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Neverwinter Nights at E3 2001

The Specs

Neverwinter Nights is a Third Edition Dungeons and Dragons computer roleplaying game. The emphasis is on multiplayer play with one player serving as a Dungeonmaster (DM), although it supports solo play and multiplayer without a DM as well. It uses the Omen engine first developed for MDK2, with an isometric view supported. The game will ship with 28-30 modules that are linked adventures that can be played alone or online. It will also feature a robust editor that Bioware promises will be easy to use for players who want to make their own adventures and share them online or DM them. There will be no fee to play online with up to 64 players in a game at once.

The Speculation

Mark's Comments: You can't go too far wrong with a spiffy graphics engine and Third Edition D&D done up by the two pre-eminent CRPG companies, BioWare and Interplay's Black Isle division, but there are three things that concern me about this game. First, will the player-made modules really be playable and challenging without a dungeon master? Second, will the editor really be easy enough to use so that gamers who can't make Quake mods can whip up new Neverwinter Nights mods? Finally, will there be a critical mass of players and dungeon masters so that we get plenty of mods and can easily find DM-run games online? I'm confident that there's a critical mass waiting for this game, but the first two are the tricky ones. We've seen some Vampire mods, for example, but the use of QERadiant as the editor dropped an iceberg on the mod scene for that Activision game. From what I saw of the Neverwinter Nights editor in action at Interplay's booth, I was impressed with its ease of use.

Tom's Comments: This may very well be the next level in computer role playing games. The demo at E3 wasn't very impressive -- you basically watch a character run around and cast a few spells -- but there's considerable potential in this RPG system. With it's open architecture and Diablo-streamlined, but still sophisticated interface, Neverwinter Nights is just what RPGs need to achieve the level of innovation and player input that first person shooters have long enjoyed.

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May 22, 2001