Thanks. I just hope it's not as bad as the one in Dragon Age.

I would say because it is worst at the start, which is when most people will be making their judgments on it. Running around Neverwinter opening crates seemingly left everywhere with 3-4 gold each inside was not one of my happier memories. It does have good parts (Charnwood Village notably) and the NPCs did have a reasonable amount of story behind them but overall the best description one could give of the OC is "patchy" in my view.

The party member limitations (one henchman only and no inventory control) didn't help either - although things were improved in the expansions and NWN2, they're still some way from the Infinity Engine's 6 character party (I guess Bioware found it easier to cover up their rotten pathfinding by limiting party size rather than fixing it properly).

Graphics-wise, I'd agree with you - the IE engines had some breathtaking scenery that nothing in NWN (or NWN2) can hold a candle to. NWN particularly suffers with outdoor scenery ("plastic trees").

In fairness though, Bioware were going through a bad period (in legal dispute with their publisher Interplay) and the original plan for the NWN campaign was far more ambitious. Maybe someone will try making it one day...

Can't help myself, have to say: Bioware didn't make Planescape: Torment. That was Black Isle, who also made the Icewind Dale games and the first two Fallout games. The only Infinity Engine games made by Bioware were the Baldur's Gate series.

Planescape: Torment is very good, though.

I personally played NWN when it first came out and hated it - the primitive 3D looked so much worse than the Infinity Engine games, there was no full party control, the controls were new and awkward...still, after a year or so I tried it again and the many patches and custom-made modules available eventually made it at the very least equal to any other RPG, I think.

My main beef with the OC is that the companions and most NPCs in the OC are fairly dull and never give any really interesting roleplaying moments. I mostly enjoy roleplaying games for the roleplaying aspect, and thus a long tramp of hack and slash plus some puzzles was rather boring to me.

There's no accounting for taste, I suppose.

But I found the Neverwinter Nights OC quite the opposite of boring. Being tired of the Bioware formula would be akin to being tired of the H.P. Lovecraft formula, or the Tolkien formula. Of which I am not and I find such notions ridiculous.

But no accounting for taste.

The main problem I have with the original campaign is being stuck in Neverwinter for so long, and there isn't enough distinction between the 4 districts to make them interesting for me. The pace of the story is slower than I'd like, too.

I made it out of the city with one character and enjoyed it much more after that, but I'd like it more if the campaign got going faster at the start: every time I come back to it I lose interest before it picks up.

The OC was so bad it wasn't even funny. My first two attempts to finish the game ended both in the middle of chapter 2. Later I somehow managed to finish it but boy it was boring. Multiplayer though is something elese entirely.

... and so the combat was obviously a boring one hit kill affair... so why do it then?

To see how the editor works and have a bit of fun?

Now I cheat (edit stats mostly) in almost every playthrough in almost every RPG,
so I'm not asking because of cheater go to hell and die syndrome.
I mainly cheat to make the games more interesting and fun (to me) though.

Yeah, and I had already played one time over

The main storyline is boring, but the gameplay is great. its probably one of the more open ended bioware games in that playing a chaotic evil character is a lot more fun since you can attack anyone you want. All post KOTOR bioware games didnt allow you to do that and Baldurs Gate sends THE FLAMING FIST after you if you do so, basically making the game impossible. Overall NWN is one of biowares better games.

Guess I won't be playing BG or Planescape.

Sorry, trolling. NWN's OC is an enigma. I've tried more times than I can count to finish it, but it never hooks me. I don't see any striking flaws in it either, though. It's weird. It seems like it should be fun for me, and it's fun for some people, but I always get bored by it.

I think the problem is that it was adequately designed but the story was poorly written. While I hated the limited party size there's nothing really wrong with the game play and the balance is good, but the story lacks progression and the NPC's lack depth and personality.

Urknighterrant, I checked right now, and our NWN reviews are right beside eachother (when clicking "Most Recent First"). You wrote a great post extolling all the community virtues of the game, and I then wrote why I felt the OC was a success as well - if looking at it for what it is, instead of comparing it to Baldur's Gate.

I think the NPC's seem to lack depth & personality in NWN1's OC, not because of poor writing, but because of the situation in Neverwinter. People are apt to draw within themselves instead of speaking as they do in Baldur's Gate, due to Neverwinter being completely torched by people & motives that the citizens have no clue about.

icewind dale and planescape were both black isle games. bg2 was biowares magnum opus.