Review NWN2News reviews NWN2 - 9.5

[elander_]

I would expect for NWN2 to start in a linear way and later in the middle of the game to offer more choices and broad paths to finnaly become linear again at the end. It's very common these days.

As for the kind of choices that Wulfgar was talking about, i think he is refering to choices that allow him to play a faction against another at the players convinience.

NWN2 offers the player quests tied to character class and their alignement evil/good/lawful/cahotic and thats the kind of choices you get in games, just like BG and also PST.

I agree that rpgs are better without classes and alignments but they can't just throw away their heritage.

 

[Voss]

NWN2's storyline is one of its two biggest weakness - the other big one is the lameo forced npcs that hurts 'immersion'.

You forgot the UI. There was nothing wrong with NWN's radial menu and it was a big mistake to change it.
.

I'm glad they changed it. Hated 1's UI. This one is a bit weird in places (why does quick cast pop up way the fuck up there?), but it works much better for me.

 

[Wulfgar]

As for the kind of choices that Wulfgar was talking about, i think he is refering to choices that allow him to play a faction against another at the players convinience.

Is that too much to ask for? Even fucking KotoR's had that... In fact, chapter 1 of SoU also had it.

NWN2 offers the player quests tied to character class and their alignement evil/good/lawful/cahotic and thats the kind of choices you get in games, just like BG and also PST.

Hmmm, if you say so. So far, my impression is that NWN2 offers fake choices, some choices that can lead to less rewarding results than the others (concerning xp and ph4t l3wt) and a long strech of no choices at all where you are being railroaded from one dungeon to another. Obviously, I'm not enjoying the ride. Maybe when the fabled Act II starts...

 

[Volourn]

Heck, NWN1 OC had it.

And, character class quests? I don't recall NWN2 OC having these. At least not a lot of them.

 

[elander_]

Is that too much to ask for? Even fucking KotoR's had that... In fact, chapter 1 of SoU also had it.

NWN also has this in a very limited way. It doesn't help much because things allway end up converging at some point and no mater what you did there will be little changes besides the tone of npcs dialogs. I supsect NWN2 is the same thing with only a few side-quests to give a little taste of this.

If they wanted to add faction interaction to an interesting level they would have to give up on having an heavy linear main quest. I just don't think this will ever happen with D&D games. And i believe that any other game that follows the same path will never be able to provide a strong RP experience.

 

[obediah]

Someone named after a drizzt book has intelligent things to say and lives in a spacemoos comic strip???

my head asplode.

I'll just assume you're a fan of beowulf. Don't correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[elander_]

"I'll just assume you're a fan of beowulf."

I'm a fan of Conan the destroyer, really, in case you are talking to me.

 

[obediah]

"I'll just assume you're a fan of beowulf."

I'm a fan of Conan the destroyer, really, in case you are talking to me.

nope - I was talking to Wulfgar.

 

[Surgey]

@ Wulfgar

Ew, that character in that picture is black.

Er, I mean, hey I never noticed that. Then again, I usually choose not to examine things unless necessary, because most of it is claptrap. I examined an ore vein and it had some number for a name, then a bit later I got hit by a trap with a name like "1vain" or something like that, then when I was in the battle where I meet Katal-mach, the battle ended and I was able to talk to the guy; I got dialogue choices as if he was in my party. Then I found out one orc was left, so I killed it and the cutscene started.

Still, the bugs don't keep the game from being good. But I wish some of the prestige classes didn't suck. 12 damage per round as a berserker? Don't you mean 2? Some of the things I don't understand why they thought were unbalanced, especially when Weapon Master is still in the game. Berserker is pretty flawed, especially since the frenzy Strength bonus doesn't stack with Rage and the 12 damage per round thing. As it stands, the Frenzy is secondary to the extreme amounts of power attack damage.

Also, yes, NW2's UI is an improvement over the first's; but I miss the ability to pair up items on the hotbar. If I dual-wield and also use a ranged weapon or shield, I have to manually go to the inventory; nothing extremely annoying, but still a little odd it took that step back.

 

[Volourn]

1.03 will fix that oversight.

 

[sabishii]

1.03 will fix that oversight.

Two things: dual wield AND the frenzy HP damage, I think.

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Based on Royal Mail's next-day delivery scheme, and my having ordered the game on Saturday, you'd expect me to have it today, right?
You'd be wrong.
I really fucking hate Royal Mail.

 

[kris]

Hmmm, if you say so. So far, my impression is that NWN2 offers fake choices, some choices that can lead to less rewarding results than the others (concerning xp and ph4t l3wt) and a long strech of no choices at all where you are being railroaded from one dungeon to another. Obviously, I'm not enjoying the ride. Maybe when the fabled Act II starts...

Already in act 1 there are some important parts as in how decisions have consequences. Some of them are not seen until far further into the game, others you will discover quite soon.