Forgotten Realms: Neverwinter Nights 2
Score: 95% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Atari Developer: Obsidian Entertainment Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 Genre: RPG/ Action/ Adventure
Graphics & Sound: So starting with the fact that I was a big Neverwinter Nights fan, it was great to get a hold of the sequel Neverwinter Nights 2. I have used the Aurora tools for many classes in design, as I know many out there have done for fun. There was enough new material to warrant a sequel, and there is a good cross feeling between Obsidian's other popular games in the Knights of the Old Republic series. Of course with a new graphics engine, the game should look great, and boy does it. There is a ton of material to push your video card to the max. I noticed improved interaction with collisions graphically and things just looked smoother and cleaner. Great score for the music. Very moving and entertaining. There are a bunch of voiceover choices for your character. These voiceover choices were very important. Should you decide to choose a very annoying voice, you will suffer the consequences of having to hear its repetitive call for the remainder of the game.
Gameplay: Neverwinter Nights 2 is a Dungeons and Dragons based game. So, much like its table top beginnings, you also will be faced with the task of character creation. Define who you are as well as how your character will treat others. You can say right off the bat whether you want to be good or evil, and the choices you make in the dialogue from that point on will affect not only how the game is played, but how you will ultimately experience the game. Don't worry if you are unsure where to spend all of your character points. There is also a handy, dandy recommendation choice that can lay down a path for you to travel. Then, once you get the hang of things, you can restart with your own creation and experience the game a different way. The weapons and the spells are based on the same D20 dice system, so your abilities are subject to some randomization. In order to determine the value of a weapon or spell, I always find it useful to go back to the basics and look at the probability trees from the old game. Many of you may not have such things lying around, so thank you for the Internet. Just go online and you can see average rolls for the die they list, and you can see if a weapon is going to hit with good numbers or if it is ultimately not very useful. You are joined most of the time with a cast of characters who are directly in your party. You can use them directly and control them by choosing their character. Depending on how you interact with the members of your party, it will determine how well or how hard they will work for you. You may find a teammate who does not trust or like you to be very handy in a fight. Besides your group of four companions, you may often be joined by NPCs (Non Player Characters) for special missions. Now that you and your party are armed and on your way, you will encounter a rich and unique world. The official story is well done and the dialogue well thought out. Enjoy your adventure into new realms and choose your fate. Expect about 55 hours of play time to experience all that the game has to offer.
Difficulty: I liked the variation of difficulty in Neverwinter Nights 2. The game was very easy to get into for newcomers and longtime players alike. The hard setting is exactly that. You must choose your spells and equipment wisely in order to succeed. If I am to offer you one piece of advice, it is this, save often. Any time you get an inch in hard mode, you take it. Use these multiple saves to experiment on how to get out of tricky situations. In the early stages, you will not be the master you wish to be, so play with some caution. Much like the aforementioned KOTOR, you will also need to be aware of your alliances with your party companions. Being too trusting may cost you a lot of pain later and so will being too distrustful.
Game Mechanics: Neverwinter Nights 2 does not stand out as a wonder of new innovation of gaming mechanics. But, what it does do is use the lessons of its previous successes to make a solid game. I don't think you can talk about the mechanics of Neverwinter Nights 2 without being clear that its mechanics are the culmination of KOTOR and the original Neverwinter Nights. You have the ability to pause the game at anytime and issue up to five commands to your party at a time. This allows you to instruct the A.I. to do specific tasks such as healing or casting spells, while never losing sight of your main goal as the player character. Now I have gotten this far without talking about the tool set included in the game. Neverwinter Nights has a huge Mod community. There are hundreds of mods for the original game, and with the included tool set, there will no doubt be the same fan-generated content for this game as well. These tools allow you to continue and create any world you want and present it to a vast community to play and enjoy. Go to http://www.atari.com/nwn2/ to keep up with the modding community and their efforts. This alone will continue to give you hours of gameplay value added to an already well done storyline. If you haven't guessed it by now, I love this game. With all of the side quests and twists, you are looking at hours of great gameplay. Create your own worlds or play other's creations and tack on even more. When I look at this game, I see many older mechanics from many games. But I also see strong gameplay with hundreds of hours of replayability. That is why for years, the original game was still being released on store shelves and played by thousands. This game, like the original, will probably only be surpassed by its sequel.
-WUMPUSJAGGER, GameVortex Communications AKA Bryon Lloyd
Minimum System Requirements: Windows XP, Windows 2000, 512MB System RAM, 2.4 Ghz Intel, Pentium 4 or equivalent processor, Hard Disk Space: 4.9 GB free hard disk space, 128MB Direct3D compatible video card and DirectX 9.0, compatible driver; DirectX 9.0c (included), DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card, DVD-ROM Drive: 6X speed or faster, Keyboard, Mouse   Test System: Windows XP Pro, 3.2 GHz P4HT CPU, 2 GB Ram, 512 PCIE 16 ATI X1600XT
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