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Not Ready for Primetime

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

What a disappointment. I have been a major fan of Balders Gate and NWN for years and I was very excited about this game. I have a good rig as well (AMD 3200XP 256MB Video, 1GB of RAM).

Yikes - the game was unplayable due to the enormous amount of bugs. The simple act of saving a game crashed the machine. When you complain on the NWN2 blog, the developers have you start hacking into your registry. No thanks.

This game is in beta form and I would definately wait 6 months or more before buying. The camera and the inventory system leave much to be desired as well - assuming you can even get the game running. Frankly, to release a game in this state is unexcusable. You've been warned!

Terrible Camera Angle Ruins an Otherwise Decent Game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Let me start by saying I'm a huge fan of RPGs, and I've played numerous RPG computer games over the years. My favorite addiction of the last couple of years is WoW, but prior to WoW's release, I loved the Baldur's Gate series and considered it the benchmark by which all other RPGs are measured. Also among my other all-time favorites were Planescape Torment and Neverwinter Nights, both of which offered a very enjoyable gaming expreience. All are classic Bioware RPGs.

When NWN2 came out, I was pumped. I was hoping for another dose of engrossing, single player, story-given game play - the kind I've come to expect from Bioware over the years. The graphics looked good but not great in the screenshots I saw, but I'd put up with average graphics for an immersive storyline any day.

Needless to say, NWN2 disappointed me.

It has one glaring design flaw that really detracts from the game - the absolutely crappy camera angle. A secondary design flaw, almost as bad as the first, is the terrible engine, which demands a TOL system and delivers average graphics by today's standards. The four horrendous camera angles couple with the terrible engine to deliver a game that has the potential to be great, but falls short in many ways. The frustration created by these two design flaws is like a constant thorn in your side as you play the game. In my mind, they ruin it.

The story looks interesting enough, but I quit playing after a few hours due to the poor interface and performance. Just for the record, I have a TOL dual core laptop with a 256MB Video card and 2GB of memory, and the game still ran like crap. I played Half Life 2 on the same system with all video options cranked to the max and was stunned by the combination of graphics and performance my system offered. In NWN2, even with the graphics settings set at the lowest levels for max performance, the frame rates suck and there is a ton of lag, especially during combat when you need the game to run at its best. The graphics aren't that impressive in the first place, and certainly don't justify the demands it puts on your system.

As far as game play, beyond the two flaws I mentioned, there are a number of ways in which the game falls short. Quests are easy as hell and not very challenging. You start out at a carnival completing four quests to win the cup. There's really no way to fail. You hit every target every time, the solutions are obvious, and the challenges were minimal.

The game manual sucks. For example, in previous Bioware games in this product line, you used to be able to smash a chest or a door. Early in the game, you are given the option to break down a door to complete a quest, but nowhere in the manual does it say how to do this. The default action on the door is open, not bash, and so I was never able to complete the quest as a result of not being able to figure out how to attack the door, despite trying every key. If bashing a door/chest isn't an option, it shouldn't be one of the choices you can make in the dialogue. In previous Bioware games, you could bash by pressing the attack key while your curser was over the item. The game options don't help, as they don't even have a key configuration menu that shows the default commands or allow you to change them. At least not one that I could find. When you can't complete a quest for lack of gameplay information, it says a lot.

The game defaults for combat are also very bad. Although you can pause during combat like you could in Baldur's Gate, the actions only take if it's the character's turn. This means you have to pause at exactly the right time to be able to set the character's next move. In other words, you can't go through your entire party and set your attacks in sequence during one pause. They simply won't take. If left to their own devices, your companions will also act like complete idiots and fight in ways that don't follow their class. For example, a mage will run up to a group of three bad guys and start hitting them with their weapon instead of casting an AOE spell. Also, they will often run out of sight and fight on their own rather than staying with your character and following his/her lead and attacking as a group. The crappy camera choices exacerbate this. Your companions will also alternate attacks between multiple enemies at a time, rather than concentrating fire on one enemy and destroying them in turn - which is generally a better strategy than fighting one-on-one or worse. Overall, this just added to my frustration.

I'm putting the game on the shelf for now. Hopefully they will come out with a patch that at least addresses a few of these flaws. Unfortunately, the total combination of these problems took the wind out of my sails. I wish I had saved my money and bought another, better designed RPG, like Elder Scrolls Oblivion.

What a disappointment. The game has so much potential, but poor design ruins the whole thing.

5 frames per second

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Don't even consider buying this game unless your system is new and far exceeds the recommended system.

I have a 2.13G Pentium D with 2G of Ram. Yes, that is down near the minimum requirements (in terms of CPU speed) but the game literally gets 5 frames per second or less at the default settings. UNPLAYABLE. Minimum system apparently means that the game will not cause your system to burst into flames.

If you have a Dual Core processer it will ignore the extra core(s). Lame.
People are reporting 20-30 fps with modern systems that exceed the recommended requirements. These numbers take a dive in certain parts of the map and when spellcasters cast bluffs. Forget about multiplayer.

Save your money. Do not buy this game.

Amazing and involved though not necessarily replayable...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I thoroughly enjoyed this game. The graphics and gameplay were a huge step up from the original neverwinter. The quests and stories ringed true to any good adventure allowing freedom and character developement. I'd have to say the only place i was let down was the replayability. I played through the game once as an evil aligned character and once as a good aligned character and now i feel like i've done it all. This game lacks in open endedness what oblivion lacks in direction.

Neverwinter Nights 2

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Man, being a D&D player for over 20 years, its hard not to love this game. If only the camera wasnt such a pain, this game would easily have 5 stars. But among all the orcs, bandits and evil wizards, is the ultimate FOOZLE (bonus points if you get the reference), its the stupid camera. It is constantly getting in the way when fighting, and it makes just exploring a pain in the *ss.

Everything else about this game is top notch...better than NWN! It's up there with Baldur's Gate II. Great story, detail, graphics, gameplay...it's all there. But the camera makes even the slightest move a chore.

Great game, but watch out for system needs

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: July 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The first Neverwinter Nights (NWN) games through BioWare and Atari were great in that they were available for Windows, Macs and even Linux. The graphics were not super-impressive, but worked well. Gameplay was equally good, and there was a strong multiplayer and development community to keep the gaming fresh.

Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN2) revives much of what was available in NWN, but falls short in many technical areas. Gone are Mac and Linux users; this game runs on Windows XP (and maybe Vista) only. Further, you MUST have a high-end 3D video card to run it. As an Apple MacBook Pro owner, I wasn't going to be dissuaded, and (using Apple Boot Camp) played the game on my laptop. The system's fans go into overdrive to keep the chipsets from overheating. There is no computer on this planet that can run this game without straining its graphics system. Nevertheless, I could play the game very well and enjoy much of its rich graphic environment. Obsidian Entertaiment (the developers) need to take a page from BioWare (who also made the equal or better graphics of Jade Empire) and learn to code much more efficiently-. This game has terrible overhead.

The storyline and gameplay, overall, is immersive and enjoyable, with many sidequests. Purists of DnD may not like it, but past NWN players will like the additional prestige classes and expanded multiclassing (although they should be warned that NWN2 does not support elite classes--yet). Character dialogue works well (Jade Empire, to compare, uses a nearly identical process) and works great in a court trial in the midway of the game. Special effects and fighting are good. Multiplayer is weak as the provided toolset for user-based games and the like is very difficult to use.

Some players will be ticked off at the ending if they are a good-aligned character. Obsidian fell totally on its face in the endgame, which will appeal to no one and is a total disappointment for most (another point that many game makers need to understand). Some satisfaction may be gained for players when the expansion, "Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer", arrives. But, why does it take the purchase of two games to gain the satisfaction from one? The game has much to offer, but like your new cell phones (except perhaps an iPhone), the "cool" and "fun" factors will wear off NWN2 for many. That's too bad, as the game doesn't deserve the scorn. Atari and Obsidian just aren't great storywriters, and this needs a correction. Buy "Jade Empire" for PC before this one, but consider it if you find it for under $40.

Worst game product in a decade!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: October 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this just recently--against the tide of overwhelming negative reviews--and found it to be even worse than anticipated.

The copy protection is a known factor of unreliability, but it's not that that's crashing my system. I literally can't get out of the first door! I can go through the entire character generation sequence and opening sequence, but the game resets my system each time I attempt to leave the first room.

The almost endless procession of logos and the opening cut piece play just fine. The sound is okay. The art is splendid, but the response is sluggish.

I should add that I've just replayed Neverwinter 1 from start to finish on this same system without a hitch. I tried removing and reinstalling the game, being sure to apply all patches. Then, I removed it again and reinstalled with no patches. The result was always the same--the game crashes at the same spot right at the beginning.

After reading the many complaints online, I had low expectations, but I didn't expect that they would have shipped something completely unplayable!

I haven't seen anything this poor since the "golden" days of DOS!

ugg

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: August 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Gave up on this game after way too many bugs, issues with frame rates, etc. Loved NWN1, and eagerly awaited a multiplayer experience with NWN2 which never materialized. I ran multiplayer NWN1 worlds publicly available. NWN2 development for my team ended within 2 months of release.

Don't bother with this game unless you have a supercomputer to run the graphics. I bought a new computer -just- for this game and still it struggled.

Single player storyline had some promise, and some moments, but all too often fell to the same old same old.

But the bugs especially in multiplayer are what really killed it for me.

SecuROM used, so the game doesn't work for me.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: December 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Unfortunately a fact of life for PC games is that they almost always use sophisticated and tempermental copy protection schemes, which sometimes work with out a hitch and other times render the game unplayable or uninstallable. In my case the game constantly generates CRC error reading from the DVD. Since the errors are on random files and no other (currently running) games seem to have a problem with my DVD drive I can only conclude that the copy protection scheme (SecuROM) is responsible. Especially since Atari's support forums show that a large number of people are have the same or similar issues with running the game.

Oh well, maybe punishing ratings and plummiting sales will teach the distributors that it just isn't worth the loss of honest customers in the future.

A Classic With a Rough Launch

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: November 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game has gotten a lot of criticism for horrible engine optimization, steep system requirements, and a difficult to learn user interface.

However, with a mediocre system, I am able to maintain a steady 25 - 30 frames per second (nVidia 6600GT, AMD 3700+, 2GB RAM) on medium and low settings. The official support forums have advice on how you may be able to improve performance.

The story for the official campaign reminds me heavily of Knights of the Old Republic and Baldur's Gate II -- the former for the conversation and cinematics, the later for the quality of the companions and overall plot development. Companion banter is back, as is influence (from KOTOR 2), even romance options.

The best thing about NWN2 is the future. Player made worlds, now with more flexibility than ever, are starting to pop up all over the web. Within a few more months, the online and offline gaming options for NWN2 are going to be extremely vast.

I fully recommend this game to anyone interested in a great roleplaying story, lots of replayability, built-in world design toolkit, and a chance to team up with friends for fun and wonder.

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