Neverwinter Nights 2 Reader Review

This game has absolutely nothing remotely new or creative to offer. The comparison with Fallout or Planescape: Torment is not only ridiculous, it's an insult to those masterpieces.

Graphics

NWN2's graphics follow what seems to be a trend at the moment, typified by Oblivion. The level of detail and quality of the textures have improved to offer something that looks more realistic, but any kind of creativity that was present in past games of the genre has now disappeared. It's just the old towns, fields, forests, goblin caves and dungeons that you've seen in thousands of games before, just a little smoother. Bland, dull, ordinary. When I think of the grandiose and stylish cityscapes of Morrowind...

Gameplay

Marred by the increasingly irritating use of AD&D rules, the character development system is designed in spite of common sense. It's a wonder anyone actually bothers playing a spellcaster considering the tediousness of the whole operation. On top of that, the action is much like the graphics, just more of the old stuff - killing hordes of anonymous skeletons, goblins, spiders and the usual cast of monsters will form the most part of your activity playing this game. Tedious.

Story and dialogues

This is where the aforementioned masterpieces truly shine, and this is where NWN2's total lack of originality is the most obvious. Because it's AD&D and the Forgotten Realms, you can expect the same cast of stereotyped characters as usual: the straightforward, grumpy dwarf, the sly tiefling thief, the self-righteous elven druid, the egotistic, ill-tempered sorceress, and so on and so forth. You'll find that you can pretty much predict what a character is going to say say based on their race and class. The dwarf wants to be a monk, ok. That is about the most explosive piece of creative writing you'll experience in the game. The main plot is, again, the usual: saving the world and killing the overconfident villain (muuuhahaha). The pathetic attempts that the writers made at involving the PC (without spoiling too much, they have a piece of metal with them that's indirectly connected with the main plot) failed miserably on me.

Conclusion

I think I've said enough. Don't expect NWN2 to be even an honest clone of Baldur's Gate. Not an ounce of creativity went into the making of this game, which follows the clichés of the genre with unfaltering loyalty. As the score says, only buy it if, like me, you have to play every RPG that comes out. And even then...