Elder Scrolls or Neverwinter Nights?

[ther00kie16]

Thinking of working through RPG titles (I've mostly spent time on FPS and a couple of RTS titles). Which would you recommend? I hear good stuff about Morrowind and Oblivion as well as NWN 1 and 2. Trying all of them would take way too much time so I'm thinking of going with one side or the other. I like open-ended game design but if they take me nowhere or end up being the same repetitive tasks, I'm not very entertained. Any comments about any of these games?

 

[Bateluer]

They are both good games with their own merits. I prefer the storyline, modules, and characters of the NWN games, but to each their own. For me, I had to install several gigabytes of mods to make the Morrowind and Oblivion enjoyable.

 

[mmnno]

The expansions for NWN 1/2 are pretty good. The base campaigns for both are bad, though if I had to take one I'd take NWN2's.

Morrowind is nice even if you only install a texture mod, and gets even better the more you add. Definitely a love it or hate it game, though.

I'd recommend NWN1 and its expansions since they are cheaper than its sequel and the game is easier to get into than TES games. If you like it you can move onto NWN2 (or download some great user created NWN1 modules.)

 

[Kromis]

The thing I found repetitive about Oblivion was, of course (everyone will probably agree), closing Oblivion gates. And required for the main quest (I think you have to do it about 5 times, maybe a bit more). But if you can get past that, it's a solid open world game.

NWN...I'm not really sure on. I have both NWN and NWN2 and both their expansions but I'm not really sure if you can call it open-ended. It's also a bit slower paced than Elder Scrolls.

 

[Markbnj]

The thing I found repetitive about Oblivion was, of course (everyone will probably agree), closing Oblivion gates. And required for the main quest (I think you have to do it about 5 times, maybe a bit more). But if you can get past that, it's a solid open world game.

NWN...I'm not really sure on. I have both NWN and NWN2 and both their expansions but I'm not really sure if you can call it open-ended. It's also a bit slower paced than Elder Scrolls.

Yeah, that did get old after the tenth or eleventh gate. Nonetheless, a great game, and worth playing through to the end.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Whatever you do, do not play the original campaign of Neverwinter Nights 1. It is a waste of time. Stick to the expansion packs (Shadows of Undertide and Hordes of the Underdark) and the leading community made modules (like Hex Coda 01, Tales of Arterra, Mystery at Westgate, etc.). If you play the original campaign of NWN1, it might discourage you from exploring the truly excellent community made modules out there.

Not saying that NWN1's OC is the worst game ever made, far from it, just does not live up to the Bioware name. However, the expansion packs and the community made modules more than make up for it.

FWIW, I do not consider Oblivion a RPG. More like a shooter with stats and levels. I found little role playing there and there was a significant amount of grinding (oblivion gates), which is not fun in a single player game. Not saying that it is a bad game, just not my thing. However, Morrowind was a good action RPG. If you get rid of the damn cliff racers and apply a few mods.

If you are transitioning from FPShooters to RPGs, might I suggest you make the transition through Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines? It is a great FPS / RPG hybrid from the folks that made Fallout 1 and 2.

 

[Martimus]

I found the three I played to be good. (Never played Morrowind) In fact I played those three games more than any other non-4X game. Oblivion was great in that I played it for over 400 hours, yet still didn't finish all the side quests. I almost never played the main quest because the side quests were so well done, and closing the Oblivion gates was boring. I have never seen a game with such variety in the quests as Oblivion, as no two seemed a like (except for the Oblivion gates).

NWN1 was fun in that each character class had great balance, and it was fun playing through the hundreds of fan made campaigns while trying out new classes.

NWN2 had a much better campaign than NWN1, but the controls weren't quite as good. I had a lot of fun playing it despite the poor camera controls (which were ok before they changed them for Mask of the Betrayer) and some poor UI choices. I didn't like the first expansion all that much though, and never bothered buying the second because of that.

 

[OCNewbie]

If you are transitioning from FPShooters to RPGs, might I suggest you make the transition through Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines? It is a great FPS / RPG hybrid from the folks that made Fallout 1 and 2.

I was about to make a similar suggestion. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is a very good game, but, coming from a FPS background, I would suggest Fallout 3 first. I have been playing it pretty steadily over the past ~3 weeks or so now and am enjoying it immensely. At this point I believe it is the best game I've ever played. I love the exploration aspect of it, and am constantly finding new details of the world, and realizing I've still only uncovered maybe half of the game world at this point. I could go on and on about what I like about it, but I'll just stick to recommending it highly.

 

[shortylickens]

Overall I prefer the Elder Scrolls, but thats because I was a huge Baldurs Gate fan and both NeverWinter Nights games were huge disappointments for me.
I didnt care too much for the dumbing down of Oblivion, but since I wasnt in love with Morrowind it didnt really bother me.

I admit I enjoy the sandbox in a fantasy setting, and running around doing whatever I feel like is kinda fun. Overall I prefer a tight story but it has to be coupled with solid gameplay, and I didnt find that in either NWN game.

KOTOR is good too, gameplay mechanics were more than good enough, and the story was epic and well told.

 

[Ultralight]

As has been mentioned what makes NWN1 a great RPG is the community mods. There are some fantastic community content that is often better than NWN1 itself (though I didn't hate the original game as some do) and they are free. Hours and hours, upon hours of some tremendous game play at no cost to you except the purchase of NWN1 itself.

Morrowind is a whole other type of RPG. The world is huge and as non-linear as you can get (though there is a main story line; but even if you finishe the main story line there is still TONS to do). You'll want to mod it though for better graphics, merchants to have more money, etc. You'll discover there is a boat load of mods.

 

[Kalmah]

I would play NWN1 in an online persistent worlds again in a heartbeat if I ran out of other games to play at the moment. The NWN2 toolset was too troublesome to see alot of good mods/online content.

I would go with NWN1+expansions so that you can play the online stuff. Assuming online persistant worlds still exist..

 

[sanzen07]

I vote Oblivion just because I've never played NWN. I enjoyed every minute of Oblivion (played it without any mods) and still have a bunch of quests to finish up. I also second Vampire The Masquerade - Bloodlines as another fantastic RPG.

 

[Darklife]

I'd get both NWN2 and Morrowind. I've heard bad things about the first one and Oblivion I found to be just horrible in RPG terms.

 

[s44]

Unless you have an ancient rig that can only handle NWN1/Morrowind, just fast forward straight to Dragon Age. Of course, this may make NWN2 impossible to enjoy later... (Though there are some excellent mods.)

 

[Pugchucker]

Elder Scrolls was 10 times that game that NWN was. I played both.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Have you played Baldur's Gate II? That's a truly great game.

Morrowind is OK but it didn't really get its hooks in me, but I can see why other people might like it. It had a very good atmosphere to it.

What people are not mentioning or emphasizing about Neverwinter Nights is that it offers a feature that Morrowind does not offer -- online multiplayer. Last I checked a couple months ago, hundreds of people still played it online since it was (and is still) the premier D&D game for online multiplayer. You might play the built-in campaign for NwN and find that it is only the beginning and that the amount of content is unlimited (for free without any monthly fees). There are a number of different types of servers out there with their own custom-built worlds--from heavy-duty role playing where you must stay "in character" to more action based servers. Thus, Neverwinter Nights online is not really Neverwinter Nights as much as it is completely separate online Dungeons & Dragons engine. I recommend:

For role playing: Amia -- http://www.amiaworld.net/

For action and fast level ups: Higher Grounds Path of Ascension: http://highergroundpoa.proboards.com/

 

[zinfamous]

I tried Morrowind for a few weeks one time. After realizing that I had spent more than enough hours putting points into some 3 thousand random stat categories, running long distances back and forth for little quests, accomplishing very little of anything, collecting thousands of ingredients to make potions and such....gah. those Elder Scrolls games are just overdone with ridiculous detail, IMO.

I enjoyed NWN. not much for replay, though.

 

[you2]

I greatly prefer nwn/nwn2 to morrowind/oblivion for two reasons. Once I got past the wow-factor of oblivion the basic story/mechanics were kind of bleh (to be honest oblivion opening is pretty good but then (for me) it dries up after that). What I mean about mechanics is that by the end game all classes are pretty much the same once you max out all the skillsl; and skill usage is not all that clever.
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For nwn there are several traffic single player modules (?darkness? over daggerfall is great!). My biggest complaint about nwn/nwn2 is the bloody camera. Esp in nwn2 this can be quite annoying at times esp whenever I pick the game up after a long break.
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Also I have a tendency to favor party based games. To be honest after oblivion and fallout 3 I'm not really sure I want to buy another bethesda game. I know the majority of folks really like them but for me they play more like a clumsy fps and I rather play farcry (not farcry 2) or half-life2 or serious sam when I want an fps. Sadly the last 'fun' hybird rpg/fps (for me) was deus-ex. Actually the witcher was a *lot* of fun and to be honest it is more of an fps than rpg (in the same sense of oblivion). I would definitely recommend the witcher if you are looking for a non-party first person rpg. The story is much more captivating than morrowind/oblivion; the graphics are as good and it is basically a good all around game.
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Anyways I didn't mean to go off topic but I think it is important to explain why you prefer one game to another in questions like this because what the op value might be different (i.e, the op might not like party base mechanics; or might prefer something a bit closer to an fps).
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In summary nwn/nwn2 or witcher over morrowind/oblivion.

 

[brandonb]

Oblivion was my favorite out of the bunch. However, the experienced sort of got ruined for me when I started to mod the crap out of the game it just didn't have the same feeling. I'd try the vanilla version.

While it's not a great RPG, and their leveling system is simply abysmal, the game is still pretty fun and the atmosphere was great. Just walking around old elven ruins having huge undead dudes chase after you (zombies and such who move slow but whoop ass) that you have to constantly avoid and outrun made the game remarkably entertaining...

But my playstyle is alot of sandbox, so I enjoy exploring and going new places more then following the quest lines, but some of the quest lines are fun too. Like the paranoid skitznophrenic guy who wants you to keep following people around and spy on them was fun for me, but some people hate it because you just following people around for days and found it "boring" with no rewards... But to each their own.

 

[s44]

Oblivion is closer to FPS style, but the RTS side of the OP may enjoy the top-down full party control of Baldur's Gate... or Dragon Age, which is why I suggested that one.

 

[ther00kie16]

Wow... a lot of opinions. I've seen a friend play Oblivion and it looked great. However, another friend of mine played NWN2 and I find my tastes are generally closer to his. Therefore, I'm leaning towards NWN right now but probably won't decide until the semester's over. Keep the posts coming though. I appreciate all the comments.

 

[shortylickens]

Wow... a lot of opinions. I've seen a friend play Oblivion and it looked great. However, another friend of mine played NWN2 and I find my tastes are generally closer to his. Therefore, I'm leaning towards NWN right now but probably won't decide until the semester's over. Keep the posts coming though. I appreciate all the comments.

Its MUCH different when you play it yourself.
Most folks get tired of the free-form world after a little while. Not everyone likes sandbox games.
Of course, theres absolutely no reason you cant plow ahead with just the main quest and beat the game in a relatively short time, but people never want to hear that once they decide they dont like the game.
Also, the main quest is pretty damn awesome and epic.

 

[StrangerGuy]

The former is rubbish without mods (good luck having mods work when u start loading a lot of em) and the latter with a gigantic boring tutorial which almost serves to deter you from the actual game...hard to choose eh?