NWN2: Forumite Impressions

[Llyranor]

Given the number of NWN2 threads going on here, I figure we should have a single thread where players can post their impressions. Let's keep this thread focused solely on that. As for marking spoilers, use tags. [spoiler ]insert spoiler[/spoiler ], but without the spaces. Newer impressions below.

 

I posted this earlier about the tutorial. It took me about 1h30 to finish. Granted, it's way way shorter than that, but I spent a lot of time just exploring the scenery. The new heightmaps make the exteriors really nice, and the way the placeables are used made the only interior I've seen so far seem unique. Technically-speaking, it's not best graphics ever material - and it doesn't matter anyway since I'm running it on uber-minimum settings. From a modder's perspective, though, looking at all of this is a great learning experience. I wouldn't be surprised if I spend a lot more time on the OC than the average player, given how much time I'm going to waste analyzing the environments.

 

Gameplay-wise, there isn't much to see in the tutorial. You're basically learning the ropes of how the game works. NWN1 players won't have much of a learning curve to go over. I quite like the new interface, though. The free camera option is quite nice, and lets you move the camera freely, like in the old IE games. I've found myself gravitating back to the old topdown view, though. You can set the AI of your party members off, which was the first thing I did. Otherwise, you can set various AI options for them. Also, when you hold-right-click and make the context-sensitive menu pop up (akin to Fallout), you can choose orders for your party members (I don't remember them correctly since I didn't use it, but I think there were things like 'heal me' or 'attack my target' or whatever).

 

In terms of story, well, essentially, it's some festival, and you're out to win in various activities. The writing is quite entertaining so far. Not mindblowing or anything, nor is it supposed to be, given the setting. This is already more than I can say from many other games, simply from the tutorial. Some of the NPCs are quite nice - particularly the

wizard

dude. Talking a bit to your party members and learning a bit about them was a nice touch, in terms of getting to know your 'childhood friends'. It's a nice way to set the background, before the real adventure begins. Of course, it IS a tutorial, and I'm judging it as such.

 

I particularly like how choosing my background

(mage's apprentice) put me in the shoes of the wizard dude's apprentice.

It's a little touch, yet a very nice one. Having these little changes catering to your unique choices during character creation = rewarding.

 

The voiceacting is at least competent, though some could probably find it annoying or whatnot. I've found it from 'good enough' to 'fits character well'.

 

The music is, of course, phenomenal. But I already knew this from the preorder toolset.

 

Numerical ratings are irrelevant, but I'm hooked.

 

The only reason I've already got it is http://www.direct2drive.com

Edited November 1, 2006 by Llyranor

[Llyranor]

I've played a bit more, and just finished up the first (common Forgotten Realms establishment where adventurers may come to rest for the night)

inn

and met up with the first real party member. Entertaining character, whose backstory is actually pretty interesting, despite its apparent simplicity. I like.

 

I'm quite fond of the game so far. It does have some vibes of BG1/2.

 

1) The visual atmosphere is very nice. The lighting really adds different moods to the exterior areas. As for interiors, the placeables are really beyond what NWN1 was capable. They actually do remind me a bit of BG1/2's interiors, but in 3D. Especially the (common Forgotten Realms establishment where adventurers may come to rest for the night)

inn

rooms compared to BG's.

 

2) Full party control is awesome. Granted, the combat so far has been pretty simple so far, but it's been made more enjoyable thanks to full control. It's very reminiscent of the IE games. You can't select multiple chars at once and order moves (which you don't need, since party members will follow the leader outside of combat even with AI off) or attacks as far as I've seen so far, though. ++ kudos. I'm actually enjoying the low-level spells. It's nice to see daze or grease effects popup as a small icon next to the enemies who are affected. The quickcast menu is AWESOME. Thanks JE!

 

3) I'm getting used to the free camera control (IE-style). Very nice now. You move the camera independently of the characters. I use W and S to tilt it up and down, and A and D to rotate it around, and the mouse borders to move it. Mousewheel to zoom. It's very nice in terms of playing around and setting proper camera angles to get good views of the battles (or just stick it high up and see everything) or to look at the scenery. Being able to view the environments in full 3D *is* quite appreciated, and the detailed look gives it many advantages that the IE games had over NWN1.

 

3) World map = It definitely feels like BG1 so far, though - of course - I've only gotten to a few areas so far. But, it's presented in the same flow, where you have to go through them in geographical order. I can't say much about the nonlinear exploration feel yet, but I've just arrived at a spot where I can choose two areas to go to, both of which make story sense. It's definitely appreciated.

 

Also, being able to pause during cutscenes = :cool:

 

Of course, as I've already said, the main theme music is hauntingly beautiful.

 

As for cons:

1) Performance is good enough (at min settings), but not silky-smooth. At higher settings, it's a resource hog for my system.

2) As I said before, graphics aren't technically 'best graphics ever', but A] I don't actually care and B] min settings That being said, when you compare graphics vs performance, it should probably run better. Or I just need to upgrade anyway.

3) Otherwise, I can't really complain about anything. Like I said, voice-acting is at least competent, though that could be a con for some. I'm not far enough into the story to have unfolded mindblowing storytelling yet, but it's compelling so far and would have kept me playing if I didn't need to go.

 

And with that, I'm leaving town until the end of the weekend, so no more impressions from me. With that said, NWN2 gets my

Edited November 1, 2006 by Llyranor

[kirottu]

Torture, pure torture. :'(

 

Me want too.

[karka]

That screenshot reminded me the first 3d games.

[Pope]

I want to play, but I have to get a new pc first. And I'm still doubting between a Warlock or a Bard.

 

Encountered any hilarious MCA writing yet?

[Llyranor]

It's MCA, what can I say?

 

Erm, the writing, if I could compare it to previous titles, is pretty much KOTOR2 compared to KOTOR1, but based of course in the FR. It's been all-around entertaining, with some pretty funny bits. It's what I expect from BIS/Obs - writing with personality. I'd rate it above what Bioware has done so far; I find them mostly solid, but sometimes a bit bland (I found BG2 to have solid writing, but a tad too standard most of the time). Of course, that's my own bias, and opinions may differ.

 

It's no PST, but there hasn't been much story exposition so far, nor any Dak'kon/Morte-esque characters met yet. The first real party member so far is more a simple type, who loves

violence

, and that makes him a-okay in my book. Like I said before, I found his backstory pretty enjoyable. But he's not a serious character.

Edited November 1, 2006 by Llyranor

[Pope]

What NPC's (classwise) have you found yet?

 

I'm especially curious about the cleric, bard and warlock. Cleric, since it's a vital class and there seems to be only one cleric NPC, so he/she cannot be annoying (no Anomen plz). The others since those are the classes I'm most interested in, and I'd like to know if they're any fun to play.

[mkreku]

Wow, I'm sorry but that screenshot is unbelievably bad. It really looks like the games did back when 3D accelerators were uncommon. Think Daggerfall! I do hope the game looks a tad bit better on my Radeon X1950XTX..

 

I'm not a graphics whore!

[Llyranor]

The two tutorial NPCs are

fighter

and

wizard

. The first real NPC is a

fighter at first, but possibly not for the whole game

.

 

I play a bard. NWN2's implementation is awesome. Rather than an all-purpose song as in NWN1, you have multiple ones as in actual PnP rules. I have countersong, fascinate and haven song so far. In terms of feats, you can get Curse Song (which works akin to NWN1's implementation), Lingering Song (+5 rounds / song) or Extra Music (+4 songs).

The bard also has an Inspiration, that acts as a permanent effect on party members near the bard. Basically, it grants you various bonuses depending on which ones you have active (eg. +x attack/damage, +x skill bonus, +x saves, etc). It sounds extremely powerful at first, but when you think about it, it's really (more or less) taking apart the NWN1 bard song into multiple component. Essentially, it's less powergamer-y, and yet gives you more breadth of options, both in inspirations and actual songs.

 

Bards are awesome. You can also equip instruments in the shield slot and you'll actually have a playing animation whenever you activate a new inspiration/song.

 

EDIT: And yeah, like I said, min settings, so I'm not really the judge of anything technically graphical. My main issue is with the performance more than the look. In terms of visuals, I'm pretty pleased with how the game is. For the record, I have a 2.8Ghz, Radeon 9600XT and 512megs of RAM. I can play the game at a decent performance on medium settings, but I always put the settings way down for virtually any game I play unless there's absolutely no performance hit on higher settings. I also take performance over look.

Edited November 1, 2006 by Llyranor

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

It's because the texture resolution is slapped right down... They look like old renders did... Heh it's a rather unique vibe... You get the same thing in games like EQ 2.

[Pope]

Bards are awesome. You can also equip instruments in the shield slot and you'll actually have a playing animation whenever you activate a new inspiration/song.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thx. Looks like I'll be playing a Bard then.

 

Unless someone convinces me that Warlocks kick ass and are totally awesome.

 

 

 

Of course, I could always multiclass a Bard/Warlock, but somehow that doesn't seem like that great of an idea.

Edited November 1, 2006 by Pope

[Enoch]

I'm curious to see if anybody has run the game with a bare minimum processor, as I will be (2.0 ghz P4). The rest of my system is somewhat more respectable (1 GB RAM; 6600GT). I'm probably not going to pick it up until tomorrow after work at the earliest, but I'd be nice to know what kind of performance problems I might be getting into.

[Xard]

Me want new computer. Me want NWN 2 :'(

 

Maybe I can persuade my friend to let me play NWN 2 on his computer until I get new one.

 

How's difficulty? Could you give few examples of backgrounds?

[Noceur]

Getting extremely excited now... this covers a lot of stuff I wanted to know about.

 

And I really love that they've got a free camera, ala the Infinity Engine.

Purrhurrhurrr!

 

btw, why is

inn

being spoiler-tagged?

 

EDIT: Dammit, now I can't concentrate on my job.

Edited November 1, 2006 by Noceur

[Llyranor]

Combat so far has been fairly standard. Not ridiculously easy, but not actually challenging, either. I'm playing it on DnD hardcore rules. If it doesn't increase in difficulty soon, I'll bring it up to Extra Difficulty, which doubles the damage you take.

 

As for backgrounds, there was a list somewhere. Off the top of my hand, let's see.... tale-teller, flirt, farmer, troublemaker, natural leader, mage's apprentice, etc. They gave you small bonuses and deficits in skills or saves.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Wow, I'm sorry but that screenshot is unbelievably bad. It really looks like the games did back when 3D accelerators were uncommon. Think Daggerfall! I do hope the game looks a tad bit better on my Radeon X1950XTX..

 

I'm not a graphics whore!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Yes, I havent seen pixelated textures since Quake 1. Mr Llyranor has to run some seriously dodgy settings for that to happen.

[Jorian Drake]

Wow, I'm sorry but that screenshot is unbelievably bad. It really looks like the games did back when 3D accelerators were uncommon. Think Daggerfall! I do hope the game looks a tad bit better on my Radeon X1950XTX..

 

I'm not a graphics whore!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Yes, I havent seen pixelated textures since Quake 1. Mr Llyranor has to run some seriously dodgy settings for that to happen.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

gosh, i nearly always play a kind of elf in rpg-s, but even D&D Online has much nicer looking elves than this, I know its not a big issue to the most players but its one of the worst things for me =(

[Llyranor]

........ That's a dwarf.

[Xard]

 

Thanks for the answer

[Jorian Drake]

........ That's a dwarf.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i know, i just had to say that somewhere, was not really connected to what i quoted.

 

 

How the heck should i fit in my role, if i think the char is ugly !? <_<

[deganawida]

........ That's a dwarf.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i know, i just had to say that somewhere, was not really connected to what i quoted.

 

 

How the heck should i fit in my role, if i think the char is ugly !? <_<

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Blame WotC for that. All of the images of the elves that I've seen thus far (game hasn't arrived yet) look like Obsidian took Todd Lockwood's illustrations straight out of the PHB and gave them three dimensional form. Like it or not, that is how 3.x D&D elves look.

[Jorian Drake]

........ That's a dwarf.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i know, i just had to say that somewhere, was not really connected to what i quoted.

 

 

How the heck should i fit in my role, if i think the char is ugly !? <_<

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Blame WotC for that. All of the images of the elves that I've seen thus far (game hasn't arrived yet) look like Obsidian took Todd Lockwood's illustrations straight out of the PHB and gave them three dimensional form. Like it or not, that is how 3.x D&D elves look.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

nope they aren't, i have all the 3.X book and they still look like elves, not like those in the game :angry:

 

 

PS: Todd Lockwood makes nice pictures

[deganawida]

Blame WotC for that.  All of the images of the elves that I've seen thus far (game hasn't arrived yet) look like Obsidian took Todd Lockwood's illustrations straight out of the PHB and gave them three dimensional form.  Like it or not, that is how 3.x D&D elves look.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

nope they aren't, i have all the 3.X book and they still look like elves, not like those in the game :angry:

 

 

PS: Todd Lockwood makes nice pictures

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Lockwood makes good dragons. I don't like much else he does. I would rather WotC had Sam Wood do the race designs for the PHB.

[Volourn]

Besdies, he didn't make NWN2. Obsidian did. They have to take responsibility for their creatures' appearances. I doubt every monster mdoel looks exactly like its pnp monster manual counterpart so that exuse is silly.

[astr0creep]

Do enemies respawn or is it all over once a map is cleared.