How would you rate the NWN2 OC?

[jaguars4ever]

I'll give it a very decent 7.5.

[kormesios]

All flaming aside, this thread is pretty pointless. 99.9% of people here aren't even going to consider going below 8. This is the Obsidian forum, after all. People who come here to disapprove of what the board is about (Obsidian games) by and large are called "trolls". You either like the game, or you don't say anything, or at the very least you have to be willing to kiss Obsidian's ass while you voice your disapproval.

 

Actually, around 30% are below 8 at this point, including me (7).

 

Besides, these boards existed long before anyone had even played NWN2, so while there's self-selection, it's not as extreme as you point out. And there've been some pretty vocal critics here, even if not as many as on the main bio boards. So I would have expected a lower rating than it's getting. It'll be interesting to see if the distribution changes as infrequent visitors chime in.

[Hurlshort]

I'm not sure why you would include bugs, framerate in a rating about the OC. If you are going to rate the OC alone, you should ignore any technical difficulties YOUR PC had. Those are not OC issues, those are stability issues. Now if you are rating NWN2 as a whole, of course those are important.

 

Music and graphics directly affect the story, and interface is a bit of a gray area.

 

I gave it a 9 based on the OC. I might drop to an 8.5 based on the camera and few bugs I encountered, but those don't affect the story telling in my eyes. The OC engaged me tremendously. For comparison, I give Fallout, Baldur's Gate, and KotOR 10's.

[Niten_Ryu]

7

 

OC don't really offer anything new or exciting to the genre but it's ok entertainment value anyway.

 

Main positive things:

 

- Took me over 50 hours on my first run

- Has certain replay value (many different classes, few good / evil routes)

- Planear influences in storyline

 

Main negative things:

 

- Bit too broad level range. From level 1 to level 12 would have been perfect.

- Too easy, even on hardcore rules

- Too linear

- AI issues

 

I would have given 6 to this but since I've played OC thru 3 times (LG, CE and N runs), it deserves one bonus point.

[kormesios]

I'm not sure why you would include bugs, framerate in a rating about the OC.  If you are going to rate the OC alone, you should ignore any technical difficulties YOUR PC had.  Those are not OC issues, those are stability issues.  Now if you are rating NWN2 as a whole, of course those are important.

 

Music and graphics directly affect the story, and interface is a bit of a gray area.

 

I include it all. Anything that makes playing the OC less enjoyable detracts from the score, IMHO. Which includes not just stilted dialogue and plot cliches but also crashes to desktops, corrupted saves and jerky graphics, if you run into them.

[Kelverin]

10 - Baldurs Gate 2

9.5 - Icewind Dale

9 - Baldurs Gate

8 - Neverwinter Nights 2 OC, Fallout 1 2

7.5 - Icewind Dale 2

6.5 - NWN1 SoU expansion

 

Negative Infinity - POR2

Worst Game I ever played

 

Not Finished (Which speaks volumes)

KOTOR, Planescape Torment, Neverwinter Nights OC,

Temple of Elemental Evil, NWN1 HotU expansion

 

Never played

[Dark_Raven]

I gave it an 8 because of a few flaws. An 8 to me is worth playing over and over again. It keeps my attention to play, to a point. I will not usually finish the game on the first play run. I will go back to it later on.

 

Fallout, Fallout 2 and Baldur's Gate are 10's. Perfection.

 

Bloodlines is a 9.5. Close, so close but not perfect.

 

Baldur's Gate 2, IWD, Diablo, Diablo 2 are 9's.

[Pop]

Baldur's Gate 2, IWD, Diablo, Diablo 2 are 9's.

Oh no you didn't. No way those are scored using the same criteria.

[Darque]

I gave it an 8 because I enjoyed it.

 

It has flaws and bugs, and I'm still not happy about the treatment of the Warlock class, but I enjoyed it as an RPG greatly.

 

Had I not enjoyed it, I'd have rated it lower and given good reasons for it.

 

Thanks Pop.

[Pop]

Thanks Pop.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I... did something?

[Oerwinde]

I said 8.

 

PS:T and Fallout would be 10, Fallout 2 and BG2 would be 9, Bloodlines would be 8, IWD, IWD2, Baldur's Gate would be 7, NWN OC would be 6, Morrowind/Oblivion would be 5.

 

I would have rated Bloodlines higher if all the furniture in my haven didn't turn into lamps.

Edited December 12, 2006 by Oerwinde

[Atreides]

I had a lot of fun on this one. I'd rate it either a 7 or 8. Overall linear but still achieves the main objective of being fun. Since setting Cain on fire and stealing his lute was so much fun I'll bump it to 8.

[Jorian Drake]

Thanks Pop.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I... did something?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They really all forgot so fast!

[roshan]

I gave it an 8 because of a few flaws. An 8 to me is worth playing over and over again. It keeps my attention to play, to a point. I will not usually finish the game on the first play run. I will go back to it later on.

 

Fallout, Fallout 2 and Baldur's Gate are 10's. Perfection.

 

Bloodlines is a 9.5. Close, so close but not perfect.

 

Baldur's Gate 2, IWD, Diablo, Diablo 2 are 9's.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I really have no idea how you can rate massively flawed games like Baldurs Gate and Fallout 2 as being perfect.

[Tigranes]

That's amazing, roshan. Who'd have thunk that people would have different opinions?

 

I gave a 9 but that was too soft - should be 8 tottering on 7, really. It's a semistep up from KOTOR2 IMO, all in terms of characters, plot, etc, what they focused on - as well as gameplay. It's still not the classic that we know they can make, but it's certainly good enough to play. But it's too linear in terms of exploration, too many plot stuffs were unfulfilled (esp. KOS, which really hurts the story imo) and just a little too many stale, uninspired areas (Gem Mines, Nolaloth, Mere Crypt, Highcliff Castle... not that most of them are bad per se, but they all follow the same formula, and provide little in the way of surprises.)

[mkreku]

I still haven't finished Neverwinter Nights 2, and I'm struggling with my diminishing interest in it.

 

Right now I'd rate it a 6/10. I've enjoyed the dialogue and some of the story bits. The graphics were also better than I had expected after reading some of the complaints on this board. BUT.. the game is wayyy too linear for my taste. I usually like to solo games and that's not even an option in this one. The camera controls.. all I can say is that none of the available options feels natural to me. The bugs haven't bothered me at all, but it has crashed a few times. I'll probably change my score once I finish the game, but it'll take some time. The story just doesn't grab me, and when I can't go exploring or solving any kind of side-quests I get bored quickly. Why are all the maps so small? Why can't I enter any building I want to? Why are there invisible barriers in a game made in 2006?!

 

For reference:

 

9: Wasteland, Gothic, Gothic 2, Ultima IV

8: Fallout 2, System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Daggerfall, Dragon Quest 8

7: Fallout, Icewind Dale, Bloodlines + a bunch of others.

6: KotOR, KotOR2, Oblivion, Baldur's Gate etc.

5: Jade Empire, Planescape: Torment etc.

4: Morrowind, Arcanum etc.

3, 2, 1: Neverwinter Nights, Nox, Diablo, Final Fantasy X, Lionheart etc. Mostly games that bored me to tears.

[roshan]

Im just pointing out that his rating system is quite skewed.

 

Both games were flawed in many ways, they cant be called perfect by any criteria. No objective rating can call the games perfect.

 

I suppose that thats what fanboyism does though, blinds people to a games flaws.

Edited December 12, 2006 by roshan

[jaguars4ever]

I gave it an 8 because of a few flaws. An 8 to me is worth playing over and over again. It keeps my attention to play, to a point. I will not usually finish the game on the first play run. I will go back to it later on.

 

Fallout, Fallout 2 and Baldur's Gate are 10's. Perfection.

 

Bloodlines is a 9.5. Close, so close but not perfect.

 

Baldur's Gate 2, IWD, Diablo, Diablo 2 are 9's.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I really have no idea how you can rate massively flawed games like Baldurs Gate and Fallout 2 as being perfect.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Massively flawed? Hell no! Those are among the best cRPGs I've played to date. In fact, I can't think of any cRPG that allows to randomly explore areas on the world map better than BG and FO2.

[Tigranes]

I suppose that thats what fanboyism does though, blinds people to a games flaws.

 

I'd rephrase that and say that in DR's opinion, those games were so fun and so good, that the flaws they had were either unnoticable or infinitely forgivable. Certainly, the flaws in BG series never really distracted me at all - I was very rarely frustrated by BG, bugs or flaws or whatnot.

[roshan]

Fallout 2 was pretty much a mess of a game. A majority of the skill choices available were completely useless in the game. None of the science skills were even checked until you completed about a third of the game. Doctor was useless except for getting implants. Science was also completely useless except for getting the robot. Barter(because even efter investing massively in this skill would not make a big impact on prices) was extremely useless. Also, most skill checks were about 150 or so at max, but skills could be increased to 300 - what was up with that? There was also hardly any practical gameplay application of the stealth skill(except perhaps sneaking into the vault). Throwing was useless as well. Also, how often did you even have to repair anything? After the well in Klamath and perhaps a generator or a computer here and there, the skill was useless. (although I seem to recall it having some uses in the Sierra place)

 

The only semi useful skills in the game were lockpicking(not much locks in the game though), thieving(to a lesser extent - after the early game it became impossible to steal from most people even with really high ranks in steal). Speech was checked so infrequently that it was another almost pointless investment. Gambling could be useful if you wanted infinite money.

 

The only actually useful skills were the combat skills except for throwing.

 

All in all an extremely overated RPG. Sure, you could explore whereveer you want. Sure, you could roleplay different alignments. You could also build a huge number of different characters - almost all of which would be gimped and completely useless(IE no opportunities for them to actually use the skills they chose) in the game.

 

In fact the reason I havent played Fallout 2 more than 3 times is because while the number of theoretical builds is vast, the number of actual builds supported by the game is very small.

Edited December 12, 2006 by roshan

[Diamond]

The atmosphere, roshan, the atmosphere.

 

 

 

On topic: NWN2: 8

 

 

Obligatory reference:

 

NWN1 OC would be 4 for me (garbage), expansions: SoU 6 and HotU 7.5.

Never played either of KOTORs.

Fallout 2: 8.5

Torment: 8.5

BG2: 8

IWD: 4 (I didn't last for more than an hour in this game).

Edited December 12, 2006 by Diamond

[Dark_Raven]

I gave it an 8 because of a few flaws. An 8 to me is worth playing over and over again. It keeps my attention to play, to a point. I will not usually finish the game on the first play run. I will go back to it later on.

 

Fallout, Fallout 2 and Baldur's Gate are 10's. Perfection.

 

Bloodlines is a 9.5. Close, so close but not perfect.

 

Baldur's Gate 2, IWD, Diablo, Diablo 2 are 9's.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I really have no idea how you can rate massively flawed games like Baldurs Gate and Fallout 2 as being perfect.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

*Fap fap?*

 

My opinion little buddy. Remember that. Remember it well. Its GREATNESS!

[Dark_Raven]

I gave it an 8 because of a few flaws. An 8 to me is worth playing over and over again. It keeps my attention to play, to a point. I will not usually finish the game on the first play run. I will go back to it later on.

 

Fallout, Fallout 2 and Baldur's Gate are 10's. Perfection.

 

Bloodlines is a 9.5. Close, so close but not perfect.

 

Baldur's Gate 2, IWD, Diablo, Diablo 2 are 9's.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I really have no idea how you can rate massively flawed games like Baldurs Gate and Fallout 2 as being perfect.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Massively flawed? Hell no! Those are among the best cRPGs I've played to date. In fact, I can't think of any cRPG that allows to randomly explore areas on the world map better than BG and FO2.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This man knows his stuff.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Massively flawed?  Hell no!  Those are among the best cRPGs I've played to date.  In fact, I can't think of any cRPG that allows to randomly explore areas on the world map better than BG and FO2.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You can randomly explore areas in just about any CRPG.

 

Now, if we're talking about exploring randomly-generated areas, Baldur's Gate didn't had any. Torment was the only Infinity Engine game that randomly generated areas and it was used for Modron maze. To the best of my memory, random encounters in Baldur's Gate always used the same area map and the same creature positioning, and only changed the creature types. Ditto for Baldur's Gate 2.

 

Fallout 2 didn't had any particularly better way of handling random area generation than Fallout either.

 

One of the best random map generators I've seen recently was in Fate.

[Nartwak]

Huh. I voted eight too. Seems to be the consencious.