I've had this
game for a time now, and I must say it is
awesome. Well
worth running out and
buying it, and in fact I'd say that if you don't you must be
mad with the
Wailing (in game
joke) if you don't. Despite the
incredible gameplay,
graphics and
game mechanics, there are a few
bones I have to pick with the game:
- Parties - Parties are, more or less, non-existant. The closest thing to a party you can achieve is your character and a hired mercenary. Sorcerors also get familiars, druids start with an animal companion and rangers can gain an animal companion. Other than that, however, you cannot have the traditional party of four that exist in most D&D computer games. You may change your mercenary (once you've paid for him/her you may switch between any others you've paid for as many times as you like), though it is rather irritating having to switch between a rogue, barbarian and sorceror depending on the situation. It would be far better automatically starting with a diverse party.
- Costume - There is a great variety of outfits available in this game, such as peasant's clothing, traveller's outfit, noble's clothing, sorceror's robes etc. These are simple aesthetic devices, however. They play no effect whatsoever on the NPCs.
- Clerics - In D&D, Good and Evil Clerics have positive and negative energy respectively. Positive energy is basically healing and turn undead; whereas negative energy is inflicting and rebuke undead. In this game, however, all clerics have positive energy, and this is a poor choice. Who wouldn't want to play a necromantic cleric? And even if you wouldn't, you should at least have the option to.
- Monks - They made two errors with the monks. First of all, small monks have their unarmed damage reduced, as they should be, however there is no Halfling Kama, small monks simply equip Kamas (which are one size too big for them), with the usual 1d6 of damage, like the punch for a medium monk (Halfling Kamas should have 1d4 of damage, like the punch for a small monk). Also, the unarmed attack bonus of a monk is not applied to the Kama, and when two Kamas are equipped the monk suffers penalties for having two weapons (which does not apply to Kamas, Nunchuka or Siangham for monks), and worse yet, it applies an offhand penalty (which does not apply to Unarmed Strikes, Kamas, Nunchuka or Siangham for monks). Finally, the Nunchuka and Siangham are unavailable in this game, leaving the monk with only slashing weapons, and no bludgeoning or piercing weapons.
- Sub-races - Sub-races are available in this game, although you may not choose from a list, you simply select your base race and then type in your sub-race. If you choose any sub-race not from D&D (ex. Bobdragons) then it does not allow to choose that sub-race, however if you choose one from D&D (ex. Drow) it doesn't matter what race you chose as your base race. If, for example, you chose Drow, despite the fact the base race for Drow are Elves, you may have a Dwarven Drow. Furthermore, choosing a sub-race only sticks some text in your character sheet that says "Drow" (or whatever sub-race you chose), it does not apply the ability modifiers for that race.
So there you have it. These are flaws I have found in the game, but other than that, it truly is a great game with mindblowing graphics and gameplay, and alot of replayability.
Note: All information on what class/race abilities should have are found in the Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition Player's Handbook and Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition Monster's Manual.
getha says re Neverwinter Nights: There are two so-called 'hacks' goin' around that might be worth mentioning. One is a patch that allowes the camera-angle to be altered beyond the constraints set by Bioware. The other is a hack that allowes one to add more characters to ones party and also to make use of their inventory space (another miss by Bioware IMO)