D&D: It’s 2025 and ‘Neverwinter Nights’ is Still, Somehow, Getting Updates
Neverwinter Nights brought 3rd Edition D&D into the digital age, and somehow, more than two decades after its release, the game is still getting updates.
Now, to be fair, the game that’s getting updated is only seven years old, technically. The version in question is the Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition as released by Beamdog. But hey, if they can make three different versions of Skyrim, this still counts.
What makes this even more interesting, is that it’s an update put out by the NWN community, for the NWN community, and the update has been “canonized” by the team at Beamdog.
Neverwinter Nights Gets a Spicy New Update
If you never played Neverwinter Nights, you are missing out on one of the big revolutions in the world of cRPGs. Using the 3.0 ruleset, Neverwinter Nights brought the old Baldur’s Gate formula into a more modern era. Of course, later, Baldur’s Gate 3 would come along and show everyone how it’s done. But that’s besides the point.
As it stands, Neverwinter Nights was huge for a couplle of reasons. First and foremost was its moddability. The mod tools and level editors let you create whole swaths of your own D&D maps. In the game’s heyday, there were servers that you could join that represented various areas of the big Forgotten Realms map.
It was like a proto-mmo, but one that was run by a DM (who was also a player). As for how it holds up? Well, your mileage may vary. But the new update may certainly be enough to tempt you back into playing it. Why, you ask? Well for starters, this makes the game run smoother. Antialiasing and anisotropic filtering are now built in. There are new script functions, a new logging framework, and – relevant to the multiplayer aspect, new “major networking code improvements”. But it also shows what a thriving community the game has.
These people are keeping Neverwinter Nights not just alive, but vibrant, many years later.
“This release was developed for personal enjoyment and out of goodwill for our fellow players and creators by unpaid software engineers from the NWN community.
With thanks to: Cormyr Dalelands players and staff for testing this build and providing invaluable feedback. Thomas Dubier at Snyacktiv for vulnerability reports. All NWN authors and players keeping this game alive.
And this isn’t even the first time something like this has happened! Neverwinter Nights keeps kicking!
