Neverwinter Nights

I would like to tell you about an aspect of my childhood which changed my world forever. I think I might have been in the 8th standard when my father finally brought a desktop for me. You see, earlier I used to go to my neighbor’s house to play gameboy emulator pokemon games with him on the pc. One of the first games I bought was Neverwinter Nights. I remember venturing out to  Walden, a big kids store in Hyderabad and browsing through their collection. This particular one was to keep me awake late into the night many-a-time. 

Role playing games were not as evolved at the time. The best thing I had come across was the earlier version of Runescape, an MMORG. It had dorky cartoonish colors and semi-pixelated graphics which had odd edges, unlike the retro themed renditions you find on the playstore nowadays. Neverwinter Nights was another universe compared to that.

The premise of the plot was that a plague had swept through the city of Neverwinter, entire quarters were quarantined – often leading the infected to turn into zombies. The ruler of the city, Lord Nasher had sent out a call to recruit the greatest heroes and adventurers of the land, who assembled and were trained at the academy so they may go out and fight the infestation.

You get to create a character, select their class (ranging from barbarians, druids, rangers and wizards etc) and finally set out to graduate from the academy when suddenly the institution is attacked.  Assailants storm the halls killing most of the cadets. You fight through the chambers and finally meet Lady Aribeth who is in charge of the defenses. That’s the prologue.

Entering Neverwinter, you encounter henchman willing to offer you their blade for hire, you may interact with these characters, learn their stories and perhaps even form relationships with them. Some of the dialogue trajectories amidst the combat the player is often thrown to, is indeed cathartic. They travelled with you as you aided each other through travails. For a lonely boy hiding from his parents in the wee hours of the morning – this was an empathetic universe and my little secret for a long, long time.

Like many things I get involved with I started it again and again to figure out the best character configuration to set-out with. Relishing each turn of chapter, the narrative, enraptured in the detective-like unmasking of clues leading to hidden perpetrators.

I felt the need to write about this today because I notice that one of the pioneers of the genre, a series called Baldur’s Gate is in the process of releasing their third installment this year. I’l attach the trailer below – and it brought back some memories which I chose to share with you this Holi  https://youtu.be/u8nf-k8v_kM