Neverwinter Nights

We planned to start this review with the bad news, but there isn't any. Neverwinter Nights is one of the best and biggest RPG titles ever.

An engaging story sprawls over four chapters, from the plague-ridden city of Neverwinter to nearby Luskan; then into a monster-strewn area called the Spine of the World where you battle goblins, wolves, zombies, golems, and dragons; and finally into a raging battle between armies of good and evil. Along the way, you meet hundreds of characters, carry out numerous quests, and gather tons of treasure.

Gameplay follows Third Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules, which will please purists and veterans. If you don't understand Third Edition D&D subtleties, however, don't despair. Your Mac does all the die-tossing and number work silently, so even role-playing newcomers can fight like pros.

You can create your own hero or heroine, or choose an existing character. From there, you're pretty much on your own. Instead of going with an expedition party, you set off adventuring and treasure hunting with a single hired henchman, racking up experience points by completing missions and slicing hordes of bad guys to pieces.

Treasure is scattered everywhere—potions, gold coins, books, weapons, precious stones, rings, and armor. Use what you can and sell the rest. If you run out of space in your inventory, put your excess goodies in magic bags (these bags not only take up less space, but also reduce the weight of some objects).

You can switch weapons quickly using Quickslots, which allows you to swap your two-handed broadsword for a crossbow or an axe and shield with a single keystroke. This kind of speed sets up some super battles: Zoom in your view to check out the killer combat animations. Adversaries dodge, parry, and strike at each other realistically. They die well too, with all the appropriate gurgles and groans.

If your henchman dies, don't fret. Just use an item called the Recall Stone, which transports you to a home temple where you'll find the henchman resurrected. There you can also heal your own wounds and buy or sell equipment. When you die, you can respawn here in the temple at a loss of some gold and experience points, or you can load your last save and try again. Save often.

But don't just reload and plunge in. Stop for a breather and think it over. Some enemies need fresh strategy. And if you win a battle but are severely wounded, use the rest key instead of expensive healing potions. A quick rest will restore all your health and hit points.

All that's missing is the Aurora Toolset, a PC-only editing set you can use to create mods to customize your adventures. But as we reported a few months ago ("The Next Level," May/03, p34), data files and mods created by PC players work just fine on the Mac. And there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of them available by now—see "Got Mods?" left, for sources.

When you finish a computer-based game, the appeal for single-play usually diminishes. Not with this game. With unlimited adventures waiting for you to download them, Neverwinter Nights is a game you can play for months or even years. —John Lee