Yes, it's a
mess, and no, it should never have shipped like this. But. As hypothesised, if you can get the bugger working properly, there is indeed another fab Obsidian game buried deep down within. Here's how to find it...
Ugly Duckling
 | | Here we are then. Sequel to one of the very best PC RPGs ever made. To put it lightly, it ain't too strong on first impressions...but with a little TLC, we'll tame that wild beast I promise you |
|
First off, let's fix them graphics. More specifically, the horrendous framerate. It's rather heart-breaking, but you essentially need to turn every single visual option down to low. No shadows. No normal maps. No effects. Nothing. You also need to - as mentioned in last month's rant - go into your graphics driver and turn off V-sync, while setting the "performance" slider to high. I personally leave 2x AA on, just 'cos it's a genuine necessity, but some have found the game refuses to use it regardless. Everything else, straight on low. Sorry, this hurts me more than it hurts you.
Fire the game up. Looks ugly, no? Don't worry, we're gonna get it looking prettier...but by how much, is really up to you. I pretty much just whacked up one setting at a time, then tried out the game to see how performance was affected. A good place to do this is outside by the fair near where the game begins, as the busy crowds and heavy detail tax the game big time, giving you a good "worst case scenario". I managed to get a couple of settings up into medium before it became a slideshow-fest again, at which point I backed down slightly and called it a day.
The important ones you should really try and crank up are "Viewing Distance" (try it about halfway), "Bloom" (which makes things glow and effectively hides some of the cracks), "Texture Detail" (medium will help avoid N64-o-vision), "Shadows" (even just sticking on low adds way more depth to the scene) and most of all "Texture Magnification" ("Linear" will remedy that awful blocky look up close). Sure, the game's still mildy cack visually, and not a humungous improvement over the first NWN to be frank, but in my humble opinion some of the art direction in this game goes a small way towards filling in the blanks, and with the above settings on, it'll look a world better than it did a minute ago. And hey, at least it's playable now.
Bug Squating
 | | With outdated tech and a ton of technical issues, NWN2 ain't particularly pretty |
|
That's the graphics out of the way, now onto the bugs. The initial run of patches actually do improve things somewhat...if you can get 'em installed.
Turns out the reason the launcher likes to crash mid-patch is due to a lack of available hard drive space. If a 7gig installation wasn't enough, NWN2 requires a good 5 (mother fuckin') gigs of additional temporary storage while patching ya see. If it ain't there, the world endeth, and it'll kindly break your installation too. Free up some space, run that auto-updater, and enjoy them bug fixes. If you have multiple hard drives, you may also need to follow suit with those apparently.
A third patch is supposedly out there in beta stage right now, but I have no idea how or where to snag it I'm afraid.
*gasp* Still with me?
Say Cheese
 | | NWN2 may have written the rulebook on "Worst Cameras Ever", but with some minor tweaking, it'll behave more like WoW. Ish... |
|
Now onto the camera and controls; the big deal breaker for many, me included. Good news and bad news on this front.
First off, the good. There is in fact a minor tweak you can do to improve camera functionality big time. Go into your My Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/ folder. Find a file called nwnplayer.ini. Track down a line that says "CameraFollowAlways=0". Change that 0 to a 1. Now play around with the four different camera views in game until you find one you like, and you should more or less have yourself a genuine third person cam ala every other game ever made.
Unfortunately the turning speed is still waaay too sensitive, but it's useable for the most part, and holding down the middle mouse button even acts as a quasi-mouse look too which is nice.
Although I haven't been keeping as close an eye on things as I'd have liked (
Gears is out, after all), Obsidian have indeed responded on their message boards to all these camera complaints, claiming they plan on patching this stuff in future updates, while they take in our "feedback" in the meantime. Hopefully this tweak should suffice for now though, and again, at least it's playable.
Orgy!!!
So there you have it. Not perfect, but a far more usable, enjoyable product than you got out of the box. With the above in place, I've ploughed some proper hours into the game now, and actually managed to make some decent progress. Ya know what? I'm impressed.
 | | As is always the way with these games, Nights 2 never truly springs to life until you set out on that main quest, with a massive ensemble of sidekicks tagging along |
|
Even though NWN2 starts out really rather clichéd, even by RPG standards, with your typical medieval fantasy dialogue and lame little fetch-quests...once its darker side rears its head in the first hour or two, things take a dramatic turn for the better. Dialogue improves no end. The music gets fucking fantastic. It ties in more and more with the first game, and man...the story really kicks into overdrive.
The game does seem alarmingly linear thus far (I'm about 8 hours in), but there are one or two minor deviations and the odd bundle of side content to peruse if you search around. More importantly, the obligatory wealth of dialogue choices that have become standard in all Obsidian/BioWare games are very much present and correct, including some hilariously evil and fucked up "dark side" options that'll make you giggle with sadistic glee. At times like this, one's mind starts to drift away from camera issues and dodgy graphics, and you're drawn more and more into that all too potent sense of adventure. The good times start to roll once again.
In fact, I'd say about two or three hours in, once you've set out on your epic journey, befriended some travellers, got into the odd bar fight, and rounded up a pleasing party of your own, that vintage BioWare vibe returns full force. Yeah, Obsidian may have taken over development duties on this project and somewhat fumbled it along the way, but as creators of the original Neverwinter, BioWare's presence can still be felt throughout. Much like Obsidian's KOTOR
sequel, it remains firmly in touch with the original in terms of its feel and style...even if it never really matches up in its own right.
The characters are fun too. These games often live or die on the strength of your party members, and thankfully NWN2 offers up a memorable and interesting bunch for you to befriend and molest. It's worth noting there's a similar (if slightly scaled back) implementation of KOTOR2's trust system on offer here also, in which your actions and dialogue can attract or repel your party members depending on their personality.
Time to Die!...zzzZZZzzz
 | | I feel like I'm clicking icons in Windows, not battling dudes to the death |
|
The game is far from perfect - I think that goes without saying - and disregarding everything already covered, a large part of that for me stems from the dated combat system. I dunno, this quasi-real-time, queued combat stuff may have cut the mustard 4 or 5 years back, but these days? It's all a little behind the times really. I think the days of anything other than real-time hack 'n' slashing are behind us now, especially in the single player field, and Neverwinter 2 really should have found a more innovative way to tie its D&D rules into such a system if you ask me. People slag off
Fable's combat, but for me it was the perfect blend of real-time button bashing and stat-based behind the scenes stuff, and the sort of thing NWN2 could really have used to keep the player more involved.
Again, I have to come back to the visuals too. I just can't for the life of me understand why the performance is so effin' horrific...especially in light of its
tiny playing areas, constant load screens and serious drought of any vague visual detail. I look at Guild Wars, with its silky smooth 60 FPS and gorgeous animation, and I'm shocked at how bad NWN fairs in comparison. If you literally get more than four characters on screen at once the bloody thing looks like it'll explode...and most of 'em look like shit, to boot.
Deaf & Dumb
 | | Cut-scenes may be rough, and voice-work lacking, but NWN2's story is actually pretty good once it gets going. Give it a chance |
|
Finally, I gotta say I'm mildly dismayed not to find full voice acting on offer here. There's bits and pieces in some of the cut-scenes and the more important story-altering conversations, but for 90% of the time, nada. Since Bioware introduced the concept of having RPGs with thousands upon thousands of lines of full dialogue in KOTOR and
Jade Empire, it feels all but impossible to go back in time to archaic text reading so many years on. It's really just completely inexcusable for a 7gig game, made all the more infuriating by the fact the text seems way too small to be read at ultra high resolutions.
I find it hard to believe BioWare have the almighty Mass Effect due out a mere six months from NWN2's release. They feel so drastically far apart in terms of technical merit, innovation and visual prowess, six years feels more apt. But, and it's a big but...dated feel aside, NWN2 does have that saving grace of a strong story, awesome character work and pure undiluted atmosphere backing it up. The more you play and explore its mammoth campaign, the more you'll start to smile once again, and if you can overlook the technical issues, control woes and fucking
awful performance, there is indeed another memorable fantasy adventure to be had here. I ain't saying everyone'll be able to find it, but after a mountain of headaches and endless soul searching, I'm pleased to say I was.
A love/hate game to the extreme then, try before you buy.
