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XGD > PC > Neverwinter Nights 2
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Reviews An RPG with actual role-playing!, January 3, 2007 Rating: 8.0/10 By zeroinitiate The original Neverwinter Nights was a groundbreaking role-playing game set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe that gave players a PC translation of the pen-and-paper experience. Although it took some liberties with the rulebook to get a smoother transition, the result was an enjoyable title that is still played up to today. Neverwinter Nights 2 is more of the same, which is mostly a good thing.
You play as the unassuming adopted son or daughter of a socially withdrawn but capable elf who grew up in a quaint little town known as West Harbor. It's so quaint that it doesn't even have a proper name. Both you and your foster father have a mysterious past, which will eventually come to light the more you play the game. I'll stop the spoilers right there, but suffice to say that one of the game's strong points is its story. It's very well-written, with engaging chapter arcs populated by a memorable cast of characters. Your potential party members are worth mentioning. The dialog and voice acting do an excellent job of bringing them to life, making them feel like actual companions and not just extra bodies that you can throw in harm's way.
Aside from the story, the other strong point of Neverwinter Nights 2 is its gameplay. Similar to its predecessor, it follows the pen-and-paper rules as faithfully as it can. When that's impossible, it finds a suitable translation and sticks with it. Unless you're a hardcore D&D purist who wants the rules followed strictly to the letter, you'll be happy with the results. Your actions, including the attack rolls, checks, saves and other numerical data are all displayed in the message panel. Alignment changes and other life-changing (from your character's point of view anyway) information are also shown. Almost all feats, spells and abilities are given exact translations. The manual covers what was lost in translation, so if what you're doing doesn't feel right, consult the documentation. In sum, the game manages to do a great job of transitioning the rulebook.
Gameplay depends on what character you'll make. That statement alone will tell you how much replay value you'll get from this title. Although you have to make a character that is at least combat-capable, it doesn't mean that you have to be a fighter or a fighter subclass. With that said, character creation is a very involved process. You'll be tweaking everything from your character's looks, race, class and stats to everything else in between. When you're done, it's off to the game world you go.
Gameplay is similar to the original and should be familiar territory to anyone who's played D&D classics like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. You take your initially low level character on a journey of epic proportions. You fight hordes of opponents, keeping in mind that a lot of number crunching is going on in the background. And, in true D&D fashion, you actually do some role-playing. Your decisions and actions shift your alignment between law and chaos, between good and evil. While this is trivial for some, an alignment change can be debilitating for paladins, druids, monks, etc. since they will not be able to level up when they're out of their proper alignments. It makes for some interesting choices since the lines between good and evil in-game are not as clear-cut as they seem to be.
The game's weaknesses are technical in nature. First, the freshly-installed version isn't stable enough. Thankfully, beta patches have been released to address this issue. If you're like me though, you'll soon find out that the patch process is itself flawed. For example, a 100 megabyte patch needed a whopping 5 gigabytes of hard drive space to extract and install. It's a major nuisance that could've been averted by simply informing the user. In all fairness though, the patch process is automatic. Just make sure that you have a lot of free space.
The second problem is with the game's graphics. Its just not impressive enough considering how high the system requirements are. While character models look good and animate smoothly, the environments are a little on the rough side. Some of the textures just don't look very polished. Spell effects look nice though. You can maximize the graphics settings if your computer has enough muscle in it. If not, you'll find yourself toning everything down to get a smooth framerate. The audio is your standard orchestral fare coupled with a bit of percussion that accompanies combat. The sound effects are boring though. For a game that has a lot of fighting in it, you don't hear much of it aside from grunts and battle cries. Expecting to hear the clash of steel? Don't. Again, voice acting is excellent, so make sure you listen to the dialog.
Neverwinter Nights 2 is a great RPG that's hampered by its technical issues. If you can get past them, then you're in for a solid experience. It's a refreshing break in the era where action RPGs dominate the market. Its excellent story and faithful gameplay should be enough reason for any D&D enthusiast. If you're looking for an RPG that actually allows you to role-play, then this game is for you.
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