I was never a fan of RPG's in my younger years. Always played RTS', shooters, flight sims, etc. That all changed when I came across NWN. I absolutely fell in love with that game...which was an odd thing, considering I never had any interest in the fantasy realm of fiction (always been a sci-fi guy personally).

So, what I'm trying to ask is...how does this game compare to NWN?

I noticed from the screen shots that you lead an entire party. Does that mean you have to control the actions of everyone or just one character? I don't do that well with multitasking anymore (be dammed if I can even win any RTS game even if it's on easy!!) but the Forgotten Realms I was so enthralled with in NWN makes me curious about this game.

Can someone give me a quick run down of the game play and how it stacks up to NWN? What area's it's better? Which areas it's worse? etc etc etc

Thanks a bunch!

First of all: Tell me what did you enjoy the most about NWN. Baldur's Gate MAY be better suited for you.

Second of all: Yes, you control actions of all party members and ... Well, on normal difficulty, the game is quite challenging. I've been told that on easy, it's actually easy, but I don't really know about that. You don't really need to multitask, however: You can pause the game anytime, give out orders, un-pause and watch how things go.

Other than that, it's quite action-oriented, linear RPG.

Baldur's Gate, on the other hand, is like your usual Dungeons and Dragons session: You're adventuring around, with a completely free world for you to explore. It's also easier, but not so action-ish.

And then, there's Planescape Torment: Completely different, still belonging to the famous Infinity engine trio however, still using Dungeons and Draggons rules / setting, even thou a DIFFERENT setting. It's a heavy-on dialogue/light on action game. That's if you're more into storytelling in your dungeon and dragon goodness. It also probably has the best story of them 3, really.


So there. If you like action the most, Icewind Dale is for you: Since you create your whole party from a scratch, they don't really have a personality or anything, so the game is pretty much pure action RPG that leads you on rail. I am told that the story is still quite good, however, and you can download NPC MOD (I'll link you to it if you're interested, lazy to look for it now) if you ask, which gives characters depth. It's also probably the hardest of the 3 of them. And don't worry about 'not being fast enough' or anything: pausing solves that.

Well, there, take your pick. I hope I helped and wasn't too off-topic, just wanted to bring your attention to the other choices :-) Just FYI, closest to NWN is -probably- Baldur's Gate.

If combat is too fast for you you can also enable /under options -> Auto Pause\ Pause every Round for a particularly hard fight. (disable it after the fight again)

This means that you can literally micro manage a battle to the most exact detail possible. You can see spells being started and instantly start countering them. This might be quite vital for any boss battle.

How it compares to NwN ... well NwN had an extremely weak plot. So if plots your thing IWD with NPC mod might be better. NwN had 3rd edition ruleset though so generally it is easier to make the character you want.

However if you compare it to custom modules for NwN1 and not just the OC then of course, some custom modules are vastly superior. Not that many though ;) Imo, NwN1 is basically meant to be modified. And its real strength opens up only if you check out custom modules.

Thank you Fenixp and eRe4s3r.

Your descriptions were very helpful. And thanks for breaking down the other infinity engine games Fenix, I was also interested in those so you've provided me with a lot of very useful information.

When it comes to gaming preferences...I thoroughly like action but I'm also heavy on story as well. So it looks like I may have to give all 3 a try eventually. I will say that I have loved every single game Bioware has ever come out with (mind you, I never did try Baulders Gate)

Again, thanks for the info guys :)

I have always preferred the Infinity Engine games to Neverwinter Nights - which I found completely lackluster in almost every aspect. BG + IWD come with my highest recommendation!

You can make a party of up to six characters in Icewind Dale versus just two characters in NWN. In my opinion, the encounters and some of the class-specific dialog are what makes the game replayable. Semi-random special drops are nice and the music is very appropriate for the areas you go to.