So, after literally keeping it under wraps for the past two months, I finally dug into NWN2 this week.
I have remained spoiler free, but I have heard all the rumblings about bugs and performance issues. I played with the latest patches and received NO problems whatsoever.
My rig is pretty paltry: 2.8 GHZ, X700 , 512mb ram
Almost everything is on medium, but I receive no slowdowns or crashes. Although, not the prettiest game on medium, it is comparable to any game released in 2006.
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The Good:
1. Storyline / Game Flow.
When you consider how attrocious the NWN OC was, this is a minor miracle. I haven't felt bored or left wishing things would speed along. Alot of side quests are mixed into the storyline and merged together to add importance. Due to the nature of the overworld map, some of the side quests feel like mini-modules that I used to play PnP back in the day.
2. NPC personalities / conversation trees.
This has been the greatest surprise of the game for me. I really haven't been this impressed since the days of Planescape and Fallout. Words you say make sense and have effect on EVERYTHING around you. Party members react in a real manner, you own disposition (alignment) and entire quests are shaped by the words you say. Something that has been truely lacking from PC rpgs for quite some time.
3. Henchmen that work.
Although it is far from perfect , it's nice to have AI controlled party members that actually are functional and help. Sad, that in 2007 this isn't something that is taken for granted by now, but too many times we have played games where we kill off/dismiss our NPC's because they just get in the way.
4. Breezing through the early levels / Plenty of good loot.
One of the downsides of playing strict D&D rules is how vunerable you are in the first two levels. It can be frustrating to lose a party member when a meek kobold/goblin hits with a lucky critical ... or sitting through battles that are miss-fests. Within 5 minutes of playing I was already level 3 and a capable fighter that wasn't going to die on one hit. Also, it was nice to see the loot actually well thought out. Not every monster drops something (saving time) and what they do drop is actually worthwhile. Remember the days of NWN OC and checking 100 crates and barrells looking for ANYTHING of value? Yea, that sucked.
Well, I'm already running long .. I'll save "the bad" for later. But, it's been quite an enjoyable experience so far. Can't wait to get home and put some more time into it.
