Introduction
Neverwinter Nights 2 is the long awaited sequal to (surprisingly enough) Neverwinter Nights. Set in the Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting of Forgotten Realms, it makes a pretty reasonable stab at putting the entire 3.5 ruleset into a computer game...blah blah blah. Look, the only people interested in the details beyond that are the beardy types, who almost certainly know it already. Standard AD&D storyline, insert elves here. Lets get on with it.
Gameplay
Anyone familiar with the original NWN will be pretty familiar with the way this plays right from the off. The actual interface and such are almost identical with its predecessor, and, in fact, with most other D&D based RPG's. There's a limit to how many ways you can do this kind of game, and as they have already hit on one that works very well, why change? The most notable improvements over the original are a specially made "quick cast" menu, for easy spell access, and the ability to move bits of the interface around a bit, so you can lay things out in a way more pleasing to you.
But that lots not really important to the actual gameplay. Its an interface, it lets you control things, it works, but its not going to set your pants on fire with joy. What may induce trouser-fire is the richness of the game. Its utterly fucking crammed with content. Seriously. The original was always lauded as being the most complete D&D game ever, but this seems to have all the content the previous one did, plus about half as much again. I'm not talking about length of the story or anything like that. I mean sheer volume of stuff. I'll give an example: races.
In the original game, you had a fair choice of the standard fantasy cliche races. Human, elf, dwarf, halfling, half-elf or half-orc. In this one, theres also gnomes and Planetouched (a race of people descended from angels and demons. Nothing to do with Dan Brown, though). But it doesn't stop there, as many of the races have sub-races, each significantly different from each other. You dont just chose "elf" any more, there's Sun Elves, Moon Elves, Wood Elves and the Drow (Emo Elves). There's Shield Dwarves, Gray Dwarves, Rock Gnomes, Deep Gnomes, Lightfoot halflings, Strongheart halflings, Aasimar (Angel like fellas) and Tieflings (dodgy demonic fellas). That's more than double the choice on character creation, and that's just on race. At this point in playing the game for the first time, I had to go off to change my undies and have a brief lie down.
Its not just that they have crowbarred in more stuff, either. The stuff that was already there has been given a spit and polish. Creatures in RPG's often have the problem of being nothing more than generic angry bags of hitpoints, with the graphics being the only thing to really set them apart. NWN made a fairly valiant effort at getting around this, giving many of the guys the skills and abilities that they had in the pen and paper game. However, it wasn't quite there. to be honest, neither is NWN2, but its a step closer, and miles better than most RPG's. To give an example: Trolls now work properly. In the pen and paper game, trolls had insanely good health regeneration, they were the Wolverines of the fantasy setting. You could chop the buggers heads off, and they would (albeit slowly) grow a new body for it. The only way you could finish them off for good was with fire or acid. Stab em till they fall over, then singe em to keep them from getting up again. NWN didn't have this, meaning the trolls were little more than gangly buggers with a lot of hit points. In NWN2, they are a lot more interesting: If you don't have acid or fire about your person, your only recourse is to stab em and run. Makes things a bit harder, sure, but stuff like that adds a whole lot more to the setting of the game.
You'll probably have noticed that I haven't really mentioned how good the story is, which would seem a weird ommision for an RPG. Well, the campaign is pretty good so far (I'm only through half of act 1). I feel a lot less "on the rails" than I did in NWN1, and things are a lot more varied and interesting. I don't feel like I'm just on some silly wild goose chase like I did in the original running around trying to find the bloody creatures. The characters you team up with are a great improvement over the original, more approaching the characters in the Baldurs Gate games than the instantly forgettable buggers from NWN. The story itself is fairly standard RPG fair though;well written, but all done before (so far. There could be an alien invasion or something coming up. But I doubt it.) However, as the first NWN proved, this isn't so much a game as an example of the technology. I've not had a play around with the toolset myself yet, but I've heard good things about it, and if the original was anything to go by, there will shortly be a squagillion fan made modules to play through, with something in there to suit almost any RPG tastes.
That's not to say the official campaign isn't good though. It is.
Sights and Sounds
Like Nickface mentioned elsewhere, it looks pretty much the same as NWN, just with an EQ2-style makeover. I don't think that quite does it justice though. From a purely technical point of view, yes, its about comparable to EQ2. Unlike EQ2, there's a lot more artistic skill gone into this. The characters actually have character to them, there's detail to the world that makes it seem rich and interesting, rather than just shiny. The spell effects kick ass though, they really do look pretty.
The sound is a little less impressive. Its no real improvement over the sound in the original game. No, scratch that. It is the sound from the original game. There's some new music (I think) but all the voice acting is exactly the bloody same. Even the shouting noises in the background have been directly lifted from the rioting noises in the original. Seriously lazy, but to be honest, not exactly important to the game.
Stuff that sucks
Um...
No, gimmie a sec, I'll think of something...
Aha! yes! The sound is exactly the same as....oh, wait, I've done that. Erm...
Well, sometimes the controls are a bit spazzy. Its mildly easier to accidentally click the ground near someone when trying to attack them, meaning you run straight past and they get a free hit in. But it only happens on and off.
Nope, that's it.
Conclusion
Basically, if you liked the original, odds are you will love this. If you hate RPG's, its not likely to interest you. If you like RPG's, but for some reason didn't like the original...well, you're probably a cupcake
Official Werd of Joose: Its NWN1, but more so. With a makeover.
Score :
EDIT: Christ, that went on a bit.
