How would you rate Neverwinter Nights 2?

[BuckGB]

Obsidian's Neverwinter Nights sequel is finally here... but was it worth the wait? Cast your vote!

[Siberys]

I don't have the game yet, but I voted "Very Good" anyways. Why? For two main reasons. One, neverwinter nights proved to me that it can be a good game, I liked it a lot as soon as SoU and HoTU came out. Two, because it's made by obsidian. Obsidian has always proven to have a decently solid storyline made out for a campaign. I have faith that once my copy arrives it will be a good game.

[darkpark]

I started playing the game yesterday and so far I'm having a blast! Parts of the interface seems a little cumbersome, but after an hour or so it's a piece of cake.
Anyway, I highly recommend this game to any NWN or CRPG fan!

[Xandax]

Well, have only played a bit, but my feelings are so far mixed.
I dislike the interface. It seems very cartoonish and .... well, "old" - and I miss the more intuitive (in my view) interface from the original NwN.
I also have problems targeting things, because the cursor does not seem to be accurate, so often I run past my enemies instead of attacking them, opening up to several AoO's.
I also dislike how seemingly not much is explained in the manual. I had to actually just press my keyboard to see what function various keys had - such as F12 being quick save.

Story wise seems to be run-of-the-mill so far and withouth spoiling much more then the first 20 seconds ... but "Foster father" beginnig? I mean come on, that is laughable.

But overall, I rate the game average so far, as the game seems interesting still, and I quite like that you start at level 3 instead of level 1 giving you a bit more survivability.
And the masses of new classes and races is also interesting - although I fear we'll see countless drow rangers (*sigh*) or thieflings.

But so far my most major point of annoyance is a very poor manual. Very poor indeed.

[Kolominas]

Great story, lesser graphics, a little buggy, but great sound. It definitly deserves a pleace in my top 10 RPG list. (place 8 or 9 or so)

[Monolith]

Originally Posted by Xandax

Well, have only played a bit, but my feelings are so far mixed.
I dislike the interface. It seems very cartoonish and .... well, "old" - and I miss the more intuitive (in my view) interface from the original NwN.
I also have problems targeting things, because the cursor does not seem to be accurate, so often I run past my enemies instead of attacking them, opening up to several AoO's.
I also dislike how seemingly not much is explained in the manual. I had to actually just press my keyboard to see what function various keys had - such as F12 being quick save.

Story wise seems to be run-of-the-mill so far and withouth spoiling much more then the first 20 seconds ... but "Foster father" beginnig? I mean come on, that is laughable.

But overall, I rate the game average so far, as the game seems interesting still, and I quite like that you start at level 3 instead of level 1 giving you a bit more survivability.
And the masses of new classes and races is also interesting - although I fear we'll see countless drow rangers (*sigh*) or thieflings.

But so far my most major point of annoyance is a very poor manual. Very poor indeed.

If your major complaints are about the UI and the manual...then the game must be an instant classic. Alright, you also crticize the story. From what I heard not very imaginative, at least the beginning. What do you think, is the game better than NWN?

[Xandax]

Originally Posted by Monolith

If your major complaints are about the UI and the manual...then the game must be an instant classic. Alright, you also crticize the story. From what I heard not very imaginative, at least the beginning. What do you think, is the game better than NWN?

Having played a bit more, my critique is still mainly about the manual, but also the other parts I mentioned (such as Interface). The manual is really absymal, not even listing the feats and classes you can select throughout the game so you almost have to have the rulebook to know about the classes, feats and prerequisites. Bad, very very bad. "Luckily" for me, not much has changed rulewise since NwN, so if you have thoese manuals, you are a good part of the way. But for the additions, new classes, feats, skills there is no information in my manual. I have not checked for additional files on the disc, perhaps some are there.

Another negative point is the area design which is rather limited and linear, at least in the beginning. Much more so then NwN's design was, so that is a definate minus, especially with the hefty load time (perhaps another GB of RAM would help this, but still.....)


The story is getting to be better now, in my view - still a number of clichés to get past though, but it is a common problem in RPGs. Even roleplayers often seem to cling to these it seems.
The complexity of partymembers I've had so far is much better in NwN2 then in NwN1, and it is clear the game draws inspiration from the KOTOR-series, but they seem more "geniune", and some manner of effort has been placed upon making them not being carboncopy of the clichés, but you still clearly see the influence. They are better, much better, then NwN 1, I'd say better then KOTOR-series. (Although, the complexity of characters in NwN1 and KOTOR1 left much to be desired)
And you have, so far, larger freedom of choice but I have not seen many effects of the choices so far, so I do not really know if your alignment actually does much (I've played mostly good so far), but there are a number of alignment changes. Chaotic when you lie, Lawfull when you - well indicate a following of the law etc. And of course some choices for random wanton slaughter is there without antagonizing everybody. Also a large usage of the "speech" skills exists, bluff, intimidate and diplomacy which is nice. There are some situations where you indeed can go either the "talk" way out or just slaughter everybody, that is refreshing.

So storywise/gameplaywise - I'd say the game beats NwN. Control/Interface wise, and especially manualwise - I'd say it is a step back.

But as a game it is better then NwN - in my view.

[Monolith]

Originally Posted by Xandax

Having played a bit more, my critique is still mainly about the manual, but also the other parts I mentioned (such as Interface). The manual is really absymal, not even listing the feats and classes you can select throughout the game so you almost have to have the rulebook to know about the classes, feats and prerequisites. Bad, very very bad. "Luckily" for me, not much has changed rulewise since NwN, so if you have thoese manuals, you are a good part of the way. But for the additions, new classes, feats, skills there is no information in my manual. I have not checked for additional files on the disc, perhaps some are there.

Another negative point is the area design which is rather limited and linear, at least in the beginning. Much more so then NwN's design was, so that is a definate minus, especially with the hefty load time (perhaps another GB of RAM would help this, but still.....)


The story is getting to be better now, in my view - still a number of clichés to get past though, but it is a common problem in RPGs. Even roleplayers often seem to cling to these it seems.
The complexity of partymembers I've had so far is much better in NwN2 then in NwN1, and it is clear the game draws inspiration from the KOTOR-series, but they seem more "geniune", and some manner of effort has been placed upon making them not being carboncopy of the clichés, but you still clearly see the influence. They are better, much better, then NwN 1, I'd say better then KOTOR-series. (Although, the complexity of characters in NwN1 and KOTOR1 left much to be desired)
And you have, so far, larger freedom of choice but I have not seen many effects of the choices so far, so I do not really know if your alignment actually does much (I've played mostly good so far), but there are a number of alignment changes. Chaotic when you lie, Lawfull when you - well indicate a following of the law etc. And of course some choices for random wanton slaughter is there without antagonizing everybody. Also a large usage of the "speech" skills exists, bluff, intimidate and diplomacy which is nice. There are some situations where you indeed can go either the "talk" way out or just slaughter everybody, that is refreshing.

So storywise/gameplaywise - I'd say the game beats NwN. Control/Interface wise, and especially manualwise - I'd say it is a step back.

But as a game it is better then NwN - in my view.

Thanks. Luckily I don't care all that much about the UI or manual, the rest doesn't sound bad. Still, I think I'm going to wait for some decent reviews.

[Magrus]

I have been playing through the beginning of the game only so far, so I haven't beaten it. However, I like the writing for the NPC companions I have met so far. The way they integrated in new classes and feats, and worked on balancing things that wouldn't work because of technical limitations by using alternatives as well.

Some of the plot seems very simple, but this seems to be more fast paced than the original NWN. The maps so far are much more compact, meaning there is a lot less of running around with nothing to do/kill/find/say. I used to get frustrated and shut the game off because I would spend 10 minutes thinking "come on, come on, come on MOVE FASTER!" and then cheat to give my characters a way to haste themselves simply to get to the next interesting part of the game. So far, I haven't had that happen in this game. I have even restarted nearly 10 times so far, and I haven't been frustrated enough to do so. That means the game is pretty good IMO.

[Drunkside]

way better than original nwn.I would even say its second beswt game i have ever played.

[Nygma]

Rated it "Terrible".

Reason: I can't play it.

On my first attempt (human chaotic good warlock), I got up to Act III before I first encountered the "Unpacking Module..." phenomenon. When I tried to go back to previous areas to recruit artisans for my keep, the game would get stuck on loading the module and have to be killed from Task Manager. When I gave up on the keep and tried to continue on with the story, I somehow ended up with missing textures all over the place. Multi-hued "MISSING 2D TEXTURE" patches all over the place really killed the ambiance. Tried all my saves, they all were screwed up.

I'd been using quicksave a lot, the occasional autosave, and reusing a handful of named save slots.

Figuring I'd beat the corrupted save problem by liberally using save slots, never reusing them, and avoiding auto and quicksaves. Started an Asimaar Eldritch Knight, but due to a manual error, I misunderstood the prereqs and took a couple of levels of paladin to try to get diplomacy as a class skill. Finally realized that survivability, diplomacy, lore, Alertness, and Iron Will were NOT prereqs and my character wasn't that great, so I tried again.

Third time, went human sorc/EK, and got all the way past Act 1 before I ran into the next problem. When all the cutscenes finished and I tried to leave the inn, the exit didn't work. Nothing more thrilling than being stuck in an inn.

Went back to a previous save, and couldn't even get to the end of the cutscenes. After the Lord Nasher cutscene, the game hung up trying to unpack the module. Trying a couple of still earlier saves got me through to the inn, but none allowed me to leave.

This is the only game I've ever played with a bug I couldn't get past after a couple of days scouring the internet and going through customer support.

Add the fact that this is the only game I've ever played that crashed trying to start Installation Shield, then crashed with a corrupted .cab file on the second attempt, the dated graphics and clunky interface, and I've got to rate it terrible at this point in time.

It has a lot of potential though, and the story was getting interesting. Hopefully they'll fix a lot of these issues.

[Magrus]

@ Nygma, I would suggest returning your disc and getting a new copy to be honest. I have had none of those problems, aside from the crappy manual having info wrong.

[DarthZ]

Originally Posted by Siberys

I don't have the game yet, but I voted "Very Good" anyways. Why? For two main reasons. One, neverwinter nights proved to me that it can be a good game, I liked it a lot as soon as SoU and HoTU came out. Two, because it's made by obsidian. Obsidian has always proven to have a decently solid storyline made out for a campaign. I have faith that once my copy arrives it will be a good game.

Sounds pretty wrong to vote before you have the game. :P



Well; I thought the game was going to be alot better than it was, it's really bad designed. The game, on my computer, looks worse than BG2 and I have a GF6600 GT... so the game feels pretty old. I can play Oblivion with medium settings without problems. Also I hate how they made the faces of the characters that you choose, no face suited the character I wanted to play, they're just as unintersting and well done as they were in KotOR 2. Shame on Obsidian, those experienced RPG makers should have done this alot better. Good design but it's definatley not what it should be.

The characters are not as interesting as they were in NWN or BG2. The only character I found interesting was the dwarf and the gnome (whoms name I forgot; not a good sign). Also the classes they made for the game aren't that good; sure, they're cool and there are lots of classes but that doesn't mean that they're made interesting; as the same classes were in other D&D games.

The story is pretty intriguing and good but for me theres no replayability.

I'm not giving my trust to Obsidian after this game and KotOR2. The games are good but they could've been so much better, and they should've been, as their prequels were much better games.

Maybe a little bit harsh, but yea.
6/10 from my side.

[Tenser]

I would only rate it "good", not "very good", while "average" is too weak either. The whole thing is a bit like a poll "how do you find our product ? - excellent, overwhelmingly good, or brilliant ?".

But the poll is a bit unprofessional anyway, there is also no "I dont care" option, so whatever.

[fable]

Originally Posted by Tenser

But the poll is a bit unprofessional anyway, there is also no "I dont care" option, so whatever.

I think the point is that if you don't care, you don't take the poll.