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Feature Articles > Features > Neverwinter Nights Premium Modules
Should you pay for Neverwinter Nights modules from Bioware when you can get free ones? Neverwinter Nights is three years old, and Bioware's latest patch makes it so that the CD is not even required to be in the drive to play the game. This is a game that has enjoyed constant support and updates from the developer – across PC, Mac and Linux platforms. Last November Bioware opened their own store and began selling what they called ‘Premium' modules directly. So what are "Premium Modules"? They are modules produced in-house at Bioware that you have to pay for, and can download directly. "Premium" means at least four other things: the BioWare name indicates a quality level up to the same standards as the official Neverwinter Nights campaigns, solid quality assurance, high quality production values, and support including patches and compatibility with official patches. One bad thing that "Premium" currently means is that you have to stay connected to the internet so the module can verify ownership every time you start the module or load a saved game. As of this writing there are four modules available. Three – Witches Wake, ShadowGuard, and KingMaker – were released last November, and Pirates of the Sword Coast was released in June of this year. Since their release, Witches Wake and ShadowGuard have been sold as a reasonably priced bundle; KingMaker and Pirates of the Sword Coast have been sold individually. KingMaker has been sold in ‘lite' and ‘full' versions – with the ‘lite' version being less expensive but lacking voice-overs, load screen graphics and some other graphical features. There has been a thriving fan development community for Neverwinter Nights – the developers released robust tools with the game, and hundreds of characters, creatures, weapons, and full modules have been released. So is it worth spending money for these modules when you can get others for free? Read on and decide.
 Witches Wake This started as a half-finished module from one of the developers, and eventually became the first Premium module. It has a very interesting start to it, in that you are the sole survivor of a horrific battle and need to uncover what has happened, despite having no memory. You will travel through a wide variety of terrain – snow, planar spheres, hills, forests and caverns – and meet up with all sorts of interesting creatures. The whole problem with Witches Wake is the abruptness of the ending. It is obviously a ‘part one', and leaves you feeling unsatisfied and abandoned. It is not a bad module – indeed there are many good elements – it is merely incomplete. And it feels somewhat insulting to pay for an incomplete module. My score: 2.5/5 stars. (if Witches Wake 2 came out, this would probably become 4/5!) ShadowGuard In this module you are the wealthy daughter of a city magistrate, just completing your training and the Imperial academy and obtaining full citizenship. Bad things happen and you must help get to the bottom of everything that is going on. While this module – like Witches Wake – ends without a full conclusion, it doesn't leave you hanging. That is partly because you aren't built up as a ‘save the world' person. The module is somewhat linear, as I found on replaying it that areas I thought were optional were actually mandatory and needed to be done in order. But on the first playthrough it all feels emergent, and remains fun on subsequent playthroughs. ShadowGuard also lends itself nicely to using different characters – I played as both a Sorcerer and a Paladin and each was very satisfying and challenging. The character class and alignment enforcement is done very – unlike in the main Neverwinter Nights game – in both this module and Witches Wake, Paladins cannot run around picking locks or opening chests in private or they will find themselves ‘fallen'. My score: 3.5/5 stars. For the combination of Witches Wake and ShadowGuard at a single low price, it is worthwhile. KingMaker This module starts you out pursuing a mysterious ‘Masked Man' in a pitched battle that ends in a blaze of spells in front of the Cyan Keep. It seems like a high level module with little direction and just hacking-and-slashing, but that is just the intro. From there, you are awoken from quasi-death by a strange force, and then pursue your destiny within the Keep of Cyan and beyond. This module is a role-player's dream. You get choices all over the place, and they aren't always the ‘I'll pay you to help out / Sure I'll help / Give me gold and I'll think about it / My score: 4.5/5 stars. Pirates of the Sword Coast You are a traveler on a ship docked at Neverwinter, booked to go through to Calimsham. But after bringing two strange passengers and one very strange piece of cargo aboard, things go wrong quickly. It is an epic adventure that takes you across the seas through a wonderful pirate tale with a great story and voice acting. Bioware claims this is the largest module, and they are right. This module took nearly as long as some full action-RPG's that have been released this year. It is a very open module in terms of role-playing your character – you get many choices along the way, many of which have only local impact, but others which change the entire course of the game. Be careful what you promise to whom, because it will come back in the end. Another really cool feature is the ‘treasure map' system. Find a map, go to the right area, and the map becomes an interactive tool that will lead you to the hidden treasure. My score: 4.5/5 stars.
 Summary The four modules combined cost just over $20, and provided me with about 30 hours of gaming time for a single run. Add the replayability of different character classes and types – as well as story-impacting decisions in the KingMaker and Pirates of the Sword Coast modules – and I have gotten well over 50 hours from these modules. The quality of modules is certainly very high. I compare this with the freely available Eye of the Beholder, which is a recreation of the classic game. Eye of the Beholder is about 30 hours long and freely available – and is one of the highest rated modules at the Neverwinter Vault, but like the classic game offers minimal role playing. The focus is on hack-and-slash action against a wide variety of enemies and gathering up loot. I had played this module some time ago, and enjoyed it – but in terms of production values and polish it does feel like a fan work. I replayed again after finishing all four ‘premium modules', and there is clearly a distinction, particularly with regards to the KingMaker and Pirates of the Sword Coast modules, which are superior in pretty much every way to Eye of the Beholder. Does this diminish the value of fan modules? Not at all – there are tremendous amount of really well done modules for any number of players and types of scenarios available. What it told me was that Bioware provided a high quality gaming experience that justified the cost of the modules. I would strongly recommend these modules, particularly KingMaker for those looking for a role-playing focus, and Pirates of the Sword Coast for those seeking a story-based adventure. Note: There have been two recent Neverwinter Nights retail introductions – Kingmaker and Neverwinter Nights Diamond. Kingmaker includes the first three Premium modules, and was introduced at $19.99. Neverwinter Nights Diamond includes the original game, both expansions, and the contents of the Kingmaker package for $29.99. Kid Factor: Neverwinter Nights was rated 13+ – on par with a T-rating – by GamerDad when it was released. None of these modules change the appropriateness of that rating.
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