Neverwinter Nights 2 impressions

Hey guys,

I promised some of you that I'll tell you my opinion about NWN2 once I get the chance to play it, so here I am. I've been playing NWN2 for a few days by now and I think I've seen enough to be able to express what I think about this game. I guess my opinion would be interesting to some of you because I'm one of those people who hates the original NWN1 and who thinks that the original NWN was a failure even despite all the patches, expansion packs, and community modifications.

First of all, I'd like to say that I was positively surprised to see that the game is definitely NOT the same as the original Neverwinter Nights. The concept of the gameplay has been massively rethought by Obsidian (in a positive way), and the game plays much much closer to Star Wars:Knights of the Old Republic (a great game IMO) or Baldur's Gate series of the games than NWN1 itself.

Of course, it's not a true D&D game like ToEE, and it uses a CRPGed remake of the D&D 3.5E rules to make the game fun to play in realtime-pausable way (similar to BG,NWN,and KoTOR). So, don't expect true turn-based D&D from NWN2, unfortunately you're not going to get it. However, for what it is, the realtime system used in NWN2 appears to be quite nicely done, so it's definitely a fun CRPG, even if not a fun D&D game. The system has been seriously advanced from the NWN1 time in respect that this time you have complete control of your party: you can take direct command of any of your characters, control his/her level-up process, and modify inventory in every way you want. It's a BG-style party control this time, not the dumb NWN1 henchman system that was a pure excuse for party control.

What I liked the most is the fact that this time I got a deep, involving single-player story that lasts over 50 hours and that includes multiple options for the use of Diplomacy, Intimidate, Bluff, Sleight of Hand, and other skills which are mostly disregarded in contemporary CRPGs. NWN2 is not a dumb hack-n-slash like NWN1 was. Even though combat is still a great part of the game (probably the biggest), multiple sidequests with the dialogs offering plenty of alternative ways to deal with things definitely raise the level of this game in my eyes. Also, the KoTOR influence system makes a comeback here, making PC-NPC interactions even more interesting. Your NPC party members will get influenced by your actions, and doing bad things in presence of good NPC allies can cause you to come down in their opinion.

Of course, this game has its downsides, and many of them. First of all, the game is definitely an "Atari release", which means it's buggy and heavily unoptimized. Obsidian has released a couple patches by now, and are planning to release the third one very soon, so hopefully the gameplay and technical aspects will be fixed soon enough. Also, I would have actually liked to be able to create my party myself instead of being able to recruit the precreated characters into my party. And I would have liked a turn-based option which would have made this game feel more like a D&D one. And I would have sure liked a way to actually roll my character stats instead of using a 32-point buy, which is the only option that exists in NWN2 for now (someone's writing the roller I think).

So, the verdict is: among the current RPGs that get released, NWN2 is definitely a fun game which is in many respects different from its predecessor (NWN1) and which brings more single-player gameplay depth and involvement than the previous NWN game. Basically, you can say that NWN2 is Neverwinter Nights done the Obsidian way. If you like the Obsidian-style CRPGs like KoTOR or if you enjoy deep storylines with PC-NPC relationships like Baldur's Gate, there's a high chance you'll like NWN2. If you like dumb hack-n-slash and more simplistic Neverwinter Nights 1 style of game, NWN2 can actually be a big disappointment since it's definitely a different type of game.

Pros:
+ A long (50+ hours), deep, involving single-player storyline that's on par with the top CRPG storylines out there (Baldur's Gate and KoTOR)
+ Many options for non-combat ways of solving quests, e.g. diplomacy, bluff, etc.
+ Many sidequests with different ways to solve and different outcomes.
+ Complete control over your NPC party members
+ PC-NPC interaction is on a rather high level, with ability to gain or lose influence with your party members and with ability to make them choose their further path of development (e.g. multiclassing after a side quest and so on).

Cons:
- Many bugs, including slowdowns and lag, and gameplay issues.
- No possibility to create your own characters for a party.
- Only one option to set stats for your main character - a 32-point buy. No rolling option, which is sad. Note that this point is to a certain (small) extent compensated by a wide variety of subrace choices, which offer bonus points in different abilities.
- Little improvement in the toolset department: you can still only choose fixed DC and damage values for weapon effects, which is rather dumb, etc.
- No true-to-D&D turn-based mode.

Feel free to agree or disagree, I just stated my point of view as a person who never ever liked NWN1 but who always liked Obsidian's style in CRPGs, like KoTOR2.

- Agetian

 

Yup, I haven't seen these either, but I haven't used them in Baldur's Gate ever anyway, and it's actually not a big loss for me. (To tell the truth I had some trouble remembering that there was that feature in BG)

- Agetian

 

Well, it looks like game companies have forgotten about the art of making good games. Every single game that I saw released within the last at least year came out glitchy as sh*t, I can't remember what it was exactly that I enjoyed playing without having to worry about the game crashing, the saved game becoming corrupt, plot becoming broken, or whatever else there is.

Ah, good ol' times... I remember those days when patches were purely cosmetic and didn't really matter (unpatched games were fully playable in any case).

- Agetian