Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Criticise? Don't mind if I do!
Review of a Review
"While the game's lengthy single-player campaign was hardly an afterthought, Neverwinter Nights' 3D engine and toolset got a lot of attention, because they were intended to allow fans to create and host their very own D&D adventures."
Let's get my opinion of the original game out of the way: I thought the game was way overrated. The engine was slow and clunky and a Diablo2 wannabe. The singleplayer was several chapters (turds) made by serveral different people (highschool students?) which combined to make a lengthly story (peice of shit) which was disjointed, undramatic, and considerably inferior to anything they had done in previous games. They turned a party oriented, story and character driven, location wandering game into a hack and slash one player game which repetative tile sets and a plot that was both unoriginal and reminiscient of TA: Kingdoms, especially with the 'dramatic cutscenes' which are actually just poorly drawn frames which they play some spooky music to and zoom in and out of.
However, I still play the damn game a lot. The toolset, while horribly laggy and unforgiving, was patched and made usable. While 99% of the modules people have made with the editor are so bad that they cannot be described with text, that 1% are extremely well made, interesting or downright fun. So, what has Bioware done in this expansion? Back to the review:
"While Shadows of Undrentide doesn't fix the shortcomings of Neverwinter Nights' Aurora engine (which isn't aging as well as BioWare's Infinity engine, which was used for five years' worth of great RPGs)...
The first of many comments by the reviewer refering to the Aurora engine. The game engine should be something considered in the original game review since this is an expansion. You can't possibly expect a company to change their engine for an expansion. He doesn't mention the 'shortcomings' of the engine, but for me they consist of horrible inventory lag and graphics, memory intensive particle effects, clumsy chat and party interface. Granted, some of that could be tweaked for an expansion, but most of the really bad stuff has already been patched pre-expansion. Finally, if you are going to lament about their new 3D engine, maybe you should consider what you would be rating the game if it was still using that oh-so-much-better 2D engine. I think you would shoot this game the fuck down if it was using a much more capable, stable, 2D engine.
" Shadows of Undrentide isn't a conventional expansion pack, because it's not a continuation of the previous game. Essentially it's a brand-new campaign using the same engine, so although you're required to install it on top of Neverwinter Nights, the stories of the games are completely separate"
WOW! I've never heard of ANY expansion pack that didn't continue the storyline of the original game! That is so unconventional! . Once again he slips in a comment on the engine.
" -it will probably last you 25 to 30 hours, and there's some good replay value to boot."
Thirty hours is nothing, especially for an RPG. This is likely also a generous estimation.
"The expansion retains the same excellent mechanics of Neverwinter Nights, so you can easily control your character and access a variety of useful in-game information using the mouse and a few keystrokes."
I seem to be confused...is he talking about mechanics, or interface? Mechanics would be the Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition. Interface would be menus, and control. Isn't there a test you need to pass to be a professional reviewer?
" Much like Neverwinter Nights' campaign, Undrentide's campaign does a good job of actually letting you role-play your character, mostly by giving you both good-natured and evil-natured dialogue options and quest solutions"
If by evil you mean maybe twisting a conversation so that you can milk all of 50 gp from an NPC (while you have 90,000 in you inventory already), then yes, I imagine so. Really the game doesn't allow for the wide roleplaying that the pen and paper does. Its simply impossible to guess what any PC might be thinking in response to actions. My all time favorite game ruiner is "What if I want to join the villain? All these other loosers have joined him, why wouldn't he want me?".
"There's a lot of dialogue to read through, but it's good enough if you're interested, and it can be skimmed through easily if you'd rather just hack and slash your way to the end. "
I think there needs to be some genre definition here. Its a RPG and he's complaining about the amount of dialogue. Why are you playing this game if you want to skim through it all? Go play a different game if you want Hack and Slash. I want a fucking story with fucking characters. Infact, screw this game, I'll go read a book until Baldur's Gate 3 comes out.
"The expansion takes you through several new types of environments not found in Neverwinter Nights, including a snowy wilderness, a desert, and some ancient ruins"
The snowy tileset is the same as the current rural one, only everything is in a layer of snow. Something that could easily have been done for the original game. The other two, however, are actually worth mentioning. Not that you couldn't just go and download similar tilesets from various online sources and get them right now for free.
"The plot of the game isn't remarkable, but it does a decent job of setting up the sorts of adventures and challenges you'd expect from a fantasy RPG."
If this guy, the guy who skims through dialogue to get the the hack and slash, complains about the plot being lame, I shudder to think at what it's really going to be like.
"The prestige classes are powerful and versatile."
These are pretty much a class you can take at anytime once you meet the extremely low requirements. They are insanely powerful and were balanced in the original D&D rules because you couldn't take them unless there was specific reason in the story. They are something you character should only have access to for extremely good reason, scuh as saving the freaking world. Yes, that's how powerful they are.
"...those who were disappointed by the fact that Neverwinter Nights was primarily a single-character campaign will likewise wish that Undrentide's campaign had lifted this restriction."
This is the singlemost reason why NWN sucks. They ruined the party aspect by forcing you to travel with only one other character. The party is the heart of D&D and they ignored it. Again.
"...Shadows of Undrentide's new environments and variety of new enemies (including some popular fantasy mainstays such as gnolls, basilisks, and manticores) fit right in with the rest of Neverwinter Nights' visuals..."
Actually, Gnolls are already in the game and nowhere do they advertise that they are new.
"...but don't really exceed the graphical standards of the original game."
Ofcourse the graphics fit in but don't exceed the original...they CAN'T because they didn't upgrade the engine. I guess this guy was expecting NWN2 instead of an expansion.
"Shadows of Undrentide recycles much of Neverwinter Nights' audio, including its music and sound effects, though it does add new music, sounds, and voices. "
I'm guessing here, but I'm pretty sure that he means the new content has new sounds to go with it, but the original content will still have the original sounds. Was he expecting them to redo the audio for the entire game?
"The new music is mostly very good, and fits the new environments well, though some of it seems overly dramatic."
Yeah, I suppose if you weren't reading dialogue to get any sense of importance or drama from the story and characters that you would have no reason to get into the proper mood to appreciate dramatic music.
"The expansion also improves on the Aurora toolset by including relatively easy-to-use "wizards" for creating plots, setting up shops, and generating waypoints for non-player characters."
Much like Gnolls, all these features are already in the game. I know this because, unlike some other people, I actually played the original NWN game and used the Toolset.
"It seems unlikely that BioWare's Aurora engine will enjoy as much staying power as the Infinity engine before it."
How is this relevant to a review about an expansion? Obviously if I'm considering buying the expansion (and thus reading this review) I'm going to want to know about the actual content as opposed to some guy's vague opinion on whether this engine will be used in another game/expansion ever.
"Ultimately, Shadows of Undrentide isn't the most epic or memorable RPG with BioWare's name on it, but it has plenty of good, new content to satisfy most any Neverwinter Nights fan."
Uh huh. Excuse me while I try and find out if you are the same guy that gave NWN a highscore when it first came out...
AH HA: Infact, he was. So he gave the expansion 14% less pretty much because he didn't like the fact that it had a lot of dialogue, recycled sounds, and the same game engine, despite all the added and new content.
I guess its up to the reader to decide if he was just affected by the hype and gave the original game a much higher score than it deserved or if the expansion truely is that much worse than the original game.
Review of a Review
"While the game's lengthy single-player campaign was hardly an afterthought, Neverwinter Nights' 3D engine and toolset got a lot of attention, because they were intended to allow fans to create and host their very own D&D adventures."
Let's get my opinion of the original game out of the way: I thought the game was way overrated. The engine was slow and clunky and a Diablo2 wannabe. The singleplayer was several chapters (turds) made by serveral different people (highschool students?) which combined to make a lengthly story (peice of shit) which was disjointed, undramatic, and considerably inferior to anything they had done in previous games. They turned a party oriented, story and character driven, location wandering game into a hack and slash one player game which repetative tile sets and a plot that was both unoriginal and reminiscient of TA: Kingdoms, especially with the 'dramatic cutscenes' which are actually just poorly drawn frames which they play some spooky music to and zoom in and out of.
However, I still play the damn game a lot. The toolset, while horribly laggy and unforgiving, was patched and made usable. While 99% of the modules people have made with the editor are so bad that they cannot be described with text, that 1% are extremely well made, interesting or downright fun. So, what has Bioware done in this expansion? Back to the review:
"While Shadows of Undrentide doesn't fix the shortcomings of Neverwinter Nights' Aurora engine (which isn't aging as well as BioWare's Infinity engine, which was used for five years' worth of great RPGs)...
The first of many comments by the reviewer refering to the Aurora engine. The game engine should be something considered in the original game review since this is an expansion. You can't possibly expect a company to change their engine for an expansion. He doesn't mention the 'shortcomings' of the engine, but for me they consist of horrible inventory lag and graphics, memory intensive particle effects, clumsy chat and party interface. Granted, some of that could be tweaked for an expansion, but most of the really bad stuff has already been patched pre-expansion. Finally, if you are going to lament about their new 3D engine, maybe you should consider what you would be rating the game if it was still using that oh-so-much-better 2D engine. I think you would shoot this game the fuck down if it was using a much more capable, stable, 2D engine.
" Shadows of Undrentide isn't a conventional expansion pack, because it's not a continuation of the previous game. Essentially it's a brand-new campaign using the same engine, so although you're required to install it on top of Neverwinter Nights, the stories of the games are completely separate"
" -it will probably last you 25 to 30 hours, and there's some good replay value to boot."
Thirty hours is nothing, especially for an RPG. This is likely also a generous estimation.
"The expansion retains the same excellent mechanics of Neverwinter Nights, so you can easily control your character and access a variety of useful in-game information using the mouse and a few keystrokes."
I seem to be confused...is he talking about mechanics, or interface? Mechanics would be the Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition. Interface would be menus, and control. Isn't there a test you need to pass to be a professional reviewer?
" Much like Neverwinter Nights' campaign, Undrentide's campaign does a good job of actually letting you role-play your character, mostly by giving you both good-natured and evil-natured dialogue options and quest solutions"
If by evil you mean maybe twisting a conversation so that you can milk all of 50 gp from an NPC (while you have 90,000 in you inventory already), then yes, I imagine so. Really the game doesn't allow for the wide roleplaying that the pen and paper does. Its simply impossible to guess what any PC might be thinking in response to actions. My all time favorite game ruiner is "What if I want to join the villain? All these other loosers have joined him, why wouldn't he want me?".
"There's a lot of dialogue to read through, but it's good enough if you're interested, and it can be skimmed through easily if you'd rather just hack and slash your way to the end. "
I think there needs to be some genre definition here. Its a RPG and he's complaining about the amount of dialogue. Why are you playing this game if you want to skim through it all? Go play a different game if you want Hack and Slash. I want a fucking story with fucking characters. Infact, screw this game, I'll go read a book until Baldur's Gate 3 comes out.
"The expansion takes you through several new types of environments not found in Neverwinter Nights, including a snowy wilderness, a desert, and some ancient ruins"
The snowy tileset is the same as the current rural one, only everything is in a layer of snow. Something that could easily have been done for the original game. The other two, however, are actually worth mentioning. Not that you couldn't just go and download similar tilesets from various online sources and get them right now for free.
"The plot of the game isn't remarkable, but it does a decent job of setting up the sorts of adventures and challenges you'd expect from a fantasy RPG."
If this guy, the guy who skims through dialogue to get the the hack and slash, complains about the plot being lame, I shudder to think at what it's really going to be like.
"The prestige classes are powerful and versatile."
These are pretty much a class you can take at anytime once you meet the extremely low requirements. They are insanely powerful and were balanced in the original D&D rules because you couldn't take them unless there was specific reason in the story. They are something you character should only have access to for extremely good reason, scuh as saving the freaking world. Yes, that's how powerful they are.
"...those who were disappointed by the fact that Neverwinter Nights was primarily a single-character campaign will likewise wish that Undrentide's campaign had lifted this restriction."
This is the singlemost reason why NWN sucks. They ruined the party aspect by forcing you to travel with only one other character. The party is the heart of D&D and they ignored it. Again.
"...Shadows of Undrentide's new environments and variety of new enemies (including some popular fantasy mainstays such as gnolls, basilisks, and manticores) fit right in with the rest of Neverwinter Nights' visuals..."
Actually, Gnolls are already in the game and nowhere do they advertise that they are new.
"...but don't really exceed the graphical standards of the original game."
Ofcourse the graphics fit in but don't exceed the original...they CAN'T because they didn't upgrade the engine. I guess this guy was expecting NWN2 instead of an expansion.
"Shadows of Undrentide recycles much of Neverwinter Nights' audio, including its music and sound effects, though it does add new music, sounds, and voices. "
I'm guessing here, but I'm pretty sure that he means the new content has new sounds to go with it, but the original content will still have the original sounds. Was he expecting them to redo the audio for the entire game?
"The new music is mostly very good, and fits the new environments well, though some of it seems overly dramatic."
Yeah, I suppose if you weren't reading dialogue to get any sense of importance or drama from the story and characters that you would have no reason to get into the proper mood to appreciate dramatic music.
"The expansion also improves on the Aurora toolset by including relatively easy-to-use "wizards" for creating plots, setting up shops, and generating waypoints for non-player characters."
Much like Gnolls, all these features are already in the game. I know this because, unlike some other people, I actually played the original NWN game and used the Toolset.
"It seems unlikely that BioWare's Aurora engine will enjoy as much staying power as the Infinity engine before it."
How is this relevant to a review about an expansion? Obviously if I'm considering buying the expansion (and thus reading this review) I'm going to want to know about the actual content as opposed to some guy's vague opinion on whether this engine will be used in another game/expansion ever.
"Ultimately, Shadows of Undrentide isn't the most epic or memorable RPG with BioWare's name on it, but it has plenty of good, new content to satisfy most any Neverwinter Nights fan."
Uh huh. Excuse me while I try and find out if you are the same guy that gave NWN a highscore when it first came out...
AH HA: Infact, he was. So he gave the expansion 14% less pretty much because he didn't like the fact that it had a lot of dialogue, recycled sounds, and the same game engine, despite all the added and new content.
I guess its up to the reader to decide if he was just affected by the hype and gave the original game a much higher score than it deserved or if the expansion truely is that much worse than the original game.
