Nox | Retro Reviews

Hey, finally watched it all!

Damn, as a big NoX fan, most of this review is really depressing with all the harsh stuff from development, reception, etc. (damn all these “Diablo-clone”)… So sad to hear that it’s mostly Diablo 2 that killed it (and EA, of course), and D2 is indeed a masterpiece, can’t really blame it. If only it came out later… But was it worth killing Nox, looking at what happened with the D franchise after the 2nd game? Your criticism of singleplayer campaign is sadly true as well, most importantly about underutilizing all these standout physical/line of sight mechanics, and not challenging people to use more creative combat approach. I mean I don’t mind/don’t find the game as repetitive, but thinking about how much more they could’ve done with just jumping mechanic for example… I need an alternate universe where NoX 2 exists aaaaaah.

Nitpicks:
- Conjurer can use not only bow, but also crossbows, which you forgot to mention describing the characters initially.
- When mentioning jump, should’ve said that it can be pretty useful to jump over flames unharmed, traps, etc., there is no such mechanic in Diablo for example.
- Poison can also be “cured” by waiting it out.
- Conjurer can also see through the eyes of the charmed creature.
- Conjurer won’t “summon any enemy in the game” due not all of them having scrolls.
- Ember Demons are not necessarily one-shot, you can survive either with enough fire resistance or Force Field spell.
- Haven’t mentioned shields blocking melee while talking about shields, but said that staffs and greatswords can block some melee attacks “in the same manner”. Shield can also even reflect some ranged attacks.

There’s more but all of them are not that important, I don’t want to sound like a total nerd anyway huh. As to durability problem, you just need to have “spare” equipment, there’s plenty around that is not necessarily low-level, and Warrior has the biggest carrying capacity out of all classes (but to be fair the heaviest equipment as well). And to be fair again, there is really not much to spend your gold anyway, strongest equipment is either found, or bought towards the end of the game.

Also man you really should’ve mentioned cloaks (not only barely in visuals), they are so swag and are actually useful due to some armor/enhancements/unlimited durability, few games bother with having capes seen on char model.

My choice is NoxReloaded, OpenNox has some weird mouse sensitivity.

Conjurer Mod is much less hardcore than Warrior one. I’ve finished both and honestly haven’t enjoyed the latter, would’ve dropped if not for feeling obligated to finish due to how much I love NoX, too bloated and hard, also has glitches and softlocks. Conjurer one is totally amazing, pretty much “vanilla but cooler” experience (albeit there is some really hard or confusing parts). Anyways, some people absolutely love Warrior one so you do you.

Tolkien-close setting – what

Personally I think sounds design in NoX is extremely distinct and it’s a big joy to hear all of the sounds.

“Distant realm of Florida” xD (though you’ve shown the Heart of NoX on the picture before that, not the Orb), “Kingdom of Florida” xD

Damn you story description is WAY more epic than it should be xD

“You might counter that I’m only coming up with all these excuses for her because Hecubah is hot, which is true but that’s beside the point” xD
“…and worst of all he’s both a property owner and has a girlfriend, which makes the character completely unrelatable to most crpg players” xD

Wait what with that hentai shot T_T

While playing more campaigns than 1 indeed won't offer much more insight into the game's story/world, in Warrior's route Arch-Wizard Horvath is completely absent (and is not even mentioned once?), despite being a major npc, so Conjurer and Wizard have it a bit more complete (also Warrior's ending sucks imo xD). Maybe developers thought that fight with Horvath will be too similar to Hecubah, or maybe that it's out of character for him to be aggressive, neither willingly giving up Heat of Nox will make sense after the slaughter of all the other wizards. Maybe they were just lazy, which is strange since Warrior's campaign is the most straightworward one, thus needs more cool stuff, as well as likely the first one a new player will pick. But in Conjurer's and Wizard's campaigns you can see that Horvath indeed can fight... Or maybe they've thought that having a new major npc in 2 other campaigns will be an interesting additon.

To be honest Jack offers the Captain to find a new plug for tv and it starts to barely work in the end cinematic of Conjurer (you even showed the footage), so it’s not completely forgotten.

Nah I can’t call NoX “Diablo-clone with QoL improvements”, neither having less of them than D2. NoX is a lot more “free” in its gameplay, you can’t even jump in Diablo, nor free aim (technically you can by holding shift, but that’s mostly useless). Diablo’s combat is lot more restricted in terms of fundamental gamedesign.

AI slop wizards?

Glad to see this review being one of the most viewed ones on your channel, this tells something about the quality of the game! NoX is the game closest to my heart, and despite heavy nostalgia is objectively great as well.

Thank you for your hard work. Man I need a watch a review with more nostalgia praise now xD.

I had both but you said poor Man lol

ZO CHA ET UN CHA UN!

Man oh man my older brother gave me Nox back in 2002 after he had exhausted his time with it. I was 12 years old and after installing this gem on the family computer, I had no idea my life would be changed forever. Nox is still the greatest game I ever played. I spent hundreds of hours playing the campaigns over and over. and once I figured out how to play online I favoured a server called "Eiots Peace" (I think) and people would role play and it was just a fantastic time for a young mind. I will always hold this game close to my heart. Thanks for this video.

Great review! I loved the spells, with the word and hand component (although just a symbolic husk of the original concept) - and IIRC, in mage duels you could kinda cast counterspells. The only thing I disliked a little was the floaty walking. And yes, it was rather linear… while I am sure it had its flaws, I can’t follow the negative reviews calling it uninspired and a Diablo clone. Darkstone, on the other hand, was actually repetitive and uninspired. (I only played SP, just FYI)

I got a copy of Nox when it first came out! I was hooked on the multiplayer. It wasn't so bad on my shitty old dialup! lolol. The big box is long gone, but I still have the jewel case and CD. :)

Speaking of graphics, I remember my roommate launching Nox back in the day. I thought it looked gorgeous. But then my friend said "Nah, it's not really an RPG" and I immediately lost all interest. Here, that's my memory of Nox.

Very in depth, interesting to listen to, thanks

my friends and I had a small blurb written about the trainers we made and website for this game in Computer Gaming Monthly. We were only high school freshman/sophomore so we thought we were famous lol. I have a copy of the issue somewhere.

Love this game! Played it a ton as a kid

You may want to know that the Nox' OST was used (and probably still is used) as the soundtrack for a Russian browser MMORPG, Legend: Legacy of the Dragons

I always wondered why this game hasn't become a classic. The voice thing makes sense, though. Kid me played a localization that didn't have these issues.

Excellent Retrospective about a game from the very early 2000's.
I also remember it more as a "supposed" Diablo 2 Killer rather than being something of its own.

Playing all 3 Classes did give some differences but it was more of a slog in the end.
Though i have to confess that playing Wizard and infiltrating the Knight Stronghold was insanely difficult while the other way around it was more annoying catching those running wizards ^^

Magicka is without a doubt much more close to its original root.
A similar game where you can also combine Magic Spells and has somewhat goofy chars to choose is called "Dawn of Magic" but has its own fair share of problems.

Seeing "Throne of Darkness" reminds me of fond memories playing it, since the game was made by former Diablo Devs.
A Retrospect would be interesting too if you ever come back for Hack&Slash :)

Every time I hear "Westwood" gives me wanting for a new good C&C.... But we all know that will never happen...........

за "страну игр" респект

this game is a masterpiece! will there ever be a sequel to the game? I've already been waiting 20 years...

I'm so happy game critiques are going out of business.

My all time favourite game growing up. One of the greatest stories. I loved playing the Warrior and exploring the fortress of Dun-mir.

As overdone as it previously was, I think there’s room for a reboot of the “stranger from the present day” line of storytelling. I mean games like baldurs gate 3 can seamlessly insert characters of all shapes and sizes into various cutscenes, then all it would take from there are couple of male and female voices with different accents to make it work

It would be easy enough to make the story begin after a commercial flight goes wrong, then you could choose from any kind of background and skill set that wound up on a airplane

Hell an aircraft holds a couple hundred people, that could be the reasoning behind a multiplayer aspect that could explain anything from a group of close friends to multiple strangers winding up in the same predicament

In my opinion it would perfectly suit an “arcanum” world setting where a modern day doctor, student, soldier, white or blue collar professional can find their way into a brand new occupation that plays into their strengths

I think anyone that games, especially rpg players have found themselves day dreaming about how they’d go within a fantasy setting. We now have the ability to make a deep and compelling game that can meaningfully explore that concept

NoX must have been a good game. Its one of the few a remember very fondly

I don't understand the complaints about the voice acting. I've played through Nox twice I never noticed anything. Sounded fine to me

this brought back memories

No one i ever talk to played this game growing up, but i absolutely LOVE it. The world just makes you want to live there.

I bought this game when it released and played it through the Single Player campaigns for each class. I would have sworn that the Warrior had a Repair ability... I played the Warrior first, then the Wizard and finally the Conjurer. I never got into the multiplayer aspects of it but for a single player game it was excellent. It didn't have the relentless replayability that Diablo II did but what it had, it did really well. The games humor is also something that sticks with me to this day. My wife and i will still occasionally toss out one of the opening lines from the intro video of the game, when Jack's wife tells him that "chicken's On the Gri-ill... Do You want Bacon?" Good impressions like that stick with you.

"Bacon bound we go Imp, but first, I need your help with something..."

If any of these crpgs simply added a map editor like myth had, they’d have easily distinguished themselves from being diablo clones.

I was known as LutherX Leader of Gods way back in the day on U.S. East server. Was probably one of the better Wizards out there even though I was only like... 10 at the time. xD I loved this game so, so, so much.

good video

Holy crap! The blue wizard portrait that was everywhere on gaming forums in the 2000s was from this game. This one picture is probably the single, most recognizable legacy of Nox.

I bought this years ago on GoG but was never able to get it working. Shame really.

this was a gem. I am 38 years old I am glad that I was able to play this game in my youth. Music, story, voice acting, fast paced gameplay, beautiful graphics...

Dude this is wildly in depth. Like DYKG on crack. Fantastic job documenting all this!

Can you do nwn 1 or 2

What's wrong with the Australian voice acting?

I recently was looking at properties in the south, and a nice looking trailer for 10k was listed that i took moderate interest in. Being a northerner, by view of "trailer park living" is admittedly negatively biased, but the interior looked nice and i figured i could buy it, rent it out, and then buy some vacant land somewhere and have it moved in the future when i could afford it.
I wasnt aware that you typically dont own the plot of land the trailer is on in a park, and so despite owning the trailer had i moved on it, i would have still had to pay rent on the land.

Which makes your differentiation of jack being a "property owner" rather than a "land owner", quite spot on, whether you meant it that way or not 😂

Nox was amazing. The multiplayer was way ahead of it's time.

Any chance you can do a retrospective on the Zork games of the 90s? Zork: Grand Inquisitor was one of my all-time favourites.

I distinctly remember Nox in the press of the time. It's one of a small number of almost-bought games where years later I'd wonder "What happened to that game?" - another example being the original Fallout. I played fantasy RPGs almost exclusively. I played Diablo, but I honestly didn't rate it highly until I started playing co-op with my gf in 1998. Of course I bought Diablo 2, and found it okay, although my real interest was Baldur's Gate 1 (1998) and 2 (2000), the former of which replaced Diablo as our favorite co-op. I never bought Nox, and I distinctly remember it was because there were only three "classes" and they were all male. I remember thinking that my gf would not want to play it due to the lack of female characters. It also sounded like a Diablo knock-off. Had it been Diablo with more RPG elements I may have gone for it because I was strongly favoring the RPG elements of Baldur's Gate. Unfortunately, it looked like Diablo-lite, which was the wrong direction, so I never quite got around to buying it.

klanrat was not here

EA Games wanted to compete with the original Diablo game, so they made this. I remember over 20 years ago playing Nox, I got it on GOG recently and it works great on Windows 10, just like the golden days of gaming.

I always thought Nox felt more fluid and kinetic in its action than its contemporaries.

Thank you for the wonderfully comprehensive review.

I really like this review. You've covered pretty much everything there was to cover (beside multiplayer). I have memories about playing it as a kid but didn't know what to do so I've dropped it quite fast in around second chapter. About a month ago this game randomly came to my mind so I've decided to search for it on GOG and got it with a big discount. Too bad nox quest is not in GOG version but it's not an issue with today's internet and info you provided. Also thanks for mentioning Glaurune. I'm definitely gonna look up to it.

One of the few games i ever finished, with all 3 types of players.

I never liked Nox, it always felt like an awkard knock-off, but this was very interesting.