Neverwinter Nights Tutorial Review

Ok, so your soon to be hero is freshly created and eager to get out into the big wide world of demon-slaying and treasure hunting. Before you carve a legacy that will last through all ages of time, there is the small matter of the tutorial to get through.

After the brief introduction sequence, which provides a brief bit of exposition about the world that the game is set in, you get round to actually playing the game.

The first thing that will strike you is the poor control you have over your character. Movements are made using the W,A,S and D keys, but your character moves like a tank, you can only move forward, then to change direction you have to stop, turn, then start moving again. This system is shockingly unwieldy and takes a while to get used to.

Once you have got the basics of movement you will be taught other controls and game features. These tutorials are played out through a conversation with non player characters in the academy where you are “learning” to become a hero.

You would expect plenty of voice acting for this segment and you do get the stereotypes for example the old grumpy dwarf rears his ugly head. Sadly the voice acting is brief and doesn’t cover all of the text, leaving you to wade through several lines of text making decisions that have little impact on the game, serving only to provide you with a little more back story.

Overall I thought this wasn’t a bad tutorial, you are taught everything you need to know to start playing the game, but enough is left out to give you a sense of achievement when you discover things in the game proper and crucially you don’t feel the like game is “holding your hand” all the way through.

8 out of 10