I want to know if I should buy Neverwinter Nights.
Before everyone screams out yes, i want to know how it compares to the Baldur's gate series, gameplay and all.

there seems to be hundreds of posts in this forum on that very question. you qwill get plenty that say sure go for it its a great game. then you will get those that say dont buy it because its not what they thought it was. its nothing like BG2. its a preferential choice is what it is.buy it then tell us what you think of it.

It depends on what your priorities are. NWN has lots of nifty new stuff and a more realistic take (magical items are not so abundant, the 3rd ed. AD&D rules allow you to customize your character's skills and abilities more with fewer silly penalties, etc.). There's lots of fighting *and* lots of ways to avoid fighting. However, the plot-- I am still in chapter 2, mind you-- seems to be a little more restrictive. In other words, it's been so far very lineal. You can't skip around and do different stuff or do quests in the order you like as much as you could in BG2. Also, as I've noted from earlier posts, there's only one romance available for either male or female characters.

To sum it up, I give it a 8/10 so far; in comparison, I gave 6/10 to Icewind Dale (too much combat) and 9/10 to BG2.

Just to clarify, I mean that's the opinion I give of NWN based on the included module. The advantage of NWN is that you can get new modules for it.

<font color=pink>To put in a note about the romances: there was only one male option for the girls, and that was Anomen, and he sucked :D . I dont think thats a focus in this game though. But if you like AD&D stuff, buy it, definatley! The graphics are great too</font>

If you have friends on line and think you might like to play D&D with them, then absolutely get it.

If you like a good solid single player RPG, that is primarily done solo with a helper, then get it.

If you really loved the party ascpect of BG & BGII, and the unique personalities involved, then you will be disappointed in NWN.

If you like a story with a great happy ending, you will find NWN's main campaign a little bleak.

If you like the idea of being able to build your own RPG style adventures, then you really want to give NWN a look. This is probably one of the better features, even though the toolset is a bit challenging to work with.

If you are comparing it to BG series, I assume it's the singleplayer experience that matters to you. In that case I must adivece against buying the game.

First, the graphics are ugly and unfunctional. The models look extremely blocky and for instance the city night lighting looks just horrible. As for functionality, I don't see what Bioware has gained by going 3D. You need swing the camera around regularly so see where your character is in that narrow street. You can't bring the camera on ground level, and since the view is always centered on the player character, so what you will be able to see of distant foes is their feet. Bad if that distant foe is and powerful mage. So summa summarum it seems to be 3D for 3D's sake. The interface design also detracts form the fantasy feeling, and the inventory avatars for items look just childish.

As for other aspects, I'm only very early in the game, but I can't say I'm sucked in to the story. Rather bland. To make things worse, the voice acting isn't too good. Lady Arb... errr... that palading chick is especially bad. Journal isn't much help for setting the mood either, since it's written in very impersonal way. "The zopmbies were defeated" instead of "Afater long stugle I defeated the zombies." Get my point?

Now, of course there's the cunstruction set and the multiplayer, but I'm afraid it will a long while before there will be any commersial level modules, and there's no way multiplayer is going to replace the real pen-and-paper campaign.

Now, other people may have counter arguments, and you may - tought I don't see how - enjoy the game. Just don't go with the hype, as I did.

BGII versus NWN.

Story line:

BGII was a great game. The TOB expansion pack was okay and it was nice to resolve the story, even though some of the NPC endings were kind of horrible...

But I liked BGI + TOSC MUCH, MUCH better. There was a lot more of everything in BGII, but the BGI story was far, far better.

The NWN story line is not as EPIC. It's actually far more "realistic." And much more balanced.

I give the grade to NWN as the "turning into a god" type of story line in BG series is just too hackneyed for my taste.

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NPC & Henchman Interactions:

Not as many, so BGII gets the nod to depth and quality of NPC interaction. But there is one great upside... Not having as much NPC interaction with NPCs you NEED, but CANNOT STAND.

Never having to listen to Aerie whine about her wings or Jaheria whine about the balance or Drew Barrymore whine about the poor or Anusman open his pompous mouth... Or the Bard of Bad Poetry...

.........

Play balance

NWN by a landslide. Mostly because of the rule-set changes. But some because there were some serious balance errors made by Bioware, such as many of the kits and some of the 3E class inclusions. Also, there were a lot of "home grown" spells that were way out of balance.

NWN corrects many of these problems. Some is by a stricter adherence to the rules. Some is by the changes in the rule set.

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Visual appeal:

First, the graphics in NWN aren't too hot. This has more to do with the tile-sets than anything else.

However, this is the first, not 7th in a series on the game engine. And, it is an open-ended, tile-set based game, not a static-map game like BGII.

Over time I expect a proliferation of new tiles that will be up to the graphics standards of the BG series.

...........

In the interface comparison, NWN wins by a landslide. It is so much more functional and customizable that there are no valid comparisons.

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Camera view. NWN wins by a landslide. The only complaint is that it centers on you character. That's NOT my complaint. I actually agree with it, the story is about you and what you can see.

Big fan of the Baldurs gate games - all of them. Was very excited about NWN. Being used to the Baldurs gates I found NWN a bit slow but as I got the hang of it I began to enjoy it more and more. I do enjoy the multi-player aspect. One thing I really appreciated about the Baldurs gate games is their lack of bugs. NWN does not measure up in this area but again I am enjoying it and look forward to watching the evolution of this games playability and content.

Extremely big fan of BG series, NWN if good, not as big a game but once u have finished you can download other levels and storylines off the internet, so the adventure doesnt stop there!