(One thumbs down for what came out of the box...and a belated thumbs up for what might go back into it...)
Hey!!!!!!! I might piss someone off here but that never stopped me. (Keep that in mind
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NWN2. I just got it. last week and started playing it. Bottom Line: Not exactly on par with NWN I is my opinion although there are improvements…these improvement (which are considerable in some cases) do NOT translate into a better game. There seems to be far less content in this game and far less...well...I just seems far less period.
This is going to be one of the few games where I simply CAN’T wait for the modders to come out with their stuff for it is likely to be better than the main quest…by far.
NWN2 seems so … sparse really. Not a whole lot to do in these towns or areas.…must of which are just scenery., kinda like the way games were made back in the 80’s and 90’s with Ultima III and IV. Many of the main characters are all standing outside in front of their shops and houses that are really just facades …most of the quests are given exterior to domiciles with the exception of a few. RIDICULOUS.. Also the combat animation are a huge step BACK to ten years ago; my PC runs into melee then stops and starts to rock back and forth like someone afflicted with autism waiting for his “turn” uhhh…like Wizardry 8… so that’s TWO STEPS back.
It IS taking me time to get through it…but only because the game seems to move at a much slower pace than NWN1. If this game was done in NWN1 I doubt it would take half the time to get through it…I really doubt it. This is a plus certain dungeons…I never liked racing through dungeons like some of the multi-players do. But MAN that inventory system and its graphics are a HUGE come down…I can barely make out the icons and if it weren’t for the little pop up identifiers this game might be unplayable.
As for the main plot I am only halfway done (or maybe less than halfway…I just made Neverwinter where I have been offered a good or evil path and that’s about it…duh). Well…I HOPE its less than halfway because I have done very little actually. Anyway if you like playing a cleric this game is for you and should be pretty easy as the plot seems to center so far around undead. Also plot seems less than “epic”…you just don’t get a sense of “big things” happening…as yet anyway.
The only thing I can think of is that the new toolset isn’t all that easy to work with so it forced the DEVS to use some old and rather dated techniques to lay out their story. I sure hope the modders can come up with something better...if I want to play Wizardry or Ultima IV I most certainly can resurrect my old copies. The use of “area transition” thingy’s reminded me too much of Fable and was [particularly irksome…as did the restricted movement in all the areas or most of them throughout the game…makes the whole thing feel really “linear” and definitely challenges that willing suspension of disbelief. Somehow a game that doesn't use tilesets seems far more restricted and artificial...how they pulled that off is a mystery to me.
In summary I think the game has a ton of potential but I think it will be up to the modding community to bring it all out. In that context I hope the reliance on “voice acting” in this version of NWN…always a pain for a shoe string modder…isn’t something that proves to be an impediment to that end. I find it odd that the DEVs abandoned so many steps forward on some of the game play option (giving up real time combat, taking away the more realistic towns and cities for better graphics that prove to be nothing but facades) just to net a few gains in graphics and “mood” stuff. But for my money give me a sparse looking dungeon with ten chests, secret doors, over a dungeon cluttered to the ceiling with non-interactive painted junk and one thing to do other than walk around.
Is this the game Atari really wanted when they came out with NWN1? If it is then BioWare needs to apologize for not upholding such a low standard but instead giving the gaming community one of the best games ever made.
(I suspect the lug heads at Obsidian are hoping the talented modders come out with something soon so they can plagiarize as much as possible for their next expansion).
Topic: NWN2 Impressions...errrrrrrr (Read 1991 times)