Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006 Video Game) User Reviews

Greatly improved single player experience and tool-set. (Single player review)

[Jaycicle · 8/10 · 3 March 2008]

Neverwinter Nights 2 builds on the hard lessons leaned by Obsidian in the development of Knights of the Old Republic 2 - and does so excellently - after the disappointing, unfinished state of the latter.

It's a return to Forgotten Realms RPG roots this time around, following Bioware's first Neverwinter Nights game, which placed it's focus squarely on the Aurora Toolset. While the Toolset also returns in a greatly improved form, the game's emphasis is back on a central, single player story arc that really delivers... right up until an anti-climatic finale. Which I won't spoiler here.

The plot itself does little to break sci-fi/fantasy clichés, (Small town youngster rises to become a hero) but NWN2 gets away with it through an involving and impressive attention to detail and some truly interesting and fully developed companion characters, such as; the bitingly sarcastic 'Sand', the brooding and amoral 'Bishop' and the whiny but likable 'Neeshka'.

Sadly, they are balanced by other characters that remind you at times how clichéd this game is. The dwarven character, 'Khelgar' is a prime example, who, despite being ably brought to life by Adam Sietz's voice acting, is all too reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings' Gimli. Casavir, the paladin suffering a crisis of faith and Black Garius, an evil mage plotting the downfall of Neverwinter, are not particularly original either.

Luckily, the game doesn't let the player dwell on it's clichés but keeps the story and action moving ably, throwing something new your way just as either the plot or the tasks set you, begin to become repetitive. This sustains you through all three acts and keeps boredom at bay but splits the meta-plot into separate but converging threads, which can leave you waiting for loose ends to be resolved for a long time.

While the game relies heavily on the Forgotten Realms setting, just as Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale did before it, it isn't afraid to change things. This can be both good and bad, as it offers surprises for people familiar with the original material, but also some all too blatant contradictions. These will hardly bother the casual player or one who has little interest in the Forgotten Realms but for fans, they can be irritably distracting. The three most glaring changes are:

* The absence of the town of Leilon from the southern edge of the Mere.

* The placing of Neverwinter as a coastal port - it lies several miles in land, (though this is an error repeated from the first game.)

* And most of all, the use of the ancient elven kingdom of Illefarn in place of Phalorm, the realm created by humans, elves and dwarfs, which fell not long after the empire of Netheril.

......

Fan gripes aside, NWN2 is a excellent game and a must-buy for anyone who enjoys both the social interaction of a MMORPG but longs for the story driven play of a more traditional RPG.

Decent game but hampered by unconvincing characters and plot developments.

[owen_twistfield · 7/10 · 30 December 2007]

(remark: this reviews has as it's subject the single player game not the multi-payer feature and the construction set).

"Can you honestly expect him to feel involved with you characters and are the developments in the plot convincing and either exciting or interesting?"

It is almost impossible to discuss Neverwinter Nights 2(short: NWN 2) without mentioning other games. Impossible because NWN 2 is a sequel. And impossible because Obsidian, the developer, has created Knights Of The Old Republic II, another AD&D game.

NWN 1 was a clean break from the Baldur's Gate dominated AD&D RPG world because it focused on the construction set and multi-player feature. The game itself felt more like a demo to show off the construction set then a full featured storyline. NWN 1 game was a single character game and to play in NWN 1 as a party one needed to turn to the multi-player feature.

With NWN 2 Obsidian has changed course again and reintroduced some BG features like a more developed story-line and a party centered game. In addition Obsidian seems to have been pleased with it's KOTOR II crafting mechanism, so crafting is part of NWN 2 as well. In all other respects Obsidian choose to keep things as they where in NWN 1 and stay true to the AD&D established features.

To mix tested features from other games into one packet seems a sane course but with NWN 2 this did not go without problems. An example of such a problem is that every conversation will be handled by main player character even if the conversation was started with another character. This has three effects: conversations are always tested against the player characters abilities, it is no-use developing the conversational skills of others and any conversation that results in combat(and there are lot of those) put's the player character in the front line, which is bad if you happen to have a vulnerable character like a wizard.

More can be said, but out of space consideration I'll focus on the story and how it's handled. It, the story, is broken down in three acts and an introduction. The introduction get's you familiarized with the AD&D rule-set and your home village just prior before it's being overrun. The three act's tell the story of a being created to defend a long lost civilization who turns up as a evil world conqueror/destroyer and who is thwarted by the player.

Attacking the home of the player is one of the most overused starts ever, invoking a feeling of dread about what the writers will serve us next. And indeed the game is full of overused features. As said before, the three acts turn around a being created to defend a long lost civilization who turns into an evil world conqueror. And again all the bad guys will join him on basis of the weakest excuses: they want power. For some depressing reason these bad guys are better organized and have more resources at their disposal than the good and neutral one's, despite the fact that all the leaders are homicidal psychopaths and the rank and file are more busy with in-fighting then overrunning the world. More overused features are dark priests creating undead armies, tribes of orcs assaulting civilization and convents of evil wizards abusing their evil magics. We have seen this all many times before.

Furthermore the story bristles with odd turns. Just to name a few. In act I the githyanki, a people from another world, turn up to pester the main player and then disappear in act II without a proper explanation. In act II a new person is introduced and he will be you adversary up to act III at which point he will join your side in one of the most unbelievable changes of opinion one can think of. In Act I you are given some options to (mal)treat some lizards, in act III lizards will appear again to be recruited as potential allies. At this point you expect there to be some link, but there is none. In act II you will be able to wipe out the better part of the teenage offspring of the Neverwinter's well-to-do without any repercussions. In the same vein, you can choose in Act II to side with the criminals in a war for control over the docks of Neverwinter, killing scores of law-enforcers and yet a little later on you are awarded with a title and a keep by the ruler of the city.

Now all of the above might have been neutralized if the happenings had been give some deeper layer, where presented with a twist or brought to us in a unique way. The central theme that of a former guardian who turns into an evil conqueror has some merit, but this is hardly used in any good fashion. The characters are just not shown(main bad guy), unbelievable, overused and presented in a boring way(most of the cast). Interesting dialogue can only be found far and in between.

But the game has some very redeeming qualities. First and foremost are the other party members. They have all different personalities and some have their own quests. It is fun how some of the battle cry's invoke a smile. In addition there are some gems. One fine piece is the trial halfway in the game that suddenly brings into focus what impact your treatment of others can cause.

To turn back to the question at the beginning of this review. Most characters you won't feel involved with, most developments are unconvincing and only the endless score of battles, character interactions and the occasional story gem keeps things interesting. Because of this it is impossible to give anything more than a 7.5.

A decent experience with ups and downs

[tsaxconofdarkness · 7/10 · 2 September 2020]

This review is only about nwn2's main campaign (MC).

From a first glance, it's a quite decent game, given it's a 2006 game and honestly quite well developed even though far from perfect. As an rpg game the variety of classes, deities, skills, etc is greatly expanded, which means you can build pretty unique characters on every alignement you want.

The storyline, as the title suggests is somewhat peculiar. There are many cliche parts, I 'll avoid elaborating as I prefer the review to be spoilless, but If you try the game it's quite easy to tell; and on the other side, there are plenty of interesting quests especially in the mid game which I honestly loved and stayed full focused.

I didn't really like the companion characters personally, I felt they were scewing to the "good" side on average and that makes the campaign kinda disappointing if you want to go as an evil character. The rectifying part was that the evil characters were clearly better developed so maybe that balances things out.

Now, obviously dnd rpg games are not from everyone as If you want to play the game on hard or very hard difficulty you have to pause and strategise every single second of the fights, which can be preferable for some players but certainly not for the majority. So I would suggest this game mostly for the storyline rather than the battle element.

Overall it was a great experience and If you manage to finish it, it is a mandatory to go for the expansion sequel Mask of the Betrayer where the level is hugely elevated.

Brilliant

[ejbg-57125 · 10/10 · 9 July 2019]

If you like a really good storyline within a game you will love this game. But my recommendation is that you should see the original campaign and mask of the betrayer as 1 very long and extremely challenging game. But you should also play it that way. Start the original campaign. Finish it if you can then start mask of the betrayer straight afterwards then you will get the full story.