Neverwinter Nights - PC

Platform: PC
Company: Bioware
Current status: Full game plus expansions out in Europe and America
Where to obtain: You can buy it with both expansion packs included in most game shops.

Old RPG game but nonetheless still a good lot of fun, especially with the two expansion packs installed with it, named Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark. Makes for an awesome game, read on...

Graphics:
The graphics aren't that detailed at all, no individual fingers or anything like that, these aren't exactly top of the range but they're still good where it counts. Seeing as you'll spend most of the game with the camera zoomed out you won't notice the graphics all that much, but what you will notice is the animation of the characters which I think is superb, the fluidity with which them move and perform actions. One of my favourites though is the spell effects, the awesome graphics that come with the spells are a wonder to behold, damage text also helps, all it does is give you numbers, either in blue or orange, orange is always a '0' which means you hit but no damage was done, blue gives you the amount of damage done/taken. You may also get *Weapon Ineffective* which means either you're using the wrong weapon or you're not doing enough damage to get past the armour. But as I said the characters are not made of stone when talking, they will move and react accordingly to what is being said in the conversation, not to mention you can make your own character react as you want visually through a handy radial menu.

Sound:
Now the sound is surprisingly impressive for a game that has been around for quite a while now, you get the traditional combat sounds like swords swiping, but the sound is dependant on the result, miss, blocked or hit, if you hit you'll hear the weapon connecting with flesh, if you miss you get nothing more than a woosh of air from the weapon, if the weapon is blocked you hear it clang off the opponent's shield/whatever. Your character also comes with their set of battle taunts that are selected automatically as they head into battle, plus a set of grunts for them attacking or getting hurt. Some of the more important NPCs in the game also have sections of speech, they don't talk all the time but there are pre-set parts of the conversation where the person will speak and you'll hear it. Your name will be displayed in the text but never said out loud, you will always be reffered to as 'adventurer' or 'friend' or they'll simply skip that part of the convo. The music is a bit of a let down, at first is sounds really good but when you get the fighting music for a long time at once you start to get a little annoyed with it, otherwise no faults with the sound.

Gameplay:
Now, where to start? The whole game is controlled almost completely by the mouse, left click for an action and right click to bring up the radial menu, which you can select different actions to perform, from spells, class skills or just plain old Detect Traps. The combat system is easy, you click on the enemy and your character goes to attack them until you disengage or one of the two dies. The gameplay is very flexible, it allows you to do a wide variety of things in the story with the minimum of actual commands to put in. As for the character classes you have your classic D&D classes, fighter, mage, paladin. But with the expansion pack you get what are known as Prestige Classes, which are classes you can multi-class into at a later time in the game based on your abilities, you can become a viscious Blackguard (anti-paladin) or even a Champion of Torn (Deluxe Paladin), or you can stick with your own class depending on your style of play.

Storyline:
Ah yes, the storyline, a major part of any half-decent RPG, and the Forgotten Realms D&D setting is known for its complex storylines, Neverwinter Nights is no exception, you will go through a vast plot with twists and turns that will leave your very allegience hanging in the balance, all the lives of Neverwinter could very well rest on your shoulders, the storyline is deep, involving and easy to come back to if away for a long time (thanks to the journal).

Overall scores:
Graphics 6/10
Sound 9/10
Gameplay 10/10
Storyline 9/10

Total 8/10

In conclusion, this is an excellent game, it will give you a long time of game-play with loads of replayability including the different classes and allegiences, not to mention all the optional side-quests. Beyond that you have a HUGE multiplayer aspect, even a chance to create your own campaigns to put others through. Even though old the online NWN community is still thriving.

I hope you found this review helpful and informative.