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Review by torrefaction
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I went into Neverwinter Nights 2 with low expecations. I had heard Mask of the Betrayer was an incredible game, but that NWN2 wasn't that great. To some extent, this is true. NWN2 is not THAT great. But it's still a pretty damn good game.
I'm going to get my major issue with it out of the way first. The camera SUCKS. Now, I'm playing with the MoTB updates, so from my understanding I don't have what the original camera apparently was. But there is no doubt the constant camera fiddling is a pain. This is incredibly frustrating, especially in corridor type fights.
The story? Well, it starts off a little cliched, but it actually is executed very well. There is international intrigue, political backstabbing, mistaken identities, and some really good concepts. The dialog isn't anything write home about really, but it's pretty solid all around. You also have what seems to be a fair amount of control over the story, due to some pretty cool choices you make throughout the game. You also build influence with other characters based on dialog responses and story choices, and this plays out in a pretty cool way at the end game.
The audio is generic...I turned off the music and played my own. That's something I don't commonly do on the PC. The voice acting was hit or miss, with the NPC's in your party being the worst offenders. I really disliked most of the characters, to the point where there was only a small subset I would actually use, for fear of hearing them talk. The major players are cast relatively well though, so this isn't a deal breaker.
The gameplay is pretty great, if you like these D&D Strategy RPG's. Very reminiscent of Baldur's Gate in execution. I have a couple small complaints. Inventory management kind of sucks, but that's nothing new to the these games really. You just pick things up everywhere. As usual, the early game cane be a boring, but picks up about halfway through. This is probably worse for wizards (Which I played) than other classes.
Here's a slight spoiler, but it's not to bad, and it's gameplay related. There's also some cool mechanics later in the game, revolving around the management of your own keep. You're required to build up your defences and army, recruit blacksmiths and merchants, and basically attract people to your keep. It's a fun little mechanic that is incredible in adea, but only good in execution. Could've used some more polish and deeper exploration into this idea, but in the end it was one of my favorite parts of the game.
Overall, I had a great time with NWN2. It's certainly no Baldur's Gate or Planescape in terms of story, but it definitely has it's moments, especially later in the game. The gameplay is good, the spell effects are pretty well executed (For the time of release), and overall I'd recommend this game for fans of the genre.
Lithium Flower on 10/02/2008
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I was pleasantly surprised by both the graphics and storyline, including the choices you're given in it. I only wish they'd pushed the multiplayer tabletop aspect as hard as the first game. The DM client still has issues and overall the multiplayer isn't as stable as NWN1 players are used to.
The developers continue to patch the game and I hold hope that one day it will live up to the capabilities of the first and then some.