In highschool I ran a whole D&D campaign using the game manual as the player handbook. It ended up about as cheesy and uneven as the game is.
It is fine as cheesy fantasy, but nowhere near Obsidian level, as if Obsidian tried to be Bioware for whatever reason.
You can play through it and it is okay, but Mask of the Betrayer is REAL highlight of Neverwinter Nights 2.
You can play through it and it is okay, but Mask of the Betrayer is REAL highlight of Neverwinter Nights 2.
better than baldur's gate 3 ngl
not as good as the original, but ok game.
end game content almost demands that you play some kind of armored melee, and or bring a gazilllion potions/scrolls..
end game content almost demands that you play some kind of armored melee, and or bring a gazilllion potions/scrolls..
This game is janky as hell, but endearingly so. Compared to the first game, the controls and UI generally feels worse and less intuitive, but at least you can actually control your entire party without any mods. Tho, the frequency at which enemies run right past your front line, taking a bunch of opportunity attacks in the process, in order to punch your spellcasters is kinda annoying. But hey, at least the storytelling in the modules in 2 is generally better than in 1.
The general takeaway between NWN 1 and 2 is this: 1 is better for co-op, and 2 is better for single-player.
The general takeaway between NWN 1 and 2 is this: 1 is better for co-op, and 2 is better for single-player.
Beaten: Aug 20 2021
Time: 33 Hours
Platform: Mac (via WINE)
Neverwinter Nights 2 is in many ways a forgotten game. Not only is it a sequel to a game that didn't leave nearly as much of a legacy as its siblings, but it also came out four years afterwards. Now that might not be the largest gap in time, but the first Neverwinter Nights came out in 2002, alongside Morrowind and other early 3D RPGs, and its looks fit the era. It was stylish and good looking for the time, sure, but KOTOR came out a year later and drastically brought the graphics bar up. Three years after that, in 2006, technology has moved on. Consoles are in HD now, and RPGs are slowly shifting away from the D&D mechanics of Baldur's Gate. I mean hell, Mass Effect comes out in a year. Yet, here Neverwinter Nights 2 stands, looking straight out of 2003, and playing pretty much exactly like Baldur's Gate, albeit with a newer version of D&D underneath. I'm honesstly not surprised the game didn't make some huge splash, calling it poorly timed is a vast understatement. It's a shame really, because what's here is a game unique in the Obsidian catalog, built with a lot of love and care, and absolutley worth your time.
Now, the reason it's so unique among Obsidian's other games is that it lacks the... experiemental depressive philosophising usually inherent to their games? KOTOR 2, Fallout New Vegas, even Pillars of Eternity are pretty much defined in tone and structure by this weird sad quality Obsidian games tend to have, yet that angle is mostly absent here. In its place is a kinda straightforward Hero's Journey, bereft of criticism or deconstruction. You start in a small farm village and set out adventuring, picking up companions and solving other people's problems along the way, until you become powerful and important. It's honestly a little by the numbers.
That extends to the companions too. They're all unique enough, each one some fantasy archetype with a twist, but even with their twist they just don't feel particularly unique? Especially your first few companions, as much as I ended up liking them all by the end. They're all disagreeable and grumbly when they join up with you, and they all soften up by the end. The later companions are better in this respect, being much more extreme characters of both alignment and emotion, but this doesn't really come out until the end of the game.
Plus, I'd say about half of each act really drags. The story slows down, and not in a freeing way (the whole game is rather linear). Maybe it was intended to help the world-building, really let it seep into you, but I feel like the game could've been shaved down by 5ish hours and felt much tighter. Luckily, the other half of each act is great, full of plot and quick pacing and interesting revelations.
PLUS, you knnow how I said it's running on an outdated engine? Well it's also running on a really really jank version of it! The camera options fall somewhere between unintuitive and straight broken, the game chugs when it feels like it, and while it's not overly buggy, it's definitely not particularly polished.
Despite all my issues with the game, something in here got through to me. Honestly it'd gotten to me more than I knew, and the end of the game hit me pretty damn well. I'm not sure what exactly did it, but as I was fighting the final boss (for the second time), I felt like I was leaving something behind.
Which is ridiculuous, since I'm gonna be playing the first expansion (a direct sequel) right after this, but I still felt that, and it felt good. It felt good to get unexpectedly attached to a game that I was convinced was only okay, and really feel it end. I think that's what they wanted, to feel the world slip away from you all too quickly as you start the next, more typically-Obsidian (so I've heard) expansion.
Time: 33 Hours
Platform: Mac (via WINE)
Neverwinter Nights 2 is in many ways a forgotten game. Not only is it a sequel to a game that didn't leave nearly as much of a legacy as its siblings, but it also came out four years afterwards. Now that might not be the largest gap in time, but the first Neverwinter Nights came out in 2002, alongside Morrowind and other early 3D RPGs, and its looks fit the era. It was stylish and good looking for the time, sure, but KOTOR came out a year later and drastically brought the graphics bar up. Three years after that, in 2006, technology has moved on. Consoles are in HD now, and RPGs are slowly shifting away from the D&D mechanics of Baldur's Gate. I mean hell, Mass Effect comes out in a year. Yet, here Neverwinter Nights 2 stands, looking straight out of 2003, and playing pretty much exactly like Baldur's Gate, albeit with a newer version of D&D underneath. I'm honesstly not surprised the game didn't make some huge splash, calling it poorly timed is a vast understatement. It's a shame really, because what's here is a game unique in the Obsidian catalog, built with a lot of love and care, and absolutley worth your time.
Now, the reason it's so unique among Obsidian's other games is that it lacks the... experiemental depressive philosophising usually inherent to their games? KOTOR 2, Fallout New Vegas, even Pillars of Eternity are pretty much defined in tone and structure by this weird sad quality Obsidian games tend to have, yet that angle is mostly absent here. In its place is a kinda straightforward Hero's Journey, bereft of criticism or deconstruction. You start in a small farm village and set out adventuring, picking up companions and solving other people's problems along the way, until you become powerful and important. It's honestly a little by the numbers.
That extends to the companions too. They're all unique enough, each one some fantasy archetype with a twist, but even with their twist they just don't feel particularly unique? Especially your first few companions, as much as I ended up liking them all by the end. They're all disagreeable and grumbly when they join up with you, and they all soften up by the end. The later companions are better in this respect, being much more extreme characters of both alignment and emotion, but this doesn't really come out until the end of the game.
Plus, I'd say about half of each act really drags. The story slows down, and not in a freeing way (the whole game is rather linear). Maybe it was intended to help the world-building, really let it seep into you, but I feel like the game could've been shaved down by 5ish hours and felt much tighter. Luckily, the other half of each act is great, full of plot and quick pacing and interesting revelations.
PLUS, you knnow how I said it's running on an outdated engine? Well it's also running on a really really jank version of it! The camera options fall somewhere between unintuitive and straight broken, the game chugs when it feels like it, and while it's not overly buggy, it's definitely not particularly polished.
Despite all my issues with the game, something in here got through to me. Honestly it'd gotten to me more than I knew, and the end of the game hit me pretty damn well. I'm not sure what exactly did it, but as I was fighting the final boss (for the second time), I felt like I was leaving something behind.
Which is ridiculuous, since I'm gonna be playing the first expansion (a direct sequel) right after this, but I still felt that, and it felt good. It felt good to get unexpectedly attached to a game that I was convinced was only okay, and really feel it end. I think that's what they wanted, to feel the world slip away from you all too quickly as you start the next, more typically-Obsidian (so I've heard) expansion.
Loved the dialogue, not so much the main story this time around.
Surprisingly good, more focus on story and characters and quite interesting in parts. I really liked the court case scene. Sure, the story was very standard but the game had its moments. I also liked the part with the castle. Overall, I thought it was better than NN 1.
Neverwinter Nights 2 offers a fascinating fantasy story full of exciting tactical combat mechanics and deep characters that you will either love or hate. The game is a bit dated and has a lot of technical issues that haven't been fixed in time, but I think it's still a great role-playing adventure that almost anyone can enjoy today.
The compelling story keeps you hooked to the game and the Forgotten Realms universe with a satisfying experience that lasts an average of 100 hours with additional packs to finish the single player campaign. Multiplayer mode support. The full-featured game toolkit allows you to easily create and share custom mods of your own. One of the most original representatives of Dungeons & Dragons. Good soundtrack and mostly well voiced characters compared to the first game.
Interactive dialog system provides dynamic and fun character interactions. A character-building system where the possibilities are almost endless. Support for dozens of community-created story-based modes, so the adventure never ends. Frustrating camera angles require constant attention while in battle. Optimization and technical issues. Artificial intelligence is very weak. Difficulty can be unbalanced at times.
The compelling story keeps you hooked to the game and the Forgotten Realms universe with a satisfying experience that lasts an average of 100 hours with additional packs to finish the single player campaign. Multiplayer mode support. The full-featured game toolkit allows you to easily create and share custom mods of your own. One of the most original representatives of Dungeons & Dragons. Good soundtrack and mostly well voiced characters compared to the first game.
Interactive dialog system provides dynamic and fun character interactions. A character-building system where the possibilities are almost endless. Support for dozens of community-created story-based modes, so the adventure never ends. Frustrating camera angles require constant attention while in battle. Optimization and technical issues. Artificial intelligence is very weak. Difficulty can be unbalanced at times.
Rare Obsidian L
Neverwinter Nights 2 is a complicated animal compared to the original Neverwinter Nights game. At its core, it's the same game restomodded, but it carries with it some issues that hold it back from being better than the original.
Gameplay
NWN2 borrows a lot of gameplay elements from KOTOR where you can assume control of your companions and some conversations are letterboxed cutscenes. Inventory management is also similar to KOTOR, where the items no longer take up inventory space with unique sizes on a grid, and now all occupy one space in your inventory screen. The huge side effect to this inventory management is that you will have more trouble than necessary finding certain items that you'll need as a lot of the icons look identical.
Gone from the game is the radial system where you right click on an element and you're given a UI wheel to assign an action to your PC. In its place is a drop down menu that does the same, but removes some of the inputs to keep the menu from being cluttered. The designers ideally want you to use the hotbar more than the drop down menu, as they believed that right clicking on the enemy you want you to perform the action on, and then click on the ability in the hotbar to do that action on the enemy would be more intuitive than the radial menu from NWN.
However the hotbar is incredibly tedious to set up now that the radial menu is gone, and any special feats you want to perform must be dragged through from your characters' character sheet. I also haven't found a way to assign companion commands to the hotbar - which you could do in NWN - and those commands are an absolute necessity if you don't want your companions to aggro any enemies you don't want in a fight. The AI wants to engage in all enemies, even ones that will break your party formation.
Overall, gameplay is a downgrade from the original game.
Graphics and Sound
NWN2's engine essentially splashes the original NWN with a brand new coat of paint that looks good as screenshots but awful when in motion. All of the characters' animations feel extremely floaty, especially when attacking and moving. Not to mention that the women in the game walk as if they're always on a catwalk strutting. The spell's visual effects have taken a downgrade as well, and I was kind of disappointed with how it handled the electricity visuals on weapons. Blood also no longer spills on the ground and just floats in air like a plume of smoke.
The game has some new sound effects and music, but it also has pretty much all of the sound assets from the original NWN, and the game relies heavily on the older sounds. Voice acting in the game is a mixed bag. Thankfully, all of the companions have good VA and they don't suffer from the crushed dynamics some of the voices from Hordes of the Underdark had. Unfortunately, a bit of the NPCs aren't as lucky. Most of the bad VA come from monstrous NPCs who would benefit from having some reverb or other post processing, but they often suffer from crushed dynamics making them fatiguing to hear. The ones that speak very slow are often the ones that have the worst voice direction, but I don't think it's the fault of the VO artist.
Some of the NPCs in the NWN2 campaign even have the Asmir Male voice set, which if you've ever used the NWN Toolset, you'll know that is the default voice set assigned to any newly created NPC. It just so happens that the designers forgot to reassign another voice that would have made more sense to the NPC. There are a couple of other design oversights in the game that could take forever to fill this box of text up, but I digress.
Story
This is without a doubt the only thing that makes NWN2 better than NWN1 in spite of its problems. Pretty much all of the original Bioware modules in NWN had subpar stories save for Hordes of the Underdark. However, NWN2's story kept me engaged all throughout its long campaign, so much so that I even sat through a no word of lie a half hour conversation during a trial in the second act. Companions all have engaging side quests, and they feel very fleshed out as characters in the story whereas in the original campaign they're mostly used tools as a means to make the game more smoother to play. It's a testament of good writing if I'm able to stomach the bad animations and questionable game design choices just to see what happens next in the game.
Replayability
There are several paths you can take in the campaign and they all fit pretty well with the game's plot, surprisingly even the evil ones. Replayability in the first campaign will not be an issue if you're used to the gameplay jank. Unfortunately, because the only thing that carries the game is the campaign, NWN2 doesn't have the longevity of its older brother. Despite having its own toolset like NWN, it was reported that the toolset is more complicated to use compared to the original one, so users ended up going back to the old game for content creation. I cannot speak about the toolset as I have no recollection of ever using it, but by no means does that mean the game is void of user made content. Far from it, it has a sizeable amount of content that will garner more hours of your time if you let it, but it is nowhere near the sheer size of NWN1's content.
Final Thoughts
To put this long-winded rambling of a review short, Neverwinter Nights 2 is a great game mostly for its main campaign. Once you get used to its jankiness, the story of the campaign is among the best in the Dungeons and Dragons lore with compelling characters and decisions that may or may not bite you back in the end. If you're looking for an older RPG that feels okay to play despite its jankiness, you might want to just play NWN1 instead, as it already has loads of fan content that sometimes outshine its main campaign.
Gameplay
NWN2 borrows a lot of gameplay elements from KOTOR where you can assume control of your companions and some conversations are letterboxed cutscenes. Inventory management is also similar to KOTOR, where the items no longer take up inventory space with unique sizes on a grid, and now all occupy one space in your inventory screen. The huge side effect to this inventory management is that you will have more trouble than necessary finding certain items that you'll need as a lot of the icons look identical.
Gone from the game is the radial system where you right click on an element and you're given a UI wheel to assign an action to your PC. In its place is a drop down menu that does the same, but removes some of the inputs to keep the menu from being cluttered. The designers ideally want you to use the hotbar more than the drop down menu, as they believed that right clicking on the enemy you want you to perform the action on, and then click on the ability in the hotbar to do that action on the enemy would be more intuitive than the radial menu from NWN.
However the hotbar is incredibly tedious to set up now that the radial menu is gone, and any special feats you want to perform must be dragged through from your characters' character sheet. I also haven't found a way to assign companion commands to the hotbar - which you could do in NWN - and those commands are an absolute necessity if you don't want your companions to aggro any enemies you don't want in a fight. The AI wants to engage in all enemies, even ones that will break your party formation.
Overall, gameplay is a downgrade from the original game.
Graphics and Sound
NWN2's engine essentially splashes the original NWN with a brand new coat of paint that looks good as screenshots but awful when in motion. All of the characters' animations feel extremely floaty, especially when attacking and moving. Not to mention that the women in the game walk as if they're always on a catwalk strutting. The spell's visual effects have taken a downgrade as well, and I was kind of disappointed with how it handled the electricity visuals on weapons. Blood also no longer spills on the ground and just floats in air like a plume of smoke.
The game has some new sound effects and music, but it also has pretty much all of the sound assets from the original NWN, and the game relies heavily on the older sounds. Voice acting in the game is a mixed bag. Thankfully, all of the companions have good VA and they don't suffer from the crushed dynamics some of the voices from Hordes of the Underdark had. Unfortunately, a bit of the NPCs aren't as lucky. Most of the bad VA come from monstrous NPCs who would benefit from having some reverb or other post processing, but they often suffer from crushed dynamics making them fatiguing to hear. The ones that speak very slow are often the ones that have the worst voice direction, but I don't think it's the fault of the VO artist.
Some of the NPCs in the NWN2 campaign even have the Asmir Male voice set, which if you've ever used the NWN Toolset, you'll know that is the default voice set assigned to any newly created NPC. It just so happens that the designers forgot to reassign another voice that would have made more sense to the NPC. There are a couple of other design oversights in the game that could take forever to fill this box of text up, but I digress.
Story
This is without a doubt the only thing that makes NWN2 better than NWN1 in spite of its problems. Pretty much all of the original Bioware modules in NWN had subpar stories save for Hordes of the Underdark. However, NWN2's story kept me engaged all throughout its long campaign, so much so that I even sat through a no word of lie a half hour conversation during a trial in the second act. Companions all have engaging side quests, and they feel very fleshed out as characters in the story whereas in the original campaign they're mostly used tools as a means to make the game more smoother to play. It's a testament of good writing if I'm able to stomach the bad animations and questionable game design choices just to see what happens next in the game.
Replayability
There are several paths you can take in the campaign and they all fit pretty well with the game's plot, surprisingly even the evil ones. Replayability in the first campaign will not be an issue if you're used to the gameplay jank. Unfortunately, because the only thing that carries the game is the campaign, NWN2 doesn't have the longevity of its older brother. Despite having its own toolset like NWN, it was reported that the toolset is more complicated to use compared to the original one, so users ended up going back to the old game for content creation. I cannot speak about the toolset as I have no recollection of ever using it, but by no means does that mean the game is void of user made content. Far from it, it has a sizeable amount of content that will garner more hours of your time if you let it, but it is nowhere near the sheer size of NWN1's content.
Final Thoughts
To put this long-winded rambling of a review short, Neverwinter Nights 2 is a great game mostly for its main campaign. Once you get used to its jankiness, the story of the campaign is among the best in the Dungeons and Dragons lore with compelling characters and decisions that may or may not bite you back in the end. If you're looking for an older RPG that feels okay to play despite its jankiness, you might want to just play NWN1 instead, as it already has loads of fan content that sometimes outshine its main campaign.
I sunk so many hours into this and I never could bring myself to beat the main campaign.
Despite looking objectibely better than its predecessor the game's charm is all but gone.
Despite looking objectibely better than its predecessor the game's charm is all but gone.