Noah Gervais is back again with one of his longest videos ever. Clocking in at 3 hours, he goes through all the official Neverwinter Nights modules. The NWN games are never held up there with...
Noah Gervais is back again with one of his longest videos ever. Clocking in at 3 hours, he goes through all the official Neverwinter Nights modules.
The NWN games are never held up there with other classic D&D games but the extremely flexible campaign creation editor from the first game provided what is still probably the best virtual D&D 3.5e sandbox for DMs to create interactive campaigns, some of which were adopted by Bioware and turned into official modules. Noah has a deep history with D&D based games so he went all in to explore the plethora of official modules for the series. If you're interested in D&D, PC RPGs, or just video game criticism in general, give this one a shot.
For those unfamiliar with Noah Gervais, he's probably the most thorough and thoughtful of all the YouTube gaming critics, preferring to spend long amounts of time going over every aspect of a game's design and intent, and how well it translates its intentions as an artwork. Something I really appreciate about him is that he will never say something is bad without seeing if there's a reason it was supposed to be good. I find too many video game critics are too quick on the "it sucks" trigger and form their arguments around their initial feelings instead of exploring how and why that thing they don't like is there in the way that it is. If you're looking for slick video editing and production though, you won't find it here. Noah's 100% about the argumentation and essay, and not very much about the video form.
What a lovely throw back. NWN1 accompanied me throughout me teenage. It certainly introduced me to the concept of online communities, and more-or-less taught me to enjoy reading in English. I have...
What a lovely throw back.
NWN1 accompanied me throughout me teenage. It certainly introduced me to the concept of online communities, and more-or-less taught me to enjoy reading in English. I have nothing but good memories with this (or more precisely, "theses") game.
I find his postulate of "each adventure is the different NWN is run by a DM with different priorities (mechanics, plot and setting, wanderlust)" spot-on.
It's a shame that he didn't showcased more explicitly user created content. His justification was acceptable (basically the hole is really, really, really deep), but I feel that the beating heart of NWN was always the user created content while the campaigns were really examples and showcases of what could be made.
A showcase of one or two crazy modules made by the players could demonstrate just to see how accessible the toolset was for NWN1 and how creative players could be. I would have showcased
HeX Coda (which, as explained in the video, was nearly a premium module): a weird steam-magica-punk adventure (complete with open-source and proprietary magic !)
The Bastard of Kosigan saga: a historical-with-high-fantasy-elements adventure made by a high school history teacher
It's definitely worth checking out ! NWN2 OC was OK but not spectacular. As Gervais state in its video it is a fun adventure but it is surprisingly by-the-book considering that it's Obsidian...
It's definitely worth checking out !
NWN2 OC was OK but not spectacular. As Gervais state in its video it is a fun adventure but it is surprisingly by-the-book considering that it's Obsidian making it.
I haven't played NWN2 Storm of Zehyr, although now that I have seen Gervais' video I'm curious.
NWN2 Mask of the Betrayer has one of the finest writing of its decade. As mentioned in the video it is often compared to Planescape and to a lesser extend KoToR 2 for good reason: it directly questions and explore the tenets of the game universe. Its plot is laser focused and everything feeds (no pun intended) the central theme. Let me quote parts of a textual Let's Play / Analysis of MotB that I like. All credits goes to Lt. Danger. I've excised part of the analysis that spoiled too much.
Mask of the Betrayer is a genuinely well-written game.
This is the kind of statement that gets people into a lot of trouble. So, yes, of course a bunch of overweight roleplaying game geeks aren't going to equal the literary geniuses of history, don't be absurd. Different kinds of texts for different purposes, compare like with like, apples and oranges, etc. etc. if anyone brings up "Are games art?" I will be very angry.
Instead let's focus in on what makes Mask good - and I think the answer ultimately boils down to 'brevity.'
Think of Mask's peers: big CRPGs like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, The Witcher, the Infinity Engine games, and Neverwinter Nights 2 (duh). These games all share an underlying structure: the big amazing fantasy epic. Terrible Evil Threatens Civilisation. Lone Hero Saves World. You know what I'm talking about.
A common complaint leveled at these games is the lack of originality, but I don't think that's as important as most people make it out to be. I've just listed how Mask imitates a dozen mythological stories from all over the world, and it shares many archetypes and concepts with previous Obsidian/Black Isle titles, yet I still think Mask is a pretty good game. Why?
Obsidian knew what they wanted to do with Mask and wrote it accordingly. Too often in games I find some puzzle, some encounter, that could have come from anywhere; the most egregious example is Bioware's reliance on the Towers of Hanoi puzzle (which thankfully has come to an end). There's too much that has barely anything to do with the premise or purpose of the story (if they bothered to have one at all). In Mask, though, I struggle to find wasted space. I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating: there are no irrelevant sidequests. Every quest and every NPC ties back to the core themes in some way.
Part of this may be because Obsidian wanted to fit a full-size game into an expansion pack, but some of it is due to conscious planning. Post-game interviews reveal that Obsidian had a dedicated 'story editor' that worked on all the modules to unify the writing and highlight the key ideas Obsidian were trying to convey.
[...]
But I digress. What I see in Mask that elevates it above Torment and KOTOR2 (in addition to qualities all three games share, like decent writing, good art design, etc.) are brevity and purpose. Torment lacks brevity: the first time through, it was amazing that a developer would spend so much time on an NPC that just sat in a bar and explained the abominable Great Ring to you in massive detail; the second time through, it was utterly tedious. KOTOR2 has too much purpose: so much time is devoted to explaining Kreia's philosophy that the game almost forgets to ask you your opinion as well. In Mask, we will have the option to confirm Obsidian's premise in the choices we make up until the very end of the game... but we can also choose to deny it, or to alter it. The whole mood of the game changes with the player's decisions, and I think that is something special that few other games have accomplished.
I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually comes out with a dedicated video for user content. He did one for HL1 mods and it's a fantastic list of mods. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpbFtCUqM0M
I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually comes out with a dedicated video for user content. He did one for HL1 mods and it's a fantastic list of mods.
Noah Gervais is back again with one of his longest videos ever. Clocking in at 3 hours, he goes through all the official Neverwinter Nights modules.
The NWN games are never held up there with other classic D&D games but the extremely flexible campaign creation editor from the first game provided what is still probably the best virtual D&D 3.5e sandbox for DMs to create interactive campaigns, some of which were adopted by Bioware and turned into official modules. Noah has a deep history with D&D based games so he went all in to explore the plethora of official modules for the series. If you're interested in D&D, PC RPGs, or just video game criticism in general, give this one a shot.
For those unfamiliar with Noah Gervais, he's probably the most thorough and thoughtful of all the YouTube gaming critics, preferring to spend long amounts of time going over every aspect of a game's design and intent, and how well it translates its intentions as an artwork. Something I really appreciate about him is that he will never say something is bad without seeing if there's a reason it was supposed to be good. I find too many video game critics are too quick on the "it sucks" trigger and form their arguments around their initial feelings instead of exploring how and why that thing they don't like is there in the way that it is. If you're looking for slick video editing and production though, you won't find it here. Noah's 100% about the argumentation and essay, and not very much about the video form.
What a lovely throw back.
NWN1 accompanied me throughout me teenage. It certainly introduced me to the concept of online communities, and more-or-less taught me to enjoy reading in English. I have nothing but good memories with this (or more precisely, "theses") game.
I find his postulate of "each adventure is the different NWN is run by a DM with different priorities (mechanics, plot and setting, wanderlust)" spot-on.
It's a shame that he didn't showcased more explicitly user created content. His justification was acceptable (basically the hole is really, really, really deep), but I feel that the beating heart of NWN was always the user created content while the campaigns were really examples and showcases of what could be made.
A showcase of one or two crazy modules made by the players could demonstrate just to see how accessible the toolset was for NWN1 and how creative players could be. I would have showcased
It's definitely worth checking out !
NWN2 OC was OK but not spectacular. As Gervais state in its video it is a fun adventure but it is surprisingly by-the-book considering that it's Obsidian making it.
I haven't played NWN2 Storm of Zehyr, although now that I have seen Gervais' video I'm curious.
NWN2 Mask of the Betrayer has one of the finest writing of its decade. As mentioned in the video it is often compared to Planescape and to a lesser extend KoToR 2 for good reason: it directly questions and explore the tenets of the game universe. Its plot is laser focused and everything feeds (no pun intended) the central theme. Let me quote parts of a textual Let's Play / Analysis of MotB that I like. All credits goes to Lt. Danger. I've excised part of the analysis that spoiled too much.
I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually comes out with a dedicated video for user content. He did one for HL1 mods and it's a fantastic list of mods.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpbFtCUqM0M