INTRO.
Some thoughts here on the legacy of Neverwinter Nights (NWN) and also the NWN: Enhanced Edition for PC, since I've been meaning to do this for a while.

LEGACY of NWN.
NWN is legendary in CRPG Circles for more reasons than I can probably think of and have probably played. As a toolset and a SDK itself, it's legendary; players have made more modules & modifications for this game than you can even shake a stick at - whether for single player modules, co-op, or multiplayer...there's just plenty out there to find and there are some good ones. There's the multiplayer aspect & even some of the persistent worlds, which some players have been playing forever. Even if you don't do MP (multi-player), there's also the single player campaigns.

SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGNS.
I'm mostly going to speak on the Campaigns (Single Player) here. IMHO, namely the really "pretty good-to-great campaigns" are mostly all in the two expansions NWN: Shadows of Undrentide (expansion #1) & NWN: Hordes of the Underdark (expansion #2), which both improved over NWN (original) in storytelling, character stuff, narrative, writing and/or also gameplay improvements - i.e. giving more customization to often your party members w/ their equipment & how you can command them when on the battlefield - more and more w/ each expansion, basically. You can expect 15-40 hour expansions for each expansion here, depending on how you play them and what you do - often as if these expansions do feel like their own games here.

Hordes expansion, which is easily the best of these here, really nicely wraps things up w/ a bow here, completing the Main NWN Trilogy (as characters, storylines, and whatnot mostly wrap-up officially here), w/ the way Hordes presents endings to you. Also, being set in the Underdark and w/ so much pulled from NWN1 base (such as Sharwyn, a companion/party member for example from the base-game) and NWN: Undrentide (such as Deekin, a party member from that game), it felt like the perfect way for NWN to officially go out with a bang.

THE ORIGINAL CAMPAIGN.
All right, so let's tackle the OC (Original Campaign). While NWN's Original Campaign (OC) was good, it wasn't ideal. After the amazing BG series, this game NWN was originally designed for the toolset, players to make modules (whether single-player or multiplayer), built for multiplayer, and not really for single-player campaign with party-based play. So, in many ways, the gameplay was streamlined for one player in a party & maybe even one companion you barely had control of when playing alone, which often felt it was against everything BioWare did w/ BG series...and much different. This really felt like BioWare was trying to appeal to more players and not the hardcore BioWare fan-base from BG. The OC was also long, easily cranking 50 hours as a minimum, just to get it done; not even counting the more time you could spend w/ this, if you did a lot of the side quests & side stuff.

So, the OC for NWN felt rushed and not tightly edited or not expanded upon enough (to make the Ancient Race story interesting), since none of this was supposedly planned to even be there. Fans wanted a campaign and their $60 worth, so they got one; BioWare heard them loud & clear. And while I did enjoy the story & politics within the city of Neverwinter and the issues b/t the King, Fenthick & Aribeth (all of that stuff's gold) - eh, the other on-going story & saga w/ an Ancient Race coming back to cause all kinds of problem felt cliché, underdeveloped & rushed. Though b/c of returning characters and whatnot, it's worth playing the "good-but-not-great" OC, as things w/ characters from here (like Sharwyn) and then playing Undrentide (with Deekin) feel more complete & wrapped-up by the end of the fantastic Hordes campaign. You feel like...taking the journey from OC to Undrentide to Hordes becomes all worth it, once Hordes is done.

THE LEGACY CONTINUES.
Now, here we are, w/ Trent Oster & his Beamdog crew, w/ this NWN re-release & remaster here with the NWN: Enhanced Edition, which includes out-the-box all of the expansions and DLC's up to Kingmaker DLC Collection - so that would be NWN base-game, Shadows, Hordes, Witch's Wake, Kingmaker & Shadowguard. If you want the rest of this game's paid content, you'll have to buy it, as those are paid-DLC's.

While it's a shame the NWN: Diamond Edition (up to Kingmaker pack) [Non-EE Edition] isn't here on sale to purchase separately on Steam here and/or isn't just flat-out bundled w/ a purchase w/ Enhanced Edition (in case there's any mods or things that don't work in EE, yet still work w/ the Original NWN Version) on Steam, it's still awesome (that in this Enhanced Edition) that all of this is here w/ all of its Premium Modules/DLC's (even if certain DLC's are sold separately here). Even the hard to find & purchase ones from back in the day - i.e. all of those DLC's released after Kingmaker DLC Collection was actually put at retail - which would be Wyvern, Infinite & Pirates - are now back and getting an easy way to purchase, here on the Steam Store (and also on GOG store, as it's also sold there).

Side note: probably worth noting that over on GOG, if you buy NWN: EE over there, you do also get the old NWN: Diamond Edition version [Non-EE Edition] that includes all of NWN's content up to the Kingmaker DLC Package.

Plus, even modules that were once released for free have returned (Tyrants & Daggerford from Ossian), but also been improved in some ways and/or had content added, even if they are DLC's you have to pay for here in NWN: EE. Now, I only got as far as say Hordes back in the day w/ the expansions & DLC's on the OG Diamond version and I also now do have the Diamond GOG Version (which also includes Kingmaker DLC Package), though I am currently playing Pirates of the Sword Coast DLC on NWN: EE and will review that; and so far, that's really good, some 4 1/2 hours or so into it. So, eventually, once I buckle down, I'll review ALL of that content - give me time.

ENHANCED LIGHTING & HD ART PACKS.
As if this all wasn't enough w/ the EE Re-Release, Beamdog has recently added improved lighting not that long ago & also just put out a HD Art Pack the other day (which all goes into the OVR folder). If you want it, it's on BeamDog's website currently in their BeamDog Files section. Some notes - copy & back-up your OVR folder (Override Folder) and rename that copied folder to say OVR_OLD before installing the HD Art Pack into your main NWN's OVR folder, so you have something to fall back to, if the new Art Pack doesn't work well with other modules or campaigns, to be safe; have it handy, just in case - and rename it, if you need to. Also, expect performance hits w/ both the new lighting and the art packs, especially if you are not running more modern type of hardware. The art pack, from what I've seen, looks very nice and much more modern, when it's working - but expect performance hits.

OUTRO...FOR NOW.
When it's all said & done, for many reasons, NWN is legendary. From its really good expansions, wealth of modules players have made, multiplayer, persistent worlds, Premium Modules, and whatnot - there's 100's of hours worth of content here, mostly of CRPG Goodness & CRPG Greatness. It's even more insane, if you catch any or all of this stuff while it's on sale, all dirt-cheap and all. If one thing doesn't appeal to you, something else might appeal to you. And with EE keeping this legacy alive, it's easy to see: these NWN tales & all of their modules will likely never die....and rightfully so.

Neverwinter Nights is Legendary...and for great reasons.

INTRO. Some thoughts here on the legacy of Neverwinter Nights (NWN) and also the NWN: Enhanced Edition for PC, since I've been meaning to do this for a while. LEGACY of NWN. NWN is legendary in CRPG Circles for more reasons than I can probably think of and have probably played. As a toolset and a SDK itself, it's legendary; players have made more modules & modifications for this game than you can even shake a stick at - whether for single player modules, co-op, or multiplayer...there's just plenty out there to find and there are some good ones. There's the multiplayer aspect & even some of the persistent worlds, which some players have been playing forever. Even if you don't do MP (multi-player), there's also the single player campaigns. SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGNS. I'm mostly going to speak on the Campaigns (Single Player) here. IMHO, namely the really "pretty good-to-great campaigns" are mostly all in the two expansions NWN: Shadows of Undrentide (expansion #1) & NWN: Hordes of the Underdark (expansion #2), which both improved over NWN (original) in storytelling, character stuff, narrative, writing and/or also gameplay improvements - i.e. giving more customization to often your party members w/ their equipment & how you can command them when on the battlefield - more and more w/ each expansion, basically. You can expect 15-40 hour expansions for each expansion here, depending on how you play them and what you do - often as if these expansions do feel like their own games here. Hordes expansion, which is easily the best of these here, really nicely wraps things up w/ a bow here, completing the Main NWN Trilogy (as characters, storylines, and whatnot mostly wrap-up officially here), w/ the way Hordes presents endings to you. Also, being set in the Underdark and w/ so much pulled from NWN1 base (such as Sharwyn, a companion/party member for example from the base-game) and NWN: Undrentide (such as Deekin, a party member from that game), it felt like the perfect way for NWN to officially go out with a bang. THE ORIGINAL CAMPAIGN. All right, so let's tackle the OC (Original Campaign). While NWN's Original Campaign (OC) was good, it wasn't ideal. After the amazing BG series, this game NWN was originally designed for the toolset, players to make modules (whether single-player or multiplayer), built for multiplayer, and not really for single-player campaign with party-based play. So, in many ways, the gameplay was streamlined for one player in a party & maybe even one companion you barely had control of when playing alone, which often felt it was against everything BioWare did w/ BG series...and much different. This really felt like BioWare was trying to appeal to more players and not the hardcore BioWare fan-base from BG. The OC was also long, easily cranking 50 hours as a minimum, just to get it done; not even counting the more time you could spend w/ this, if you did a lot of the side quests & side stuff. So, the OC for NWN felt rushed and not tightly edited or not expanded upon enough (to make the Ancient Race story interesting), since none of this was supposedly planned to even be there. Fans wanted a campaign and their $60 worth, so they got one; BioWare heard them loud & clear. And while I did enjoy the story & politics within the city of Neverwinter and the issues b/t the King, Fenthick & Aribeth (all of that stuff's gold) - eh, the other on-going story & saga w/ an Ancient Race coming back to cause all kinds of problem felt cliché, underdeveloped & rushed. Though b/c of returning characters and whatnot, it's worth playing the "good-but-not-great" OC, as things w/ characters from here (like Sharwyn) and then playing Undrentide (with Deekin) feel more complete & wrapped-up by the end of the fantastic Hordes campaign. You feel like...taking the journey from OC to Undrentide to Hordes becomes all worth it, once Hordes is done. THE LEGACY CONTINUES. Now, here we are, w/ Trent Oster & his Beamdog crew, w/ this NWN re-release & remaster here with the NWN: Enhanced Edition, which includes out-the-box all of the expansions and DLC's up to Kingmaker DLC Collection - so that would be NWN base-game, Shadows, Hordes, Witch's Wake, Kingmaker & Shadowguard. If you want the rest of this game's paid content, you'll have to buy it, as those are paid-DLC's. While it's a shame the NWN: Diamond Edition (up to Kingmaker pack) [Non-EE Edition] isn't here on sale to purchase separately on Steam here and/or isn't just flat-out bundled w/ a purchase w/ Enhanced Edition (in case there's any mods or things that don't work in EE, yet still work w/ the Original NWN Version) on Steam, it's still awesome (that in this Enhanced Edition) that all of this is here w/ all of its Premium Modules/DLC's (even if certain DLC's are sold separately here). Even the hard to find & purchase ones from back in the day - i.e. all of those DLC's released after Kingmaker DLC Collection was actually put at retail - which would be Wyvern, Infinite & Pirates - are now back and getting an easy way to purchase, here on the Steam Store (and also on GOG store, as it's also sold there). Side note: probably worth noting that over on GOG, if you buy NWN: EE over there, you do also get the old NWN: Diamond Edition version [Non-EE Edition] that includes all of NWN's content up to the Kingmaker DLC Package. Plus, even modules that were once released for free have returned (Tyrants & Daggerford from Ossian), but also been improved in some ways and/or had content added, even if they are DLC's you have to pay for here in NWN: EE. Now, I only got as far as say Hordes back in the day w/ the expansions & DLC's on the OG Diamond version and I also now do have the Diamond GOG Version (which also includes Kingmaker DLC Package), though I am currently playing Pirates of the Sword Coast DLC on NWN: EE and will review that; and so far, that's really good, some 4 1/2 hours or so into it. So, eventually, once I buckle down, I'll review ALL of that content - give me time. ENHANCED LIGHTING & HD ART PACKS. As if this all wasn't enough w/ the EE Re-Release, Beamdog has recently added improved lighting not that long ago & also just put out a HD Art Pack the other day (which all goes into the OVR folder). If you want it, it's on BeamDog's website currently in their BeamDog Files section. Some notes - copy & back-up your OVR folder (Override Folder) and rename that copied folder to say OVR_OLD before installing the HD Art Pack into your main NWN's OVR folder, so you have something to fall back to, if the new Art Pack doesn't work well with other modules or campaigns, to be safe; have it handy, just in case - and rename it, if you need to. Also, expect performance hits w/ both the new lighting and the art packs, especially if you are not running more modern type of hardware. The art pack, from what I've seen, looks very nice and much more modern, when it's working - but expect performance hits. OUTRO...FOR NOW. When it's all said & done, for many reasons, NWN is legendary. From its really good expansions, wealth of modules players have made, multiplayer, persistent worlds, Premium Modules, and whatnot - there's 100's of hours worth of content here, mostly of CRPG Goodness & CRPG Greatness. It's even more insane, if you catch any or all of this stuff while it's on sale, all dirt-cheap and all. If one thing doesn't appeal to you, something else might appeal to you. And with EE keeping this legacy alive, it's easy to see: these NWN tales & all of their modules will likely never die....and rightfully so. Neverwinter Nights is Legendary...and for great reasons.