While there are technically 4 single-player game modules available on NW Vault, 2 are severely botched. "The Adventures of Faction Pig" is supposedly nonsensical. "A Simple Problem" is flagged as beta and most quests simply cannot be solved. That leaves us with 2 "real" modules to talk about.
A Dark And Stormy Knight
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NW ... tail&id=48
This module is about 15 minutes long. It isn't long enough to grant you any level gain. It contains 2 playable maps, one of which is just the lead-in, containing no encounters.
You begin play with a store interface open. Use it or lose it. Once your character is equipped, you can wander the initial area. I can see my character is on a path, so I elected to follow that path out of the area. However, at a certain point, I cannot click along the path any further. Why? Because the game doesn't want the player to leave the area.
So here's my first bit of commentary. And that is, if you are a module builder, would you please "bake" out areas with some intelligence? (Baking is the process of blocking access to certain areas. I have no problem with this, done right. But it seems that the main NWN 2 campaign and both of these modules have left in areas that look like they are intended for use, but they are truly inaccessible.) Why not put rubble in the way? A large mountain? A fence? What is this burgeoning tradition of teasing the player with areas that don't put out?
OK, so the only other option you're left with is a door in a hillside. Enter. Try 3 more doors. I won't spoil it, as it's very, very short. I'll simply say that you have some skirmishes, your journal is updated, you exit into sunlight, and that's the game.
Best characters for the module are probably fighters or clerics, as you'll need power to defeat enemies quickly, or else you'll need the ability to retreat & heal. I played as a rogue, and it was fine, but silly. There was little need for the skills my character had.
Avendale
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NW ... tail&id=39
This module is meatier. If you read everything and explore every last bit of it, I suspect you could get maybe 8 hours of play out of it. I got about 6. I botched most of the quests, which is why I didn't get my full 8 hours. You can expect to be at level 2 by the end, possibly level 3 if you do absolutely everything perfectly.
This module was a testbed for a fledgling module-maker, as far as I can tell. He or she was trying to learn the dialogue system, how to create companions, etc. So it does try to cover most of the bases.
You start out as a wanderer/traveller of some kind, and come across a man who asks you to deliver a package to a small town. Whether you do it or not, the town is your only available destination. Before you get there, the man warns you of small lizard-like critters in the hills. As you enter the next area, you can stay on the path and do little, or veer off the path and find the lizard dudes. The area is well-populated with trees, and fairly mountainous. Archery is useful here, as is a hide skill.
Eventually you'll make it to town. At the inn, you'll come across two joinable NPCs. They have very little dialogue, but they are interesting enough, considering the humble scope of the module. The male NPC is a bard, the female is a fighter. The innkeeper will give you a typical rats-in-the-cellar quest to start you off. Believe it or not, I botched this. I was never able to complete the quest or get the second quest from him (he supposedly has multiple quests, but only given out in sequence). Turns out, YOU have to kill the rats. I allowed my two companions to finish off the last one. Apparently, that didn't set the "quest completed" flag. Watch out for that.
Anyway, I found other quests from the merchant and boy. They seemed interesting enough. But I botched them too, somehow. In screencaps of the game, it shows the characters chatting up the pixies you can find. In my game, they just went hostile and we killed 'em. The mage quest ended badly for my crew, too.
The part of the game I liked the most was the gnolls. *spoiler* They will ambush you. This shows the first bit of promise from the new not-tile-based engine. They will be in the hills above you, and fire down arrows at you. You can fire back, and eventually get up there and engage them. *end spoiler*
The weakest part of the game is the ending, which is simply a road sign that you might ignore as you try to exit the final area. Right-clicking on the sign and selecting "examine" will reveal the closing text for the module (basically, "my first module, thanks for playing"). Nonetheless, it's a fun little module, and all you'd really need to do to have a proper ending is a basic Bink video with some scrolling text such as, "you clear the area and ride off in search of new adventures."
Best characters for this module? Probably a rogue. If not, you will definitely want to have the bard companion put points into lockpicking & disarm. A ranger would probably be a good character to try, too. You may want to avoid using a cleric, for one reason only: if you pick up all the loot & try to sell it, the sole merchant in the game will run out of cash. I needed to buy very little from him, so the best way to give him money was to buy up tons of healing potions, making a healer redundant.
Have fun.
A Dark And Stormy Knight
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NW ... tail&id=48
This module is about 15 minutes long. It isn't long enough to grant you any level gain. It contains 2 playable maps, one of which is just the lead-in, containing no encounters.
You begin play with a store interface open. Use it or lose it. Once your character is equipped, you can wander the initial area. I can see my character is on a path, so I elected to follow that path out of the area. However, at a certain point, I cannot click along the path any further. Why? Because the game doesn't want the player to leave the area.
So here's my first bit of commentary. And that is, if you are a module builder, would you please "bake" out areas with some intelligence? (Baking is the process of blocking access to certain areas. I have no problem with this, done right. But it seems that the main NWN 2 campaign and both of these modules have left in areas that look like they are intended for use, but they are truly inaccessible.) Why not put rubble in the way? A large mountain? A fence? What is this burgeoning tradition of teasing the player with areas that don't put out?
OK, so the only other option you're left with is a door in a hillside. Enter. Try 3 more doors. I won't spoil it, as it's very, very short. I'll simply say that you have some skirmishes, your journal is updated, you exit into sunlight, and that's the game.
Best characters for the module are probably fighters or clerics, as you'll need power to defeat enemies quickly, or else you'll need the ability to retreat & heal. I played as a rogue, and it was fine, but silly. There was little need for the skills my character had.
Avendale
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NW ... tail&id=39
This module is meatier. If you read everything and explore every last bit of it, I suspect you could get maybe 8 hours of play out of it. I got about 6. I botched most of the quests, which is why I didn't get my full 8 hours. You can expect to be at level 2 by the end, possibly level 3 if you do absolutely everything perfectly.
This module was a testbed for a fledgling module-maker, as far as I can tell. He or she was trying to learn the dialogue system, how to create companions, etc. So it does try to cover most of the bases.
You start out as a wanderer/traveller of some kind, and come across a man who asks you to deliver a package to a small town. Whether you do it or not, the town is your only available destination. Before you get there, the man warns you of small lizard-like critters in the hills. As you enter the next area, you can stay on the path and do little, or veer off the path and find the lizard dudes. The area is well-populated with trees, and fairly mountainous. Archery is useful here, as is a hide skill.
Eventually you'll make it to town. At the inn, you'll come across two joinable NPCs. They have very little dialogue, but they are interesting enough, considering the humble scope of the module. The male NPC is a bard, the female is a fighter. The innkeeper will give you a typical rats-in-the-cellar quest to start you off. Believe it or not, I botched this. I was never able to complete the quest or get the second quest from him (he supposedly has multiple quests, but only given out in sequence). Turns out, YOU have to kill the rats. I allowed my two companions to finish off the last one. Apparently, that didn't set the "quest completed" flag. Watch out for that.
Anyway, I found other quests from the merchant and boy. They seemed interesting enough. But I botched them too, somehow. In screencaps of the game, it shows the characters chatting up the pixies you can find. In my game, they just went hostile and we killed 'em. The mage quest ended badly for my crew, too.
The part of the game I liked the most was the gnolls. *spoiler* They will ambush you. This shows the first bit of promise from the new not-tile-based engine. They will be in the hills above you, and fire down arrows at you. You can fire back, and eventually get up there and engage them. *end spoiler*
The weakest part of the game is the ending, which is simply a road sign that you might ignore as you try to exit the final area. Right-clicking on the sign and selecting "examine" will reveal the closing text for the module (basically, "my first module, thanks for playing"). Nonetheless, it's a fun little module, and all you'd really need to do to have a proper ending is a basic Bink video with some scrolling text such as, "you clear the area and ride off in search of new adventures."
Best characters for this module? Probably a rogue. If not, you will definitely want to have the bard companion put points into lockpicking & disarm. A ranger would probably be a good character to try, too. You may want to avoid using a cleric, for one reason only: if you pick up all the loot & try to sell it, the sole merchant in the game will run out of cash. I needed to buy very little from him, so the best way to give him money was to buy up tons of healing potions, making a healer redundant.
Have fun.
