Admiral Ackbar
11-18-2006, 04:55 PM
In PC roleplaying circles one of the hotly anticipated titles of the year is Neverwinter Nights Two. The latest in a long line of quality RPG’s that have carried the D&D license. The original Neverwinter Nights moved the series forward by integrating the latest D20 D&D rules system. Also, it changed the graphical base, moving away from the painted worlds of Icewind Dale and Baldur’s Gate to a customizable toolset that allowed players to build their own adventures and worlds for online play.
Neverwinter Nights 2 is essentially built on the same base engine as the original game. The graphical appearance has been greatly redone. Even so, one would think a software architecture released in 2002 would run reasonably fast in 2006. Unfortunately that is not the case. NWN2 can tax even the greatest systems. Frame rate problems and slowdowns abound on a machine that could run Oblivion with effects at maximum in widescreen. This could at least be understandable if NWN2 had a breathtaking appearance. It does not.
The visual experience is marred by two major problems. First the graphical improvements, while a facelift, do not compare to its recent competition. It doesn’t have the clean, vivid imagery of a game like Guild Wars or World of Warcraft. It does not have the complexity or breathtaking views of Oblivion. Even RTS games like Dawn of War and Dragonshard are more attractive. It could be argued that it’s not fair to compare NWN2 to games of a different genre. But from a presentation perspective it seems appropriate. NWN2 is heavy in special effects like lighting, shadows, spell effects, and water rendering. But overall the graphical upgrade is nowhere near impressive.
The second issue may be one of design over function. The world as laid out does not feel fantastical. Yes, the customizable tileset can’t compare to the painted backgrounds of earlier games like Torment or the Temple of Elemental Evil. But the original NWN had a grander feel to it. For example, when starting in the original Neverwinter, homes were lined up tightly. Alleys went in every direction. It felt like a city. In NWN2, Neverwinter feels more like a hamlet. This may have been done to give a more realistic, medieval appearance. One might think this is just personal preference. However, before you reach the city, you talk to a merchant who explains that the city experienced a fire. He ends by saying, “It’s not how you remember it,” almost as if the game designers are apologizing for Neverwinters’ puny appearance.
If that wasn’t bad enough, maps feel small where current games are going for a more open, expansive field of play. You can pretty much see what is ahead of you in map layout so there’s no surprise. It takes away almost all feeling of exploration. Add some tracking and survival skill and you can even see the location of almost all the enemies on a map. Further, there is a high amount of inconsistency in map design. On one map you may need to open a door and then click on the black space behind it to enter a building. On another you may have to click the door to open it and then click the door again to enter the building. That may seem nitpicky, but it’s just one of many examples and shows the poor quality control that runs throughout the game.
Okay, enough with the looks. How does the game play?
The story starts off simply enough with a generic and cliché opening. Orphan boy (or girl) is raised by wise old elf in small peaceful village until one day they are attacked by a horde of monsters. Said monsters are seeking an item of power. Orphan must leave peaceful village and find how his destiny is tied to said item of power. That may sound wrote, but the ironic part is, the developers actually give away what the item or power is very early in the game. They don’t spell it out but it’s pretty obvious and ruins almost all suspense. Thanks developers!
To be fair, after a very poor beginning, the story does improve. There are some engaging quests, inter-dimensional warfare, and interesting characters. Up to three characters can be added to a party at a time. With an additional hand helping out here or there. Also there’s a robust crafting system which will have players hunting for rare ingredients and holding onto those valuable gems. One of the great criticisms of the original NWN was its uninteresting story. The story in NWN 2 is better, but isn’t special in anyway, and definitely not on the level of classics like Torment or Baldur’s Gate. A lot of events that occur in NWN 2 in fact seem to be taken from earlier games, but not done as well.
As Icewind Dale 2 opens, you have to defend a town from a goblinoid siege. There’s a great buildup as you prepare defenses and train men for the battle. When the siege finally occurs, Goblins start teleporting in from all sides. The player has to rush from wall to wall, holding back the tide. With three mini-bosses all in a row, fireballs knocking down walls, and bodies from both sides littering the field it’s one of the great battles in D&D PC gaming. It’s truly a tense and visceral experience and feels like the town could be won or lost. It’s obvious that the developers wanted the opening in NWN2 to recreate this event. But the attack on the village has almost no buildup and never feels in doubt.
Even on D&D Hardcore rules the game feels easy. The party can pretty much rest whenever it wants, wherever it wants, completely refreshing spells and health. Even between encounters. The enemy AI is not very intelligent and rarely focuses on spellcasters and support characters. Instead it seems triggered by either whoever attacked it first, the latest character to inflict massive damage, or characters without an opponent. Spellcasters are slightly more challenging but their spell selection appears scripted. Once a player knows what they’ll do after one encounter, they can prepare for that same spell chain again and again. The gameplay is rarely challenging and players will most likely curse a bad dice role than quiver in fear when facing a room full of opponents.
Many mechanics as used by the AI also appear buggy. The most obvious and unforgiving is sneaking. There seems to be a major flaw in sneak detection. On occasion, an enemy opponent who is sneaking will appear right next to a character just before he inflicts a critical blow. That seems to occur about 10% of the time and is assumed to be how the developer imagined sneak would work. The other times, when the party detects the sneaking opponent, the enemy becomes semi transparent and can be targeted for attack. But that enemy stays stuck in sneak mode which means he still moves at half speed and will inflict sneak attack damage if his first hit is successful. Thus the party can just run down a hall and spam their slow moving opponent with spells until it is dead. It also means there is no effective way to prevent sneak attack damage barring a special ability or an enemy miss. For such a severe flaw, especially when players will be facing many opponents who sneak, to not be caught is another indictment of the poor quality control in the game.
Finally, there’s the camera, which is simply atrocious. It has multiple modes but really the top down mode is the only one that works well to overview the battle. So you’re pretty much stuck with the same view. What’s worse is that most cut-scenes take place within the game and using said horrible camera. That ruins about 25% of all the cut-scenes because, when a character is talking, there’s either a post or a character or a piece of furniture blocking the view. That totally ruins a lot of moments in the game.
Once you’re done with NWN2, there is plenty of replay value with the included toolset. It’s an incredibly powerful and robust system for creating your own adventures and dungeons. Unfortunately, it comes with a horrific interface and terrible manual that is so complex you don’t even learn how to orient the camera until you read the FAQ at the end. It is not user friendly and only the most dedicated fans will want to use it. Even then it will take hours of practice to learn the system and get it to do exactly what you want it to. It’s really a shame because there’s a ton of power in the toolset but the developer didn’t put any time into making it easy to use.
Still there are sure to be new adventures coming out which can be shared between friends and even played co-operatively via multiplayer. There are several high quality persistent worlds that got started after the release of Neverwinter Nights. A lot of the ideas in NWN2 are adapted from those fan based modifications such as the crafting system and sub races at character creating. The developers did at least listen to the community in those regards. With time we should see similar worlds in NWN2. It remains to be seen if they’ll be able to have a larger player base in NWN2 with most servers maxing out at below 80 in the original NWN multiplayer.
Ultimately the only thing NWN 2 has going for it is the D&D licensing and the D20 system. This is a game that’s marred and past its prime. Best Buy will have it for $25 this Black Friday which is much more reasonable than the listed $50 at retail. Even then it can only be recommended to the hardcore D&D fan. If you’re looking for engaging RPG gaming, it might be best to look elsewhere.
Gameplay: 5
Graphics: 6
Sound: 6
Value: 7 (At $25)
Tilt: 7 (For the D&D License)
Total: 6.2
Neverwinter Nights 2 is essentially built on the same base engine as the original game. The graphical appearance has been greatly redone. Even so, one would think a software architecture released in 2002 would run reasonably fast in 2006. Unfortunately that is not the case. NWN2 can tax even the greatest systems. Frame rate problems and slowdowns abound on a machine that could run Oblivion with effects at maximum in widescreen. This could at least be understandable if NWN2 had a breathtaking appearance. It does not.
The visual experience is marred by two major problems. First the graphical improvements, while a facelift, do not compare to its recent competition. It doesn’t have the clean, vivid imagery of a game like Guild Wars or World of Warcraft. It does not have the complexity or breathtaking views of Oblivion. Even RTS games like Dawn of War and Dragonshard are more attractive. It could be argued that it’s not fair to compare NWN2 to games of a different genre. But from a presentation perspective it seems appropriate. NWN2 is heavy in special effects like lighting, shadows, spell effects, and water rendering. But overall the graphical upgrade is nowhere near impressive.
The second issue may be one of design over function. The world as laid out does not feel fantastical. Yes, the customizable tileset can’t compare to the painted backgrounds of earlier games like Torment or the Temple of Elemental Evil. But the original NWN had a grander feel to it. For example, when starting in the original Neverwinter, homes were lined up tightly. Alleys went in every direction. It felt like a city. In NWN2, Neverwinter feels more like a hamlet. This may have been done to give a more realistic, medieval appearance. One might think this is just personal preference. However, before you reach the city, you talk to a merchant who explains that the city experienced a fire. He ends by saying, “It’s not how you remember it,” almost as if the game designers are apologizing for Neverwinters’ puny appearance.
If that wasn’t bad enough, maps feel small where current games are going for a more open, expansive field of play. You can pretty much see what is ahead of you in map layout so there’s no surprise. It takes away almost all feeling of exploration. Add some tracking and survival skill and you can even see the location of almost all the enemies on a map. Further, there is a high amount of inconsistency in map design. On one map you may need to open a door and then click on the black space behind it to enter a building. On another you may have to click the door to open it and then click the door again to enter the building. That may seem nitpicky, but it’s just one of many examples and shows the poor quality control that runs throughout the game.
Okay, enough with the looks. How does the game play?
The story starts off simply enough with a generic and cliché opening. Orphan boy (or girl) is raised by wise old elf in small peaceful village until one day they are attacked by a horde of monsters. Said monsters are seeking an item of power. Orphan must leave peaceful village and find how his destiny is tied to said item of power. That may sound wrote, but the ironic part is, the developers actually give away what the item or power is very early in the game. They don’t spell it out but it’s pretty obvious and ruins almost all suspense. Thanks developers!
To be fair, after a very poor beginning, the story does improve. There are some engaging quests, inter-dimensional warfare, and interesting characters. Up to three characters can be added to a party at a time. With an additional hand helping out here or there. Also there’s a robust crafting system which will have players hunting for rare ingredients and holding onto those valuable gems. One of the great criticisms of the original NWN was its uninteresting story. The story in NWN 2 is better, but isn’t special in anyway, and definitely not on the level of classics like Torment or Baldur’s Gate. A lot of events that occur in NWN 2 in fact seem to be taken from earlier games, but not done as well.
As Icewind Dale 2 opens, you have to defend a town from a goblinoid siege. There’s a great buildup as you prepare defenses and train men for the battle. When the siege finally occurs, Goblins start teleporting in from all sides. The player has to rush from wall to wall, holding back the tide. With three mini-bosses all in a row, fireballs knocking down walls, and bodies from both sides littering the field it’s one of the great battles in D&D PC gaming. It’s truly a tense and visceral experience and feels like the town could be won or lost. It’s obvious that the developers wanted the opening in NWN2 to recreate this event. But the attack on the village has almost no buildup and never feels in doubt.
Even on D&D Hardcore rules the game feels easy. The party can pretty much rest whenever it wants, wherever it wants, completely refreshing spells and health. Even between encounters. The enemy AI is not very intelligent and rarely focuses on spellcasters and support characters. Instead it seems triggered by either whoever attacked it first, the latest character to inflict massive damage, or characters without an opponent. Spellcasters are slightly more challenging but their spell selection appears scripted. Once a player knows what they’ll do after one encounter, they can prepare for that same spell chain again and again. The gameplay is rarely challenging and players will most likely curse a bad dice role than quiver in fear when facing a room full of opponents.
Many mechanics as used by the AI also appear buggy. The most obvious and unforgiving is sneaking. There seems to be a major flaw in sneak detection. On occasion, an enemy opponent who is sneaking will appear right next to a character just before he inflicts a critical blow. That seems to occur about 10% of the time and is assumed to be how the developer imagined sneak would work. The other times, when the party detects the sneaking opponent, the enemy becomes semi transparent and can be targeted for attack. But that enemy stays stuck in sneak mode which means he still moves at half speed and will inflict sneak attack damage if his first hit is successful. Thus the party can just run down a hall and spam their slow moving opponent with spells until it is dead. It also means there is no effective way to prevent sneak attack damage barring a special ability or an enemy miss. For such a severe flaw, especially when players will be facing many opponents who sneak, to not be caught is another indictment of the poor quality control in the game.
Finally, there’s the camera, which is simply atrocious. It has multiple modes but really the top down mode is the only one that works well to overview the battle. So you’re pretty much stuck with the same view. What’s worse is that most cut-scenes take place within the game and using said horrible camera. That ruins about 25% of all the cut-scenes because, when a character is talking, there’s either a post or a character or a piece of furniture blocking the view. That totally ruins a lot of moments in the game.
Once you’re done with NWN2, there is plenty of replay value with the included toolset. It’s an incredibly powerful and robust system for creating your own adventures and dungeons. Unfortunately, it comes with a horrific interface and terrible manual that is so complex you don’t even learn how to orient the camera until you read the FAQ at the end. It is not user friendly and only the most dedicated fans will want to use it. Even then it will take hours of practice to learn the system and get it to do exactly what you want it to. It’s really a shame because there’s a ton of power in the toolset but the developer didn’t put any time into making it easy to use.
Still there are sure to be new adventures coming out which can be shared between friends and even played co-operatively via multiplayer. There are several high quality persistent worlds that got started after the release of Neverwinter Nights. A lot of the ideas in NWN2 are adapted from those fan based modifications such as the crafting system and sub races at character creating. The developers did at least listen to the community in those regards. With time we should see similar worlds in NWN2. It remains to be seen if they’ll be able to have a larger player base in NWN2 with most servers maxing out at below 80 in the original NWN multiplayer.
Ultimately the only thing NWN 2 has going for it is the D&D licensing and the D20 system. This is a game that’s marred and past its prime. Best Buy will have it for $25 this Black Friday which is much more reasonable than the listed $50 at retail. Even then it can only be recommended to the hardcore D&D fan. If you’re looking for engaging RPG gaming, it might be best to look elsewhere.
Gameplay: 5
Graphics: 6
Sound: 6
Value: 7 (At $25)
Tilt: 7 (For the D&D License)
Total: 6.2