Baldur's Gate 3, seeing how far D&D-related video games have evolved in the 25+ years since the release of NWN is nothing short of awesome.

The game is a classic. I would love to see a NWN 3 in modern graphics with modding tools as seen in NWN1.

I've played NWN since around 2005, was on the family computer and is a big reason I am into D&D today. I have beaten the game at least 3 times from prologue to end of Underdark. I have not seen any new content but the classic game runs way better than it ever did! I am only just into the second chapter as of writing.

I play a dwarf cleric and will till I die. Human monk is the best beginner character imo to just get used to the game. It's "a lot of reading" but its good, there is silly comments, jokes, and every companion has a story to figure out. There is no way points or quest markers but the game is pretty linear and is not open world, so getting lost is not likely. You might miss side content if you focus on the main story but you will never get everything done in one play through.

You cannot really romance characters and they do not really interact with each other until the second expansion pack, so if you are looking for Baldurs Gate 3, you'd be disappointed but if you're open minded and willing to work with BG3 great great uncle there's a wonderful game, story and fun to be had. I am 100% biased and love this game to bits.

So much content and customizability. Online coop was easy to set up for the wife and I, and there's tons of community content and support still.

As one of the original Dungeons and Dragons players all the way back to when I was 12 years old I have to say this is one of the greatest games of all times. I remember when they first started advertising for this game, I was literally drooling for almost a year before it came out and I bought it on the first day it was out. I also nearly destroyed my right arm playing it. To this day my mouse hand has never been the same. It's really simple, if you don't love this game then you don't love D&D and you probably don't like RPG's.

It's felt so good to go back and progress through my childhood game I could never beat. So many things I remember clear as day, and so many new things I'm experiencing for the first time. This has been a relic I will cherish for sure. Doomwind dlc I'm excited to get to but they don't make games like this anymore. Highly recommend!

Neverwinter Nights is great OG of early 3d CRPGs. There isn't really anything else like it out there except for maybe its sequel, NWN 2, but that game has certain problems which its predecessor does not.

As weird as it may sound, this game actually aided me in finding a job, which eventually became a career, despite myself not having college degree. Specifically the toolset uses Visual Basic scripting and as a result this becomes a great way to learn some of the fundamentals of coding. I was able to demonstrate this knowledge during an interview, which became one of the deciding factors for helping me to get the job.

In any case, if you decide to purchase this, what you're getting are three pretty solid story Dungeons & Dragons campaigns based on the 3rd edition ruleset. Story-wise it takes place not long after the events of Baldur's Gate 2, but over a decade before the Spellplague which ushered in the much maligned 4th edition setting. For newcomers to DnD, who may have become interested in Forgotten Realms and Faerûn from playing Baldur's Gate 3, the setting should feel really familiar despite that game taking place 120 years after this one. Bear in mind that unlike other more recently developed games that share this setting, Neverwinter Nights is not turn-based, but rather has the DnD rules translated into realtime, operating on 6-second "turns" in much the same way that the old Infinity Engine games were constructed.

Some notes on the campaigns:

Original Campaign [OC]: While not at all bad, this is the worst of the bunch. Players are summoned to Neverwinter by a paladin of Tyr to aid in combating a magical plague called the Wailing Death. Takes 50 - 70 hours to beat, more or less depending on how thoroughly you explore and how long it takes you to read through the dialogues.

Shadows of Undrentide [SoU]: This was a pretty substantial leap in quality over the Original Campaign. It included a new setting with a few entirely new tilesets: specifically, the snowy town of Hilltop and its surrounding wilderness, and the Anauroch Desert and its ruins. New subclasses were made available and the level cap was raised to 30—however, with the Player Character starting at level 1, you will only reach ~level 15 depending on which class you pick and whether or not you multiclass. SoU was the 2nd best out of the bunch, and can take around 20-25 hours to beat.

Hordes of the Underdark [HotU]: This was generally regarded as the best of all three campaigns. It was a direct continuation of SoU—it makes sense to import your character. While visiting the city of Waterdeep your gear is stolen by a Drow assassin, which ultimately starts you off on a quest that has you getting lost in the Underdark and eventually takes you to some other unexpected locales. The level cap was raised to 40, but starting with a character around level 15, you can expect to end this one around level 30. Takes about 20-30 hours to beat.

In addition to the three campaigns developed by BioWare, you're also getting free access to the near infinite user created content that has built up over 23 years as of this review. Some of this custom content is intended to be experienced online with lots of other players also engaging with the game world in a kind of "MMO Lite" type of experience—these larger multiplayer-based custom modules were called "Persistent Worlds" by the community. So if you end up finding one that you like, in a sense you have a miniature MMO without a monthly fee or predatory microtransactions.

With that out of the way, it should be said that the gameplay itself is not very polished—this was true even back when NwN first released, and it still holds true today. The early levels can feel like a slog to get through, with your melee character attacking once every 6 seconds and missing half the time in a derp-dance of death while epic battle music plays in the background. Or alternatively if you roll a caster type character, many of the early spells will feel a bit underwhelming. While the old Infinity Engine games (Baldur's Gate 1&2, Icewind Dale, etc) where much the same in this regard, they made up for it by giving you a party of up to 6 characters. In contrast, Neverwinter Nights is mostly going to involve you managing a single character, probably with just one other "henchman" tagging along, performing actions almost entirely via AI. And while this game can also be experienced online with up to 64 total players [or 255 for the Enhanced Edition], the default campaigns are not balanced around being played this way.

While moment-to-moment gameplay isn't always particularly great, there is a ton of depth for theorycrafters to sink their teeth into. Under the hood, driving all the systems, is a relatively faithful recreation of the 3rd edition DnD ruleset and as a result there is a ton of content for both roleplayers and powergamers alike. If you want to create a fictional background for a character and then shape them around that fiction, you have a vast array choice at your disposal, even without any mods. Alternatively if you want to run the numbers, do the math, and create a character so powerful it "breaks the game," that is also possible.

I could go into the toolset and how it is so ingeniously robust, and yet extremely easy to use for the less artistically inclined, but this review is already getting too long. So I'll leave off with saying that it is also possible to lose hundreds or even thousands of hours attempting to create your own campaign module.

TLDR: What are you waiting for, just buy it already!

solid 8/10

still a decent DND RPG, even as dated as it is.


Non-TLDR:
I keep it quick. i played the original for probably 200-400 hours, maybe even more.

i loved to generate a scenario / custom gear character via aurora and then play the main game in a specific way. (i.e wizard of a specific school, druid of a specific build) etc.

ofc. you could just make "instant kill everything"-gear, but with the exception of hit-rate the game is insanely well balanced.

pro:
- fun
- expansive character design
- decent story
- well made character and NPCs

con:
- does not hold up to BG in terms of pathfinding
- loot is sometimes quite disappointing
- inventory management is inferior to BG
- graphics are somewhat dated, though they still hold up.
- balance is borked, though not as bad as the 1HP imp a room before a 10k HP dragon in BG...

Others:
i think overall - even as dated as it is - it is a good RPG with a lot of build choice in the frame of DND. the menu and handling of spells is quite fun, though the learning curve is higher than for example in BG.

so more choice and less linear, more open areas than bg, but at the same time less easy to get into mastery.

An old school action RPG that gets (a weirdly large amount) of frequent-ish updates from the developers?

And there's well over 20 years of fan-content made for the game with their own modules?

And there's the Dev tools to make content in the game super easily?

If I gave this anything less than a 10/10, I'd be lying.

The graphics are serviceable.

The default story "the wailing death" is good, but not really outstanding.

But other modules made for the game like "Kingmaker" are absolute BANGERS that will keep you on your toes as this game's storytelling and character-driven moments are surprisingly deep at times.

Granted, being an old game you are going to hear the same 10 or so voice lines for characters for every given interaction... especially walking everywhere.

Even with all that, 20 dollars is a steal, and this game goes on sale all the time.

I used to play original NWN about 20 years ago and while I didn’t even finish the main campaign, I spent a lot of time on persistent role playing servers.

Today, I can safely say that it was the best multiplayer experience in my entire life. No game has ever managed to replicate such a great toolset for admins/game masters, especially in the DnD setting.

Thankfully, NWN is alive and well, and there are quite a lot of people who are still hungry for some classic online DnD sessions.

First game i bought for myself and probably will never remove it from the center of my physical collection (honor place)

Old-school D&D3.5 implemented extremely well for its age, and a massive, still-thriving online community.
Grab CEP 2.0 off the workshop and dive in to the multiverse, or even jsut go through the singleplayer campaign or play it with a friend or two.

Loved it back with the Silver Edition in 2006, love it now.

A fun game with lots of variety and re-play-ability

Awesome game with tooons of content. great value:)

I love this game, the expansion packs are much better than the Original Campaign, but due to playing through this in college I even have nostalgia for that. This is also the game that keeps on giving with literally thousands of hours of user created content that you can download for free. I also like that the enhanced edition works more easily on modern computers, and Beamdog keeps releasing new, though small, features through patches.

One of my childhood favorites. Still holds up to this day, in my opinion - I absolutely love the music, the story, the dialogue and the exploring. Would recommend to anyone who loves old-school RPGs!

I was gonna say how much I love this game, then one time I tried to play it on Mac OS. It ran just fine, the frame rate is consistent and all, I spent about 4 hours in it, making a pretty good progress, until the next time I opened it, all my progress I made on my Mac are just gone, the files just appeared to never existed, I don't know when it is deleted since I routinely clear my Trash can. Losing 8 hours of progress really took the fun out of me, the screenshots I took are still there but all my save files just appeared that they never existed.

Don't let my Steam account fool you. I started playing this game about 3 months after its release in 2001 and religiously played it an average of 3 hours (usually more) EVERY SINGLE DAY (only a slight exaggeration) until about 2014 before picking it back up again in 2018. With the average fatherly, working man experience I did not have time to put into the game.

That's nearly 15000 hours of playtime. 14k of those hours were probably on the same Persistent Worlds of Arelith, Amia, and World Serpent Inn.

This game is the best translation of tabletop role-playing to a digital experience, and to my great surprise, it still has a strong player base. The games dated, but the Persistent Worlds that are still alive are living, growing things.

If you want to do some actual, good old-fashioned ROLE PLAYING, then this is the game for you.

This game is still going strong after this long. There is a reason it has had such a long run!

It's OLD, like twenty years old, but although the game mechanics are rough the story and the UI still stand up well to most current CRPGs.

My favorite game. Ever. With EE, almost infinite modules and PRC8 additions (thanks the team) it's a treasure trove for a roleplayer and a character-builder like me. Countless sleepless nights of theorycrafting and leveling up my toons.

The game is cozy, beautiful (despite looking dated) and charming.

I have played NWN since 2004 this is the best rendition of D&D for a video game ever created. It features something that no other game has, a DM client added with a toolset to create your own adventures and even persistent worlds. The custom content for this game is extremely vast and the multiplayer community is very welcoming to new and old players alike. I recommend this game to anyone that wants to play D&D in video game format and wants to enjoy a pen and paper style experience with their friends.

I think we can call this game an anomaly. Here we have a game where the devs gave us the same tools they used when creating the campaigns. Not many games can claim that. And because they gave us the tools, this game is still relevant 20 years later.

An old classic that had (if not has still) a huge active following. Beamdog's commitment keeps the engine running on modern hardware. A premium module even debuted a few days ago. While it was fun, it was short. But for 9 bucks, less than a dollar an hour? Yeah I am down for that.

Once you're finished with the entire original campaign [OC] (entire meaning the two "pretty darn good" expansions), go to Neverwinter Vault, and enjoy the thousands of available hours of available adventures. Not to mention there are quite a few live persistent universes out there, if thats your game.

Have your own idea? Create it!

I recommend the PRC mod. With a little work, you can implement that into the original campaign(s) and replay them with new interesting classes and skills. With more work, you can integrate it and the CEP into anything. And I do...

As for your next adventure after the OCs, if you want adult situations, language, and a damn good story, I highly suggest "A Dance with Rouges". It is pretty darn surreal. Very good writing in an age where we are plagued with boring DEI non-triggering emotionless dialog. It may have you falling in love with some of the characters you interact with and others you hate with the dying passion of a thousands suns.

Very good game, I never played D&D but I got hook by playing this game. I also had a friend that explained me how things here and there works! Really nice game, it is slow paced game ( OC ) but worth playing.

Excellent game with a strong community. This is 3e at its peak. Granted, the graphics aren't great compared to modern games like Baldur's Gate 3, but I find the minimalist style charming in its own way. Add to all that the fact you can have one character go through every storyline, a constant never ending adventure. What's not to love?

Old but gold. Thoroughly enjoy this game, particularly the Hordes of the Underdark expansion :))

Its a great starter

I love the feature to easily mod one of my favorite games!

вот это легендарные игры рпг neverwinter nights 1-2 и арканум балдура 1-2 ice wind rpg , dragons and dungeons игры , какой балдур гейтс 3 блин смешно вот это были истеные ролевые!

This is an awesome throwback to D&D 3.5, the RP on Arelith is so fun! This is an older game but the content never ceases to entertain and I am excited to play the new content releasing soon!