Neverwinter Knights, Opinions?

[godofallu]

So i've been in need of a new RPG for a while now, and i've basically beaten every decent RPG that's come out in the last few years.

I was looking into NWN2 but i'm a little worried for a few reasons.

1 Old game which doesn't officially support windows 7
2 Many reviews mention game crippling bugs
3 Graphics/game is outdated
4 Gameplay might be too slow or too advanced (hard to lean the ropes)

Anyways I have a 20 dollar gift card for best buy, and plenty of time. I just don't want to invest in a game full of bugs, or which won't run at all on my system.

TLDR: What's your opinion on NWN2 (or any of the expansions), does it really have that many game breaking bugs or have those all been fixed?

 

[Scottay]

Did you play Neverwinter Nights 1? I found it much more enjoyable then the second one.

 

[lionsprey]

Played through them and didn't notice any bugs that a quick patch didn't fix although the last expansion "Storm of Zehir" was really boring.

 

[Zarincos]

No bugs, or at least not many ones that you'd notice unless you look or read carefully, gameplay's pretty slow, though, you get to playing a few hours to gain one level, and most of the levels just give minor stat increases; combat's pretty fun, though it does get old using more or less the same abilities ad infinitum.

 

[Woodsey]

I always found NWN2 incredibly boring.

The first was better to me, but I never got very far (I was pretty young when I played it).

 

[P.Tsunami]

I personally found NWN2 to be a pretty boring, unappealing dredge. Uninspired, lacking in creativity, graphically very weak, with a user interface you have to fight and some of the worst companion AI I've seen. I only occasionally got any joy or entertainment whatsoever of it, most of my time was spent either being bored to tears or frustrated by the game's technical limitations.

Mind you, I'm the kind of person who praises great RPGs in spite of technical problems. Neverwinter Nights 2, however, is not a great RPG. It's mediocre at best, and not worth your money.

 

[King Leoric]

The bugs in NWN2 aren't any worse than those in a Bioware game, and I found the story to be quite interesting(except for storm of Zehir don't get that).

As for windows 7... there's always compatibility mode, though I'm no expert on 7.

EDIT: The first game is much better though, if your not concerned about graphics.

 

[Raikov]

NWN 2 sucks. Get the first one.

 

[Tragedy's Rebellion]

Neverwinter nights 1 is my favorite game of all time, but the second one not so much. The stories in both games are kinda lackluster, although mask of the betrayer is more interesting. The combat in the first one feels more natural somehow, while in nwn2 it's very clunky and awkward.

If you get a nwn game, i'd recommend the first one. And as a bonus, when you complete the official campaigns there are many modules (some of them mind blowing) for nwn 1 at the nwvault.

 

[Casimir_Effect]

Works fine on my 64bit version of Win7.

There are some bugs that can occur, but game crippling ones occur no more often than in any other game. NWN2 also has a very complete console which allows you near complete control over any item and trigger in the game. For example a boss didn't appear for me once which meant I couldn't progress, but I quickly found a console command which advanced the story to what happens after you kill that boss.

The graphics won't look as good as Oblivion or Dragon Age, but they do still hold up well in my opinion and you will only hate them if you're a complete graphics whore. There is one problem the engine has where things can get very slow after about an hour of gameplay. But this can be solved by reloading the game and may not happen at all. In fact, Dragon Age does this for me except it's every 30mins I have to reload my game to stop the stuttering.

The gameplay will be the deal breaker here. It's D&D 3.5 edition and can often be quite unforgiving. There is also little interaction beyond telling which party member who to attack. Typically you'll pause the game, give your fighters targets and then manage your wizard as needed. Basically, if you liked Baldurs Gate combat (or Torment, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights 1, even KOTOR & Dragon Age to some extent) then you'll get on fine with this. The game allows for many different character builds and, while it is easy to mess up and create a weak character, you will soon learn what not to do. Also, there are console commands which allow you to essentially re-do your character (by reducing them to level 1 then giving XP back to relevel them to what they were, allowing you to pick skills, feats and classes again).

The story and character were always something I enjoyed. The original game is a good fantasy romp with a nice amount of humour and some fun moments thrown in. The first act is hard to get through but everything after that is gold.
The real star of NWN2 though is the first expansion pack: Mask of the Betrayer. This is one of the greatest RPGs available and has a story which, to me at least, is second only to Planescape: Torment. It is a full game in itself but far smaller in scope, allowing for more fleashed-out characters and a very coherent story. The story itself is also very intelligently written and thought provoking.

In conclusion, I would recommend you get it unless you crave constant action. I rate it a very good to excellent game.

 

[Turing]

It works like a charm on my 64bit windows 7 as well.
Its not really a good game a such, but its decent and the crippling bugs have long since been fixed.
Its also very long so lot of playtime.
If you like RPGs like Dragon Age: Origins, Icewind Dale and Baldurs Gate you owe yourself to play this game.
If nothing else, Mask Of The Betrayer, the expansions, is worth the price of the full game alone even if Chris Avellone did rehash some of the concepts from Planescape:Torment a bit much

 

[Kilgengoor]

Funny that you mention it, I've been playing NWN2 for the last couple or so days, and I must say it's been my first D&D game so far (what with the crazy dice rolls and stuff) and I'm enjoying it greatly. While it's been really, really, REALLY confusing for me to try and figure out the caps, rolls, skills and whatnot (thankfully I've been able to correct a few things thanks to the character editor), my character is quite quickly getting up to pace. Just arrived on Neverwinter proper, and I think I'm getting the hang of it pretty quickly. My character (a Pureblood ranger) is quite likeable, and so far I haven't seen many bugs. The little of them I've seen are actually quite funny and beneficial (I saved just right during the fight in which the Druid shows herself, and when I loaded the game my party started attacking the enemies while they were talking, so I could practically just sit back and wait them to kill all the grey dwarves).

I'm finding the game quite likeable if a little chaotic being accustomed to Dragon Age's behavioral patterns, and once you get used to the game's pacing I think it's an actually good game. Not the Second Coming, but it's definitely fun and quite gratifying. The party banter has made me chuckle once or twice thus far, and boy did I feel my crotch funny the moment I saw my Druid could summon a dinosaur with twice the health of my tank as a companion (sorry for the mental image).

Once again, I can't understand half of the user reviews in a Bioware / Obsidian / Bioware + Obsidian game in Metacritic, Fallout: NV and Dragon Age II being the other two. Yeah, the game certainly does feel kinda rushed (the fact that you have to set the option to hide or show your helmet with a sepparate editor is an example) but I certainly don't feel it's THAT broken. In my opinion anyway.

Oh, and I've been playing the game + expansions vanilla up until the last session, in which I upgraded to the last patch, so I don't think there's the possibility of me missing a ton of bugs just because I had it up to date.


So OP, to sum up:


1 It works like a charm on Windows 7, haven't had a problem so far.
2 Haven't encountered a "game breaking bug" yet, although I've barely played for 3 or 4 hours.
3 Graphics are not that bad, really. It takes a little to get used to, especially because the character models look like plastic dolls, but trust me, it's not that horrible by a long shot.
4 Maybe you'll do like me and spend some time in the wiki trying to figure things out, but the rules are pretty simple and it's a reward in itself to make sense out of the numbers and dice rolls. I mean, I played a game of Exalted once so I'm not totally new to these things, but I've found the "hardcore RPG" rules on it to be quite enjoyable and intuitive.


Man I need make my posts shorter.

 

[Tragedy's Rebellion]

I just want to add, since i see people comparing it to DA:Origins, that it's completely different than DA:O (for the better), the only similarity is that they are both RPGs. Don't go in expecting it's like DA:O, because it's not.

 

[Misho-]

So i've been in need of a new RPG for a while now, and i've basically beaten every decent RPG that's come out in the last few years.

I was looking into NWN2 but i'm a little worried for a few reasons.

1 Old game which doesn't officially support windows 7
2 Many reviews mention game crippling bugs
3 Graphics/game is outdated
4 Gameplay might be too slow or too advanced (hard to lean the ropes)

Anyways I have a 20 dollar gift card for best buy, and plenty of time. I just don't want to invest in a game full of bugs, or which won't run at all on my system.

TLDR: What's your opinion on NWN2 (or any of the expansions), does it really have that many game breaking bugs or have those all been fixed?

In my own opinion, NW2 kicks ass... Like huge white pasty ass and takes names home...

Thing is, you gotta twich the specs on the graphics and the game runs awesomely great, just jump into a forum looking the how and presto.

The story isn't overwhelmengly good, but the sequel/expansion Mask of the Betrayer more than makes up for it. (Basically the story is good, then meh, then WTF ending?? // While the expansion is like "you borke my heart once", ok Ill hear what you have to say" and then Wow I'm really glad we came back together.")



Also the Zephir Storm one is pretty fun.

 

[AmunEli]

I love RPGs and NWN was boring and painfully slow paced.

Could not finish it to save my life.

 

[veloper]

NWN2 runs on win7, so that's not an issue.

At this point the game patched to a decent playable state. Also not an issue.
GFX are a click away on google.

Gameplay wise NWN2 is superior to games like NWN1 and KOTOR, because you get full party control and tons of possible D&D builds to play with.
It still controls a bit clunky though and the auto AI options are more limited than DA:O.

The story it's much better than the NWN1 OC, but it's not good. The expansion I still need to get round to play.

Biggest point against the game is the dungeon design and the repetition is a chore.

 

[Kilgengoor]

Gameplay wise NWN2 is superior to games like NWN1 and KOTOR, because you get full party control and tons of possible D&D builds to play with.

Forgot to mention that, NWN2 + the expansions have the most mind-boggling amount of possible classes/races I've ever seen in an RPG, ever. You can multiclass, too, so the combinations are seemingly infinite. And I'm really excited about the multiplayer.

That reminds me-- the user group for NWN2 on the Escapist is only 4 members strong as of right now, and I could use a nice multiplayer romp. Just sayin'.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Neverwinter Nights 2 only gets fun after Act 1. I only recommend it for the expansion Mask of the Betrayer, which easily has one of the best stories in any game ever.

For 20$ it's pretty lengthy, and the other expansion (Storm of Zehir) seems okay (Have not played much of it, but the party creating feature reminds me of Icewind Dale)

Oh yeah, and the character/race/class customization is pretty impressive.