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.