Re: FWIW my (almost) full review of neverwinter nights 2
Jim,
I agree with a lot of what you wrote. But some things I feel differently about. My comments follow.
Jim Kata said:
Interface. This is worse than any game I have played.
I agree with what you said about the interface. I would add that if you have puppet mode off, it is incredibly annoying that selecting a character issues the "follow me" command, ending whatever actions everyone else was doing. Having said that, take a look at my screenshot from the game:
http://www.outshine.com/images/nwn2.jpg
That's exactly as I run it -- size, camera, etc. Note a few things: the map looks better; the portraits take up less screen space; the quickbar has twice as many slots available, but the icons are smaller; there is a "command" bar which has the party commands visible.
All of that comes from just two mods -- the XUI mod, and the little big map mod. You can get both on NW Vault. With those two free enhancements, my hours of gameplay have been far more enjoyable.
Jim Kata said:
The characters really don't give any feedback as to who they are attacking, if anyone. Most of the time, if you leave them to their own devices this will be no one.
I agree, but I've been using another mod to remedy this somewhat -- Even's AI mod. Not only does it make the characters more intelligent, it makes the enemies more intelligent too. Also, it helps to make the AI switches more defined and stable. Spellcasting settings are now clearly defined, and a bit more sane. In other words, they don't dump all their spells into a single opponent anymore (well, they do, but it's mitigated enough that I'm mostly happy).
Jim Kata said:
Let ME select my party. What the fuck!!! Every other mission I have to take different people along.
You may notice that in the screenshot I linked to, my party has 6 members. It is very simple to get into the console (just press ~) and change the party limit, or pull up the NPC selection menu. So I've increased the party size to mitigate the forced NPC limitations. The game operates wonderfully with increased party size, although some battles get easier. So for me, your complaint is the kind that I shared initially, then fixed, and spent the rest of the game happy.
Jim Kata said:
At one point you get a follower. Well, cool, I thought! Awesome! I was looking forward to leveling her up just as I saw fit. Sorry! She starts off as a fighter the exact same level as you, even as you 'train' her.
I don't have a solution to this -- I just want to comment on how frustrating it is. I suspect that it could have been fixed with 5 minutes of effort. Possible solutions? They could have simply had a 2 second cutscene when you acquired her, with just some text: "1 month later...." If they had done that, I could have understood her being trained up by the time I get my hands on her. Or, they could have dropped her into the party at level 1 but with tons of experience, so you get to level her up yourself. Or, they could have given her a backstory similar to the one given to your foster-father -- she was an adventurer but settled down. ANY of those would have helped to make her sensible. Instead, the developers just left her storyline in an irrational state. That's annoying, sloppy, and stupid.
Jim Kata said:
Dialog. Tons of useless dialog. Tons of it! In most cases your answers have no effect, either. You select a, b, or c and they all lead to the exact same response! What's the point?
FWIW, I liked it. I was actually nervous going into my trial. I avoided all the "skip the talking and write stuff into my journal" options. I read everything, and I felt that much of the writing was very good. Of course, I remember thinking differently when I had only played the first few hours of the game, so I guess the beginning sucks in comparison to the rest.
Jim Kata said:
The keep. Well, it has some odd parts, but overall building and managing the keep is the part of the game I liked the most. It is pretty detailed and interesting.
Well, I agree but I can't help feeling that they fully ripped off the NWN 1 module, Darkness over Daggerford. The guys at Ossian Studios did some great work with the stronghold in their module. It is so obviously a precursor to the keep in NWN 2 that I almost wonder if Obsidian had to pay them off to prevent them from shouting "plagarism" too loudly. Still, I'm not sad to see the keep in NWN 2. I'm glad I experienced both. And NWN 2 takes it to another level, so that's cool to see it ramped up.
Thanks for your review. It was good. If you ever replay the game, maybe consider some of the mods to help you have a better experience.