Review NWN 2 review extravaganza

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Neverwinter Nights 2; Obsidian Entertainment

Here is a trackload of <a href=http://www.atari.com/nwn2/>Neverwinter Nights 2</a> reviews of all kinds.
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<a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=69595>EuroGamer review - 8/10</a>
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<blockquote>This is essentially Baldur's Gate.
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While its design is starting to show its age a little, the engine is far from perfect and so on and so forth and so bloody whining, there's still enough of the magic here which will reduce the seasoned PC role-playing gamer to rapture. It's not the future of PC gaming, but a glorious slice of the recent past. This may be the last adventure like this you'll ever go on. And there's a certain style and grandeur to anything like that</blockquote><a href=http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/neverwinter-nights-ii/744657p1.html>GameSpy review - 4/5</a>
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<blockquote>It says something that, despite these technical issues, we found it very hard to tear ourselves away from Neverwinter Nights 2 long enough to actually write this review. Just like its acclaimed spiritual predecessors, the game is wholly engrossing and begs to be explored. Rare is a game with such meaningful and varied character development, and the plethora of options available will guarantee that many players will want to indulge in its experience from the point of view of several different types of characters. Neverwinter Nights 2 is one of the best RPGs we've played in a long time -- bugs and performance issues be damned.</blockquote><a href=http://www.actiontrip.com/reviews/neverwinternights2.phtml>ActionTrip review - 84/100</a>
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<blockquote>Even though Neverwinter Nights 2 sees a few inventive components, the game actually doesn't amount up to anything groundbreaking in terms of gameplay. Quite simply, the development team decided to draw on all the aspects of gameplay that made KoTOR great and implement that in NWN 2. As you'd have thought, Obsidian came up with a gripping and well-balanced plot, which holds your attention the whole time. In a nutshell, Neverwinter Nights 2 is like Knights of the Old Republic enveloped in a well-known D&D universe. Apart from inserting plenty of elements that will surely keep RPG buffs happy, Obsidian also re-introduced the character alignment system (i.e. good vs. evil). Once again, making various choices through dialogue and warfare defines your character, allowing you to set the border carefully between good and evil personalities. Of course, you can always take the situation to the extreme, either by being an ultimate goody-goody hero or a merciless villain.</blockquote><a href=http://www.computergames.ro/en/games/viewitem/id/455/name/neverwinter-nights-2/section/review.html>Computer Games review - 85/100</a>
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<blockquote>So here we are, at the end of our arduous journey. Did I enjoy playing Neverwinter Nights 2? Yes I did, even though I’m not exactly a D&D fan, but the story, characters and the choices I had at my disposal made me overlook the bad AI, frustrating party micromanagement, gamebreaking bugs or the Spartan inventory system. Many will ask if they should play NWN 2 considering that it’s geared mainly towards D&D players. Yes, you should play it but you’ll also have to leave some of your RPG preconceptions at the door if you want to truly enjoy the game. And as expected, the game ending leaves the door wide open for at least an expansion, so I have a feeling that in the future we’ll spend quite some time in the Forgotten Realms.</blockquote><a href=http://www.gameplaymonthly.com/reviews/nwn2.php>GamePlay Monthly review - B+</a>
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<blockquote>Despite some minor failings, which I anticipate will be patched quite shortly, Neverwinter Nights 2 is an exceptional game. This game has one of the best single player storylines seen in not just a CRPG, but in any RPG in years. If you are a real RPG fan, you owe it to yourself to give it a chance.</blockquote>You've heard the man. You owe it to yourself.
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Thanks RPG Watch, Hazelnut, and Bossman.
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[Volourn]

The pedestrian and extremely linear story can't be fixed in a patch.... so, why does he lie?

And, it's not ';essentially' BG or any other DEAD game. It's the sequel to NWN1, and it feels, acts, plays,.a nd even looks like it.

Game over.

 

[Jed]

NWN IS DEAD. LONG LIVE NWN!

 

[Bah]

The pedestrian and extremely linear story can't be fixed in a patch.... so, why does he lie?

And, it's not ';essentially' BG or any other DEAD game. It's the sequel to NWN1, and it feels, acts, plays,.a nd even looks like it.

Game over.

So we're never allowed to compare new games to old games? That just makes no sense. I don't even understand the point of your argument about dead games.

NWN had no real micro-managing of NPCs. Baldurs Gate 2 did. Neverwinter Night 2 does. BG2 had a way better UI for micro managing your party. NWN2 has a pretty crappy UI for controlling your party. There. I compared and contrasted. Scream your irrelevant "dead game" argument at me.

 

[Baphomet]

I don't even understand the point of your argument about dead games.

I once had a client who wanted to piss away thousands of dollars for me to travel 1000+ miles to visit their site when no work had to be done. I, like you, tried to make sense of the situation. My boss eventually said "don't apply logical thinking to stupid people and stupid situations - you'll always be four steps behind."

 

[callehe]

question to those that have the game: is the ending completely linear? any branching of the story at all? kotor all over again?

 

[Volourn]

The reason I got on my DEAD GAME kick is because of stupid quotes like this:

"This is essentially Baldur's Gate."

or

"In a nutshell, Neverwinter Nights 2 is like Knights of the Old Republic enveloped in a well-known D&D universe."

Complete, and utter bullshit that needs to be squashed by the opposite extreme reaction. Comparing and contratsing is fine and dandy and logical; but if you bullshit I'm gonan bullshit ten times as much. Ok?

Ok.


Addon: Ther eis some branching espciially when you first enter Neverwinter itself. Otehgrwise, the main story is nothing more than A-B-C-D-E. I'm in Axt2 so it might change; but it's doubtful cosnideirng that most games get more linear as they go on; not less...

 

[Gambler]

So far it seems more linear than KOTOR2, but I haven't played it a lot.

 

[The Vanished One]

A game can be a masterpiece even if it's as linear as a ruler.

 

[suibhne]

Well, it's definitely not a masterpiece. :wink:

@ Volourn: So far, the reason I compare the game to BG is because the plot and style of storytelling are much more reminescent of that game than the NWN OC. I wouldn't take the comparison any farther than that, and anyway you're farther into the game and know more of the plot than I've seen.

 

[Seboss]

I only played a bit, I just arrived in Neverwinter. So far, the game is not only linear, it's nearly forcing you to play a good character. As an evil character, you don't have any options but to kill everything on sight and generally behave like the local drunken bully with a 100 words vocabulary. Asking for a legitimate reward after wading through hordes of undead is considered as the most evil thing one can do in the Mere and despite that, peasants still cheer you up and bring you presents for your departure.
The game is ok if you can manage the realtime with pause crap, the catastrophic AI and performance and the not so handy interface.
Playing an evil character is really pointless though.

 

[Bah]

The reason I got on my DEAD GAME kick is because of stupid quotes like this:

"This is essentially Baldur's Gate."

or

"In a nutshell, Neverwinter Nights 2 is like Knights of the Old Republic enveloped in a well-known D&D universe."

I'll give you that. I've been seeing some really dumb comments about NWN2.

Addon: Ther eis some branching espciially when you first enter Neverwinter itself. Otehgrwise, the main story is nothing more than A-B-C-D-E. I'm in Axt2 so it might change; but it's doubtful cosnideirng that most games get more linear as they go on; not less...

Indeed. The game is very linear. I've just started Act2 as well and am playing a chaotic-evil character. I tend to only play an RPG once, and I've never chosen to be an evil character in any prior D&D games that I've played before. I've seen other comments that NWN2 does a real bad job of giving options for the evil-path. That may be true, but since I have no real experience playing an evil-character I don't have much to compare it against. Personally, I've been enjoying the game much more than NWN.

The main problem I have with NWN2 is that the UI was NOT designed with micro-management in mind. However, because of the piss-poor AI implementation, I ended up turning on puppet-mode almost immediately. So fights do get a little tedious because the UI was not designed well for controlling the characters. The camera is a little cumbersome, but hasn't been bothering me as much as other people. My biggest gripe is that even on the fastest setting, the camera turns too slowly when I move my mouse to the edge of the screen.

 

[bylam]

My biggest gripe with NWN2 is not so much the good vs evil, but rather the chaos vs law.

*Spoiler* When I arrived in Neverwinter my Chaotic Good character could either join the city watch or some random thieves.
I figured being chaotic would pretty much preclude joining the watch right? Right? And yet, despite the fact that I managed to complete the first strongarm thief job by only talking, I still received evil alignment? FTW? *End Spoiler*

It is a fun game, and far better than several "RPG'S" I have played recently but it still fails to capture the spirit of Volourn's DEAD games!

 

[suibhne]

The alignment railroading in the two Neverwinter quest lines is garbage, alas. My hope is that there will still be plenty of opportunities to redeem my character.

 

[Sisay]

question to those that have the game: is the ending completely linear? any branching of the story at all? kotor all over again?

The story is completely linear but there are two endings that I know of. The one you get depends on what you do in the final encounter. There is also an ending slideshow which was a pleasant surprise. The narrator is pretty bad, though.

 

[Volourn]

I don't think multiple ending slides should be a surprise nowadays. FO got it done first (iirc), and starting with HoTU BIO has been using it steaidly with that game and JE. i'm sure their upcoming games will ahve it as well. Obsidian also used it for KOTOR2 (though rather dissapointingly though). I think it's a trend that's stickinga round.

 

[Zomg]

I'm pretty much playing it to critique it, now. It annoys me that this piece of junk, with one of the worst rulesets and truly the worst setting I can imagine for an RPG has to be the last mainstream avatar of the dialog tree RPG.

 

[Volourn]

You are an idiot. Next, please.

 

[OccupatedVoid]

The pedestrian and extremely linear story can't be fixed in a patch.... so, why does he lie?

And, it's not ';essentially' BG or any other DEAD game. It's the sequel to NWN1, and it feels, acts, plays,.a nd even looks like it.

Game over.

Sorry people. Volourn is right. NWN2 uses a lot of assets from NWN1 such as music, sound fx, and more.

I actually miss the radial menu too. I hate pressing shift right click!

 

[zenslinger]

if you bullshit I'm gonan bullshit ten times as much. Ok?

You're not going to do this in any case?

 

[elander_]

...with one of the worst rulesets...

You mean D&D35 ruleset? This stuff is quite good for turn-base melee combat. And theres also plenty of skills that if used well can provide good dialog rp, steath and crafting. D&D games praticaly invented turn-base party combat.

...to be the last mainstream avatar of the dialog tree RPG.

CA is the best with dialog rp. Theres just two things rpg game designers need to realize D&D works with turn-base. Each combat is almost like a chess-board game. Second each rpg should be like a campaign providing adventures and gameplay for a good vareity of charcaters.

Instead rpgs are wasted with single adventures. Trying to force the player to play the game with multiple characters where you are just geting a single linear adventure is ridiculous. In my radical opinion crpgs should not even have a main quest or have a minimal one like in Fallout.

 

[sheek]

...with one of the worst rulesets...

You mean D&D35 ruleset? This stuff is quite good [snip]

Read and let yourself be enlightened.

 

[Jasede]

Popularity does not equal quality.
Popularity is based on marketing.
Successful marketing does not make something good.

Damn straight. That's a great link, sheek. Thank you.

 

[Zomg]

The ruleset sucks because it implies so much of the shitty D&D default setting, like e.g. having goddamn stupid monks and mages and rogues and so on, mutated schlock fantasy chimeras. On top of that, it's spreadsheet porn. It's a complete waste to implement it in a game where the immense majority of the combat is lawnmowing as far as I can tell (I'm still apparently in the "first act") and I could have used a system that either helps establish character or is just simple enough not to get in the way.

I don't mind heavy railroading, to be frank. I like the freedom in Darklands and Fallout type games, but they're clearly a different type of game from stuff like Arcanum (significant railroading) and Bloodlines or PS:T (extreme railroading) and the types have distinct attraction.

 

[Gambler]

Good website.

The Top 10 AD&D Excuses For Bad Rules

For any rule you're talking about, the rule isn't bad because:
10. Most characters wouldn't want to do/be X, so it makes sense that no characters can.
9. It's fantasy; it's not supposed to make sense.
8. It's just being true to some unspecified source material.
7. You can pretend it's more detailed than it is.
6. You can buy Player's Option book X, which fixes it.
5. The game designers didn't mean for you to apply it as written.
4. Every other system has bad rules, too.
3. The system sells better than any other system.
2. Lots of people have fun playing the game.

and the number one reason that the AD&D rule in question isn't bad:

1. You can change it if you don't like it.

Could be applied to computer game mechanics as well. I hear similar excuses all the time.