Not much buzz on this game?!?!?!?

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It seems only BTA, Tal, Bombur, Catbert and I are talking about this game...Well, Harbourboy's talking, but he doesn't have it.

Anyway, what's the buzz on the game?

Although I don't think it lives up to NWN's RP standards, and seems to be a dumbed down version of DnD - It is fun, there are a lot of visual changes: spells, effects, secenery, etc...and they look really great!

NWN wasn't perfect when it came out, but it got better with every patch - hopefully, they'll have the same dedication to the RP community for NWN2.

Don't think I am down on the game, I'm really not - I was just expecting a vast improvement over NWN. As it stands, it's like a playboy playmate - nice to look at, but lacking in substance.

Maybe my expectations were too high? Single player NWN was never my favorite either - I've had the best times playing NWN multiplayer in ALFA or other persistent worlds. They tended to be richer gaming and roleplaying experiences.

Anyway - those are my thoughts...What are yours?

 

Like I said - I didn't mean to imply I didn't like the game...I am having fun with it and the new tilesets are awesome!!

By the way - there's a spolier coming:
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Did two lizardmen burn down that woman's barn in your game? I'm wondering if I talked too long and made her put her guard down. Either way, that's easily been the funniest thing I've seen in the game!!!

 

That was one of those places that I wanted to be able to break the conversation and save the day. Anyway, it turns out to be critical to the plot, and there is no way to avoid it. That woman has a name by the way: Shandra Jerro.

And there are more funny things ahead. Turns out that NWN2 also has gnomes...

 

Here's my take on NWN2. I think the story and the character interaction is drastically better than in NWN. It's still nowhere near the RPG that BG2 is but the banter is great. I played NWN2 multi and single player. I like single player better as the storyline is great and you and your party interact. As a RPG it is an improvement over NWN as you now have a PARTY that you control, which is more in line with traditional D&D, which is party based. I personally prefer party based games like the BG and IWD series, Torment, and Temple of Elemental Evil as I used to play PnP D&D. The graphics, ease of use, and character controls were better in NWN. I also don't like that you don't have portraits for your character like you do in NWN, BG series, and IWD series. This game seems to be a D&D version of KOTOR, which I'm not knocking, but I liked the character aspects from NWN better. That said, so far I am having a far greater time in the single player game of NWN2 than I ever did in NWN, largely due to the well developed NPC party members and the superior storyline. I think any RPG fan would enjoy this game.

 

I would say that the reason that hardly any one is talking about the game is that not everyone is rich enough to:
a) buy the game at full price on its initial release (many people only by second hand or discounted games)
b) buy the hyperspace capable computer required to play the game at any acceptable level of performance

Plus, the negative reviews posted by a several people here (like Catbert and Barmy Army) won't have helped increase the flood of people buying the game.

 

Hate to intrude, but I've another bit of speculation to add. Perhaps a reason why hardly anyone is talking about the game is because we're too busy PLAYING it

Give it a week or two when people such as I have finished the game, then expect some more chatter. Besides, if I've noticed one thing on the boards, its that many who defend the game once have to spend countless more times defending their positive opinion towards the game,' eh BTA? , I think I'll wait for attitudes to cool down a bit and maybe for a few more patches before I comment overmuch. Anyway, back to my Druid\warpriest\neverwinter nine

 

Since nobody's talking about the game here, I've been hanging out at the BIO forums myself.
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/

 

I'm pretty sure I've chimed in with my opinion more than once.

Anyhow, NWN2 is a game that's just full of potential, but falls short in so many areas. Some of them are big issues, like machines that greatly exceed the miniums severely underperforming. Others are smaller issues, like defensive casting not turning on when you tell it to -- and thus your caster receiving a bunch of Attacks of Opportunity that he/she shouldn't have. Resting is silly. On core difficulty I can rest anywhere I want as often as I want, and no game time passes when I do so. So I could conceivably run into every battle with full hitpoints and unload every spell I have at my disposal (I think NWN 1 was similar in this regard). Companions can't die, so you can totally cheese your way through the game and exploit this. Early in the game companions are forced on you for some unknown reason. Apparently Obsidian thought their inter party banters were just too good to let players miss. And there is plenty more about the game that serves to aggravate.

That said, it's still a fun, entertaining game, and I think it will only improve with future patches. I encourage people to wait a few months for this one, make sure you have a fairly badar$e PC, and I think you'll have a good enough time playing through the game.

I give it a 6.5.

 

I told you already in the other post: You don't need a super computer to play the game. Mine isn't, cost me about €900 and I can play the game with almost all feats on (just low on shadows) I'll post my pics when I get back from work.

Celesialraven is right, I spend my free time playing the game.

 

I bought the game when it came out two weeks ago and started playing it at once.

What were my expectations ?

I prefer to play SP with a party, loving the banter, romances and the tactical challenges.

Having played NWN and its modules a lot I didn't expect a BG3. But I was looking forward to something comparable or better than HotU.

What did I get so far, having now played as far as the end of act I ?

The OC story is ok for me. I usually play a good character and the story is tailored for this alignment.

The banter is good and occasionally very funny.
And the voice acting is very good most of the time.
Unfortunately, as I read on the forums, there are no romances to speak of.
And the dialogue options with your party memebers don't seem to change much during the progression of the game.

But the mission and combat design is not very imaginative. To often quality is replaced by quantity. And to fight one low level mob after the other is quite boring. Though playing on D&D hardcore level I haven't met any serious tactical challenge yet.
And it's not good for the logic of the story if you have to fight about 100 shadow thieves who are on a secret mission to capture a single person by stealth. And that is just one of many comparable examples.

The general management of you party members is better than in NWN (without the Henchman mod) but still lacking in comparison to BG2 or even Spell Force 2.
I don't like that party members are forced on you. This kills the feeling that you are developing your party yourself.
Furthermore it doesn't matter whether you take a NPC along on a mission. If she joins your party again later she has got the same number of XPs as the others. (Ok, that was the same in NWN.)

Or the automatic ressurection. It's convenient for sure. But I don't like it.

Nevertheless I can and will live with this things. For one campaign.

I have more problems with the mere technical aspects of the game:

The new graphics are good. But nothing special in comparison to other new games like Spellforce 2. Especially the animations are very poor occasionally.

Character creation was quite a disappointment. Not many options there. And most of them quite ugly. It's even a regression compared to NWN.

The UI is not good. NWN (and even IWD2) have much better interfaces.

The area map is insufficient. And there is no Fog of War !

And there are lot of bugs and unfinished elements.
The things which hamper me most are
- the bad camera and
- the abysmal AI of the NPCs.

I like to control my NPC's but I don't want to micromanage them all the time. But with this AI you have to, especially the spellcasters. (I didn't survive my first battle with Qara in my party because of friendly fire )
And if you have to micromanage them you must be able to watch them all the time and find and access them very fast. But this is quite a challenge with this camera. And the UI.
It's impossible for me to play this game without using the pause function all the time.

Because of this I stopped playing the game for the moment - and therefore have time to post this message
I hope to resume (or restart) the OC in one or two months when the major problems are fixed.

Resume:
NWN2 is an average game which was rushed. Or under severe budget restrictions.
If it is patched properly it even will be fun to play.
But it is not the game I hoped for.

 

The game is everything I had hoped for and even more. I would have bought it, regardless of reviews (Which only shows one person's view on it). I'm pleasantly surprised how much this reminds me of Baldur's Gate and I'm loving everything in it so far.

While the animations are mediocre at best, the rest of the engine with effects, shadows, models and landscapes surely makes up for it. I'm sure that this game will be the foundation for a lot of very beautiful and deep modules, like NWN was. I feel this is everything NWN was, with an added amount of BG and a few more whistles on top.

All in all, awesome.

Remember, the campaign is just a sneak peek to what is possible.

 

Yeah its barely in the play.com top-10. Some stupid football game is no.1 :rolls: I like the game and it does have a lot of potential.

The game only cost £25 in the UK so its hardly expensive.

 

I say give it a year, especialy if you dont have the minimum specs yet. Much like nwn1 this game is a bit rushed and while i find nwn2 story better then nwn1 (way better). this game has its true potential in playermade mods. And as pointed out, it needs a fair bit of patching.
if it gets the love of patching, i think all of you who cant yet run it or wont buy it yet, can look forward to a great game.

the reason i say this, is that when Nwn came out, i was much disapointed, because i ekspected a BG3 in many ways. the one henchman you could have in nwn OC and the lack of controls, put me off that game for a year. around the first expansion i picked up the game, patched it up and downloaded some modules i had got recommanded. And at that point i started loving nwn1.

What i looked forward to in nwn2 was the control over party members, the upped graphic ( i find nwn1 horrible to look at, allthough some modules do make part of it look great) and basically the potential in playermade mods, with this form of party control and graphic.

a lot of the critic i see falls on the OC. honestly, did any of you guys like nwn1 OC? because i found the adventure acadamy (WTF!) and the fact that you had no party what so ever, only a suicidal hencmhan of your choice way more disapointing. I have still not gone through nwn OC, because i get bored around chapter3. Secondly i found nwn1 OC pure hack'n'slash, where my lone warrior took down liches and the like, not becuase he was a great fighter but because he happened to be decked out in resistance gear. But even with a lousy OC, suicidel henchmen and so forth, players around the world managed to create some truely great modules, where i actually came to like the different henchmen (espacially in does mods, that modulated the controls over them)
The potential they show in NWN2 seems much greater, So i hope and believe that some truely epic modules will be created. and I for one, dont hate the OC in this game.

 

I've been chiming in quite a bit I thought as well .

I completed the game sometime last week and was not overly dissappointed. The game is fun despite it's bugs, but the ending seems to have been voiced by a random programmer who was handed a script and immediately told to record .

As for speculation, besides patching bugs, fixing errors that let me talk to people that are in crossroad keep while I'm in Port Llast and the like, the only thing I'd really like is the BG2 type camera, where I can just grab my entire party and manipulate it at once. It makes things a billion times easier when the party isn't always trying to follow one guy, and when I'm able to see the entire party at the angel/position I choose.

As for the tactical challenges, I might just be too good at D&D rules and character creation for the game, 'cause at hardcore level, I find no battle challenging whatsoever. I charge in with my paladin or fighter or cleric and beat them all down with complete ease. Very few fights required me to use my party.

I've gone through all of NWN OC multiple times and I expect I'll do the same with NWN2. Never played Multiplayer 'cause I just found that there were no worthwhile mods or moderators.

 

Well, sure it's easy if you don't use your party. Half the time they don't do anything useful, and the other half the time the actually do more damage to your side than the bad guys do. The party *is* the tactical challenge.