Preview NWN2 preview with Uncle Feargie at Hexus

[Spazmo]

Tags: Neverwinter Nights 2; Obsidian Entertainment

<a href=http://gaming.hexus.net/>Hexus Gaming</a> have a <a href=http://gaming.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=5397>preview</a> of Neverwinter Nights 2 up. Here's some story details:<blockquote>Okay, you start off in West Harbour and, through having a wander around and chatting to various folk, you find out that years ago, when you were a babe, a great battle was fought on the very spot where West Harbour is. It turns out a bunch ethereal nasties called the Gythyanki were romping over Neverwinter and West Harbour is where humans fought a decisive battle with the bad guys.
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During the battle, the source of the Gythyanki’s power, the Sword of Gyth, was shattered causing a massive explosion and sending shards of the sword screaming all over the place. Now it appears that the Gythyanki have come back again, having managed over the years to find all the missing bits of the Sword of Gyth… all the bits except one.
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So you’d think that your main quest would be to find the missing shard and stop the Gythyanki, right? Wrong. You see, the missing shard is lodged in you, stuck there when you were but a babe and now it’s part of you… and the Gythyanki know this, so your quest is to evade the Gythyanki and work to gain respect and favour within Neverwinter as you progress along your quest to stop the Gythyanki before they catch you and split you open like a fortune cookie.</blockquote>Oh, so you are, in fact, TEH CHOSAN 1, if only because a shard of sword flew into your forehead. At least it didn't wipe your memory (I hope). Still, to Obsidian's credit, the Githyanki are really, really cool (come on, they have pet red dragons and their queen eats anyone who hits level 16 so they can't present a threat to her) and sorely underused compared to standard evil races like goblins and drow and so on.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</A>

 

[Old Scratch]

The Githyanki are humanoids sort of similar to Githzerai right? Are they supposed to be from the same plane?

The "last piece of the sword is in you" thing sounds ridiculous, but maybe it will be better explained in the actual game.

 

[Zomg]

Everything I read about NWN2 is like a surge of floodwater slapping into the sandbag wall protecting my enthusiasm for it.

 

[Antagonist]

Maybe Obsidian realized that the story sounds incredibly cheesy and therefore booted Ferret (sending him to Bioware where he will fit well with his lame story ideas). For a moment I suspected J.E. Sawyer being responsible for the big cleanup but then I remembered Fallout 3 and robots and ditched the thought.

Even after all this dampening news I'm still not giving up on NwN 2 as it might be after all the only mainstream game that resembles a RPG this year. Obsidian better not fuck this up.

And for fucks sake now that Sawyer is back use voodoo magic to revive The Black Hound. Just ditch the DnD licence.

 

[Volourn]

The story isn't the best EVAR; but if the role-playing and characters are quality, I'm sure the O will be fun. :D

 

[HoodRich]

That's horribly idiotic. If you are the very last hope for everyone, as in all you got to do is stay alive, those guys should be guarding you like a motherfucker. Not send you out to gain respect and favor or whatever. The grail isn't supposed to be loaded up into a cannon and fired straight at the enemy.

It does look real pretty though.

 

[Jora]

Everyone here seems to enjoy overreacting. "OMG theres a bad idea in the story [the shattered sword] it means everything else I've read about the game sounds horrible!"

 

[Jora]

That's horribly idiotic. If you are the very last hope for everyone, as in all you got to do is stay alive, those guys should be guarding you like a motherfucker. Not send you out to gain respect and favor or whatever. The grail isn't supposed to be loaded up into a cannon and fired straight at the enemy.

It does look real pretty though.

How do they know you're a chosen one? The Githyanki are after you. You are sent to Neverwinter to get help. I see no prophecies here.

 

[Volourn]

"Everyone here seems to enjoy overreacting. "OMG theres a bad idea in the story [the shattered sword] it means everything else I've read about the game sounds horrible!"

Who is this 'everyone' you speak of, Obsidian Fangirl?

 

[Surlent]

Sword piece on your forehead, good one.
Githyanki are indeed cool. Wasn't one of the PST npcs gith or githzerai ?
With that plot setup they really should add psionics to the table.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Githyanki are indeed cool. Wasn't one of the PST npcs gith or githzerai ?

Dak'kon was a Githzerai.

 

[themadhatter114]

That's horribly idiotic. If you are the very last hope for everyone, as in all you got to do is stay alive, those guys should be guarding you like a motherfucker. Not send you out to gain respect and favor or whatever. The grail isn't supposed to be loaded up into a cannon and fired straight at the enemy.

It does look real pretty though.

It didn't say that everyone knew; it said that that Githyanki knew. So for all we know you battle through Githyanki (or run from them) to Neverwinter, gain a few levels on the way, do some small favors for Neverwinter (who doesn't know about the sword) and in the meantime you're randomly assaulted by Githyanki and as you find out more and more, Neverwinter is in so much trouble that they can't protect you, anyhow. Regardless, I'll reserve my judgment until I read some reviews.



By the way, what happened to the hype about the King of Shadows?

 

[Jora]

Who is this 'everyone' you speak of, Obsidian Fangirl?

Some people in this thread, many in the other thread about the same subject. Yeah, I could have made it clearer.

BTW, this isn't the first time you've referred to me as a woman. Don't know if it's some kind of a joke or misunderstanding but I'm male. :D

 

[Surlent]

Dak'kon was a Githzerai.

Yeah, now I remember. Poor guy, spending all that time with the stone slab.

 

[Jora]

There were some Githyanki in Torment. They were planning an assault on a Githzerai fortress. You could discover their plans by letting them kill you in an alley in the Lower Ward.

 

[Zomg]

The Chosen One has been
kidnapped by ninjas.

Are you a bad enough dude
to rescue the Chosen One?

 

[Greatatlantic]

Is it just me or is the story sound like classic Avellone. I see the inevitable conversation already...

Ancient Being: Fool, you cannot comprehend your very nature.

PC: What is my nature? I just thought I had a bit of metal lodged in me.

AB: How typically human of you, to think a sword must be metal.

PC: So its not metal, what difference does it make?

AB: The sword is the very essence of creation itself. When it shattered it did not lodge into your body, it entered your very soul.

PC: So my sould has a bit of creation stuck in it?

AB: It is more then stuck there, it damaged your very soul. You are incomplete, hobbled, BROKEN.

PC: I had no idea, how do I fix myself before its to late.

AB: It may not be possible though you have no choice but to try. I know what you must do now... (cue leg of quests).

The potential is there, I just know it.

As for the sword itself, my impression was it was important to the group that attacked the humans way back when, not the gith as a whole.

 

[Screaming_life]

Everyone here seems to enjoy overreacting. "OMG theres a bad idea in the story [the shattered sword] it means everything else I've read about the game sounds horrible!"

Agreed. The alignment, reputation, background stuff and greater control of your party mentioned in the article all sounds good to me.

Actually, dare i say it, quite looking forward to it.

 

[Section8]

Well, the premise does sound kinda silly, but the proof will be in the er, pudding.

"WE NED U 2 FNDI TEH FOR INGREDENTS 4 A POUDDIGN11!!! GRATE1!!! NOW FIND 4 DIFRENT INGRENDIMENTS!1!!!"

 

[Voss]

1) Githyanki, idiots. Though I presume (hope) thats these Hexus morons, not Obsidian.

2) githyanki are largely hang out on the astral plane, not the ethereal.

3) the sword is the source of their power? Sigh.

4) for some reason, I can't catch the Neverwinter connection. Fearsome astral raiders are after your ass, so you go cozy up to the government of a relatively small town. Wtf?

5) Its also a lovely plot snippet that ignores basic principles, rules and resources of D&D. The githyanki have lots of wizards, clerics etc, of reasonable power among their ranks (their queen is a powerful lich, who is the original Gith after home they are named). If this sword is so fucking important, in fifteen plus years, they couldn't manage a simple divination/scrying/locate object spell, and kill you while you're just a wee sprog?
Lame.

5) and this uber artifact, randomly (and suddenly) the source of the races power, got shattered in battle against some random sorcerer? Right...

Yeah, someone put loads of effort into the 'story'

 

[obediah]

Everyone here seems to enjoy overreacting. "OMG theres a bad idea in the story [the shattered sword] it means everything else I've read about the game sounds horrible!"

That's me! I was so excited about the rushed sequal to a horrible game, that will have a pitifully short length, seems to be leaning even more towards diablo than NWN, and is being developed by a team whose last game was a buggy, hacked bombshell.

For some reason all that stuff had me really stoked before, but after reading the story sucks too, I'm going to overreact and decide they mean bad things for the game.

 

[Kendar]

I am not sure if I really care that much about the scenario, I just need an ultimate goal worth pursuing (my criterias are arbitrary). All I care about are the characters and their dialogs, and also the whole ambiance. That's what I liked KoTOR 2 : all this pseudo-philosophy and the "all is lost, let's finish dying slowly". And also, like I said before, I prefer discussions to combat. KoTOR 2 was so unbalanced that I never had to imply myself in combat, I could just finish them as quick as possible and focus on that : discussions. Not all of them were interesting, but there as a damn lot of them.

The main element was Kreia, I found her completely fascinating, with what happened to her before, her connexion with Revan and the way she behaved : simply my favourite side character ever. I understand, however, why most of you seem to hate her : her english voice-actress is unbearable, and usually, a significant part of the job is done at this point. There is a huge difference between the impression she left me in english and the impression I have had before.

Even if Obsidian's work is not always perfect, I believe they will do what I want, or at least I hope so, if what they did in KoTOR is representative of their way to work. The eternal difference between "I am close to the perfection in the genre I represent, but the genre itself is imperfect/unappreciated" and "I am what you want, no special need for overwhelming quality : it's always liked, but simply be good and I am happy". I hope NWN2 will be at least "simply good". If it could be excellent, hey, I won't dislike.

 

[themadhatter114]

Everyone here seems to enjoy overreacting. "OMG theres a bad idea in the story [the shattered sword] it means everything else I've read about the game sounds horrible!"

That's me! I was so excited about the rushed sequal to a horrible game, that will have a pitifully short length, seems to be leaning even more towards diablo than NWN, and is being developed by a team whose last game was a buggy, hacked bombshell.

For some reason all that stuff had me really stoked before, but after reading the story sucks too, I'm going to overreact and decide they mean bad things for the game.

Rushed? Hasn't it been in development, from a pre-existing engine, for over 2 years?

Pitifully short length? Until just the other day you had no clue how long it's going to be, and according to JE Sawyer on the Obsidian boards, neither does Feargus, really, so you still don't have any clue how long it's going to be.

Leaning more toward Diablo than NWN? As in, NWN, the horrible game you referred to earlier? Wouldn't it be a good thing to be leaning away from NWN? And just how is it shaping up to be anything like Diablo?

Was KOTOR2 that buggy? I only encountered two bugs the entire time, a gamestopper in the very beginning, and a loading problem later on that caused a little frustration but was easily handled. It did get pretty bad at the end, but the game certainly had potential and was far better in most respects than the first game (which it should be, but severe regression isn't uncommon). For a first effort, I think it's enough for further consideration.

 

[jiujitsu]

Sounds alright to me. I just hope everything unfolds... at least semi-cleverly. Not:

LOL U HAF SORD IN UR HED! GIV IT!

LOL NO!

FINE ME KIL U THEN LOL!

NO WAI *magic missle*

URRRGGHHH!

I AM TEH VICTOR!

But seriously, 85% chance that you recover the sword and are the only one who can weild it because the final piece to it is inside of you and it is the only weapon that can defeat the big bad dude at the end.

 

[obediah]

Rushed? Hasn't it been in development, from a pre-existing engine, for over 2 years?

Beats me, I don't think Obsidian has it for much more than 2 years ago. There were significant engine changes as well, and a lot of people working on it didn't work on NWN. Google turns up lots of debate on the bioware forum over the development length, so I don't think I'm out on a limb here.

Pitifully short length? Until just the other day you had no clue how long it's going to be,

Until 17 years ago, I didn't have pubic hair - that doesn't mean I don't have pubic hair now.

and according to JE Sawyer on the Obsidian boards, neither does Feargus, really, so you still don't have any clue how long it's going to be.

Go JE, I hope he's right. I'm not counting on it though, as it goes against Feargus and current trends in Bio/sidian game lengths. I guess magame lengthybe KoToR II was longer than KoTor, it's been too long for me to say for sure.

Leaning more toward Diablo than NWN? As in, NWN, the horrible game you referred to earlier? Wouldn't it be a good thing to be leaning away from NWN? And just how is it shaping up to be anything like Diablo?

Logic isn't your forte is it? If I don't like peach ice cream, does that imply coating it in chicken gravy will make it better? Besides, NWN was bad because it tried to squeeze a party-based RPG system into a diablo-clone. The addition of the Warlock or whatever the new mindless nuker class is is a good example of the action-rpg-ification. I really can't express how much I hated NWN, I tried many times to play it, I even waited several years for all the good expansions and player-content, but still couldn't get into it.

Was KOTOR2 that buggy? I only encountered two bugs the entire time, a gamestopper in the very beginning, and a loading problem later on that caused a little frustration but was easily handled. It did get pretty bad at the end, but the game certainly had potential and was far better in most respects than the first game (which it should be, but severe regression isn't uncommon). For a first effort, I think it's enough for further consideration.

Yeah it was, and it suffered badly from time management or schedule reduction. I'm certainly not writing Obsidian off because of KoToR II. The only reason I've found to be excited about NWN2 is that I really want it to be good or at least something I'd enjoy (I didn't think KoToR II was good, but I finished it and had some fun with it). However, I haven't encountered anything to let me get my hopes up.

There are plenty of people here that hated NWN for many of the same reasons as me, hopefully some of them will bite the bullet and I make a more educated decision on whether or not to buy it.