| Developer: | Westwood Studios |
| Producer: | Ken Allen Frank Hsu Mark Skaggs |
| Designer: | John Hight Mike Booth Brett Sperry |
| Programmer: | Mike Booth |
| Artist: | Phil Robb |
| Composer: | Frank Klepacki |
| Genre: | Action role-playing |
| Modes: | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Platforms: | Microsoft Windows |
Nox is an action role-playing game developed and published by Westwood Studios and Electronic Arts in 2000 for Microsoft Windows. It details the story of Jack, a young man from Earth who is pulled into a high fantasy parallel universe and has to defeat the evil sorceress Hecubah and her army of necromancers to return home. Depending on the player's choice of character class at the beginning of the game (warrior, conjurer, or wizard), the game follows three largely different linear storylines, each leading to its unique ending. In the multiplayer, players can compete against each other in various game modes such as deathmatch and capture the flag, while the freely downloadable expansion pack NoxQuest added a cooperative multiplayer mode. The game was generally well received by critics and the media.
The player controls Jack from oblique perspective with the mouse and a number of pre-defined hotkeys. The line of sight is limited by an innovative and well-received fog of war system named "TrueSight", which dynamically blacks out portions of the screen which Jack cannot see from his current position. The single-player campaign consists of multiple locations which Jack must explore, killing enemies and monsters and assisting his allies. Most of the game time is spent in dungeons and wilderness where Jack gathers experience points and collects items such as weapons, armor and spells, which can be equipped, learned, or sold to traders found in several locations throughout the game. The story is told through dialogue with non-player characters, cut scenes using the game engine, and a few pre-rendered full motion videos.
Depending on the character class the player selects at the beginning of the game, the style of gameplay varies greatly. The warrior characters are able to equip nearly all armour and mêlée weapons available in the game but cannot use bows, magical staves, or magical spells. They do have five spell-like special abilities but instead of using up magic points like the other classes' spells, they recharge over time. The conjurer class specializes in conjuration of various monsters found throughout the game, healing himself and his allies, and the use of bows and crossbows. They have a smaller array of spells than wizards but can summon monsters they've learned about from items called "Beast Scrolls". Alternatively, they can tame wild animals and monsters into following and fighting for them. The wizard characters are very limited in equippable weapons and armor and have very few hit points but can learn the largest array of magical spells, which they can use not only to kill enemies, but also to teleport themselves, to become invisible, and to heal themselves and their allies. Owing to its origins as a multiplayer magical combat simulator, the magic system is complex and allows for spell combinations and traps, inspired by .
Weapons in the game come in many varieties and largely restricted to certain classes: most melee weapons and a few ranged weapons can only be used by warriors; bows and crossbows, by conjurers; and many magical staves, by wizards. Some weapons have enchantments on them that add magical bonus to the physical damage they deal to enemies. Armor can also have enchantments on it, protecting the wearer from certain types of harm (fire, poison, etc.). With very few exceptions, both weapons and armor wear down when used, so the player must either have them repaired by NPC traders or replace them with new items. At several points of the single-player campaign, non-player characters temporarily follow Jack, either to assist him or to be led to safety by him. These NPCs can be neither controlled by the player nor equipped with better items.
The multiplayer game types are similar to those found in online first-person shooters: deathmatch (further subdivided into "free for all", team, and clan modes), capture the flag, "Flagball" (similar to the "Bombing Run" mode in Unreal Tournament), "King of the Realm", and "Elimination" (deathmatch with limited respawns). The expansion pack NoxQuest introduced an eponymous cooperative multiplayer mode, wherein a player team must navigate through various locations, killing monsters and looting items. Originally, Westwood ran an online ladder ranking system of Nox multiplayer matches and team-based "Clan Matches" but it has since been closed down. The online services of the game were officially replaced by redirecting to the server portal XWIS[1] maintaining the game's online playability; a feature shared by other Westwood Studios Command & Conquer titles.
The back-story of Nox is explained through location loading screens. Some decades before Jack's arrival to the Land of Nox (the eponymous fictional setting of the game), a group of Necromancers attempted to seize control over the world but was stopped by the legendary hero Jandor wielding an artifact weapon named "the Staff of Oblivion". Following the Necromancers' defeat, Jandor trapped their souls within the magical Orb, which the Arch-Wizard Horvath then transported to another dimension later revealed to be modern Earth. One of Jandor's last deeds of the war was saving a female infant he found in the Necromancers' lair: unsure what to do with a possible Necromancer offspring, he left the girl in the care of an Ogre village. He then disassembled the Staff and gave each piece to one of the three powerful factions in the game: the Fire Knights of the fortress Dün Mir (the Halberd of Horrendous), the wizards of Castle Galava (the Heart of Nox), and the conjurers' Temple of Ix (the Weirdling Beast). After this, he assumed the nickname "Airship Captain", under which he plays a mentor role to the player throughout the game.
The game opens with a pre-rendered video of a grown-up Hecubah, the Necromancer girl, who has rediscovered her roots and proclaimed herself the Queen of Necromancers, summoning the Orb back from Earth to greatly increase her power. However, her magic also transports the current owner of the artifact, Jack (who believes it to be a fireplace mantel decoration), to the Land of Nox. Jack lands on Jandor's airship and at this point, the storylines branch, depending on the player's selection of character class. The warriors start the game near the subterranean fortress of Dün Mir; conjurers, near the Village of Ix; and wizards, near Castle Galava. Upon completing any one of the storylines, the Airship Captain's voice during the rolling credits prompts the player to complete the game using another class.
The development of the game started in 1995 as a personal project of Mike Booth,[4] the future technical director and lead gameplay designer of the game. An avid gamer, Booth began programming his own games on Apple II and VIC-20 computers while still at school, and started working on Nox "in a spare bedroom of [his] house" in college. To help produce the game, he co-founded Hyperion Technologies, a company that also worked on driving simulators. After Booth showed a demo of Nox to John Hight, an executive producer of Westwood Studios, at the 1997 Game Developers Conference, Westwood decided to acquire it and moved the development team to California.[5]
Booth originally envisioned the game as an "updated version of Atari's Gauntlet", focusing on real-time magical combat in the vein of and Mortal Kombat.[6] Inspired by the "epic wizard battles" described in fantasy literature, Booth wanted to create a "multiplayer wizard battle game"[4] and decided to set it in a medieval fantasy setting.[6] It wasn't until Westwood started working on the game that it began to lean towards the RPG genre and two more classes (warrior and conjurer) and a single-player campaign were added.[4]
The game was originally intended to be played with a gamepad, with spells cast by quickly pressing several buttons, inspired by Mortal Kombat's combos, but it was eventually deemed to be "a large barrier for new and less dexterous players" and replaced with numeric hotkeys and mouse-controlled movement. The leftovers of this system are, however, still seen in the released game in the form of syllables and hand gesture icons accompanying the casting of each spell. The "TrueSight" vision system has been programmed by Booth early in the development and served as one of the cornerstones of the gameplay.[6]
The game is incredibly quick paced, requiring lightning reflexes and hand movements. Wizards have to be especially quick with hands, since toggling through 5x5 spell slots in the middle of a battle is a necessity, using obelisks and another obstacles in order to shield yourself from opponents. Warriors have to use precision and run around a lot, in order to predict the movement paths and strike in the correct moment. Conjurers are the most fragile class, but with the most deadly spells and weapons, finding angles and using monsters as their shield.
The multiplayer modes were inspired by the online first-person shooters, such as Quake and Unreal, both of which the development team played extensively.[6]
The game was "one of the most-hyped games" at E3 1999[7] and well received by journalists.[8] In particular, they praised the TrueSight vision system,[8] the "elegant" interface, and the dynamic game world.[7]
In October 1999, Westwood began "Meet Nox Tour" in San Francisco Bay Area as part of a marketing campaign to raise awareness of the game and receive beta-testing feedback.[9] The event was a LAN party lasted about five hours and capped off with a series of multiplayer tournaments; with a final prize of US$200 CompUSA stored-value card.[9] The entire tour ended shortly before the release of the game and was, according to the executive producer John Hight, "a tremendous success".[6] To promote Nox in post-launch, another event was organized in June 2000 in Las Vegas by Westwood; the LAN party was a mass tournament, ended with a final head-to-head clash between two highest-score gamers to win a new computer system worth US$2,500.[10]
Nox has been re-distributed via digital delivery[11] on Origin,[12] and CD Projekt's GOG.com.[13]
The game received favorable reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. It was often compared to Diablo II,[8] [7] which was released five months after it. Trent C. Ward of IGN praised the game as a successful clone of Diablo and highly recommended the former, citing its graphics and gameplay quality, but criticizing some of its sound effects. P. Stefan "Desslock" Janicki of GameSpot said that some of the gameplay elements are completely new, and appreciated both single-player and multiplayer component of the game, describing it as challenging and entertaining. On the contrary, Johnny B. of GameRevolution declared that the game has "nothing very original", although it has appreciable graphics, variety and gameplay. The game was reviewed in 2000 in Dragon #271 by Johnny L. Wilson in the "Silicon Sorcery" column. Wilson commented that "the game has beautiful art, impressive technology, near-limitless action, and a marvelous style in its use of traps".[14] Michael Lafferty of GameZone gave it nine out of ten, saying, "With the great graphics, interactive game board and challenge, this is bound to be one of the most successful titles Westwood has ever produced."[15] However, Eric Bratcher of NextGen said, "Nox will have a difficult time avoiding the dismissal, Diablo wannabe' (especially with Diablo II looming on the horizon), but those who try it will find a solid game that can stand on its own merits."
During the AIAS' 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Nox was a finalist for the "Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story Development" and "Outstanding Achievement in Game Design" awards, both of which were ultimately given to Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, (both of them in a tie), and The Sims, respectively.[16]
Executive producer John Hight said that Westwood was considering an expansion pack and a sequel to Nox.[6] The expansion, titled NoxQuest, was released as a free download on August 1, 2000, and focused on the multiplayer aspects of the game.[17] [18] It included the last patch, updating the game to version 1.2, and featured a number of new spells invented for but not implemented in the original game.[6]
Shortly after the 1.2 patch release, Westwood Studios (which is a subset of Electronic Arts) lost full rights of Nox to EA. EA chose to no longer support Nox, and the official Westwood servers for Clan, Ladder and Standard multiplayer were closed, as well as the online ladder ranking system.[19]