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Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
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Let me start off by saying I am a big fan of D&D and have played the original NWN. If you've perused online reviews and the official forums you'll find a lot of mixed reactions to NWN2. Unfortunately a lot of the criticisms aren't unfounded. I bought the collector's edition of the game and I'm either spoiled by the CE of the Guild War's series, or maybe it just takes more to impress me than 2 cheap rings and a crappy cloth map. For 20 extra bucks that's what you get, and a manual-esque "art book" with a few scans and character designs. That's it. A much better version of the CE was released in Europe and Australia which included the Original NWN, a D&D miniature, and a soundtrack cd. A much much better CE than what we got here. Guild Wars gives you a soundtrack cd, a poster, a hardcover artbook, and a nice sturdy, nicely designed box to keep it in. It's nothing earth shattering but it actually speaks more about the total NWN2 experience than you'd think. Obsidian had a HUGE task with NWN2. I peruse the forums every now and then and some of those guys are die hard enthusiasts. They'll complain about every little tiny detail from cloaks not flowing right to this spell wouldn't do this in D&D. Granted, there's no way they could please everyone with this, but a lot of the complaining was defintly warranted. For instance, I have a relatively powerful PC. It's not bleeding edge but like everyone else has said, if you can run Oblivion you should be able to run NWN2. Sadly while I don't have the horrible performance some people report, it's nowhere near the buttery silkiness that I get with guild wars, which NWN2 very much resembles. It's really quite baffling at what the problem is when the graphics are nothing special. They're light years ahead of NWN1's tiled , ugly look, but if I can run Oblivion at high settings I should not in any way have problems running NWN2. It's like in a lot of aspects the game could have used a few more weeks of polishing. I know they wanted to get it out before xmas, but with such a huge title, a large, vocal community who will call them on it, and the greatness that was the first game, it's crazy how they didn't polish this thing till it gleamed. From the crappy CE to lagging graphics you can see how some nerdy fans (me included) are so vocal about it. What get's NWn2 off the hook is two things. The gameplay and the huge possibilities it has with expansion. The game ships with a toolset (which i never use) that lets any D&D fan create stories and adventures till their hearts content. For sure a lot of hobbyist silliness is created, but there have been quite a few gems from the NWN1 era that rival some professionally created games in terms of scope and fun. You can download professionally created amateur modules many places, and the original NWN featured several official modules created by Bioware. So the game will surely have a very long lifespan. And that;s great considering the engaging battles and RPG gameplay. Battles are very tactical now as you have the ability to take 4 companions with you at any given time. Many different people will come and go in your party and all of them have different personality and classes. If you've played Knights of the Old Republic the party interaction is similar to that. Your character is still a silent mute, which is unfortunate. I'd like atleast once for RPG's like this to give your character personality. Let you pick a voice style when you create your character and have them actually talk and react. That's another thing, characters talk and act much better than NWN1, but they still only have so many animations that they cycle through. Sometimes you're party will get jostled, and you'll be having a conversation with an important character only to have one of your party members staring off in the complete opposite direction. Sometimes even when a NPC is directly addressing them. It seems nitpicky but it really jars you out of the experience. Another thing is any city you go to , it doesn't matter what time of day it is, the exact same citizens will be in the exact same places for days and days on end. In the City of Neverwinter there's these 3 people who sit in the same spot by a tree and never move. If i remember correctly in the original NWN the npc's had cycles. If it was night, the city would be empty and if it was day they'd actually go about their business. Little things like that take you out of the RPG element. I was a little worried when Obsidian decided to go with "real time" character portraits instead of the hand drawn ones from NWN1. If you havent played NWN1, when I say "hand drawn" I mean your character portrait you chose at the beginning of the game and the pictures are hand painted like many a fantasy book youll find at the bookstore. Again Im comparing to guild wars, but if you look at the art direction to that game, and compare it to NWN2 you'll notice that GW is world's apart. In GW women are sexy, feminine and beatifully rendered, knights and fighters (men) are given a powerful, strong hero quality, and monsters are equally fierce in the design. granted, the design here is no where near as ugly as in Knights of the Old Republic 2 (an Obsidian designed title) , but it's also nowhere near the hand painted look of NWN1. The designs arent bad here per se, they just could have been better. Character creation is decent, you have a varying array of builds and hairstyles, but again it just seems like Obsidian could have added "more". "More" seems to the theme to NWN2. It's not the title it could have been. It could have been the best RPG based on D&D to date, but it just seems like Obsidian rushed it out the door to cash in on the holidays. Granted what is here is really good, I know it seems like Ive bashed it more than anyhing. It's just when you see potential greatness not realized because of time contraits it's a little frustrating. Even despite these flaws though, Ive played the game for hours on end and really enjoy it. It took what was great about the first game and put some polish on it, upgraded it and made it shine. Battles are fun, spell effects are great, managing your characters is easy, leveling up is yields great customization , and just so many things make this game fun to play despite it's flaws. There are actually many parts in the game when roleplayng comes into play, where your descions affect the games out come. Most of the issues that the game has though can surely be patched up. Obsidian seems like they're in it for the long haul and are behind the game 100%. If you read the forums the devs are responsive to criticism and attentive to game issues, which there are plenty of. If you're looking for a good RPG for a xmas gift, then this is a great game to give. Even with it's flaws you can get this up and running easier than Oblivion. Oblivion has some steep system requirements and isn't for casual gamers. NWN2 is more accessible and a lot more tactical. If you're a fan of D&D or RPG's then you will surely love Neverwinter Nights 2.
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