50 Reasons Why NWN1 is better than NWN2

[Riftworm]

In no paticular order.

 

50 Reasons NWN2 is worse than NWN1:

 

 

01) Linear Gameplay. The introduction of pathfinding not only removed exploration from the game in that you can no longer wander freely, but forced people to download custom content files to play online. A double step backwards and arguably (next to the overly strict adherence to pen and paper rules) the worst thing about NWN2 today.

 

02) UI is exceedingly counter-intuitive. The scattered and buried controls make it much harder to control your hero/party than ever thought possible. It crowds the screen that's already so zoomed in you cant see the entire map you're on. The time it takes to organize, buff , and finally attack a hostile in NWN2 is at least 30 seconds longer than in NWN1, and likely much longer for casters or scroll users. For some reason they decided to take away the clearly defined buffs indication icons and replace them with miniture green boxes. Without a magnifying glass you wont be sure what buffs you have.

 

03) Henchmen AI. Ok so before there really was no AI, but at least they knew what to do and not just stand there, run away, or get in the way.

 

04) Details of the game! They all add up. But in NWN2 there aren't enough to add. Remember the seemingly endless list of armor to choose from and how they didn't all include the same round shoulder pad? Yeah gone are those days too. Remember how shields looked solid, and weapons didnt look like 1mm sheets of graphite? NWN2 likes it when your weapons look like 1 mm sheets of graphite.

 

05) Corny and overused Spell VFX. Remember how you could actually tell what the oponent was casting, or what buffs he had in NWN1? Remember how impressive you looked when fully buffed in NWN1? Nothing to look at now. In NWN2 The spell vfx are so opaque and similar now that it's hard to tell one from another. Many spells don't even visually match well with the actual spell at all. Some are just flat out corny circles thrown on there with no reference to dimension. I think I saw my grandmothers quilting pattern and my local taco bell clerk's hairnet design!

 

06) Barely any Creatures! Remember the huge options list you had for NPC's and creature models? Kiss that goodbye. Obsidian seems content on giving you a demo's worth of monsters for NWN2. This may be attributed to the amateurish modeling done by the same part of the team that decided to hide their embarrasing body models with 12 tons of bad looking armor and the same round shoulder pad when naked.

 

07) Unprofessional Animations. Animations look like day one at Maya 101 ..at a Community College. When my teifling cheers it looks like he's tossing hay bails, when my sorcoress casts spells it looks like she's pouring water. The basic melee animation actually has one less animation than NWN1 2.5 years later...not more..less.

 

08) No interior hieght map adjuster! you can no longer build raised terrain in caves. ??? Hello??

 

09) NWN1's Emotes are outta there. When you see the cheer, you might understand why. I'd be embarrassed too if I was an Obsidian animator.

 

10) Inventory. Why is my scythe the same size as my scroll? And why can't I see either of them? "quick give me this or that item!" --"uhh" uhh" ok" wait" ..."no...hmm...wait think i found it...no, no nevermind that's not it"

 

11) No Face Generator? No Body types? Amateurish unorganic looking faces, bodies and hair? 6 years after the Sims and this isn't in a game that is supposed to be built around making your character unique?

 

12) Limited furnishings for interiors are near hovel proportions. Remember the endless selections you had to make your interiors look every bit as unique as the feats and skills of your character? Those theme based object menus are long gone. Everyone is in a log cabin with the same rug and chests now, doesnt matter if you're a king or a peasant.

 

13) WASD controls might just as well give error messages now. Try simply running straight using the W key and have laugh at what follows.

 

14) Load times. Get the popcorn and cross your finger you don't have to reboot..just from making a transition. NWN2 made good and sure you won't be playing online even if you do manage to find that servers pwc file somehow.

 

15) Portraits. As if NWN2 could be any less immersive they decided to take away even the simplest but profound customizations when they made sure you can't use custom portraits now. No photo realistic heads for you, nope. You're forced to look at that poorly modeled character you regretfully settled for earlier.

 

16) Multiplayer nightmare. This one may be the death of NWN2 yet. Not only are clueless noobs never going to join your server because they never knew about pwc files, but if they did find out how to join they'd face the near inability to interact with other players compared to NWN1. No clear way to invite or be invited. No player list for the server. Text screen fly's by, fonts are displayed too small or too large, dialog pauses, transition crashes, entire party's are forced to transition together when just one wants to go increasing the likelihood that more than one of you will crash. It's ugly...real ugly.

 

17) Recycled music and voicesets. Though some of the same voicesets availble for character creation is appreciated, ALL of them are not. Remember the one song you wished stayed from NWN1 was either the taverns or the enchanted peaceful forests? Well the Tavern song is now a hokey ho-down from down south, a knee-slapping number almost country complete if it had the twang accented voice from the tutorial NPC you encounter earlier. The rest is NWN1 digitally unmastered. I actually hear air changes on some of the different voices and expect to hear a cough and a car alarm in the background. Who's obsidians sound guy?

 

18) Dialog options in the OC are actually less diversified than KotorII. You know what's about happen next, and how to get there. Zzzzzz

 

19) 3.5 Likeness. They spent so much time trying to adhere to 3.5 rules making the game more pen and paper than playable game, they actually forgot to give RDD's wings, and Palemasters bone grafts. lol..and someone called it "immersive" in the Fine Wine thread.

 

20) Toolset. This cryptic piece of unintuitive aurora alpha gone wrong could peplex a CIA data analyzer. Why do I need to guess what the x y z is? What about sliders? No Wizards? Good way to make sure only the truly skilled and patient get to work on modding, and leave out everyone else. Why even have item creation with so limited options?

Good luck even seeing the item you want to make in the preview window, it's all blacked out anyways.

 

21) Target aquisition is still in beta test right? When I want to click on a hostile I miss and run past him 75% of the time. NWN 1's Bioware team managed to remember people actually need to play this game,

 

22) No combat animations for any moves? NWN1 did this better and it's 5 years older. You'd think they'd have made one for cleave, dance of death even?

 

23) The Feats list on character creation is stacked for the same type of feat eg: Weapon focus. There's no sub menus? No organization Was this meant to fool us into thinking there were more feats? Bioware managed to streamline that before public release.

 

24) Remember how in NWN1 you could simply open a door and walk through, or bash it and do the same? Obsidian wants you to feel challenged so they made doors trap you so you get killed by NPC's or get frustrated and quit the game. I find myself fighting more doors than actual creatures or thugs.

 

25) Having the ability modify what you want to select/see in the toolset, so that you don't accidently select trees when you mean to grab NPCs, and you don't have a screen cluttered with waypoints when you don't want to be looking at them.

 

26) Remember how in NWN1 multiplayer you could zoom out and see the map as needed when big wars between factions/guilds or psimply party's broke out? In NWN2 Obsidian felt it better that you can;t plan ahead and that you can only select a hostile when they get real close and that's if your cursor even works and doesnt click past them.

 

27) Remember how you had to get near an area to reveal it in NWN1? Remember the excitement that generated when you couldn't tell where you might be going? There is no Fog of War in NWN2.

 

28) You can't die in NWN2. You're forced to endure more of the same hour long inevitable foregone conclusion dialouge and "AI Party mumbers do it for me or run away" combat. No but seriously you can't die.

 

29) Why are all rooftops the same peat moss and straw? That never happened in NWN1. When you went somewhere in NWN1 you knew it was somewhere different than the place you just left. Now, The rooftops have the NWN2 shoulder pad syndrome, theyre all the same.

 

30) Remember how you could put everything you needed into your quickslots? For NWN2 Obsidian fancied hiding your combat modes in the far reaches of the bottom right of your monitor so much that they made good and sure you have to go there to find tiny combat mode buttons to switch, not intuitively in the middle where they belong in quickslots.

 

31) Remeber hwo you could just walk up to a peasant and bhead him if you so chose in NWN1? Maybe you wanted some evil points or possible loot. Well Obsidian in all of their Disney Splendor decided to protect the random villager and spare them from your fury now as you can no longer randomly attack non combatants.

 

32) To further compound the above issue, you cant make a non hostile hostile. How does this fair for PVP? Well take a look at how like 2 people are playing online total and figure it out. NWN had the foresight to knwo that basic fundamental option needed to be there.

 

33) NWN1 though limited graphically still managed to make armor and weapons look believable. Armor and weaponry looks unresearched in NWN2 . None of it looks either Forgotten realms authentic or conventional Medieval.

 

34) Remember how in NWN1 you could see all of your character stats right there at once? Now you can't even see your actual AB and BAB in the same locaition let alone item bonuses.

 

35) Um..Hair anyone? Obsidian should be saying: "Can we get a pro in here?"

 

36) Casters suck now. Remember how being a caster was a viable option in PVP or even OC? Yeah well your level 20 gets like 10 spells total for some reason. Good luck with that.

 

37) Underwear? Why are my PC's underwear enough to arm a milita? Is this because the modelers were trying to hide the poor body modeling they "baked" down and rushed out?

 

38) PVP? Once a staple of NWN1 This new game has been stripped and reduced down so badly that PVP isn't anything more than two unbeleivebly poorly modeled meshes with shoulderpads making 1985 animations to attack one another and the ensuing death doesn't even look real provided you can even kill each other.

 

39) Minimap is far inferior to the basic Map of NWN1. At least in that you knew where you were going. try to follow the minimap going from a to b...no seriously try it. Make that square already.

 

40) Quests dont remove quest items on completion. I'm left being confused as if I even finished the quest even after I know I did eg: recovery of an item. NWN1 managed that on release.

 

41) Remember CEP's great models for NWN1? Custom modeling is made so inaccesible because Obsidian thought their horrid models looked good enough to restrict from public access. So there is no option to tweak their meshes or get an idea of what we can all rebuild to work in game.

 

42) No sense of weight or flex tension to any of the characters! Bioware looks like a George Lucas Movie team compared to the Obsidian portfolio day work on animation model naturalism. NWN2 boasts flmsy beta characters that look like line drawings weilding plastic swords skating across the ground like some bad action figure frame animation.

 

43) Camera's. I've heard these were patched, but man o man, if you don;t have that patch I feel sorry for you. This was a non issue for NWN1.

 

44) Remember how NWN1 "felt" epic? The overall look and feel and mood of NWN2 was left unrealized when somewhere between the art director and the project lead they lost focus when trying to reinvent the wheel. This quote by Echolocating seems fitting: -- "I

[Llyranor]

As Obsidian CEO, I disagree.

[Nick_i_am]

As Obsidian CEO, I too disagree.

[Deraldin]

Are you done yet? *yawn* Can't believe I actually read through all of that*

[Volourn]

This thread is as lame as the other thread entitled '50 reasons why NWN2 is better than NWN1'.

 

The sad part I could make a list either way.

 

It's lame, and obvious trolling.

 

Sad, really.

[Darque]

48 of these seem nitpicky and just wrong.

 

I'm playing NWN1 right now, so this is all fresh in my mind.

 

I do agree with two of these though.

 

Monsters... there... could be a few more.

But as I recall NWN didn't have that many until later with expansion packs.

 

Feat submenus.

OMG yes. This would have been nice.

 

Beyond those two... you're kidding... right?

[alanschu]

I think it's sad he bothered to post it :\

[Volourn]

"But as I recall NWN didn't have that many until later with expansion packs."

 

NWN1 had a lot of monsters.

 

 

"Beyond those two... you're kidding... right?"

 

Nah. A lot of thema re right. That's not really the ppint hwoever. One could (and one has) make a list detailing 50 ways that NWN2 is better than NWN1. It's also full of things thata re flat out wrong, opinions , and nitpicks.

 

The problem here as Alanshu said, the whole purpose of the thread is really sad.

 

Exactly what does this list accomplish? nothing.

 

It's nothing more than a troll thread.

[Riftworm]

48 of these seem nitpicky and just wrong.

 

I'm playing NWN1 right now, so this is all fresh in my mind.

 

I do agree with two of these though.

 

Monsters... there... could be a few more.

But as I recall NWN didn't have that many until later with expansion packs.

 

Feat submenus.

OMG yes. This would have been nice.

 

Beyond those two... you're kidding... right?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

1, 8, 14, 21, 31, 37, 38, 42, 45 and 50 seem "nitpicky"? LOL!

 

Those are game enders lol..

[Darque]

Your well thought out LOL is the ultimate counter argument.

 

psst. You left off the !!!!!1111shiftone!1 from it.

[kirottu]

Are you done yet? *yawn* Can't believe I actually read through all of that*

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I only read the first one and since it stroke me as ridiculous I didn

[kirottu]

48 of these seem nitpicky and just wrong.

 

I'm playing NWN1 right now, so this is all fresh in my mind.

 

I do agree with two of these though.

 

Monsters... there... could be a few more.

But as I recall NWN didn't have that many until later with expansion packs.

 

Feat submenus.

OMG yes. This would have been nice.

 

Beyond those two... you're kidding... right?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

1, 8, 14, 21, 31, 37, 38, 42, 45 and 50 seem "nitpicky"? LOL!

 

Those are game enders lol..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

LOLLIPOPPERS!

[Deraldin]

For starters I'm going to have to come out and say that 31 and 37 are really not game enders. A lot of the items in that list are cosmetic issues. There are some decent points in that list however a good number of them are simply your own opinion. 50 may be your interpretation of the NWN2 campaign however that was exactly the same way that I felt about NWN1.

[Riftworm]

Nah. A lot of thema re right.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

At least you concede that a lot of them are right.

 

"Trolling" however wasn't my intention.

[Darque]

08) No interior hieght map adjuster! you can no longer build raised terrain in caves. ??? Hello??

 

I still can't see how this is a game ender.

 

That's like saying "oh crap, I can't alter the terrain of the game as I play, it fails".

 

[Riftworm]

08) No interior hieght map adjuster! you can no longer build raised terrain in caves. ??? Hello??

 

I still can't see how this is a game ender.

 

That's like saying "oh crap, I can't alter the terrain of the game as I play, it fails".

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I don't think you understand. You used to be able to do that in NWN1. And it was used often. How else would you elevate a boss underground? It's all flat underground now.

[Darque]

08) No interior hieght map adjuster! you can no longer build raised terrain in caves. ??? Hello??

 

I still can't see how this is a game ender.

 

That's like saying "oh crap, I can't alter the terrain of the game as I play, it fails".

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I don't think you understand. You used to be able to do that in NWN1. And it was used often. How else would you elevate a boss underground? It's all flat underground now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I don't recall ever controlling the terrain while I was playing.

 

Which is what your complaint read as, at least to me.

 

Since you called it a "game ender".

[alanschu]

It makes sense. THe game is completely unplayable without different heights in caves

[Darque]

It makes sense.  THe game is completely unplayable without different heights in caves

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I know.

[Nick_i_am]

Lets not forget about the awsomeness of the NWN1 OC, which didn't make me hate the game until some stupid monkeyface persuaded me to play SoU.

[Volourn]

NWN1 OC was good. Just as good as NWN2 OC mainly because you aren't forced to party with such annoying npcs like Neeshka.

[Riftworm]

08) No interior hieght map adjuster! you can no longer build raised terrain in caves. ??? Hello??

 

I still can't see how this is a game ender.

 

That's like saying "oh crap, I can't alter the terrain of the game as I play, it fails".

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I don't think you understand. You used to be able to do that in NWN1. And it was used often. How else would you elevate a boss underground? It's all flat underground now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I don't recall ever controlling the terrain while I was playing.

 

Which is what your complaint read as, at least to me.

 

Since you called it a "game ender".

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

For modding. It's a huge feature that was removed from building cave and cavern systems. As Soulthief said "it's why cave boss encounters in the NWN2 OC seem less 'grandiose' than in NWN1".

[kirottu]

It makes sense.  THe game is completely unplayable without different heights in caves

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, it totally breaks the illusion. Suddenly you just go "OMG I

Edited November 24, 2006 by kirottu

[Darque]

For modding. It's a huge feature that was removed from building cave and cavern systems. As Soulthief said "it's why cave boss encounters in the NWN2 OC seem less 'grandiose' than in NWN1".

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, because an extra inch makes all the difference.

[Pidesco]

01) NWN1 was also linear.

 

02)I disliked NWN1's UI.

 

03)The AI isn't any worse than in NWN1. There's just more companions to annoy you with the bad AI.

 

04) and 05) and 06) and 07) Apart from the spell effects these were all things I didn't like about NWN1

 

10)Nitpicking

 

12)you obviously played a different NWN1 than the one I played.

 

18)Dialog options are not any less diversified than in NWN1

 

21)This happened to me all the time NWN1

 

22)This has been explained before

 

27)What excitement? Was NWN the first game you ever played with fog of war?

 

28)It's pretty much the same as in NWN1.

 

33)This is pretty idiotic on your part.

 

36)Umm... that's bollocks.

 

37)Who gives a crap?

 

39)NWN2's minimap is much better than NWN1's minimapo.

 

40)All my quests were removed on completion.

 

42)That's not true. I've yet to see what's so great about NWN1's animation. The dragons' little jump when you attacked, perhaps?

 

43)Camera is the same as NWN1's but with more options

 

44)No. At all. It was as unepic as a DnD game can be.

 

45)My performance was fine.

 

46)You probably haven't played many PC games. Especially RPGs.

 

47)No. NWN1's ending, like the rest of the story, was barely competent.

 

48)No.

 

49)Graphics in NWN1 have never melted anyone's face. Unless you're the Elephant Man, or something.

 

50)Boring, Linear, Ugly, Non Immersive, Easy, and Annoying are all things I felt with NWN1 on release.

 

 

 

 

What can I say, I was bored.