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Just out of curiosity, I thought of asking the question.

For me, NWN didn't meet my expectations -- I was probably expecting a better version of BG2.

First of all, the story and the plot didn't achieve to catch truly my interest. Original NWN was good but not as nearly good as BG2. As for SoU, it was really boring. Second, there were a lot of puzzles, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it felt more like Tomb Raider goes to Faerun than anything else. Third, I found the graphics quality really bad. And finally, it seems that if you take elements out of other games (PS:T, IW, BG, etc.) what you have then is NWN. All in all, it seems to me that NWN lacks originality.

Oh. I should say that I had set the difficulty level to Normal, which is what I always do when I go through a game for a first time since I like progressing through the story as fast as I can. Having this in mind, the greatest challenge was... money. But even that problem could easily be solved if one opened every box and chest found on one's way.

What I mean to say is that in BG2 you needed both magic users and fighters in order to survive. Here two fighters, myself (fighter/rogue) and Daelan (Xanos in SoU), could clean up nearly all enemies. Of course there were times we died during a battle, but it was not the norm, and a magic user in the party wasn't really a "must".

Maybe I am unfair or I should had played with Core rules, and then the experience would be completely different. Then, again, that was what I was planning to do once getting through the game once. But now... well, I don't think so. I know there are a lot of modules for NWN, and I suppose that's where the developers aimed in a a first place. But, is that all? Don't you think the story and the plot should be better? Why, I felt the role playing of this game being weaker than in any other game, with the exception of IW, probably.

I do think that with all the promotion that proceeded NWN's release it was almost justifiable for one to expect more.

What I think is very annoying is the level-design. Always the same. A huge dungeon in which you can almost always find ANOTHER staircase which leads deeper into the dungeon. Or a staircase which leads to ANOTHER floor...

Haveing followed NwN for a number of years before it was released I witness (and was also sucked into ) a lot of the hype around NwN.

Firstly - because of the wonderfull series of BG1 and BG2 + Expansion (although I didn't like ToB much), there were huge expectations to NwNs gameplay.

But NwN wasn't meant to be another Baldurs Gate type game. (Well - it possible was in the very early stages, due to the thoughts of importing your BG character)
NwN quickly changed focus to provide the framework and settings for multiplayer instead of the epic single player campaign of BG (this was about where I started following NwN - about 2-3 years prior to release). Therefor I feel there is little grounds for comparing Baldurs Gate series to NwN-series because the focus of the games is so vastly different.

Baldurs Gate provided an Epic single player campaign (both in content and scope) with the possibility of playing in multiplayer, whereas NwN provides the framework for creating multiplayer games, run with your friends and Dungeon Masters to take on their role and make the world come alive, with the possibility of single player.

That being said - I felt that the campaigns in NwN were not very interesting - there were to much diablo-like hack n' slash and not enough oppertunities for roleplaying (Not that I think there weren't a lot of hacking in Baldurs Gate, but there the grandness and vastness of the game made it more evened out). SoU was not terrible good either, but I liked HoU more.

But NwN shines in areas that Baldurs Gate can't get close to - that is the possibility of creating a dynamic world, due to DM-facility and the toolsets and the modification of the game (HAK-files etc.)
Baldurs Gate was a great single player game, but it was little more then that - it was terrible in multiplayer in my oppinion.
NwN is not a terrible good single player (although I know peopel that like the single player campaigns a lot) but shines in multiplayer.

NwN isn't and doesn't try to be another Baldurs Gate.

If I should choose between them - I would be at a loss, because of this different focus. I've spend a lot of time on both games.

If people have the possibilty, then I urge them to try out roleplaying in multiplayer games (if they are into roleplaying of couse) in NwN before judging the game and comparing it to BG.

The main issue with NWN lies in the Aurora engine. The game spent too long in development, that by the time it was released, the Aurora engine had become outdated, in looks and abilities. When compared to engines like the Odyssey engine (KotOR), or the Half Life 2 engine, or even the Infinity engine during it's prime, it doesn't measure up.

Graphically, it looked jaggedm angular, and outdated. The more detail added, the more fake it would look. While offering crisp magical affects, thats about the only impressive graphical feat it obtained.

Ability wise, it didn't offer the ease and simplicity it hyped in it's ad campaign. It promoted an easy to use and learn tool set, and what was given was something that, in order to use effectively, you needed to have an understanding of programing language, which the average gamer doesn't have.

Lastly, the single player, as Xandax nicely stated, was sub-par. It was all fed-ex and hack and slash, with no real substance. Granted, that wasn't the real focus of NWN, either in the begining, or post-release. But, for a game to be truly great, it needs to have at least a decent single player mode.

It was improved slightly with SoU, but not much. The first expansion was solely for feats and basic scripting bonus's and tool set bonus'. HotU (which I'm playing through now) seems to have addressed the poor story line. A shame it needed to rely on Epic level's to do so.

To sum up, when done right online, it is a fantasic game. There are a few servers out there that offer decent Persistant Worlds, but often, there are not enough players that frequent them. The opposite is true as well, if you are searching for hack and slash servers.

If it were me, and I was given a choice between NWN and KotOR, KotOR would win my sale.

Originally posted by Aegis
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It was improved slightly with SoU, but not much. The first expansion was solely for feats and basic scripting bonus's and tool set bonus'. HotU (which I'm playing through now) seems to have addressed the poor story line. A shame it needed to rely on Epic level's to do so.
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According to what I've been able to deduct, the HotU expansion is indeed also made and focused towards the single player, where original NwN and SoU was mainly multiplayer orientated. That might be the reason why many people seem to preferer the story line of the HotU.