NWN and TES3/4 - Which did you enjoy most ??

[Astrotoy7]

Trying not to make this a simply 'which is better' or 'versus' thread, I'd like to hear from fellow RPG fans who have played these games which they enjoyed better and why

 

I'll group TES 3 with Oblivion, as NWN and its exp packs and modules has encompassed the periods of both games releases.

 

I'm going to go with Neverwinter Nights. In fact, I do think NWN is/was the greatest game of all time....(havent played NWN2 yet)

 

The main reasons for me:

*The Forgotten Realms.... I already 'lived' in the universe long before the game, being an avid fan of the books. The 'Hordes of The Underdark' game was a particular treat, featuring the awesome Drow(Dark Elves).

 

*Graphics great for its time...I dont know why people boo-hoo the gfx - the game was initially released in 2002 !! Compare it to Baldurs Gate for Example It still holds up OK today IMO.

 

*The Map....I liked it MUCH better than the TES3/4 Map scheme.

 

Oblivion is superb eye candy, but theres something missing there for me. It's a slightly different style of game. Still fun, but not the experience NWN was.

 

Hurry up NWN2 to Oz!! Then there's Dragon Age to look forward to as well ...... which will feature more Drow goodness...or should I say evilness

 

nb. For those not familiar with the LFN poll tradition, one should always place an obligatory 'Yoda' option. This basically means 'other'. eg. in this instance - if you havent played either game

 

mtfbwya

[Jeff]

I say NWN, because I haven't played TES 3 or 4! But I really enjoyed NWN, it's definitely near the top of my games list.

[Mav]

I picked Yoda, because I haven't played either... does that make me a bad person?

[HerbieZ]

I enjoyed Oblivion only because it was indeed an expereience. NWN doesnt appeal to me and i bought Oblivion because i was egged on by you guys (rightly so) and partly because i want to the see the quality of a game by Bethesda. Before they release Star Trek Legacy.

[stoffe]

I couldn't pick a favourite of the two, since they are enjoyable in very different ways since the games play very differently. So I'll post what I like and dislike about the two series instead.

 

TES strengths: Exploration, discovering the undiscovered. The vast, beautiful and exotic landscapes to explore and find all the hidden places in. Sneaking around when exploring dungeons, it's feels strangely rewarding to catch enemies by surprise and backstab them, or just bypass them entirely. Very free gameplay, where you can roam about and do things as you like. A combat system where it feels more like what you do matter and not just show you the result of the computer placing with dices in the background. The non-XP/combat driven character development system leaves room for other playing styles than always killing any enemies you run into.

 

NWN strengths: More focused, linear story which the world centers around. The dialog system is vastly superior to that of the TES games. Party members/companions with a personality that reacts to what you do. Interesting and versatile magic system with loads of spells with varying effects. Your actions usually have very noticably consequences during the game, since the game world is centered around the main plot.

 

 

TES weaknesses: Since the games try to do so much there isn't much depth to anything you do. You get a "jack of all trades" game that's a bit of everything, but not a large chunk of anything. The dialog system is horrible and doesn't immerse you in the game world. It gets a bit lonely after a while to do everything solo. The magic system is very primitive compared to that of NWN, in both flashiness and utility. The open-endedness of the game world also prevents you from making a real difference that seems to matter in the game. You may kill Darth Ur, become the leader of a Great House, a high-up in the Temple and Imperial hierarchies and Guildmaster of all the guilds in Morrowind, but aside from the occasional comment you don't notice much difference at all to reflect your accomplishment.

 

NWN weaknesses: Small areas that don't leave any room for exploring or discovering anything hidden, since you can canvas the whole area in a few minutes. World feels very "compartmentalized" where you just dive down at hotspots that drive the story. The combat system relies a bit too little on player interaction for my taste, could be a better balance of stats vs. player input. The XP/kill driven character development also penalizes all other game styles (sneaking, diplomacy etc) other than direct combat with enemies. This also makes stealth/sneak play less rewarding since the stats alone determine if someone spots you in time or not. When the main plot ends, the game is essentially over. Not much room for roaming and enjoying the fruits of your labor and see what you've accomplished.

 

* * *

 

In other words NWNs strengths pretty much reflects TES weaknesses, and vice versa. That's why I enjoy both series, to get a little bit of everything.

 

That NWN takes place in the Forgotten Realms can be a mixed blessing. On one part it offers some familiarity with the world, monsters and races within when you have played the Baldur's Gate series previously. On the other hand the games have a tendency to assume you already know a lot about the world and omits explaining some things, which can leave people with no other D&D experience than games, like me, a bit confused at times how things fit together.

 

TES is almost over the top in the other direction, with all the books and in-game lore explaining and fleshing out Tamriel/Nirn/Oblivion nearly overwhelms you with information at times.

[Negative Sun]

NWN hands down!

[Point Man]

I have to go with Morrowind over Neverwinter Nights. I never finished my game in NWN, but I could not stop playing Morrowind. (Just ask Jae:D)

[Prime]

I guess I'd have to say NWN, since that is the only one I've played.

 

I'm actually still in the middle of playing it, and haven't completed the main campaign yet. It is a great game, but I find it a bit tedious at times. I definitely miss the character interactions and party adventuring provided by games such as the BG series and KOTOR. I think the graphics are pretty dated as the character models are fairly poor even for the time. I mean Jedi Outcast was released around the same time, and the character models are clearly superior. Yes I know it is a bit apples to oranges in terms of an FPS to RPG, but still...

 

Most of my other thoughts have been expressed by others. I find it a little annoying that if you really want to advance your character you have to kill everything in sight. My only other complaint has more to do with the Forgotten Realms world itself. I come from more of a LOTR background and find the range of creatures and races to be a little over the top. Just me.

 

Don't get me wrong, it is still a fun game, and I have enjoyed it quite a bit. It is a huge world with lots of gameplay, and the toolset is something not to be overlooked. If only KOTOR had something like that!

[ChAiNz.2da]

I've played them all.. and if anyone can't guess my answer.. well...

 

*Hint* I played NWN for over 3 years straight... strictly

[TSR]

Well, i played NWN for about 20 minutes before i got really confused. But, i've spent molst of my gaming year on oblivion, finding every damm secret and whatnot there is. (btw, has anyone else found the giant crab? ) So, im gonna have to say the latter.

if anyone wants to drop me a line and show me the ways of NWN, which would be muchly appreciated, just e-mail me or MSN it.

[Emperor Devon]

It's a tie so far with me. But that might change when I get NWN 2.

[Arátoeldar]

First off Thank You to the Powers that Be for creating this new subforum.

 

Having played TES1-4 and all of the Bioware-Black Ilse-Obsidian RPG's. I prefer the DnD style of game play over the open ended action RPG from Bethesda.

[2Cold Scorpio]

I haven't played NWN, so be default, what little I've done in Oblivion and Morrwind would win.

[DeadYorick]

Id have to say Morrowind. Since Morrowind was an awesome TES3 game and I remember spending countless hours exploring VVardenfel and doing all the quests. Even though Morrowind looks so Ghetto compared to Oblivion I still play it

[Web Rider]

I vote Yoda because I think your comparason's are off.

 

I you wanna compare NWN+TES3, okay, but Oblivion should be paired up with a more recent NWN, like 2. Both sucked horribly IMO, but Oblivion's Shivering Isles was fun.

 

Mask of the Betrayer was OK for most of the game, then it blew. So I'd have to go with Morrowind+expansions.

[Miltiades]

I haven't played NWN, but I have played NWN2, just as ES:IV. I've never finished, nor even came half-through the story of ES:IV, but I have finished NWN2. I prefer NWN2's gameplay.

[Q]

I voted for Morrowind. It and its expansions have more replay value than NWN and its expansions. Just figuring out how to balance that crazy leveling system to keep the game from getting way too easy requires at least three playthroughs.

 

Now the mods are a different story altogether and my vote there goes to NWN.

 

Morrowind is also far, far prettier than NWN, which is a truly ugly game, IMO.

 

Oh, and Baldur's Gate II beats them both to the ground.

[SilentScope001]

I have only played Morrowind for a few hours, but if NWN is any the bit railroaded, I'd go with NWN. I don't know, I'm just a traditionalist when it comes to have someone spoon-feed me the story. Replayablity means nothing if it becomes hard to even try to play it the FIRST TIME.

 

The rambling books in Morrowind were awesome, but still, I like having goals and turn-based comments so that I don't like twitching. Of course, I actually need to get NWN, and that might be a problem...

[Sabretooth]

Ah, I've played a bit of NWN, but didn't like it a whole lot. It was a good game, well-designed and all, but I found it more entertaining for D&D nerds. I removed it, either because I didn't like it a whole lot or I was running out of disk space.

 

I've also played a bit of the first Elder Scrolls in DOSBox - it ran crap slow, so I'll reserve my judgement.

[Aash Li]

Never played the original Morrowind series. Played mostly through NWN.

 

Now, if we go into Oblivion and NWN2... Ill have to go with Oblivion. Graphics are prettier, characters arent fugly (with the right mods). NWN2, for all that its a nice game, they bombed with the way player characters look. They all look flat-chested, squat, and appear to have been beaten senseless with an ugly-stick.

[Serpentine Cougar]

I played Morrowind and loved it, but my interest in it eventually petered out because of a lack of structure and purpose. Sure, I can go anywhere and do anything, but why should I? I generally prefer more story-driven RPGs than open-ended ones, but Morrowind was still awesome in its own right (that world was huge!).

 

I've never played Oblivion or any NWN; how do they compare, in terms of story and plot?

 

I've also played a bit of the first Elder Scrolls in DOSBox - it ran crap slow, so I'll reserve my judgement.

Did you up the CPU cycles?

[Balderdash]

I've only played Oblivion from the Elder Scrolls series, and that was okay... story-wise it blows but I imagine it would be good for people who don't play a lot of RPGs. I mean people who like the concept but don't like to cope with reading/listening to lots of dialogue. I once heard it described as a hiking simulator, as opposed to an RPG, which is actually amusingly apt. I wouldn't know if its predecessors were a different story or not.

 

The original NWN game was pretty poor at release IMO. The OC was almost as bad as Oblivion's "story". The expansion packs got progressively better, though, although the epic content left a little to be desired. I'd say it was 80% the community that made NWN a success, and 20% BioWare's efforts. The Community Expansion Pack made all sorts of things possible.

 

Of the two I prefer NWN - better gameplay and plot, plus the revolutionary Aurora toolset. Although, the art/graphics are vastly inferior, even for its time (which says a lot because Oblivion is fairly ugly compared to other contemporary games). NWN also doesn't have that exploration aspect, but I don't know why you'd want to explore dozens of locations across Tamriel that all look the same anyway.

[Sabretooth]

Did you up the CPU cycles?

Way up, but it was still skipping frames, which is annoying. Reducing the frame skip made the thing somewhat slower. I just got annoyed with tweaking too. I got annoyed with it all.

 

I am an annoyed man.

[stoffe]

I once heard it described as a hiking simulator, as opposed to an RPG, which is actually amusingly apt. I wouldn't know if its predecessors were a different story or not.

 

Heh, Morrowind was even worse in that respect. It has no map/fast-travel feature, so if you need to go somewhere you generally had to walk there. It did have some form of public transportation via boats (for coastal villages) and stilt striders (giant insects carrying people and goods around) and teleportation between Mages' Guild halls to help you move around somewhat quicker though.

 

The default movement speed in Morrowind was also so agonizingly slow that you essentially had to tape down the run button and leave the computer overnight with your character running against a wall or some other obstacle to level up the running skill. Crawling around at a snail's pace in the huge open landscape would allow you to see the sights, but would quickly get too annoying.

 

Morrowind also had fatigue gain from running so you couldn't keep running indefinitely at a lower Athletics skill score, which made moving around even slower, if more realistic.

 

On the up side Morrowind has fight, jump and levitation magic, so you can see the world from above and move over natural obstacles more easily than in Oblivion, allowing you to take the straight path over mountains etc.

[stingerhs]

i really enjoyed Morrowind/Oblivion a lot more than i did either of the NWN games. sure, the NWN games were fun and very enjoyable, but its the nice open world concept that has me hooked. it really makes me feel like i'm almost telling my own story instead of acting out every detail since i don't have to do everything in a certain order.

 

and i also really like the level up system a lot better in the TES series since it just makes sense. when you use a sword in real life, you will eventually learn how to use it more effectively. you don't gain some kind of generic XP that you can use to bump up your diplomacy skill. since it makes more sense, its easier to understand how you want to level up instead of relying solely on a fairly strict strategy of doing things in a certain way so you can level up in a certain way.

 

and then, you have the combat system. don't get me wrong, NWN has a pretty good combat system (i did rather enjoy the similar system in Kotor afterall). i just flat out prefer realtime combat over turn-based any day of the week. Morrowind's combat system wasn't quite as good as Oblivion's, but both games still had a system that i prefer over the whole turn-based thing in NWN.

 

basically, i enjoyed the NWN games moreso for how they told the story (and the story itself in some of the expansions and in NWN2). in the TES games, i enjoyed the freedom, the combat (or lack thereof if you're stealthy), and the level up system.