Beamdog has revealed the next BioWare game to get its Enhanced Edition treatment: Neverwinter Nights.
This exciting new release combines all content from the original Neverwinter Nights with brand new, enhanced features including the tools to create your own game.
The original Neverwinter Nights game was created by BioWare and released in June 2002. It is set in the Forgotten Realms, the same world as Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale, and the game mechanics are based on the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition rules. It was originally released with the Aurora toolset, which gave players the tools to create their own games and campaigns, and could be played both single player or with friends online or through a LAN.
In Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition, Beamdog has improved the graphics options and display. Your character’s portrait, combat bar, inventory and other UI elements will adjust in size based on your chosen resolution, including 1080p and 4k. Graphics have been made crisper and cleaner with pixel shaders and post-processing effects. There are new menu options to set contrast, vibrance and depth of field, too. It also will have updated translations and bug fixes requested by the community.
The most exciting new feature is that the Enhanced Edition is backwards compatible — you can bring your saved games, modules and mods from the original Neverwinter Nights into the new game.
“Neverwinter Nights was a unique game that distilled the essence of Dungeons & Dragons and allowed players to build, share and act as Dungeon Master for amazing gaming experiences,” said Trent Oster, Beamdog CEO. “I think this unique combination makes Neverwinter Nights one of the most versatile role playing game experiences of all time.”
Beamdog has announced that they will select fans from the pre-order pool for a Head Start program — allowing those pre-order owners to play, import modules and update persistent world servers early.
“I invite everyone interested in the future of Neverwinter Nights to join the Beamdog forums,” said Oster. “We hope it will become a new home where you can speak directly with the development team. We need to know what YOU want to see Neverwinter Nights become, and we’ll do our best to meet and exceed those expectations.”
The standard edition includes all of the content from the original Diamond Edition of the game, including the original Neverwinter Nights campaign, the expansion packs Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark and three community-made modules. There is also a Digital Deluxe edition which adds Pirates of the Sword Coast, Wyvern Crown of Cormyr and Infinite Dungeons. It also includes ten new character portraits and the official game soundtrack.
Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is now available to pre-order on the Beamdog website. Choose between the standard edition for $19.99 or a Digital Deluxe version with additional game modules for $29.99. It is available for PC, Mac and Linux.
