Is NWN2 A Gaming Success?

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Still on my first run through the game but my early experience is not encouraging me a lot. Seems to me that the developers have put most of their effort into eye candy and other techie stuff. There seems to be very little investment into the game itself and the plot line, environment (ability to run a large number of diverse and unrelated side quests)and player encouragement to explore seems to be missed almost entirely. Most of the game world is just eye candy - you cannot interact with it so don't bother. The only active patrs of the game world support a very narrow interpreation of the game itself so there is almost no real RPG possible.

Is this just an XBox game converted across to PC or am I being too harsh?

 

I don't view it as a success. Online game reviewers have given it rave reviews, were as user reviews on websites such as Amazon.co.uk give it 1 or 2 stars on average.

I got so frustrated with the game that I stopped playing after the 2nd day. Wish I had got Medieval II: Total War instead.

Anyone wanna swap?

 

Too harsh.

How much does it matter? NWN1 was in the same boat with its Original Campaign and look how that turned out. Official and user modules were pretty successful.

I keep wondering why people criticize NWN2 as a game for shortcomings that are really specific to its introductory module. Since its a farcry better than NWN1 OC so its actually better positioned for success in the longrun.

Your post reminds me of the shortsightedness of ToEE users that ultimately killed the best DnD module platform ever written.

 

actually as far as i can see, the people who generally voice their unsatification with this game are the pw players, the vast majory dont go online at all, neither to play nor to complain or voice any opinion, so i guess it really depends on the modding comunity and how big the sales of an expansion is.

because nwn2 has as far as i know gone gold, which contradicts the massive critic it gets online.

as far as i can see, the OC of nwn2 is far superior to that of nwn1, but the bugs really needs a fixing.

 

I believe NWN2 was a flop due of these reasons:

1) The engine was too inefficient. I have a modern computer, yet it still struggled to get the thing work decendly. It didn't feel too reliable and secure, but rather shaky instead.

2) The story and characters didn't feel interesting at all. Maybe I'm spoiled or something, but I prefer characters like the ones seen in Planescape. First time *any* game has *ever* offered a succubus as a playable character.

3) My favorite class is still all souped-up: summoner. Unlike in BG2, all the summons stay only for a minimal time and are basically ignored by the AI. Which made me feel infinitely disappointed with the new rule-set (for the second time, after testing IWD2).

So in conclusion: shaky, unreliable, uninteresting, and disappointing. A flop.

 

@Wordplay: I dunno about the rest but about no. 3, you realise that the reduced summons are a result of 3.5e rule changes and not necessarily Obsidian's fault, right?

 

But I can still blame Obsidian of choosing a bad rule-set and not tweaking them.

Not that it matters which company is to blame. It does nothing to the game. It's a pity too, since NWN2 is one of those games that could easily be modified into a competitive product.

 

the major problem that i have with this game, is that it doesn't allow ANY player initiative at all

basically, you just follow the story from start to finish, with minimal branching

taverns are practically empty, each section of neverwinter has a dozen or more houses, but you can't break into them at all

if we look at NPC's, they range from really well thought out (khelgar, sand) to simply awful (grobnar), and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that their story lines have been cut (you can't finish qara's story, romances are weak)

graphics look good if you have the latest computer, but most people will happily disable shadows and water reflections since they totally kill the frame rate
ironically, from what i recall, obsidian put a lot of effort into eyecandy, but most users will prefer to disable it (and indeed, the 1.03 patch disabled armor reflections as well)

then there is bugs, etc
i could go on forever

obviously the game has some good sides as well, namely many classes to choose from, and there is quite a lot of dialogue options to pick, although most of them lead to the same outcome

there is also an option, to play the chaotic/evil or lawful/good path during the game, which means you want to finish it at least two times to see it all

and of course, the multiplayer option, although it seems the game won't quite reach the popularity of NWN 1 in that respect, seeing multiplayer has a lot of unresolved issues
it's important that obsidian releases a good patch or two in the shortest possible time

 

It seems it's getting better though... I wonder if people would wait long enough. That doomed a few very good games imo - practically all of Troika's RPGs, which were imo all very good.

 

Hmmmmmmm . Touched a nerve I think. I guess your opinion of NWN2 depends on your background and what you are looking for in the game. I started as a table-top D&D'er and progressed through BG1 & 2 plus the raft of similar PC games released over the last 5 years or so. I am not a fan of clicking buttons. As a DM I would not be happy running a game that had such a limited game story and narrowly restricted set of tactics or experiences as presented by NWN2 - perhaps though the previous comment is correct - this is just the opening module and we can look forward to mods with more substantial content.

 

I sure hope so. There come a point where publishers will stop funding complex and risky RPG's altogether since the target audience is far too critical and vocal. People read threads like this and make purchasing decisions accordingly. Bugs or not ToEE was killed by an overcritical public even though the game is perfectly playable
with the current patches and without C08 mods.

Sadly NWN2 may suffer the same fate.

I hope everyone likes action RPG's....

 

Oh, I thought about that too. In fact, for a moment I thought it would be the best side of NWN2, since I like to create stuff I would like to play myself. Unfortunately... the engine rendered everything so black that I couldn't see any details, much less design maps.

I'm not sure either will the editor allow content-creators to edit the rule-set. E.g: those ridicilously short duration times of summons or how the summons are treated by enemy AI. If it would, it would be worth taking a second look.

 

Hello, I'll answer your question from a module builder's perspective.

No, NWN2 is not a gaming success. The NWN2 toolkit editor is seriously flawed in terms of usability and performance. I decided to stay with the original NWN.

P.S. Chances that it will become a gaming success depend on the fact how large their budget is. I doubt that it's *that* large

 

Nein!
This is more a gaming disaster than a gaming success, with more wrong than right, this isn't even a decent game. I maybe extra harsh on rpg's but its oly becasue i expect the best from them, this is hardly a proper rpg, its more a Make believe free roam/ but actually immensley linear game. Linearity and rpg do not go together. Where all the sidequests at? anyone seen any in game characters with depth, or in depth relationships? BG 2 it is then! Again... its been like five years!

 

I'm with BTA - I really liked NWN2 a lot, much more than NWN1. If the storyline and characters from Planescape are your only standards for an RPG, then yes, NWN2 is not as interesting, nor are its main characters. But which RPG is as good in those respects as Planescape? and that game is already over seven years old!

As far as recent RPGs, Elder Scrolls IV is still the best, if you are looking for an open-ended RPG. With its add-ons, Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles, one can have three major plotlines running at once, plus a butt-load of side-quests.

Nevertheless, NWN2 gets a big thumbs-up, IMO.

 

Nwn 2 has a huge fanbase, an expansion is coming, the bugs are being fixed slowly but surely. several huge mods are being made for it and so on. its a solid succes.

the fun part is, the place I see most critic of it is here at SP, which seems like this community have stagnated, and is stuck in bg2 and iwd. I agree that Planescape at least was original in many aspects. Bg1 wasn't and neither was bg2, they just had well fleshed out stories.

to does of you who both like nwn2 and planescape check out this upcoming fanmade triology at www.roguedao.com

 

Well NWN2 has sold over 3 million copies now, so I guess some people don't agree with the consensus here at SP....

I started playing the game just after christmas. Nice present by the way. Patch 1.03 was available there, so I never ran into any gamebreaking bugs.

Now, my gamerig has seen better days, but with each patch the game just run more smoothly and I have no problems using the toolset. Actually with patch 1.04 and 1.05 the graphics has improved tremendously and is beautiful on my old gamerig.

I agree with Equester about this community seems like stagnated. It looks like every game has to be compared with the BG series or PS:T.

And while other forums like GameFaqs, GameBanshee and Thieves-Guild.Net has produced walkthroughs, guides and so on, SP hasn't.

The funny part is that, if looking through old posts on NWN1, peoples opinions were the same as on NWN2. And now NWN1 is suddenly great.

As for those who thinks that the BG series was original, you might want to read Wikipedias list of RPG cliches:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role-playing_game_clich%C3%A9s

Don't get me wrong, I love the BG series but they wasn't "original"

As for bugs, I am still puzzled why people tend to forget that the BG series and PS:T still have bugs who isn't fixed unless you use community mods like Baldurdash, G3 Fixpack and so on.

It is not a new trend that a game has bugs. Is it acceptable? Well not really. And Taluntains suggestion about buying the game later when the prices are right and expansions, patches and so on is there, is probably the way to go.

But I really don't understand why BG series and PS:T are such holy cows that people forget the games are full of bugs.

As for NWN2 being linear, yeah it is. But so was PS:T and the IWD series. Linear or non-linear is a matter of taste. Those who only like non-linear will certainly not enjoy NWN2, it is Morrowwind, Oblivion, the BG series and so on, that rocks their boat.

Personally I like both. I really like when every game is different, with different rules and strategy I have to adapt to.

Is there sidequests in NWN2? Yeah quite a lot actually. As usual you have to look for them, but they are there.

[ April 26, 2007, 13:00: Message edited by: Ironhawk Skylord ]