For all the work that had gone into building the game world, it wasn't particularly distinctive and it certainly didn't feel anywhere near as big and as varied as anything BioWare had built before. For all its engine effects, it wasn't particularly pretty.
In spite of all its dialogue, Neverwinter Nights wasn't particularly witty.
While BioWare had indeed given its new game a full 3D engine with all sorts of real-time lighting effects, it had forgotten to include that which had made its earlier titles so rich, engaging and endearing. Once I was able to squeeze my way through all the hype and marketing and reach for a copy, I found myself with a game that was as bland as a baked potato.
The game paid a terrible price for its technology. It was this, most of all, that would be our great step forward.īut Neverwinter Nights stumbled. Furthermore, Aurora would come with its own toolset, giving gamers the chance to create new environments, new dungeons and new adventures for one another, even letting us role-play together, one player taking the role of the Dungeon Master, guiding the other players and shaping the world about them. In its place, the Aurora engine would provide a full 3D experience, allowing players to zoom, pan and glide their way around a new game world populated by polygons. This is what true roleplaying looks like. Lush as its rendered backgrounds were, there was no room now for 2D or isometric RPGs. BioWare wanted to exploit this technology as much as any of the ubiquitous first-person shooters that swarmed the market and so it put its popular Infinity Engine to bed.
I seriously wondered what these people had been playing, because it certainly wasn't the same thing that had landed on my desk.īy the turn of the century, all us PC owners were accustomed to sliding 3D cards into our machines and come 2002 I don't think there was anyone among us who wasn't on their second or third card. In comparison, my mood switched from keen to baffled to frustrated and, for the first time, I began to look at some of my games journalist colleagues through narrowed eyes. The gaming press believed it before its release, at its release (evidenced by a slew of ecstatic reviews, though Eurogamer didn't follow suit) and, in some cases, for quite some time after its release. I don't know about you, but I began to believe that and so did everyone I spoke to. Yet for all the hours I put into this game I have few memories and little enthusiasm. Neverwinter Nights was supposed to be a great step forward for RPGs and the next masterpiece from BioWare, the developer who created the wondrous Baldur's Gate series.
I don't know whether to say that it was my first great gaming disappointment, or tell stories about how its expansions, mods and custom content eventually formed something of a splint for a broken promise. I can't tell you if I enjoyed Neverwinter Nights.