It all begins with you. Well, the construction of you, anyway. One of the best parts for me in D&D and similarly styled games is the character creation. You get to sit down and make an alternate persona of whatever you feel like; you are presented with the pure potential of what could be and what might happen with anything and everything out there. Unfortunately, this remains the best part of many games because the possibilities are never realized and they ultimately fall flat. But luckily, Neverwinter discards that which came before and forges ahead filled with good design, great quests, wonderful non-player characters (anyone who isn't controlled by a human, referred to as NPCs), and some damn nice graphics.

I gave myself the typical D&D starter class for riling up some fun: a fighter. Basic and simple, I do naught but kill and forage for treasure, like any dumb adventurer. I tried out a few different classes and abilities to see the effects, and the game certainly covers its design nicely. Give someone low wisdom, and they will talk like a classic brute. Give them high charisma and you can talk people out of extra money or into lower prices or new jobs. Many of the NPCs share some of the same talk and explanations, but most have their own stories and questions for you. It is rather nice being able to just walk along and talk with an entire town, performing quests and finding new items while slowly working your way towards the ultimate goal of saving the city of Neverwinter.

A plague is affecting the land for which no cure was no known until right before you showed up. However, that cure has been destroyed, and now it is up to you to replace the ingredients and save all the people of the city. You do not have much of a real direction, but simply exploring will eventually lead you to the right places. Talking to everyone and taking on every quest you are able to will sometimes have you stumble onto the right areas, but even the dead ends will at least improve your skills if nothing else. Many quests can even be beaten without having them assigned, as you can collect objects for someone you have not talked to yet or even bash your way into areas you haven't been told a reason for. One house early on can be explored by the straight and narrow path of killing the front guards and charging in, or you could talk to the townsfolk and find out about a secret passage that will allow a more discreet route.

Unfortunately, a balance issue does arise from time to time regarding the enemies. Many areas will feature all sorts of creatures that are easy to slay and drop with a single blow, and suddenly you will come across a creature five times as difficult as anything you have seen yet that can kill you repeatedly. They often come without warning and are in some random locations, though this can be partially rectified by hiring some help in town. Whatever character you choose to be, you will assuredly be lacking in some way, shape, or form. Luckily for you, people with a variety of skills can be hired to assist you in your travels and make life much, much easier. As a fighter, I found that a thief did wonders for me, even more than many magic users. He allowed me to slaughter everything in our path while he picked locks and disarmed traps, things that could easily stop or kill my character. You can only have one helper at a time which puts kind of a damper on things (adding a magic user for a total of three people would make a great well-rounded party), but at least you only have to pay a fee for a helper once. If you choose to switch helpers and then back again, there is no recharge fee.

The best part about all this gameplay is the multiplayer. Beat the game and looking for more? Head online and join some friends (or random strangers) and engage in classic D&D-style play with someone creating new stories and overlooking the proceedings and a party of other people to help you out. Now that is long-lasting replay value.

Thankfully, the graphics keep up with gameplay and are very impressive; even up close you can spot the details in the armor and the swaying effects of the clothes and hair. Changing armor and weapons will affect your character's appearance, although cloaks do not show up, disappointingly enough. You will face many enemies, although they rely more on numbers then variety. There's never so many in one area that you will get sick of seeing a certain monster, but familiar faces will haunt you for long periods of time. Spells and attacks look very good, tossing around lighting effects and some nice animations, although the dodge movements do not always match up with the weapon swinging. One nice effect I really liked was arrows sticking out of people for a while after getting hit. Wonderfully, the game also offers a great camera system fully under your control to see all this by. You can choose to lock it behind the character or control it yourself as well as zoom all the way in or see well into the distance. You can even get an exact overhead or retain the high angled side-view.

One of my favorite parts in the game was the music, starting right from the opening scenes. All of it is well-crafted and sounds beautiful, and some of the tracks would even be phenomenal on their own. No part of the sound division falters, all the voices for the characters are good and well-acted, and the effects for the weapons and spells are perfectly on the mark. A few of the voices in particular are worth hearing for comedy value alone; I recommend the maniacal fighter and the evangelical one for a few laughs. A lot of the monsters are also spot-on in their noises and grunts - the high-pitched goblin chittering remained one of my favorites throughout. Had to go back to the early areas a few times just to hear them (was not even worth killing them for the experience points by then).

A wonderful adventure that spans a long time with so many ways to approach it and endless replay value, it is not as immersive as Morrowind, but it is far easier to play and sports multiplayer. If you like D&D, you need this game; if you are not sure if you do, then this might be the game to change your mind. Neverwinter Nights never let me down in any regard, and was fully worth the adventure. Multiple times, even

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· · · MechDeus