The camera problems are vastly exaggerated. The over-the-shoulder camera is just fine, and exploration mode is what I used 99% of the time without complaint. Strategy mode, while giving you the most tactical view, is slightly unwieldy in the 3D environment. All the bitching and moaning about the camera are exaggerations. The OC doesn't commit too many offenses aside from being too long, as it is thoroughly mediocre--thought not without some high points. Mask of the Betrayer has a wonderful narrative, Storm of Zehir if a party-based exploration romp, and Mysteries of Westgate is a decent enough adventure itself. NWN2 is worth a try if you're a D&D fan, for sure.
When people complain about the camera and control in this game, I don't think they quite nail what the problem is. The problem is that the division into three modes is quite a good idea, but it's not very well implemented, and some of the things are in the wrong places (i.e. things that would really fit with one mode aren't available for it, are available only in another mode, where they're useless).
I mean, sure, you can wrangle a tolerably decent Infinity Engine style out of Strategy mode, and a kinda-sorta WoW control mode out of Character mode; but assigning WASD control is absolutely pointless for either Exploration or Strategy mode, and should be effective only in Character Steering mode (i.e. as it stands, you can't assign those keys to camera and character steering at the same time) and you should be able to configure the keymapping to your taste (for example, in Character mode, you should be able to mouse-steer with RMB, as is standard in all games with that type of control, not fricken' LMB). It's like that all the way with NWN2's control system: all the bits and pieces are there for a decent control system, but some of them are in the wrong places in a way that's hard-coded, and the options available don't really allow you to marshall a system that's really comfortable for
any of the 3 modes.
We played these games in our youth because they were the best available, and there wasn't as much standardization of control modes in games, developers often had idioscyncratic ways of you controlling the game, so there wasn't that thing of muscle memory carrying over from one game to another that's common (and a very good thing) now. We were more used to learning each game as a separate thing and just getting used to it.
Now, playing NWN2 again, there's a lot to like about it, but the control system is still incredibly awkward and clunky, and one feels one is fighting against it constantly. Gradually, via the DA and ME games, BioWare homed in on slicker and simpler control systems, till by DA:I they had it all pretty smooth for switching between close and distant views, between more free-form and nitty-gritty tactical. But this early phase was pretty awful. (Actually, ironically, NWN had better controls than NWN2.)
When one compares the slickness of the control systems of DA:I or PF:K (especially with the mod to turn camera view) one realizes how far these things have come and how well developers have settled on certain conventions. But those conventions weren't quite in place when NWN2 came out, nothing had been settled in that way yet.
