Neverwinter Nights Preview at IGN PC

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(Originally posted by Mollusken)

A lot of people seems to be visiting the BioWare offices these days. IGN PC has also been there, and they've also written a rather long article about the visit and Neverwinter Nights.

The bard for instance comes with five default packages. The blade package skews more of your skills towards fighting and battle. The gallant bard is also a combat oriented bard but balances this out with an equally well-developed set of traditional bard skills. The jester specializes in entertainment while the loremaster concentrates on knowledge. And if you don't care for any of the pre-arranged packages, you can always design your own. If you wanted a bard who specialized in diplomacy and court intrigue, you can assign skills and feats appropriately.

The start of the game serves as a tutorial (you can skip this if you like) and orients you to the Academy and the interface. I won't say much about the story at this point. Even early on, there are some surprises that shouldn't be spoiled. Suffice it to say that you'll soon be defending the Academy against an attack, seeking out a flock of enchanted animals and trying to get to the bottom of a recent prison break. And that's all within the first few hours of the game.

But the first thing to do is look around at the surroundings. BioWare's provided three different camera schemes for you here. The basic top-down camera grants you a view much like that of Baldur's Gate. The main difference here is that you can rotate, zoom and tilt the camera through a surprising range. A chase camera follows closely behind you (though with a slight top-down orientation). The final mode is called stiff camera. This grants you a more shooter-oriented movement scheme. Although all three views are practical for different tastes and circumstances, the top-down was the easiest and most adjustable.

Read everything at IGN PC.