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Old 07-05-2002, 11:04 AM   #18
Yui Unifex
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Join Date: Apr 2002
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Question

Ok, that being said, I might as well throw my thoughts of the game (when I could actually play it :/) into the mix =). This game gets a few things right, and a few things wrong. I haven't done any multiplayer (and I don't know if I will), so I'll concentrate on the singleplayer game.

On the shiny side of things, it has a pretty interesting story while still having a non-linear feel to it. Although it's got nothing on Morrowind in that regard, it still beats out Dungeon Siege by giving you a reason for killing so many monsters. Overall, the game is mostly fun if you like killing endless waves of monsters.

The AI is good sometimes, and atrocious othertimes. My little pixie familiar automagically disarms traps for my inept wizard. But she'll automagically disarm the first trap she sees, flying right through the trap I detect immediately afterwards to get to the first trap! She also has a great deal of difficulty orienting herself to pick locks. I have to click on the thing I want her to pick, then quickly move away so she can get in there and unlock it. Forget about pathfinding in this game: It's nonexistant. My pixie often gets caught on the most ridiculous obstacles, and you can easily "lose" monsters by running around a corner. My own character often fails to acquire a target in the middle of a battle, so I'll kill one monster only to have her sit around until I click on the next guy. Monster AI is horrible: They just rush you and swing. I find it a little nonconvincing for one mugger to charge so unnervingly when I've just reduced the rest of his troupe to ashes with a fireball.

The interface is rather nice in some areas: I've liked radial menu systems ever since they made their debut in the Secret of Mana. I wish the game would autopause whenever I enter the menu, although that's a minor annoyance. The graphical interface, as Threshold noted, is severely lacking: You can't move the windows around!

I really wish that we could have the graphical engine of Dungeon Siege for this game. Trees and caves are laughable compared to that excellent engine. Overall, the graphical quality of the game is not very high (but I don't care about this much ;)).

They seem to do a good job of providing varied circumstances with which to have tens of monsters rush at you with murderous intent, and it's certainly appreciated. And there are certain special areas that I always love, like the gauntlet in chapter one. This game definately needs more scripted events, and I beseech future module designers to concentrate on quality of area over quantity (something the original game designers have forgotten in many places).

Battle is... strange. I knew nothing about the "Attack of Opportunity" in D&D3 until this game. It makes wizards nigh useless in battle, which is a serious problem for my character. I have to force my pixie to engage my foes (who are of course happy to futilely slice at my nimble pixie) while I obliterate them. It makes for very frustrating play at times with a wizard, although this may be a problem with D&D3 and not with Neverwinter Nights. Maybe I'm just a masochist, but I don't like hiring henchmen either: I very much prefer to be the only person in the game. That the difficulty settings "assumes" I will hire a henchmen is somewhat poor planning on their part. Back to Attacks of Opportunity: It seems to be very very broken. Because of the "losing" of targets I mentioned earlier, enemies often get more Attacks of Opportunity than they should. Threat ranges also seem to be calculated strangely, because I get an incredible number of Attacks of Opportunity while polymorphed into a giant spider: It seems that the enemies have to stay just outside of my threat range (which is the center of my character?), and because my form is so large, they go in and out of it while fighting, giving me tons of these opportunistic attacks.

Overall, the problems I've noted could likely be fixed with a little elbow grease from the programmers. I'm disappointed in a few areas, but I'm sure the game will provide adequate entertainment. The only thing I've not mentioned is that the game is pretty addicting for me, and despite its flaws, I find it pretty fun.
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