Poll: Neverwinter Nights 2

[ckriley]

I've never been able to finish this game. I played through the original NWN multiple times and also played through both of the expansions to it. As well as several mods that the modding community and BioWare put out. I loved it.

But for some reason, I can't get into NWN2 and I'm like, I don't know, maybe a little more than half way throug it? I've been awarded my fortress and all of that but it's been months since I've played it.

It just doesn't feel right to me. Something about it seems...off. The first game was a lot of fun, if not linear. But I was enticed to finish it and then playthrough it additional times. I'm kind of frustrated at myself for not finishing NWN2 because I actually love the NWN universe of DnD.

Did anyone else feel this way about the game? I keep seeing mixed reviews of it. Some people really love it and like it much more than the first game. While others really dislike it and say it's because BioWare didn't develop it. This latter opinion may actually carry some weight because I was not a big fan of KOTOR2, but I'm a complete fanboy for the original KOTOR.

What's the general consesus here about NWN2?

PS. You can feel free to spoil it if you want because I'm probably not going to finish it. But please put a spoiler warning above your post for those that may not want to know how it all unfolds.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

PS. You can feel free to spoil it if you want because I'm probably not going to finish it. But please put a spoiler warning above your post for those that may not want to know how it all unfolds.

Actually on the Escapist, we Have things Called Spoiler Tags

Calumon: If you put in

Spoiler

Bruce Willis is a ghost[*slash*spoiler] then it is concealed like so.

Spoiler

Duke Nukem Forever's Release date is 2013, I wish

Then no-one is the wiser, and secrets stay safe! ^^

OT:

Never played it, but I want to know more about American RPG's as I feel like I'm missing out.

Calumon: I wanna make sure winter always comes. ^^

 

[TyrunnAlberyn]

Hrm, my vote doesn't seem to be working... regardless.

I played both games, and while NWN2 is somewhat less fun than NWN1 in my eyes, there are a great many good things about this game. The Keep and all it entails is one of the more awesome parts . Now that being said, I -really- enjoyed the Mask of the Betrayer expansion to NWN2 because it tried to do something different, but it is a bit weird and it does force you to manage a "resource" besides your health points. A lot of people hated it for this very reason, but I found that to me it added more depth rather than distracting from the storytelling.

 

[Rusman]

A friend of mine used to absolutely love it, I personally have never played it. It'd probably be something I'd like if I ever got around to doing it.

 

[The Zango]

Well i've played #1 on and off for a few years and when i got NWN2 i started the game, played abit of the opening (the village bit), closed the game and sold it. It just didnt do it for me. Though in retrospect i should have given it a chance but hell when i re-sold it i made a profit.

 

[ravensshade]

I really, really didn't like it. Compared to the atmosphere that NWN and it's expansions generated, NWN2 is just bland bland bland. While the vanilla version is okay, The expansions are very, very bad, totally dated.

Thankfully, that whole genre redeemed itself with Dragon Age: Origins.

you know i felt the exact OPPOSITE way i really really loved NWN2 and expansions and thought NWN and it's expansions where just bland..

 

[Lolth17]

I agree with you totally. I loved NWN and all its expansions, as well as a few of its mods, and KoToR is one of my favorite games of all time. Their sequels are bland, soulless and uninteresting. I wasn't able to finish NWN2, and thankfully I never bought any of its expansions, and KoToR2... meh. Neither captured the magic of the originals.

BioWare is Pixar-ish at the moment it seems - just about everything they touch turns to gold. So yes, I agree that it was probably because BioWare wasn't involved that NWN2/KoToR failed miserably.

 

[Naheal]

I really, really didn't like it. Compared to the atmosphere that NWN and it's expansions generated, NWN2 is just bland bland bland. While the vanilla version is okay, The expansions are very, very bad, totally dated.

Thankfully, that whole genre redeemed itself with Dragon Age: Origins.

Are you including Mask of the Betrayer in that? The base NWN2 wasn't all that great, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere in that expansion.

Storm of Zehir, on the other hand...

 

[Joe Deadman]

Never played it or even seen much on it.
I have however JUST got into the original and im enjoying it quite a bit.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Never played it, but I want to know more about American RPG's as I feel like I'm missing out.

Start with Baldurs Gate 2. Then the original Neverwinter Nights.

And Bioware are Canadian! The technical term is 'Western RPG'.

Well, learn something new everyday. And makes me want to move to Canada that much more.

Calumon: Wow, El-ar-ar and Bi-oh-wear or... what's so good about England?

 

[GodKlown]

There was no poll response that fit my answer, so I'll just explain. I didn't play NWN 1, but my brother and I used to local play NWN 2 and had a lot of fun doing it. Sadly, over the years since the game was released and things have changed, we haven't been able to get back to playing it again because of scheduling and whatnot. The game was fun, and we enjoyed the DLC areas and exploring the world. We never played it to beat it, we enjoyed exploring the different classes and abilities to see what all the differences were like and what worked together and what didn't. In this age of RPG games finding themselves meshed with other genres like FPS as of late. Even Fallout wasn't immune to this change... so NWN was one of the few franchises left that stayed true to its RPG roots. I really miss playing that game, I might have to brush it off and reinstall it. I hope it works with Vista, or else it better run on my netbook!

 

[Caiti Voltaire]

The only things that NWN 2 really added to NWN in my eyes was a lot of processor-bugging special effects, a totally redone control scheme that was about as intuitive as an old style switch-board and an AI that seems to have regressed since the original NWN. The game I and you loved is still in there, but most of the changes and additions either only add insubstantial flash, or are detrimental to the game.

Let me qualify that assessment however, by saying that this is the core game. And most of the expansion packs, mind you. But Mask of the Betrayer - while an exercise in frustration since the difficulty curve more resembles a mountainous cliff that sprouts out of nowheres a hour or two into the game - is such a compelling story that you will probably find the gold edition of NWN worth the purchase price simply for that particular game.

Just do yourself a favour and just play Mask of the Betrayer instead of faffing about in the original NWN2 campaign or the other expansions.

 

[Tethalaki]

I enjoyed both of them equally.

Campaign in NWN1 I found bad. The 2nd expansion (Hordes of the Underdark) was the only worthwhile one. NWN1 also had a much much better online community.

NWN2 on the other hand had a much better campaign over all, with Storm of Zehir having the best campaign. Though it had issues at launch with PWs and modding in general which kind of killed the community straight off.

 

[Void(null)]

It just doesn't feel right to me. Something about it seems...off. The first game was a lot of fun, if not linear. But I was enticed to finish it and then playthrough it additional times. I'm kind of frustrated at myself for not finishing NWN2 because I actually love the NWN universe of DnD.

Its the Camera. Obsidian was never able to get the camera to work properly so the entire game feels awquard and clunky, it feels off and often times just "Wrong."

Neverwinter Nights 2 truly is a testament to how the little things can screw over a large AAA title.

 

[Caiti Voltaire]

Its the Camera. Obsidian was never able to get the camera to work properly so the entire game feels awquard and clunky, it feels off and often times just "Wrong."

Neverwinter Nights 2 truly is a testament to how the little things can screw over a large AAA title.

Oh dear god the camera. I hated trying to get that thing to cooperate and indeed it wasn't until the jewel-encrusted wonder that was Mask of the Betrayer came along that I felt compelled to overcome that technical deficiency to play the game for more than an hour at a time.

 

[Twad]

NWN2 was just bad, repetitive, didnt make sense. Hated it, and stoped playing at the githyaki base in nevewinter town.. then i went to try the editor hoping that it was at least better then the one in the first game... it was nowhere nearly as user-friendly (the first wasnt perfect either.. scripting was pure confusing chaos) and there were none or fewer of the "editor wizards" that made things so simple.. so i just gave up on it entirely.

 

[ckriley]

Darn, I should've added another option, which is, "I liked both equally." Sorry about that. Can I edit the poll?

 

[InvisibleSeal]

Start with Baldurs Gate 2. Then the original Neverwinter Nights.

I played Baldur's Gate (1 and 2) then moved onto NWN. I felt bioware didn't do as well with that series as with Baldur's Gate really - I didn't feel as immersed. Dragon age really does feel like a sort of comeback to what I love about WRPGs.

Plus, does anyone who played both series remember all those messages in BG2 about how you could import your character into NWN? I think that would have been weird if it had worked out - I don't understand how they thought it would be possible to import a very high level character into a game that starts at the beginning.

Anyway, that was very off topic, sorry.
I didn't really like it, and I only borrowed it for a short time from a friend so never finished it... so I put "Never played it". Maybe if I'd given it more of a chance I would have liked it, so I don't know really. Then again, the friend who still owns it assures me it wasn't as good as the first game, so I don't feel as though I missed much.

 

[BonsaiK]

I despise NWN2. The toolset for multiplayer DMing isn't anywhere near as good as the first NWN. It's too metagamey and no fun to RP with. Whereas the first NWN, when played multiplayer, is the closest thing a computer game has ever got to pen and paper D&D.

 

[Daniel Coates]

NWN2 is okay. Not terrible, but its like they were trying to be mediocre.

I do highly recommend Mask of the Betrayer though. Read some kind of wiki article to get caught up with what happened in NWN2 and jump straight to Mask, it was great.