Neverwinter Nights: Diamond Edition
I decided to give this game another chance. I've tried playing it so many times, starting back in 2002 when the game was first released and I bought into the hype. I hated it then because it felt like such a massive drop in quality from Baldur's Gate (only two characters in your party? No way to control your henchman besides basic commands?). I've tried revisiting the game since then many times, and I was able to sort of get into it from time to time when I played it for what it is.
Anyway, I have the EE but I decided to play the original DE because I wanted to try this one mod I found that lets you add more than one henchman to your party. It sort of works with EE, but limits you to a three-person party, and I wanted to hire three henchmen and see if it would somehow give me the feeling that I was playing an actual classic style RPG and not... err... whatever Neverwinter Nights is.
With the mod in place, I must admit that the game is a bit better. My biggest problem with this game is that, with only one henchman, you either need to put some levels into rogue to disarm traps, or you're stuck with the rogue henchman. Similarly, you either need to be a cleric or paladin, or choose the cleric henchman... or just play the game gulping potions all the time. I think it really limits the kinds of characters you can play, without the game becoming completely tedious. With the mod, you can have both the rogue and cleric in your party, so you can just make whatever kind of character you want. I went with a half-orc barbarian.
The mod does make the game REALLY easy. I don't mind this, because NWN is such a tedious experience otherwise, that I would simply never play this game without it. With the mod, it's kind of fun and feels a bit more like playing a classic RPG. There's still a lot of bad stuff, though. You have dozens of containers in every map, with many of them literally containing just a single arrow or gold piece. Nearly every single chest is locked, and unlocking anything requires you to just sit there and watch; there's nothing worse in a game that just making you wait for some timer, but the game is absolutely full of this. There are weird difficulty spikes, where a boss monster will just paralyze you or whatever, and there's nothing you can do but die. Total RNG. I suspect this is all here because the game was likely designed to be played multiplayer, with singleplayer just added on.
There's also a lot of good stuff, though, which becomes more noticeable when running a full party and not having to really deal with all the annoying stuff. The first act is pleasantly nonlinear, and even individual objectives often have multiple solutions. The henchmen all have interesting backstories, and its cool how you learn more about them as your character levels up. There are even skill checks in dialog, and passing these checks can bypass combat or even open up side quests. One very cool quest has you trying to get access to a tavern that's basically a meeting place for rogues, etc. and you have multiple options. You can get into a fight with some rogues and steal a outfit, find a key somewhere to get in the back door, or collect rogue currency by completing some minor quests. Good stuff.
The game of course uses the D&D mechanics, and these are almost always a pleasure at low levels. It's just very satisfying gaining even a single level or finding your first magic weapon or armor.
It's not a bad game, but I think Bioware made a huge mistake in limiting you to a single henchman in the original campaign. A four-person party is just so much more interesting, even if it does make the game a lot easier.