Neverwinter Nights vs. Morrowind ??

[Pangur Ban]

I should be getting my new PC in a few weeks .( Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy, JOY [img]graemlins/cat3.gif[/img] ) .. and I can finally play something new ...



It might be a question of personal taste, but what's the better CRPG - NWN or Morrowind? Your opinions, rants, comments, praise, growls, I wanna hear them -- especially if you've played both games.

[TheDutkanator]

EBAY!!! You can get Morrowind for $1-30. I lost an auction for a copy and it sold for $10.50. You can get NWN for that price too. Just make sure it is full english version and is a factory original. Now for my real post:

I haven't played both, but my friend has and he says:

AstroBouncer: dude
AstroBouncer: I been playong morrowind
AstroBouncer: that game is awesome
AstroBouncer: Dude I think if you play morrowind
AstroBouncer: you wont want to go back to NWN right away
KingDutka79: oh yeah?
AstroBouncer: ahh thats ok
KingDutka79: is it 3d?
AstroBouncer: I been playing the heck out of morrowind
AstroBouncer: I got a level 6 fighter
AstroBouncer: yesterday I scaled Mount Kilambjara
KingDutka79: is it D&D based?
AstroBouncer: and it was beyond belief
AstroBouncer: no
AstroBouncer: its its own world
AstroBouncer: I like D&D dont get me wrong
AstroBouncer: but Morrowind, makes NWN look like childs play next to Plaboy
KingDutka79: i dont know man. i am a huge D&D fan. i find it hard to play anything else (except Final Fantasy, but I was raised on Final Fantasy)
AstroBouncer: you can do anything
AstroBouncer: I mean you dont have to even pick up a sword
AstroBouncer: you can dive for pearls for money
KingDutka79: well, i do like freedom of imagination...
AstroBouncer: I like D&D big time
AstroBouncer: i got all the FR books
AstroBouncer: but Morrowind stands out
AstroBouncer: for example my fighter
AstroBouncer: He was shooting guards with crossbows
AstroBouncer: from the middle of the river
AstroBouncer: on a rock
AstroBouncer: and the guards would jump in the water and swim to where I was
AstroBouncer: but by the time they got there
AstroBouncer: I could usually kill them
KingDutka79: that sounds cool.do you think that pen&paper games are gone 4 good?
AstroBouncer: so i would swim down and get their weapons and armor
KingDutka79: lol
AstroBouncer: and then sell those in towen
AstroBouncer: so now I am a marked outlaw
AstroBouncer: and my picture is posted in town
AstroBouncer: and the guards try to take me to jail on sight
KingDutka79: cool!
AstroBouncer: or if I talk to them
AstroBouncer: but only in that town
AstroBouncer: and theres like 200 towns
AstroBouncer: and the world is huge beyond belief
AstroBouncer: for example I been playing Morrowind for almost a week now
AstroBouncer: every day many hours a day
AstroBouncer: and this other guy that a fighter
AstroBouncer: he joined the mage guild and had them make him 2 custom spells
AstroBouncer: both fly spells, but one has a long duration and one short
AstroBouncer: the long duration you cast on self
AstroBouncer: the short duration you cast on guards then fly in the air
AstroBouncer: then guard chases you and you fly up really high
AstroBouncer: and then guards fly spell wears off...
AstroBouncer: and viola, free aramor and weapons to sell for one spell
AstroBouncer: the guard dies when he falls from that high up
AstroBouncer: im telling you its 10 times better than nwn
AstroBouncer: because of the freedom of true 3d
AstroBouncer: it uses water and massive heights

[WOLFGIR]

Well of course, it all depends on wht YOU like and prefer. I will try and give some ideas by mentioning some of my viewpoints of the both games. I´m still arguing that two games this far apart from each other should both be played however.

Morrowind.
Morrowind is basicly a one man show in first player view, though you can change the camera to view it ala Max Payne, adventure game style. Big world, everything has more or less a meaning. You have plants, stones, mines, farms etc etc everywhere. Beatiful graphics, but a pain in the butt to upgrade virtually every driver used by this game.

The game experience is teadious after some 50+ hours if you are fighting, little differencies but still the quests and so on might take time, they have variations and the game progresses nicely.

Pro.
Seamless world, you can do and become almost anything you like, something you don´t like, create something better.

Item creation. You can make your own equipment and magic items, weapons, potions etc. Very nice and very funny.

Good story, and very good character development. Beats most other games here on the fingers with a good system for upgrading skills and abilities.

Large world and a good story that isn´t really time based so you can explore as much as you want to.

Replayability. Pretty good, even though most characters become how you play them in the end you can try and solve the quests in different order with different tactics.

Not so Pro.
Sometimes the game becomes teadious, repetetive, and boring since ou have to run around fetching this or that all the time. The variations in opposition isn´t that flavoured, and you can get really annoyed over some things in the world since it lets you do so many other things.

Time consuming. Yes actually, this game can be to BIG, and take to much time. Mainly due to the above mentioned reasons.

Buggy. Sometimes this game can do the most weird sommersaults and leave you with a blank expression looking at the standard desktop view al of a sudden. (More patches )

Not prepaired for your greatness. Might sound a bit weird, but as with many games out there, you can become very very powerul in this game, I noticed that after level 25, everything started to become minor nuiances, and the biggest flaw was that you start running around with a golfbag with magic items you can´t sell in the original game.

Last thoughts.
The game is good, and should be played. The patches and mods espacially makes it easier to counter some of the problems mentioned above. No MP though.

NWN.
Well how to descrie it. I wasn´t awestruck until I brought out a torch in this game and saw the arrows my ranger fired down the alleys stuck in barrels and opponents alike. The skiddling slingbullets tracing past me. The fireball that exploded in a firy breathtaking inferno shattering chests and loose material, Tomi´s ass on fire fumiong smoke.
If you like the 3:ed ruleset ideas, and Faerun based CRPG/RPG, you have to have this one. It creeps under your skin slowly, and with time you realise that this game is so very nice to you. (Have to be added that a GeForce 4 card helps alot).

Pro.
3:ed (Yes I LIKE IT oki!) Multiclassing makes it easier to make your own character as you like it to be.

Known world from BG series. Yes, if you have played and liked the world from BG and or from PnP, you feel at home.

Story, well this is one of the best things actually sionce with the mods and the toolset the story can be as good as you want it and as lousy as you can dread

Large world. Well due to the toolset again it can be and seems to be a never ending story almost.

Replayability. Oh yes, even though the single player campaign offers only small changes, mostly in items and depending on how you play the game, it is fairly straight forward and not many areas where you get bored too quickly.

Not so Pro.

Limited levels. One thing that can be a hassle with the D&D games, well you are probably used to it, and you can always try another character easily enough.

Ugly items and poor voices for the chgaracters. The items looks like something taken from a childsgame sometimes. The graphics in game is very nicee, but the items and inventory screen just makes me ill some times.
The voices for your characters and the portraits are not very nice. I mean please. At least make it easier to edit!!

The Single player campaign is shorter then the baldurs gate series.

It is not 3:Ed. This leads to some changes one that is used with the 3:Ed PnP rules sometimes just shakes his head at and sighs, muttering, "It´s a bloody computer game, get over it". The changes are sometimes too much of munchkin symptoms for my taste, for example, an item that raises your strength, can add to the strength of a bulls strength spell, not overlap.. :S Munchkin factor 4 of five!! Well, I told ya, my personal things here!

AI and henchmen. Well I don´t think any game will be very good with this. The AI and the pathfinding can lead to some weird situations and you could wish for more.

One way style of leading the game.
Yepp, no party except one henchmen and summoned critters. No way of making your own party unless you get online and play with friends, but you control your own character only. Also, you only get the point buy system, even for single play games.. :S Could have had some more options here IMHO.

Last thoughts.
NWN is a good game, fun and very addictive. Even though it has some flaws, it takes away alot of my waken time now, and when you get hooked on the toolset.. My oh my

So?
Well if you only buy ONE of theese games, you are going to miss alot, since IMHO these two games are very good, yet different. If you like first person games CRPG, Morrowind is the obvious answer. If you prefer DS, Diablo, BG style games, NWN without a doubt. Haven´t tried any.. Well, my final point would go with NWN actually, but not by much.

I hope you find any of the game you buy to bring you alot of fun.

[Attalus]

Agree with Wolfgir. Will add: since I hate Diablo, Morrowind falls in the same class. NWN: Hate the XP cap, and THE GAME IS TOO SHORT!!!!!!. It is way too much fun to end like that. It is now on my short list for greatest game of all time.

[ 08-20-2002, 09:04 AM: Message edited by: Attalus ]

[Thoran]

If I had to pick one I'd pick Morrowind... but I prefer freedom to decide my path (I hate a game that limits you to a small area where you have to solve a problem before you can go to another small area).

NWN, well... I really looked forward to it, played it for 8 hours or so and then kindof lost interest... switched to Warcraft III (which is a GREAT game btw). I guess I prefer a bit more action, if you also prefer action I'd strongly recommend you play Diablo 2 before NWN. I've been getting the itch to play NWN again so I'm sure I'll jump back in shortly, it's just that it hasn't grabbed me and pulled me in yet.

[Kaltia]

Originally posted by Attalus: Agree with Wolfgir. Will add: since I hate Diablo, Morrowind falls in the same class. NWN: Hate the XP cap, and THE GAME IS TOO SHORT!!!!!!. It is way too much fun to end like that. It is now on my short list for greatest game of all time.

Aren't we forgetting the aurora toolset? You can create your own mods, for example. I'm working (in between playing Ascension) on a full storyline set in Athkatla, using maps screenshotted from BG as my guidline. It's really, really, powerful, that toolset. You can create a od that has ages of gameplay, or one that's fast fighting. Right, am gonna go paint a silver dragon and make her give you a quest.

A sidenote: I haven't played Morrowind but I have two friends who have; one says "Morrowind" and other says "NWN".

[Neb]

Morrowind:

Pros: Bigger singleplayer, less linear singleplayer, better graphics, more original and(in my opinion) better rules, more options for how you want to make your character, far more moddable, far better story and almost all problems can be fixed with a mod that you can download somewhere or make yourself without TOO great difficulty, can make custom magical items and spells in-game, you can make your own classes and races.

Cons: Could use an improved AI(some mods fix this), could need a harder difficulty(some mods fix this), no multiplayer(hoping for it to be added with an expansion pack or such.).

Never Winter Nights:

Pros: Multiplayer mode, 3rd edition rules(If you like them, they're good for making munchkin characters, both it and 2nd edition have their own pros and cons, I prefer 2nd edition but the truth is that they're equally good, just in different ways.), possibly slightly easier to mod than Morrowind.

Cons: Only one partymember, worse graphics than Morrowind, less moddable than Morrowind, worse singleplayer than Morrowind, bad camera, buggier than Morrowind, uses Forgotten Realms(Overused world that honestly blows, if it must be a game set in the FR then it should have Elminster around to kill for fun. And Drizzt.), far smaller than Morrowind(even with mods), not as customizable a character as in Morrowind, character portraits and voices suck.

Warcraft 3(In case it's considered by anyone.):

Pros: Nice strategy game, nothing new and fancy that fails to deliver what it promised, reasonable story, reasonably long campaign to have fun with for a while, reasonable AI(Especially multiplayer AI which is a killer.)

Cons: Just Warcraft 2 with new graphics and levelling heroes, honestly. Individual races aren't as different from each other as in for example Starcraft, has a good deal of holes in the story that need an expansion pack to fill them, apparently easy to create new maps, campaign is just a slight bit TOO easy.

Edit:

Personally I'd actually recommend Wizardry 8 which I'd say beats all three of the above-mentioned games [img]smile.gif[/img] (RPG, 1st person view, party, turn-based or real-time combat, you decide. Beautiful world. It's only fault are a few places where a few small things could've been done just that one little bit better.)

[ 08-20-2002, 11:25 AM: Message edited by: Neb ]

[Thoran]

Neb I've heard a lot about Wiz 8... could you do a full Pro/Con (similar to what you did above) for W8? I saw some screenshots and it didn't looks as impressive as Morrowind... perhaps I've missed the boat and should give it a try.

While I've really enjoyed Warcraft III... I agree it's really just an incrimental improvement of W2... but I really liked W2 too (more enjoyable to me than Starcraft for some reason... maybe becase of the fantasy base)

[ 08-20-2002, 01:31 PM: Message edited by: Thoran ]

[Neb]

Originally posted by Thoran: Neb I've heard a lot about Wiz 8... could you do a full Pro/Con (similar to what you did above) for W8? I saw some screenshots and it didn't looks as impressive as Morrowind... perhaps I've missed the boat and should give it a try. While I've really enjoyed Warcraft III... I agree it's really just an incrimental improvement of W2... but I really liked W2 too (more enjoyable to me than Starcraft for some reason... maybe becase of the fantasy base)

Okay, here it is, a Wiz8 Pro/Con:

Wizardry 8:

Pros: Not too new(can probably be bought cheaply), good graphics, large assortment of foes, large assortment of spells, many classes, many races, good voices, good portraits, unique races, unique classes, unique locations, really great locations, good story, easy to use interface, unique NPC's, recruitable NPC's as well as self-made party, many quests with multiple solutions, multiple endings, multiple ways to reach the endings.

Cons: A few bugs, a few things that could've been done better(nothing serious, mainly just a few small plot things.), multi-class system a bit confusing, travel can be somewhat annoying at times, no multiplayer, combat can occasionally become slightly tedious, constant level of challenge.

Neutral Facts: 1st person party-based RPG. Combat can be turn-based OR real-time. Not really any fancy animated cutscenes, but the few cutscenes that there are are really good anyway.

(Please tell me if I've missed anything, everyone [img]smile.gif[/img] )

[Davros]

Well I know Pangur has already played Wizardry 8 - so :

Go with Wolfgir's summary - that was a pretty good breakdown. I got Morrowind first - great graphics and great world. Started to slow down in some of the repetition after about 40 hours of gameplay (and I am about 30% through the game). Bought NWN, and having a preference for 1st person over 3rd person I was expecting to see what it was like then go back to finishing Morrowind. It didn't turn out that way - I am still faithfully with NWN, and will be till completion of (at least) one single play and some multi-ing about with friends.

I will get back to Morrowind though, and they are both great games - BUY BOTH .