Neverwinters Nights vs Dragon Age

[Lacrymas]

Why is that all-important though? It's already been made clear that the OC was to showcase the modding tools as well. Giving it priority over everything else, even to the point of ignoring those altogether, is disingenuous.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

so we should all travel with baloons and not care for airplanes because they were clearly showcasing the technology of flight.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

If you build the tech for flight and it lets modders build a fleet of great aircrafts with it, I think that's worthwhile.

If I had to pick one I'd pick NWN, simply because I could play it for a very long time by just downloading mods and user-made campaigns.

 

[Lacrymas]

so we should all travel with baloons and not care for airplanes because they were clearly showcasing the technology of flight.

No, it would be more like someone invents balloons, then other people build on top of that to create an airplane, but you still refuse to fly because balloons are a shitty invention. It makes no sense whatsoever. There are wonderful user-made campaigns out there (SWORDFLIGHT, Aielund Saga, A Dance with Rogues, The Prophet, even the official expansion campaign and many more), so if you have the game you miss out by ignoring them for and because of the OC.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

still we're talking about the quality of the games, not of their mods.

 

[newtmonkey]

DA:O is clearly better. NWN single player campaign is a joke. It can be fun D&D hack and slash if you turn your mind off, but it's way too long and, like Roguey said, it's balanced to be playable whether you pick a fighter or mage, and so it's ridiculous. I really don't mind it as a dumb game to just put some hours into and hack away at everything as you amass nostalgic D&D magic items, but even playing it for an hour at a time is a drag.

I know DA:O is decline in every way from the games I grew up playing, but still, you put yourself in the right mindset and you can find yourself getting into it. Seeing where the story goes, what new companions you pick up, etc. Is it even possible to get into NWN original campaign? Everything that happens is just an excuse to hack and slash in another area, but it lacks a) the atmosphere of something like Diablo 1 or b) the fun of exploring different builds of Diablo 2, so it even fails as that kind of game.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

who cares about "which one is better and why", you either play a game or you dont

fucking autists and your constant need to categorize and catalog everything

 

[Reinhardt]

After first playtrough you can uninstal DAO and forget about it. In NWN it's where the fun begins.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

because until then you had none.

 

[Reinhardt]

In DAO too.

 

[Jarmaro]

In DAO too.

What stopped you from having fun?

 

[Jarpie]

They both are pretty much garbage so this topic is like arguing which is worse, shit or vomit.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i thought that was clearly the point :V

 

[Delterius]

After first playtrough you can uninstal DAO and forget about it. In NWN it's where the fun begins.

The fun begins when you uninstall NwN?

 

[Haplo]

or b) the fun of exploring different builds of Diablo 2, so it even fails as that kind of game.

See, this is where we really disagree. No game ever gave me that much enjoyment building my characters. Sometimes more then actually playing them!
Heck I even tested some on an arena module.

Diablo 2 can't compare. No game really can.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

DA:O is fun, has the "movie RPG" feel to it, etc., but NWN has the ruleset and setting I want (D&D, pen-and-paper style mechanics).

I haven't played the NWN OC yet, but the user-made campaign I started with was worth buying the game just for that. Not to mention there are so many more to eventually try.

 

[platypusbutter]

Why is that all-important though? It's already been made clear that the OC was to showcase the modding tools as well. Giving it priority over everything else, even to the point of ignoring those altogether, is disingenuous.

Simple answer is because otherwise there's no point in even comparing the two if you're judging DAO as an rpg and NWN as an rpg tool set.

 

[Barnabas]

I just don't understand why they didn't make Nwn party based? That my question.

 

[anvi]

NWN is way better. I completed Origins and had some fun with it, especially the big boss battles. I loved the engine, liked the story, characters, dialogue, voice acting, which usually I hate in games, but this one kept me mostly interested. The only thing I wasn't happy with was the combat and the character building, but they are big things... The combat wasn't terrible but it was just so basic. I hated having a healing aura that does all the healing work for you... and I hated that everyone regens to full immediately after every fight. It meant that there was no resource management at all, you just unload all your shit in every fight and are back to full for the next one. And there are no ambushes at all so you never have to fight while low on anything.

As for character building, I really like that they made their own systems instead of just AD&D, but it was again just too simple. In NWN you get a huge screen full of spells to choose from every level! In Origins you have this one little talent tree which is the same no matter what class. There aren't multiple ways to make a healer, there are like 6 healing spells and you take them all and that's it. With mages there is a little bit of leeway but it is mostly a nuker or a control mage. But there just isn't any depth to the combat, most of the mobs die if you just freeze them and then stone fist them and they shatter. Pew pew anything else. When there are huge swarms of archers and shit later in the game, you just do a huge lightning storm on top of a huge fire storm and it zaps them all to death instantly. Some of the auras and stuff are more interesting but ultimately too weak, and not enough of it. Basically it is close to being a modern classic Bioware type game, but it is just too dumbed down.

Also the length of the game was an issue for me, it was too short, and there were also some boring parts. The start origin stories were ok at best and suffered from them having 4 different ones (or however many). After that I did some trash battles, then the mage tower which was fun, then visited some town and got a bunch of quests, killed a dragon, then had a super boring slog in the dwarven mines, and then there was another big dragon and then it ended. I was expecting a lot more.

Overall, not bad, but I hoped they were going to build upon it in the future and it might have turned into a great series. But instead they took an already dumbed down game and made it dumber and dumber each time.

NWN OC wasn't very good, but it is still better than Origins. Also the character building is awesome, especially with multi classing. And the combat is better too because it is just more grown up and has depth to it. And late game it is REALLY good when I am summoning Mordenkanen's Swords and huge fire elementals and having fun with all the big spells. They were smaller than the Origins big spells yet they felt much better, and weren't OP. My only real issue with NWN is that the OC is boring story wise, but everything else about it was good, it also deserves some open mindedness in terms of graphics etc, because it was made as a game that people could make their own campaigns with. So the locations etc, were all a bit fugly and cut and paste, but the upside is far bigger than this minor cosmetic downside imo. I played entire campaigns made by random people and that is really impressive, I also played it online in various forms, mini MMO's and co-op campaigns etc.. Back when internet gaming was still new, that was really impressive.

I really like NWN, also the 2 expansions for it were great. I wished it had a full party instead of the companion idea, but overall I think it is a great cRPG the likes of which you just don't get anymore.

 

[nikolokolus]

Nothing will ever compare to the hardcore perma-death server I played on for years in NWN. OC was laughably bad, but man, it was amazing what the mod community did with that toolset.

 

[Jarmaro]

My only real issue with NWN is that the OC is boring story wise, but everything else about it was good

 

[anvi]

What wasn't good? I did say good and not 'amazing' To me BG2 was amazing, NWN was good, Origins was ok-ish.

 

[Delterius]

In both NwNs the implementation of D&D leaves a lot to be desired. Say what you will about how braindead Origins' system is, but at least the nuts and bolts of the engine are functional. NwN is floaty as all hells.

Plus, it kinda sounds like you dislike the OC for its story but likes it for other reasons. Like encounter design.

 

[Lacrymas]

The OC is probably the worst BioWare have ever done and that's saying a lot. It's very clinical and game-y. That's why you don't play it and play the other wonderful things NWN can offer you. DA:O can only offer you its OC + expansion, which isn't very good, so pick your poison. The only thing holding the combat in NWN back is the inability to directly control your party members, but if you want to be challenged regardless of lack of party control go play Swordflight.

 

[Mangoose]

Neverwinter Nights = Module platform.
Dragon Age = Not ^.