Video Games Trailer

Title: Neverwinter Nights 2
Release Date: Oct 31 2006
Platforms: PC
Label: Atari
Genre: RPG
Age Rating: T (Teen)

The title “Neverwinter Nights” has been used for two of the most ambitious RPGs ever created for the PC – SSI’s original “Gold Box” version that launched on America Online in 1991 and BioWare’s massive five-year endeavor that finally debuted in 2002. BioWare’s version continues to sell very well even after four years, and something tells me that if SSI’s version hadn’t been taken offline in 1997, many of us would still be playing that as well. Given the success of the Neverwinter Nights brand name, it comes as no surprise that Obsidian Entertainment (the company started by a handful of ex-Black Isle developers) is currently developing a sequel designed to improve upon BioWare’s version in nearly every aspect.

If you attended E3 this year, you couldn’t help but notice Neverwinter Nights 2. A massive banner advertising the game was draped across the front of the Los Angeles Convention Center, and the game was on display at both Atari’s and Microsoft’s “Games For Windows” booths. It was from a PC-controlled arcade cabinet in Atari’s booth that we actually received our demo from an Obsidian staffer.

Character creation looks somewhat similar to the original Neverwinter Nights, with a few extra additions. Three different tints can be assigned to your character’s hair, allowing for more customization and the ability to give them some funky highlights if you wish. The prestige classes haven’t been finalized yet, but the demo showed the following selections: Arcane Archer, Arcane Trickster, Assassin, Blackguard, Divine Champion, Duelist, Dwarven Defender, Frenzied Berserker, Harper Agent, Neverwinter Nine: Agent, Neverwinter Nine: Magus, Neverwinter Nine: Warder, Pale Master, Red Dragon Disciple, Shadow Dancer, and Weapon Master. Many of these will be familiar to those of you who played the original Neverwinter Nights, though all three Neverwinter Nine prestige classes are totally new. Apparently these are buffing classes that are available if/when you become Lord Nasher’s bodyguard in the game. The team originally tossed around the idea of making everyone start with an alignment of True Neutral (just as the Nameless One does in Planescape: Torment), but they’ve since opted to allow a choice between all nine standard D&D alignments. Your alignment will shift during the game based on your actions and dialogue choices, though, so this choice won’t necessarily last your character’s lifetime. Toward the end of character creation, you can also choose a pre-designated background that adds a little extra depth to your character and may affect his or her statistics, skills, or feats. If your character is a magic-user, then you must also choose a familiar. Instead of providing a selection of exotic familiars like the original NWN did, Obsidian has limited the choices to common farm animals (pig, rabbit, spider, cat, etc.) to reflect your character’s simple history before beginning the game.

After breezing through the game’s tutorial, the demo jumped to the Temple of Seasons, which is about mid-way through the game. While the graphics obviously look better all around, it was this area that really showed how much more advanced they are from the original game. The Electron Engine is capable of all sorts of cool visual effects, which we saw firsthand while moving around to the temple’s different trials. Rain, snow, and ice all looked very realistic, but the heat displacement effect coming off of the floor in the Trial of Summer was by far the most impressive.