So I own the Diamond version of NWN. And now the EE version is on sale. Is it worth it to buy the Enhanced Edition?
I do feel sometimes that the improved display options would be nice to have on a bigger screen.

But the review on the product page are quite negative which leads me to believe I need to stick the the Diamond edtition.
However, most of the those reviews are from 2018. Has the EE improved since then?

If you want to play the post-EE mods, including any of the DLCs sold here, you don't have much of a choice, do you? For example, the premium version of Darkness Over Daggerford is very highly praised, even in comparison to the free non-EE original. I, personally, don't think it's really worth it, but I've wasted more money on less worthwhile things. So go ahead and get it.

Well, there's a HD graphic pack on EE: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/704450/view/3109168049657787421

You have to download it seperately though.

And there are options like that makes your GUI and fonts bigger - you have mods for that on Diamond Edition too though(https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/other/gui/enhanced-gui)

Option that makes you visible when you're behind the wall,

Option that makes you disable movies,

Option that makes your characters' stats beyond 12 with items,

etc.

However, the basic games are same. They didn't add any new class, or anything.

Therefore, if you're enjoying Diamond version as a single player, you don't have to buy EE.

Keep in mind some of the reviews may be biased. There was a huge hate going on Beam Dog that I never really understood personally. So take the reviews with a grain of salt lol.

I really wish people would review based on the gameplay, story, combat, etc. and not base it on anger, but of well. I own both, but haven't played the EE version yet. But with discounts up to 90% (Deluxe Ed.), I'd say it's worth checking out.

As dcthenew52 said, there are mods to improve the base version if one takes the time, though EE probably just makes it simple for those that don't want the hassle of modding. I personally enjoy modding my games these days. Nexus mods FTW!
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A lot of the reviews are from early on, when basically EE offered nothing but some cheesy post processing effects that were best left off, and a MUCH higher price. I was originally quite critical, and did not buy it because of this back then.

The situation is different today. Where EE finally has a some nice small benefits. Top of these is variable UI scaling. This was the feature that got me to buy it (to get bigger, more readable text), especially after it started regularly going on sale for under $5 making it much more worth it.

Though in actually play it's essentially identical, and looks identical when cheesy effects are off so if Diamond works for you and the text isn't too small, then you still really don't need it and it won't do much for you.

I played Darkness over Daggerford both original free, and EE updated and I barely noticed a difference. A bit more voice acting being the major change. I don't consider it must have.

Often mentioned are a set of HD models, that are a completely separate, optional download, but these are very much a work in progress (and require a more modern PC to handle). I wouldn't base my decision on those, yet.

Bottom line is kind of middle of the road. If someone tells you it's terrible, they are wrong, but so are the people claiming it's the greatest thing ever.

It very much depends on what kind of player you are and what you plan to do with NWN.

- If you only want to play the three main campaigns in single player and nothing else, you probably don't need the EE. It will only offer a few extra effects, slightly more saturated colors etc. at the cost of slightly more weird shadows on characters' faces, and possibly a few new bugs, or old ones that were fixed in Diamond 1.69 but are still present in the EE.

- If you never played the old previously DRM-d premium modules like Pirates of the Sword Coast and you're interested in buying and playing them legally now, or if you want to play the enhanced and extented versions of Darkness Over Daggerford and Tyrants of the Moonsea with voiceovers, more quests and some new graphics, tilesets, models, the EE is required and worth it, especially at the current low prices.

- If you want to play NWN online, the EE is definitely worth it, too, maybe even a must-have, as it's now much easier again to connect to Persistent Worlds. The server lists didn't work in Diamond anymore but they do work in the EE, and many PWs have been updated to the EE and are not compatible with Diamond anymore. Plus, the EE now gives PW owners the option to provide required mod files via the in-game downloader, so many PWs are click and play now, without the need for you to go to external websites and install lots of required haks manually.

- If you're interested in user-created modules, the EE now features a curated selection of very popular ones in-game, too, that you can download via the Community tab in the game menu by way of the in-game downloader/installer, also completely automatical (e.g. Aielund Saga, Eye of the Beholder adaptation, A Hunt Through the Dark etc.). I believe at least some of them also were updated to EE standard, so the newest versions might not be available for and/or compatible with NWN Diamond anymore. That being said, you should also know that while the EE is about 90-95% compatible with old modules, occasionally there are compatibility issues with some (most prominently the acclaimed Prophet series, sadly). It's very rare though.

- If you're interested in customizing your experience with mods, the EE also offers a few new advantages. You can now create your own patch haks, which is an easy way to organize your overrides files. No more dumping everything in the same override folder, you can now just write a txt file telling the game which hakpaks to load as overrides and in which order (then again, there is also NIT - The Neverwinter Nights Installer Tool that could help you organize your overrides even with NWN Diamond). Personally, I also love that you do now have access to all 255 or so slots for heads during character creation. That doesn't change anything for an unmodded NWN, but if you have a mod with 255 different heads per race, you can now see them from the start and don't need any workarounds anymore in order to apply them retroactively. The EE also allows for other mods that were not possible with Diamond, like an NWN2 style quickcast UI menu or an option to order around companions directly (click on them then click where you want them to go). I haven't tested these myself yet though. The HD models are a matter of taste. Personally I don't use them as I think they clash with everything else that was not updated to HD, and don't necessarily look nicer than the originals, but YMMV.

- If you want to create your own modules, the EE is probably good to have, too. Not all but most players in the NWN community use the EE now, and the EE now includes new models and tilesets used in the new premium modules for all builders to use without having to add haks.

- Another thing you might want to consider, concerning all the people who keep complaining about Beamdog as a company that only rehashes games they had no part in creating - this is not true; there are several of the original creators of NWN working at Beamdog now, including the director of the game who was not only one of the co-founders of the old Bioware studio but also co-founder of Beamdog. So in a way, you'd still support (some of) the original devs in buying the EE.

- Last but not least, you should know that the EE is less frequently updated on GOG compared to the Steam version, because GOG only releases official patches, but Beamdog has been releasing lots of development builds with quick fixes and new features on Steam in between official patches, and official patches were very rare before, once even a whole year passed without official patch release, and during that time the GOG version was way behind the Steam version with its development builds. It has improved since then, and nowadays there aren't many big changes to be expected anymore anyway, but back then it was very frustrating. Also because when new content finally arrived on GOG, it happened that it was weeks or even a month later than on Steam. So if you only buy on GOG, never Steam, you don't have much choice anyway, but if you don't mind Steam, this is worth considering.

All that being said, unless you're only in the very first category mentioned above and you don't really have any money to spare, 3 EUR is a real steal for a game like NWN EE, even if you already own Diamond and end up being unimpressed with the EE. I think it's worth that much just for trying it out. Worst case scenario would be you just keep using Diamond and don't gain anything immediate for those extra 3 EUR you gave to (part of) the original devs. But even then you'd gain the means to play any EE exclusive content that might interest you in the future.

Curated list isn't much of an advantage since it's a small list so you will still need to install most manually, and I'm not aware of any that have EE updates. Aielund Saga "Enhanced Edition" for instance has nothing to do with NWN:EE. It plays on both Diamond and EE, and in my experience it was more buggy on EE. So much so that I went back to Diamond to play it.

Plus the curated list ends up creating duplicates of major Hak packs like CEP, so if you play any CEP module in the curated list, it downloads it's own CEP copy, that won't work with manually downloaded modules, so you end up with a duplicate.

In short I don't recommend using the curated list, unless it shows a small download (that indicates it isn't reliant on big external resources).

Bottom line, for playing user created modules there is very little reason to go EE if Diamond works for you.

Fair enough. I see the curated list as an advantage more in the sense of an introduction to community modules for players who were not aware of the quality that many of them offer or who were reluctant to try them before, due to the "effort" required. There are just too many players who completely dismiss this part of NWN, and the curated list with its "official stamp" may serve as an entry point to custom content for those players. But you're right, for someone already familiar with this side of NWN, it probably isn't such a great incentive. Point taken.

There are however occasional new modules that are EE exclusive, like Tupilak.

And it looks like even the version of Eye of the Beholder (from the curated list) that is hosted on NW Vault is now EE only and received a few updates and new fixes after the transition.

If you look at the poll on NW Vault's frontpage it tells us 57% of voters mainly use the EE these days vs. 14% who stick to Diamond. Of course that poll's not representative of the community at large, we don't know the actual numbers, but I still think there's a good chance that not every creator releasing new modules or reworking older ones will still think it necessary to keep their work compatible to 1.69 for the supposed minority of Diamond only users. Not saying this a sufficient argument for buying the EE, just something to keep in mind, even if you're just interested in the (custom) single player modules part. Of course, there are enough old modules compatible with Diamond to keep you busy for a lifetime, and only few new modules still coming out these days. So if you can live without playing the latest releases and updates, there's that.

The Enhanced Edition added a built in option to control your companions for movement and combat like a DM last year, though it's an option hidden in an ini file, and I've been very much appreciating it as part of my play! (It does not conflict with the AI mod if you're worried about that.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMk7lR7G-kQ

That on top of UI scaling settings, the option of the HD pack that's since been fixed up by the community, and modders taking advantage of Enhanced Edition to upgrade, makes it win out pretty handily in my book!

Thanks for that info, I'll have to check out that ini file. Actually, which ini file is it? lol

I've played Diamond version a few times, so I guess I'll have to try out the EE now (well after I finish DA2) and experience it for myself. I'll have to also stop by Nexus and see what mods improve additional QoL.
.

You're welcome! It's settings.tml.in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Neverwinter Nights\
That youtube video explains how to use it, which is helpful because that config file and the UI sure don't.
For the QOL I personally went for was what's on the PCGamingwiki's Essential improvements section, the arelith portrait pack, faster rest, Customize Character Override Hak, project reforged weapons for new weapon models keeping the rest the same, a spell widget in anticipation for me playing a magic character sometime, and PRC in anticipation for if I want to go nuts with my character builds.

Ah another thing the Enhanced Edition has (or tweaks?) is the fully featured ability to have .hak files old and new override your base game with a controllable load order rather than having 15 squillion files in the override folder that can't conflict (apparently this was possible before but seemingly only for developer use that didn't happen).Like it's not just for the HD pack, I took the basic .hak files from the NWNCQ page, the files that were specifically labeled "only for creators", and just turned them into patch files in the Installer Tool and now all the buildings have roofs, nothing else required!

Some things to consider as well:
The Enhanced Edition has known and reported Bugs since over a year which did not get adressed amongst others:
Multiclass Exp bug for humans (prestige class wrongly treated as baseclass up to 60% EXP loss depending on your character build)
Levelup bug on Red Dragon Disciple (think it was on lvl8, dont invest all skill points so you can level up, minor bug)
Linux Memory Leak due to Inode pollution makes it unplayable on Linux

And the new render is really not optimized even without the HD packs the game is more taxing than say Mass Effect Legendary with the full range of mods (ALOT etc.) on the GPU.

But I would recommend it when it is on sale for like $5 just for the UI scaling ;)

Wrong. This has always been possible. The only thing EE changed about the patch hak system is that the file is now renamed userpatch.ini rather than nwnpatch.ini.

+1

I play the original Baldur's Gate games, not the Enhanced versions, but I am happy to play Neverwinter Nights EE for this very reason.