Base campaign worth playing?

[Sternutation]

I have heard that it's not the best, but I wonder if I would be doing full justice to this game by not playing it.

[Yoinkyz]

its very very long but i like it. you also wont understand some plot points in the expansions

[DrLoboto]

Totally up to you. There is so much to NWN that you can't play everything anyway. If you don't like the main campaign, you'll just waste time that you could spend on something you enjoy more, whether that's an expansion, a premium module, a custom single player or co-op module, a persistent worlds etc. You're not obligated to do the game "full justice" if you don't enjoy your time with it.

It's true that there are a few references especially in Hordes of the Underdark that could be a bit more confusing if you haven't played the main campaign at all. But IMO you don't need to fully play through that in order to understand them. Chapter One would be enough, I think. I played Hordes of the Underdark before finishing the main campaign and I didn't feel like I had missed out on something all that important.

But you might want to try it first in order to build your own opinion. Who knows, maybe it will draw you in and you will be one of the players who actually like it. If not and you get bored, you can always decide to stop playing.

[wendigo211]

It's basically the Bioware formula repeated 3 times. I.e., collect 4 things, plot twist, linear slog to the end of chapter. It does skip the "chosen one" part of the formula, but by mid-chapter 2, you probably feel like the only person in Neverwinter who's competent. It's certainly not as polished as BG 1 and 2, Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Kotor (the latter 3 also being Bioware formula games).

I'll echo DrLoboto, try it and, if you don't like it, then play something else.

[jonnin]

Its pretty good at least one time. Maybe twice as there are many secrets and a few 'other choice' things you can see both sides of, esp if you do good & again evil.
I'd give it a solid B+ with its biggest flaws being what was already said... its a wee bit long and a little bit 'classic predictable' plot lines.

Ive always felt D&D shines at the lower levels. NWN did a far, far better job than most with higher level content (and I consider above about 10th to be high!) but the OC, coming in as a level 1 recruit, it can be fun to adventure with limited ability for a bit before jumping into the level 20 powerhouse stuff.

[Shiroi Ren]

It is generic DnD campaign. However, it was done pretty nicely to show majority features of the game.

[MusicMoto]

Chapter 1 is good for learning all the mechanics/features of the game, however if you are familiar with the mechanics then as for the later chapters you aren't missing out on much. It's mostly a series of generic and predictable quests.

It has only a few interesting/memorable storylines and areas:

The most memorable quests in my opinion is the Charwood (Brothers Jhareg) storyline in Chapter 2, very memorable and intriguing, and the Snowglobe quest in Chapter 3.

Honorable mentions include the Spirit of the Wood quest in Chapter 2 and the Host Tower in Luskan in Chapter 2.

In the later chapters of the original campaign there's a lot of unnecessary walking around and only a few quests that are interesting in my opinion.

I'd rate the original campaign at 6/10.

[////]

as someone who tried neverwinter nights for the first time just recently...

yes, it is worth playing. minus few obviously cut corners and the fact that you are limited to 1 follower just so that multiplayer was more balanced, it is still the best out of 3 original modules.

later 2 (shadows of undertide and hordes of the underdark) modules clearly tried to deliver something what the engine is not suitable for, like more action implying cut scenes. and they are more linear overall (especially the second part of hotu).

their stories are on the same level more or less, but base campaign for me somehow provided better old crpg experience.

[Kira]

I think the base campaign is actually quite nice! I'm doing Daggerford now, but I'll go back to replaying the base campaign again afterwards, I really enjoyed some parts of it, especially the first chapter.

[Slapstick]

It's worth playing. The first chapter is a bit uninspiring, but the rest is actually pretty nice IMO. HotU is very very good though, so I recommend playing the original campaign and then import your character to HotU.

[Sternutation]

Originally posted by Yikes:

its very very long but i like it. you also wont understand some plot points in the expansions

How long is it?

[Yoinkyz]

Originally posted by Sternutation:

Originally posted by Yikes:

its very very long but i like it. you also wont understand some plot points in the expansions

How long is it?

easyly a 100 hours xD

[Sternutation]

Originally posted by Yikes:

Originally posted by Sternutation:

How long is it?

easyly a 100 hours xD

Really? That seems way, way longer than the time given here -

https://howlongtobeat.com/game?id=6515

In that case I will skip.

[Kira]

Originally posted by Sternutation:

Originally posted by Yikes:

easyly a 100 hours xD

Really? That seems way, way longer than the time given here -

https://howlongtobeat.com/game?id=6515

In that case I will skip.

For what it's worth, I'd consider the website data (which seems to be an aggregate of multiple playthroughs by different people) to be more accurate than any single point of view.

I would have said about 40 hours for the main campaign, but I can see how it can be more than that if you really delve into things like crafting (which I almost completely skipped) and try to complete every small quest and get every achievement.

[Yoinkyz]

Originally posted by Kira:

Originally posted by Sternutation:

Really? That seems way, way longer than the time given here -

https://howlongtobeat.com/game?id=6515

In that case I will skip.

For what it's worth, I'd consider the website data (which seems to be an aggregate of multiple playthroughs by different people) to be more accurate than any single point of view.

I would have said about 40 hours for the main campaign, but I can see how it can be more than that if you really delve into things like crafting (which I almost completely skipped) and try to complete every small quest and get every achievement.

to be fair you should state you havnt actually finished the campaign befor calling me "wrong". that being said if you look at my games played that are public to all you will notice i have played a large number of games. when i say neverwinter nights base story is good and i enjoyed it i mean it.

how long to beat is allways false. completionist being around 70 hours is goofy xD almost impossibly so. i was once like you useing how long to beat but most people on it dont finish the games and just guess i swear

https://howlongtobeat.com/game?id=2224#:~:text=When%20focusing%20on%20the%20main,Hours%20to%20obtain%20100%25%20completion.
this is dark souls times. completely false almost goofy numbers ngl

https://howlongtobeat.com/game?id=2225#:~:text=When%20focusing%20on%20the%20main,Hours%20to%20obtain%20100%25%20completion.

ds 2 has it even worse. for your own sake stop useing how long to beat. people just rage quit and then assume a number.
i have 200 hours in ds 2 and have done 4 full complete playthroughs and collected every peice of loot. down to getting sigmars onion armor xD these people on how long to beat are guessing 85% of the time

[Kira]

Originally posted by Yikes:

to be fair you should state you havnt actually finished the campaign befor calling me "wrong". that being said if you look at my games played that are public to all you will notice i have played a large number of games. when i say neverwinter nights base story is good and i enjoyed it i mean it.

how long to beat is allways false. completionist being around 70 hours is goofy xD almost impossibly so. i was once like you useing how long to beat but most people on it dont finish the games and just guess i swear

I haven't called you wrong in your assessment of how long it took you to play through NWN main campaign, you're the only person who can estimate that. I have a different opinion based on my experience, which I hope you'll agree I'm entitled to. Nevertheless, I still think that for a 3rd person to judge how long it will take them to finish NWN main campaign, any aggregate data* will be more informative than any single opinion (mine and yours included).

Now I do need to call you wrong when you say I haven't finished the main campaign, I have actually finished it and I'm about halfway through replaying it, I just took a break to play through Daggerford which I bought during the last sale. I'm not sure what it would actually impact, to be honest, even if I hadn't finished the game I would have said that I consider averages to be more reliable than single opinions (though I wouldn't have offered an estimate, had I not played through it myself).

I don't look at profiles generally, I really don't care who says something, I'm sorry. I only look at what that person said. I've seen too many wise people be wrong and too many fools be right to attach any meaning to who says something.

* Now of course how the data is collected and aggregated is a question. As the numbers kind of made sense for NWN (for me), I assume the site has probably decent to good data, but there's always the possibility that it's incorrect in some way, like if the polling is inconsistent. I guess the reason why Sternutation quoted the website is because he has some degree of confidence in the data, and glancing at the numbers for NWN I can kind of see how it would be realistic, especially if you look at the low/high values to see how large spread is visible among the players. But in any case, I cannot personally vouch for the contents of the data visible on the site, I can generally offer my opinion on the game and on aggregate data in general, and let everyone draw their conclusions...