Amazon.com: Neverwinter Nights (Mac): PC: Video Games

20 Reviews

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

3.9 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)

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70 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very nice! (MAC version, performance specs), November 8, 2003

By	Thomas Price "tprice1995" (Decatur, GA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This game combines the hack-and-slash of Dungeon Siege and the complex character management of Baldur's Gate 2 into a very enjoyable game.
The gameplay focuses on a single character; while there is no party system you can hire a henchman (a la Diablo 2) that can be useful. The story line is detailed and interesting. Many, many NPCs to interact with. No "ultra-impossible" enemies: while the game allows you to examine an enemy and determine their challenge rating, I found that even ones labeled as "Impossible" by the game were not particularly difficult for my fighter to dispatch.
MUCH better than Dungeon Seige, with a similar feel, but not so much the tedious "hack and slash" boredom I got with that title. And I went to play Diablo 2 for a little bit after playing NWN for a while: forget it, it's paleolithic in comparison.

Recommended character: I'm currently having much fun with a single-class Fighter, lvl 10 (in second act right now). Specialized it in greatsword, have the Harbinger Kin +1 GS (the GS is perhaps the best melee weapon in the game). Tried a monk but she kept dying! Paired the fighter with a bard henchman and it is much fun to attack a boss with a bard's song pumping all your stats up! (Think Brave Sir Robin and his Minstels, only the opposite)

Pros:
1) Stable build, only two major crashes in 3 weeks of playing (upgraded to latest version 1.32)
2) Good performance on a mid-line machine (see below)
3) Game play not too difficult at normal level (but can increase)
4) Storyline is slightly linear, but once you get to Act 2 there's a lot of branching sidequests to do!
5) Henchmen can be very useful!
6) Talking to NPCs really can work wonders on the gameplay; able to talk my way out of several battles and earn my "Neutral Good" alignment (even though I could have SO KILLED THEM!)
7) Graphics are high-end for Mac
8) Sounds are excellent
9) PLENTY of room in the character inventory; limit is almost exclusively dependent on character strength

Cons:
1) Viewable area sometimes seems claustraphobic when compared to full zoom-out in Dungeon Siege.
2) Sometimes can get overwhelmed with the number of active "quests"
3) Have no clue about some of the items I've picked up
4) Cannot "equip" henchmen with items (no packmule) nor upgrade their base equipment
5) Graphics are mid-range for PCs
6) Apple sound system not able to convey all the subtleties of the background (need to use headphones)
7) Cannot modify character portrait/color scheme during play as you could in Baldur's Gate 2

About performance: I have a dual 867mHz G4 with an older GeForce4 MX440 (32mb) card and 1 GB ram. The game set itself to low-medium but runs over 30 FPS on 1024 resolution without many hiccups. No problems here, though might "burp" when a lot of enemies on screen. I'm upgrading to a GeForce 3 Ti4600 card this week and I'll update then.

UPDATE: Minor improvements with the GeForce4 Ti card, but cannot run it at max settings without significant rate drops (<20fps). This seems to say that there is significant CPU dependence of this conversion -- be aware.

UPDATE2: Newer versions of the nVida drivers with OSX 10.3.5 and higher provides a SIGNIFICANT speed improvement! I can now run at 1024x768 with high level graphics at an acceptible 28-30 fps.

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent engine for endless gameplay!, June 20, 2004

By	warhol - See all my reviews

Overview: Don't think of NWN as a single game, but as an engine that allows you to play graphical role-playing games by yourself and with others. It's your way to access thousands of modules written by other NWN fans, each one a separate adventure. It's easy to find these modules online at the BioWare website. (You can download whatever style module pleases you -- from ones that emphasize roleplay to ones that are pure hack-and-slash.) It's also very easy to join multiplayer games online. (Mixed results with these. If you adventure with a standard group of people that you know, it feels like an intimate pen-and-paper role-playing session. If you join a random game and hang out with random people, it feels much more like a MU*.) The game ships with a single long campaign, which is well-written and enjoyable.

Of course, I'm just repeating what hundreds of PC players of the game have said -- go and read their reviews for that version of the game.

For Mac users: In my experience, NWN runs without a problem on an 800 MHz G4 iBook with 640 MB of RAM and 32MB of VRAM. It opened but ran unbearably slowly on a 500 MHz G3 iBook with 576 MB of RAM and 16MB of VRAM.

As is often the game, Mac gamers are treated as second-class citizens -- although it's not too bad in this case. Here are some specifics:

* We don't get the toolbox that allows us to write and customize modules, which is the biggest disappointment for me.

* The expansions (which are necessary for many of the downloaded modules) haven't been released for the Mac, and won't be anytime soon. [Edit, 7/5/2004: the expansions have now been released, finally! I'm leaving this part of the review in, because it illustrates how Mac users haven't been a top priority. Then I'm going to go order the expansions!]

* BioWare claims that MacSoft is responsible for providing support for the Mac version of NWN. MacSoft's attitude toward support is minimalist.

Bottom line: Five stars for the concept and the game. Minus one star for the Mac adaptation of it.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Will Rule Your Free Time , February 12, 2005

By	choiceweb0pen0 (Lafayette, LA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

It took a while for me to get this game mainly because I had a lowely 16 MB graphic card and after reading some reviews didn't think my 400 MhZ could run it. So with a 1.2 MhZ Sonnet upgrade and a 128 MB graphics card, Neverwinter Night runs well. One of my other inhibitions was from playing Baldur's Gate II and other RPG's that let you control and entire party instead of just one character. However, after playing NWN, I quickly got over it. The 3D graphics and ability to circle and tilt the camera, along with the raidial and hotkey menus, make game play simple. I played it through the first time with a monk, and he did die frequently even with the help of a henchmen, eventually he became awesome and able to quickly dispatch nearly any foe. Perhaps my only complaint is that the game isn't that long, but with two modules to add on and a slightly different experience depending on the class of your character, Neverwinter Nights is worth checking out.