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A worthy sequel

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: December 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Many people seemed to be disappointed with this game, but that's probably because they were expecting too much. It's no Oblivion obviously, but it's still better than 95% of the new RPGs out on the market right now. To simplify things, here's a list of Pros and Cons... I'll start with the Cons.

Cons:

1) Graphics - No next generation graphics here; does have Bloom effects though.
2) Music - Reuse many of the old Neverwinter Nights themes
3) Interface - Not very user friendly. Different than the first NWN. A bit clumsy, but once you get used to it, it's not too bad.
4) Still a few bugs to iron out - I have v1.02 currently

And now the Pros:

1) Characters - Much, much better set of NPCs to follow your around compared to the first NWN. Fun and interesting banters. They are on par with Knights of the Old Republic; maybe even better.
2) Races - It includes subraces like Tieflings and Drows.
3) AD&D 3.5 rules!
4) New weapon and armor craft system - It works more like what you saw from the KoTOR games.
5) You actually get to control your companions - They have A.I, but you can also take over for them, much like it was in Baldur's Gate.
6) The toolset - It's time again to create your own AD&D adventures!

So, as you can see the Pros out weights the Cons. Of course, the game is far from perfect, and Obsidian is clearly no Bioware, but it's still a good game to play meanwhile, until Dragon Age comes out. I give it a 80% rating.

Don't Listen to the Whiners

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 21
Date: November 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

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, but if you read some of these reviews it seems like people just complain just to complain. Yes the game has some flaws but bottom line,the game is fun. Nearly all of the flaws the game has can be fixed with a patch. Granted some of the things should have been there to begin with, but even so the game provides hours of fun, and at the end of the day that's really all that matters.

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.

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 easy to do, and just so many things make this game fun to play despite it's flaws. Most of the issues that the game has 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.

garbage

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 17
Date: November 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I own a Core 2 Duo with a Crossfire mb/video card. I've installed 2 Gbs of Corsair memory at the highest frequency available for my ASUS mb. This game lags badly, the movement is choppy and the camera view is the worst I've ever seen in a 3D game. I should know better than to pre-order games. The video game industry has so many unscrupulous people who are simply looking to cash in on popular franchises. As a software developer in a Fortune 100 company, there's no way I could do this sort of thing to customers and not get fired. Releasing this kind of crap is unacceptable. [...]

great voice acting...but that's about it.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 15
Date: November 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

having seriously enjoyed nwn1 i anxiously awaited the release of nwn2. that is until i found out that bioware contracted atari to do the game. i was hoping that atari wouldn't screw up this game as that is usually what happens when bioware comes out with a good game then contracts a third party to do the sequel(eg. knights of the old republic). but my hopes were shattered when i started playing nwn2. first they SERIOUSLY overcomplicated the character creation process. game play is mediocre at best...wayyyyy too many cut scenes takes away fromthe game play. and some small but key things are missing too...good luck trying to equip a quick slot for 2-weapon fighting. and it makes you take henchmen with you. at least in nwn1 you had choices of whether to do things or not...nwn2 does not give you that luxury...it makes your choices for you. i guess that's ok if you are a brainless idiot that has no clue about how to do things for yourself. and the game is very slow on my machine. my problem is just the video card though(amd 64chip, 2gb ram, ati xpress200 graphics card). i plan on updating to an nvidia 7950 512gb card, but i was going to do that anyway. the only good thing about this game, and the reason i gave it 3 stars instead of 2, is the voice acting is GREAT. all-in-all, avoid this game and stick to nwn1. you've been warned.

I really want this game to work

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 13
Date: November 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have got back into D&D recently after many years, mainly through playing DDO Stormreach, which I would really recommend. On the strength of this I bought NWN2. The character generation is good and in line with 3.5 rules. It gives more options than DDO Stormreach. However once you get into the gameplay it lags like hell, to the extent that it's really unplayable even on a machine that outperforms the requirements as stated on the box. Maybe they should post the PC requirements for a machine that will run it at an acceptable rate, that might have been a better strategy than disappointing customers who THOUGHT their machine would run it ok.

Though I can understand they wanted the game to appeal to the widest audience possible.

That being said the initial fair has a great RPG atmosphere - its such a disappointment I'm going to have to spend $$$$ to make my machine run it properly

Disappointing so far

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: November 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Just started to play - I am a huge fan of RPGs and loved Baldur's Gate, enjoyed Jade Empire and thought Neverwinter Nights 1 was okay (didn't care for the limited party control).

Nevewinter Nights 2 (NWN 2) has improved the party selection (now can have 4 true party members with control over them) but the need to change the camera angles makes the game less than enjoyable. Game play is similar to Baldur's Gate (select actions and pause after seeing results). The problem is that the game play isn't as good as Baldur's Gate - the need to rotate the camera takes away from the immersive effects and makes it more difficult to play. And the game is buggy *** Slight spoiler alert *** I have barely started and already I am stuck - in the first chapter some dwarves attack and you have to repell them while recruiting people for a battle. Once you do this to go to a field to fight. I see a bunch of bad guys - I have recruited a bunch of good guys and there is this decent battle about to start but I cannot talk to anyone or actually fight anyone. Really quite lame. Seems like I could start fighting or do something but nope - I can walk in the enemey lines and they pretent I don't exist and I cannot get any of the good guys to do anything. If the rest of the games is this buggy then it is not worth playing.

So basically it is an improved Baldur's Gate graphically (maybe with a good story line - not clear yet) but the overall impression is mediocre at best - the improvements have not made the game better and the first bug makes the game unplayable.

Maybe with a patch or two this game become enjoyable. But it seem resource heavy for what is happening on the screen - I have a older system (2800+ AMD with 9600 pro) so I turned down the effects and it still seems to move pretty slowing. No real physics effects so I am not sure why it doesn't run better - this is not Fear or Far Cry or Oblivion - what is happening on the screen doesn't seem that impressive but I guess you need some significant horse power to run the game. I am going to try with reduced graphics and see if gets any better - if I can figure out how to get past the bug.

Solid game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 18
Date: November 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

First off it says my location as Afghanistan because I am deployed right now. I am all American . Now thats out of the way on to my review :)

I purchased this game based upon my experiances with NWN1. Granted I have only had the game for less than 2 weeks I have enjoyed it very much. My review is based on my opinion and experiance with past games.

The good:
1.Solid Character development
2.D&D v 3.5 rules
3.Great looking textures
4. Overall gameplay is great
5. Has a module editor

The not so good:
1. The Camera <-- I know this one has been mentioned a few times
2. Dungeons and Buildings can get laggy on older systems at times
3.I wish I didnt have a party at times

Overall :

I believe this game will become another loved classic by those who truly like to roleplay and love this genre of games. I for one rated it 5 stars because its a great game and well worth my money. The replay value is endless due to so many combinations of characters and moddability. I hope they have expansions in the works . In my eyes if the game play is awesome then game is great the graphics is just the icing on the cake.

Not the Best, Not the Worst

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I pre-ordered the Limited Edition of this game and waited very impatiently for months (years really) for it's release only to be pretty disappointed in the game I had so anticipated.

For starters, I was shocked to see the models in the character creation screen. They were poorly done (ugly) and the hair was simply atrocious. It looks like spray-on hair or something. Step backwards IMO. The character creation was fine, except for the fact that I don't like not being able to see my character's alignment stats on the Character screen anymore.

The alignment shifts, especially in the beginning of the game, are somewhat out of line at times and I find that in order to play Chaotic Good effectively, my character basically has to lie or be greedy every chance she gets. If I'm not careful and choose too "nice" of a response I might get lawful shifts. The influence can be a real pain because if you want to interact with a specific character, you've got to play to their alignment. Period. There's no other way around it. I don't play Evil or Chaotic Neutral, so I guess there's some NPC quests and interactions that I will never, ever get.

The main story line is not bad overall, but side-quests are sometimes hard to recognize (gathering people for the Keep) and often just don't seem to fit in anywhere. I had trouble caring in the least bit about most of them, never really feeling any urgency or compelling reason to start or finish them. Most of the time I felt railroaded toward the end goal and I've even realized too late that if I didn't do a side-quest "Right-That-Minute!" then it was lost to me forever. It's so unlike NWN 1 or BGII where you could follow the main quest but continue on with side quests pretty much whenever you felt like it.

I haven't had any problems with gameplay mechanics like so many others have. I run a 2.8GZ with a GeForce 6800 GT 256MB. I have shiny water and some of the shadow effects turned off but it runs pretty smoothly. Load and Save times are too long, but not to the point where it's made me stop playing.

Graphics are good except for the PC character models, gods they're ugly. The NPCs generally look good (except for hair issues for some as mentioned), but why on earth they couldn't have saved a few decent models for the PC is beyond me. The camera is clunky and difficult to control at times and I always seem to be really, really far away from them or close enough to see nose hairs. There's really no in-between.

I do like the party system and having a 5 person party as opposed to merely two. It's fun to watch the characters interact with one another and it brings back my fond memories of BGII. It's not nearly as good, mind you, but it's nice to see the attempt made. The NPC interactions with the PC are OK, but not very in depth IMO. I don't feel any connection to them like in BGII or even KOTOR1 or HoTU for that matter.

I'm playing a Bard right now and I do like the fact that they've implemented new rules for Bards which has really made them a little more useful and fun to play. (Of course they're always useful ;) I like the idea of crafting being taken to a higher level, although I just find it cumbersome for myself. I can definitely see the enjoyment in it for those who really love to create their own gear, potions, etc.

I like the Quickspells menu quite a bit and having 10 scrolling screens in the Quickbar is great as well. I wish they would have left alone some things like conversation actions. The right click and hold they have now is a pain.

Overall, it's not a bad game, it's just not the game I had been waiting for. I'd say it's worth it for the die-hard NWN fan, but don't expect BG3 when you play it.

I Think I Can I Think I Can I Think I...Can't?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: December 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I just received this game from myself as an early Christmas present. I hardly knew what to say as I eagerly opened up the box and began to install. Afterall, I thought overall the first NWN was excellent. A bit clunky but fun and that's what counts. This one starts with you installing *six* discs. I was impressed. I mean it MUST be good if it takes so much room to install, right? *coughs* This game has high ambitions but falls far short of the quality of the first NWN. Where to start...

*Technical Issues: It's laggy. I have a semi-powerful game oriented pc. I have and do play most of the highest end pc games out there today and have a decent vid card...yet this game has me feeling like I'm swimming through heavy water to press a damn button even on the lowest settings. As almost everyone else has said, the camera setup is extremely bad. You spend half your time just trying to see what the hell is going on. Last but definitely not least, the AI that controls the actions of the other characters in your group is HORRIBLE. I have yet to see a good AI in any game but in any other game, these people would be considered the village idiots of their respective races, as should the programmers. Bad coding, pure and simple.

*Interface/User-Friendliness: This game's ease of use is...well, not. You have to take a round-about route to access many of your character's options and many things you'd take for granted in today's games of the same sort simply aren't there to be had. On the upside, my fingers are getting plenty of exercise.

*Content: Well, it's not bad. It's just...not very...good. It aspires to being luke warm. I don't expect a convoluted, brilliant plot in these sorts of games but come on, at least freshen up the cliches just a little. Also, your npc helpers (the pc run companions you pick up over time) are fairly boring and in the case of the Tiefling, just plain annoying. The story itself has you thinking more and more as you go "if they just did this...". ((SPOILER: I will admit being part of the Watch was fun though))

In short, this game falls well short of it's hype. The opening movies are the best thing about this game. I did give it three stars but this is for two simple reasons...I love the series and have hopes that the expected expansions for this stinker will improve it dramatically. Let us all hope.

Fun game play, cut scene nightmare

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: December 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game's gameplay is fun and the controls are easy to grasp. The battles make the player use all of the skills of the party to survive. The only major, and I mean MAJOR, problems with this game are the frame rate will occasionally bog down, and the cut scenes seem to be never ending.

One goes from a five minute cut scene to a quick two minute battle, and then back to a cut scene that lasts for several minutes. Several times when I was trying to finish off a battle in order to stop the game, I would have to spend the next ten minutes wading to the cut scenes in order to save the game and exit.

This game is one that will appeal to the die hard D&D gamer, but the casual gamer should probably steer clear of this game.

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