Is Neverwinter Nights 2 any good?

[Clive Howlitzer]

I enjoyed it but it is not without its faults. Most of the main faults though I just had with the D&D mechanics. I've never played a game based on D&D mechanics where I thought the gameplay was handled well, even if other elements were good. I tried to play Mask of The Betrayer but I just didn't have it in me to endure a whole expansion of "Epic" D&D type battles/content. It made my head explode.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Neverwinter Nights 2, with or without it's expansions is a large game. To my knowledge, it's the last D&D game of recent years (not including the MMO). It is a good game, and fun too. You will be absorbed into it quite quickly. It's an amazing and refreshing experience to be able to create (and role-play) pretty much any character you can imagine, rather than one of a handful of archetypes.

I bought it and its expansions all at the time of release for full price and all were worth it. To get that much fun for $10 is a bargain. I absolutely love the Warlock class, far and away my favourite (once you get WarlockBuddy installed for it). It's nice to have the party based combat too.

 

[cainx10a]

The Mask of the Betrayer was amazing. The story, the characters, and the journey. That's why I love Obsidian even despite their 'chutluish' QA, they know how to write a story.

 

[zehydra]

Bad engine, boring story, imho.

That said I did like nwn1 so maybe my taste differs to much.. and 10 bucks ain't much.

I never played NW1, but this is a suitable description of NW2, which I own.

In a nutshell: The game simply isn't fun. The game is waaaaay too linear for the kind of game that it is (DnD style RPG), for the sake of its story, which sucks.

Characters are annoying as hell.

There is nothing worse than a game that sacrifices gameplay to show off a terrible story.

 

[Mosstromo]

The answer, from someone that actually DID like the first one, is: Somewhat.
There are things to like and plenty to dislike. Fighting with the interface and the camera are just some of the dire aggravations to be endured during the game, and the story was not unescapably interesting. Not bad, just not blandless enough
For someone that confessed not having liked the first, I'd say: Let the offer expire.

 

[Liviola]

Note that Neverwinter Nights 2 developer is not Bioware (who did the first). I adored the first one. The 2nd one is very shite in terms of production quality, interface was crappy (similar but not better), and overall, the art and music is nowhere near to how good it was for NWN (compared to the standard of other games back in that day, NWN1 was SLICK AS. Bioware had pretty amazing team of 2D artists on NWN. With the franchise handed off to Obsidian, they didn't quite do the original justice).

As a big NWN1 fan who has played NWN2, I'll say steer clear of NWN2.

 

[Cr33dl0rd]

Imagine Knights of the old Republic (if you haven´t played that, go buy that before even thinking of getting NwN2) with better graphics but a story that´s not that amazing, it´s interesting and fun, but not amazing.
If, like you said, you didn´t enjoy NwN 1 (try the Hordes of the Underdark expansion) you probably won´t have the time of your live with 2 either.
Remember though, the game is long and 10 bucks isn´t much, this is one of those games that you buy because "why not".

 

[Taddy]

Neverwinter Nights 2 is an ok game, but once you get into Mask of The Betrayer. Holy shit is it good.

 

[The Madman]

If you're interested in the singleplayer I highly recommend it.

The games default campaign starts out as slow as they come and it's padded far too much for my liking, I wasn't particularly fond of any of the characters either. But it does eventually get quite interesting which is more than can be said for NWN1's miserable original campaign. Terrible ending though, terrible. Just when the game *finally* picks up and becomes interesting it comes crashing to a stop in the most annoying way possible for any DnD campaign to end. Still it is at least worth one playthrough I'd say and the gameplay is alright, it's nice to finally be controlling a party again after NWN1's stupid 'henchman' system.

And that on it's own is alright, not great but alright. NWN2 is at least a decent rpg experience standing on its own. It's when you add in the large library of player-campaign for the game (Many of which are better than the games default campaign!) mods and community support as well as the absolutely brilliant Mask of the Betrayer expansion, all for ten dollars, that the package becomes a steal!

Mask of the Betrayer in particular stands out and I wouldn't fault anyone for skipping the games OC and jumping straight to that, the plot connections are minimal and you could figure most of the original games story out easily enough just reading a wiki. Mask is worth it! Probably the best use of the Forgotten Realms setting since Baldur's Gate itself and one of the most surreal and unique rpg experience since Planescape: Torment. Quite a few memorable moments as well and unlike either NWN1 or 2, I can actually remember the names of the companions as they were themselves fantastic and unique.

Always had a soft spot for Kaelyn myself and who doesn't love Mr. Rainbow Bear?

Still NWN2 is also a bit of a hit or miss game, but for ten dollars I'd say it's worth the risk. Worst case scenario you lose about the equivalent of a decent lunch, not too bad!

 

[Therumancer]

Is Neverwinter Nights 2 any good? You can probably guess why I'm asking this now [http://store.steampowered.com/], I've been thinking about buying it all week, and now that there's only 7 hours left on the sale, I kind of need to make up my mind ^^

The thing is, I just completed the first Neverwinter Nights and didn't like it at all. The story was boring, the characters weren't very memorable, and the combat felt... I don't know, not nearly as fun as it did in Baldur's Gate. I've heard people say that the sequel is actually better, but how much better is it? Is it good enough to drop $10 if I didn't like the original?

Also, can anybody recall it ever being cheaper than $10 on a Steam sale? It hasn't been among the daily deals, so if I buy it now there's always the risk that it will end up even cheaper on the winter sale (if there is a winter sale at all this year).

So, does anybody feel like helping me out with this? ^^

It's good, generally it was received very similar to "Temple Of Elemental Evil", that is to say that the game was rushed out in fairly spotty shape. One of the rumors (well less of a rumor than a fact at this point given some detective work people did when the game was newer) is that like ToEE the game creators were forced to dial back the game due to adult content and situations, going with a whole differant build. The Moonstone Mask (Whorehouse from the first game) was redone as a dance hall, and romantic options for several characters like Neeshka were entirely removed. There are also a number of bugs and other problems in the game and very, very, slow pacing.

That said it is full of some pretty decent characters, and has some decent graphics (for it's year) and gameplay.

The sequels however are much stronger than the main game, the "Mask Of The Betrayer" which finishes up the storyline of the original is absolutly excellent. "Storm Of Zehir" received mixed reviews, but was also excellent for what it was trying to do in creating more of a freeform game where you could create your own party (or import characters you played from the first two games).

Don't expect it to be solid gold, but you'll probably have fun with it. For all of it's problems and how it plods in places getting through the first part of it does help in playing the second (much superior) chapter. I believe STEAM is selling the entire collection.

 

[Googenstien]

NWN2 as a whole is great.. I love the character creation system and all the different builds you can do. As usual Bioware/Obsidian has no clue how to do the AD&D ruleset and there is alot of ways to make crazy overpowered characters.

NWN2 Platinum for 10 bucks is a great deal.

 

[tobi the good boy]

Bought it, and for the life of me I TRIED to play it, but it bored the vicious purple termites that live in my pants, off of me. I've come back to it so many times thinking "Hay, I'm really interested in DnD and I haven't finished this game ... Why haven't I finished this game?" *Install* "Thats why I haven't finished this game..."

I personally could not stand it, but I'm probably just be the wrong target audience. But from my point of view, Horrid game, steer clear.

 

[Littaly]

Thanks for all the replies, the general opinion seems to be that it's an OK but not mind blowing game and that Mask of the Betrayer is the one I really want to get it for. I still haven't made up my mind, but it might be worth a try.

Dragon Age: Origins may be a better game for you?

Already played it, twice ^^ Pretty damn good game if you can put up with the terribad pacing in the second act.

Imagine Knights of the old Republic (if you haven´t played that, go buy that before even thinking of getting NwN2) with better graphics but a story that´s not that amazing, it´s interesting and fun, but not amazing.

I've played that too, although it must have been at least five or six years ago now, so I don't remember much from it. I tried to replay it a while back but it kept crashing on me, I've been thinking of getting the Steam version to see if it runs better, but I'll wait with that.

 

[Donnie Restad]

It's been years since I picked that one up, and I still dust it off every now and again. Usually when I get sick of a Bethesda RPG and want to return to something more old school.

It's not the best story, but it sticks with you. Definitely get it.

 

[Joos]

I played it through with a friend in coop, which was both a lot of fun and surprisingly un-clunky.

 

[KelsieKatt]

Overall, it's not a great game, but it's ok.

That said, it's a major improvement over the first game and they aren't all that similar outside of the name.

Neverwinter Nights 1 was built purely to make a D&D simulator with a full blown toolset for creating your own campaigns and playing them with other people online, which it nailed really well. The single player portion of the game however is absolutely awful.

 

[Imbechile]

I'd say get it. 10 bucks is cheap for 30+ hours.
NWN2 official expansion is good, nothing excellent(still beats the shit out of the first neverwinter nights(Bioware's worst game and one of the most boring games i've ever played)

Mask of the Betrayer is fantastic, one of my favorite games ever because of the great story and the awesome setting(finally a fantasy game not set in the same bland Tolkienesque setting)

 

[Candidus]

Bad engine, bad story (seriously dull), terrible voice acting, terrible animations, terrible character customisation, terrible Obsidian.

Don't waste your money. Do not. Waste. The money.

 

[Zanaxal]

The original campaign is pretty sheit, ive been trying to complete it for years but i never could be arsed, gotten pretty close now but well *sigh*. Mainly due to it's like the Dragon Age clone type game and you get a whole party of slightly customizable characters and the load time on my old comp made the million area transitions load so slow, and loads of small areas is pretty dull. Copy pasted environments and monsters with very little difference between any of it +1 dmg and +10 hp per new area gets pretty old. But people do say the expansion Are alot better. The story in nwn 2 is also pretty weak as hell, running around in the woods and in caves for most of it. It's like they directly copied it and made dragon age out of it. Right down to the end up in a city and do loads of small pointless things not even related to the mainquest with crap rewards.