I loved NWN when it came out but it’s appeal was rooted in the multiplayer and custom content. It had an amazing community with great tools to support it. You can still find servers for it but they’re not worth it, it’s the bastion of people who haven’t moved on in 20 years.
The single player was pretty bland. Shadows of Undrentide is a genuinely fun adventure, and I’ll love Deekin (a kobold companion) forever, but the original campaign is a slapped together proof of concept and Hordes of the Underdark is a mess that’s only really notable for being a high level adventure.
Some of the premium modules were praised but I’d moved on to persistent world servers then other games long before they were released.
Yup, I don’t know too much about the community stuff. I know Neverwinter Nights 2 had a pretty robust editor so I guess it makes sense that that started in the first one.
I actually had no idea Deekin came from NWN1, he was a very memorable side character in the second game though.
The editor is truly amazing. It has powerful scripting engine and was easy to use. One of my potentially hot takes is it was so much better than using Morrowind’s construction kit. The game used to be full of custom persistent world servers which were sort of MMO-lite, big communities that were often way more roleplay based and free of the time wasting, money sucking bullshit of actual MMOs. Sadly, one of those ephemeral game moments that cannot be replayed.
And yeah, Deekin comes in the Shadows of Undrentide expansion and remains a companion through Horde of the Underdark. Honestly, if you like Deekin and haven’t played Undrentide I’d recommend giving it ago. It’s a refreshingly small scale adventure - it’s more like the CRPG equivalent of a short paperback fantasy novel than a grand epic. It also makes the wise decision of not being a continuation of the original campaign.
I loved NWN when it came out but it’s appeal was rooted in the multiplayer and custom content. It had an amazing community with great tools to support it. You can still find servers for it but they’re not worth it, it’s the bastion of people who haven’t moved on in 20 years.
The single player was pretty bland. Shadows of Undrentide is a genuinely fun adventure, and I’ll love Deekin (a kobold companion) forever, but the original campaign is a slapped together proof of concept and Hordes of the Underdark is a mess that’s only really notable for being a high level adventure.
Some of the premium modules were praised but I’d moved on to persistent world servers then other games long before they were released.
Yup, I don’t know too much about the community stuff. I know Neverwinter Nights 2 had a pretty robust editor so I guess it makes sense that that started in the first one.
I actually had no idea Deekin came from NWN1, he was a very memorable side character in the second game though.
The editor is truly amazing. It has powerful scripting engine and was easy to use. One of my potentially hot takes is it was so much better than using Morrowind’s construction kit. The game used to be full of custom persistent world servers which were sort of MMO-lite, big communities that were often way more roleplay based and free of the time wasting, money sucking bullshit of actual MMOs. Sadly, one of those ephemeral game moments that cannot be replayed.
And yeah, Deekin comes in the Shadows of Undrentide expansion and remains a companion through Horde of the Underdark. Honestly, if you like Deekin and haven’t played Undrentide I’d recommend giving it ago. It’s a refreshingly small scale adventure - it’s more like the CRPG equivalent of a short paperback fantasy novel than a grand epic. It also makes the wise decision of not being a continuation of the original campaign.