Neverwinter Nights

Neverwinter Nights is slated to hit the shelves by Christmas this year. So we went to the Atari press event to check out the development of the massively multiplayer role-playing game. After seeing some of the video footage of the game in action, we were able to ask about some of the work that has gone into making the ambitious RPG a reality.

In the first level of the game, we were shown three characters from Neverwinter Nights' roster. Three of the characters were females and the other three were guys, each of whom boasted very different abilities. The game's large cast of playable races also offers players the chance to build up relationships with some of the game's companions. As a result, you'll start off with a neutral town in the game that you can visit and be adventuring in. We were also able to get a look at some of Neverwinter Nights' rich history and skills.

For instance, you can build up a bond with a deity and will eventually be able to build a career in your character. This lets you become the assassin of the town and be a jack of all trades. Later on in the game, you'll be able to meet characters such as the ancient, fabled elf warrior named Naiel, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the sorceress Jaina Proudmoore. Though a few of the characters' skills may be improved over time, they seem to be the most fun to play as. The game's version of elves and humans may be as basic as that of the gods. For instance, one of the playable races, the human half of the orcs, can start out as a basic human, but as you gain experience, you'll eventually be able to become a human.

Many of the game's spells look like they were inspired by the exact exact source material of the first Neverwinter Nights, such as the lich's nightvision spell.

You'll start out as a lowly human. There's no set character class or profession to choose from at this point, and you'll start the game as a master of one or two schools of magic. The starting classes are the priests, which will grant you access to spells from both your level-20 character and your level-20 character, and the martial classes, which give you a number of basic skills and bonuses that can affect your entire character's powers, such as the number of power points your character has and the amount of mana available to you. In addition, all of the skills have a cooldown associated with them. So, for example, if you're playing as a martial class and have maxed out your rage and wound up with a lower rage, you'll want to start working on your first feat in the next class, especially as you'll start taking more damage from those types of attacks as you gain experience.

So, yeah, if you want to be a bit more reckless than what you'd normally be in the game, you'll want to keep an eye out for things like when you go into combat or when you're playing as a wizard. If you're looking to become a bit more aggressive and deal more damage, you can make sure that your enemies get really close to you and cause all kinds of trouble, which you can do in other ways.

GS: You've said that you're looking at both single-player and multiplayer modes at the moment. How much variety will there be in single-player?

AB: It's a combination of three single-player modes, plus two multiplayer modes. First, you'll get to play multiplayer, where you'll play in a party of five members, but in a persistent world, where you're going to be able to play on your own and have the other players who are adventuring on your own, which you'll have to do. So there are both a lot of things you can do in the world and a lot of different scenarios. It's very flexible, but also very complicated, so it will be a lot of fun for a lot of people.

GS: What kind of customizability do you plan to offer you?

AB: A lot of stuff we're planning to add to the world. Like a party of five, we have an open world, where you can roam the land and see what kind of people you can interact with. We don't have a huge list of stuff, but there are still some things we are considering, like more than we have to explain. In addition to that, you can develop your characters, which means that you'll be able to develop them as you see fit.

GS: Give us an overview of what you're planning on adding to the game.

AB: We're also planning to add some kind of social interaction. One of the things we're currently working on is a "share" system for one-on-one battles. You will be able to go into your game and chat with your buddies.