Why I buy this one ?
- Build a character that suits your style of play - good or evil, chaotic or lawful, with any number of skills, feats and professions available at the click of a button
- Create your own modules, campaigns, and adventures for your friends - move buildings, terrain, script encounters, write dialogues, create quests and items

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What our customer's say!

"Oh Yeah!", What can I say? It's NWN... only bigger and better. My only complaint is the linear world... you can't romp off somewhere you want to go and explore... you have to follow the path set out for you. Other than that, this game is featured proudly among my dozens of favorites.

"A step backward", NWN2 was released...what, in 2006? Plenty of games through the 90s and early 2000s were achieving things that made it seem that the ultimate RPG was right around the corner. That made it all the more disappointing when this game, with all its hype, failed to deliver. In fact, NWN2 seems to be outdated compared to games we were all playing BEFORE it shipped.

Long load times between zones? Hmmm. Sure was nice when I was playing Dungeonsiege in 2003 with NO load time between zones...in fact...no visible zone boundaries. That was three years before NWN2.

Strong-arm plot tactics where the characters have no options? Where you can't even turn down a henchman? Can't attack friendlies? Can't decide whether you receive a stronghold or not? The developers would have you believe that such strong-arm tactics are the only way to keep the plot on track. Funny...I could SWEAR Baldur's Gate had a plot. It let you do all the above things. How long ago was that? I believe it was last century, right?

Blocky character models with hair clipping the heads? Come ON! I don't even know which old game I should cite for examples of better character models. Maybe all of them. Seriously, this one was unforgivable.

A "moddable" game where adding new content requires hacking data tables? How quaint. Years before NWN2 came out, I was adding new content (new spells, weapons, races, etc.) to other games by whipping up a template, tossing it in a mod folder, and firing up the game. If you are expecting to add new content to NWN2, don't expect it to be as easy as dropping a file in a folder. That was only possible five or six years ago, apparently.

And is there really NO WAY to have anyone except the main PC take the lead in conversations? With all of modern technology at our beck and call, is it really, totally, absolutely, unavoidably, necessary to send the soft, squishy rogue or mage PC to the forefront of every conversation to take the full brunt of the attack when it inevitably turns hostile? Do the laws of physics and computational science really mandate this?

Alas, other games have long since done infinitely better on these counts and many more. The company that finally takes all the good bits from the games of recent years and puts them together - and gives us the game we've been waiting for - will own the world. I have a feeling that, when it happens, it will sadly not have the D&D franchise name associated with it.

Oh I almost forgot - the story line. I see some people liked it, but seriously...a foster child with a mysterious background who turns out to be the chosen one...this doesn't seem a little...familiar?


"Waited for patches--Runs very well", Instead of buying games when they first come out, my gaming group and I wait (sometimes several years) to buy new games to play together. With NWW2, this strategy seems to have paid off well for us. After patching (an hour investment at least), we have played this game co-op over a LAN with little problems. The one time we did struggle to play was due to a conflicting setting that was easy to diagnose and change.

Graphics are beautiful. My computer was built in the winter of 2006, and I play on maxed out settings. I recently went back and played NWN1. The older game is difficult to play now because I am used to being able to adjust my camera in NWN2. If you don't like monkeying with camera angles, then this game probably isn't for you. But if you like a good story, great characters, and interesting dungeon crawls, I highly recommend NWN2.

"Some things not touched on.", PRO'S: Hands down, it has to be the fact your character comes to posses an entire keep. Not only that, but you can spent vasts amount of money to improve upon it. I almost kinda wish they had put more special missions for your troops. Perhaps, in a future game, they can bring back treasure from the bandits/monsters/etc. There were some glitches I encountered, but nothing that can't be fixed in future updates.
The second would have to be the improvements to a characters animal companions. There is nothing worse than having a multiclassed character, and have an animal companion that is roughly half your level. At this point, they become nothing but cannon fodder. NWN2 fixed this by giving you a skill to rectify the problem. Now your pet/friend can keep traveling with you as a help, and not a hindrence.
The above paragraph also applies to spell levels with multiclassed characters. While I never saw it as much of a hindrence, NWN2 fixes this issue as well, adding a similar skill for spell levels.
Lastly, some of these fights are truly hard. Gone are the days of NWN, when you could Powerlevel through everything relatively unscathed. Three things pounded my hindquarters in NWN2: The red dragon (which I never defeated), the two black dragons, and the final fight.

CONS: I want to start off by saying that I have played through the game. I have a 9800 NVidia graphics card, and 6MB of RAM...and it still runs slow. I have to place most of my settings to low so massive fights run smoothly. I also agree with what most say about the camera angles. In a word? Dismal. Up close or far away, it slides through walls and NPC's, giving you a nice polygonic view of the inside of someones face. Also, if walls are high, you might as well set the camera directly above you. This posed the biggest problem in the final fight.
Next I wish to address the cutscenes. With as much graphic power this game seems to be pumping out, you'd think the programers could have done better than cardboard cutout scenes. It's the computer equivalant of a silent movie cuecard. NWN definitely has NWN2 beat on this one.
Also, I'm sad to see character portraits disappear. While it does appear that you can rectify this somehow (I assume through downloadable content), this shouldn't have to be the case. While the color/hair/face pallatte can produce an array of combinations, I miss the up close and personal touch.
Lastly, at least one of the new classes seems incredibly weak. Now perhaps I played my character wrong, but I found the Warlock to be disappointing and a one trick pony. I quickly became bored with the same abilities. This wouldn't be so bad if they made up for it with perhaps some fighting skills, but, alas, the Warlock is no better than than any other arcane caster in hand-to-hand. It was near impossible keeping her alive in the final battle.

Story: I have to say that the story really isn't all that much more impressive than the original NWN. As to be expected, you face characters that turn on you at a later date. Somehow, it just doesn't seem as devestating as when the paladin turns on you in NWN.

"Good until the end", Well, I had a decent amount of fun exploring and building up all the different characters, although trying to control all of them at the end was to say the last, a major pain. Graphics were quite good and the overall storyline was very good as well. BUT, in all the years and games of the genre I have played, after spending hours upon hours getting to the end and finally killing the head dude, I was, well how do I put this, VERY %&(*&#$ ticked off at the stupid lame ending, unless you're evil, but still you spend all the effort to get finish and after a climactic battle you get wiped out by a stupid (*&@(#$ cave in. I mean please how freakin likely is that???? I'm sorry but all of your lvl 20 characters are so helpless they cant get out of a frickin falling building. How (*#@(*&#$@$ lame. Oh, and why the heck is their only ONE female character you can possibly have any romantic involvement with...shesh. In NWN 1 you can manage to snag 2 at once at the end. So up until the end I'd give the game a 7 out of 10....but the end stinks. It's like the developers got drunk or stoned when finishing the game and thought "hmm how can we really make the game suck now that we're done". Maybe the expansion pack will be better. The evil character ending is better though, but still...what a let down.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"An improvement over the original in some ways, but in others a step backwards", I want to get this out of the way - it's taken me a very long time to get from start to finish of Neverwinter Nights 2, and for good reason. When the game shipped in 2006 it was all but unplayable for many people because performance was just atrocious. For this reason, I couldn't get passed the first hour or so of the game; it was just too distracting. But the state of the game now is not the state of the game as it was at release. Numerous patches and an expansion pack have made me pick up the game again to give it another try, and I was pleasantly surprised with the game's improvement.

Character Creation (not scored)
When you first start the game, you'll be taken to the Character Creation screen. There are many, many, options for you when you start character creation, and I'm not just referring to what color hair your character has. So much so that it's overwhelming. In fact, I almost didn't get into the game at all because I didn't know what to do. There isn't really a tutorial or anything to help you figure it all out; instead, the game just gives you paragraphs of information on the right side of the screen detailing complicated, esoteric Dungeons and Dragons jargon. I will revisit this problem later when I talk about game-play, for it is a problem that permeates the game - in order to get the most out of the game you really need to have a pre-requisite knowledge of the way D&D works. It wasn't anywhere near as overwhelming in the original game or Baldur's Gate or other D&D based games - the game worked with or without your own personal experience with the game's systems. So when the game describes dice rolls, and stat offsets without explaining what they mean, it alienates the less hardcore consumer who hasn't spent half their life in a dank basement rolling for initiative. In the end, I just chose one of the pre-set character customization options or else I never would have gotten started. I will say, though, for the aforementioned D&D fanatic, the options and classes are very deep and varied; just don't expect for the game to cut you any slack, at first at least.

Story 8/10
This is one of the game's biggest strengths. Within the main campaign, you will easily find 50+ hours worth of playtime. The game takes place in the Forgotten Realms, more specifically the Sword Coast. You play a guy/girl/creature from a small southern swamp town, with an unknown destiny. There is an attack on your town at the beginning of the game, leading you to discover said destiny and set off on an epic journey to the city of Neverwinter and beyond. The set-up is very familiar, but the execution is top-notch. There is political betrayal and intrigue, racial tension and other problems to contend with that help make the world feel alive and vibrant.

The game also employs use of a good/evil alignment system that attempts to make character interaction more interesting, but it doesn't have any effect on the story at large - you'll still end up battling the same final boss, and you'll either win or lose. Which brings me to the main problem with the campaign: its linearity. The world is large, but you'll discover it in a very linear manner. There are side quests, but for the most part, they are just optional objectives to fulfill along the main story arc, rather than allowing you to explore other parts of the Sword Coast.

Game-play 8/10
Game-play is exactly what you would expect of a D&D game. The difference between the original and the sequel, though, is that you control an entire party of four people rather than just one. You have complete control over your henchmen, rather than having the game automate all of their actions. The AI does control them when you want them to, but you have the option of micro-managing every action and level up.

Battle consists of giving orders to your characters, watch them act out those orders, hitting the space bar to pause the game, giving more orders and doing it all over again. It isn't really any different that it has been in games like Baldur's Gate, but why fix what isn't broken? It's fun, engaging, and the reason to play the game. If you didn't like it before, you won't like it here, but it's dungeon crawling at its finest.

The game gives you a rather slow-moving, basic tutorial at the beginning of the game to orient you with the way combat works. It sort of does its job, but once again, the game doesn't really teach you the way D&D works. So you either learn it elsewhere or ignore the underlying mechanisms, but it will make you feel like you don't understand what's really going on if you do just ignore it. The idea behind having a computer version of a D&D game is to automate it for you, but I felt alienated by being kept in the dark, and I often didn't know how to play different classes.

Also, it is FAR easier to play as a melee-oriented class than a caster. Because you need to rest constantly to recharge spells, you won't always have your basic spells to use on your foes. When your casters have leveled enough, this will cease to be a problem, but if you start out as a mage, expect to rest after every encounter for the first 8 or 9 hours of the game. Also, you won't be able to manage any kind of aggro, so be prepared to need a fighter or warrior to get through most battles. This is part of the challenge of the game and the nature of D&D, but playing a fighter really is a breeze, while playing a sorcerer can be an exercise in frustration. Also, the AI is okay, but you'll notice sorcerers using their most powerful spells on rats when just a magic missile will do. As such, you'll probably want to order around all of your characters rather than trusting the AI. Inventory management can be clunky, too, but you generally have plenty of space for everything you want to pick up and sell.

All of these issues are often minor, though, and playing the game is a blast most of the time. After a few hours you'll get a handle on how everything works, and it'll start to feel more natural. Later in the game you gain control of a fortress, which is yours to reinforce and work on, hire soldiers for, etc., which is also really engaging.

Performance 6/10
And here we reach the biggest issue with the game. The game just wasn't programmed to perform well on most systems. Especially considering the level of graphical detail inherent in the game design, performance is downright awful. Framerates rarely exceeded 15fps for me, and I have a gigabyte of video memory and two gigs of ram. The game has a particularly difficult time dealing with SLi or multi-core processors, which may have resulted from the game's lengthy development period. The patches and updates have made a big difference, but since then huge game-breaking bugs have reared their ugly heads.

By far the biggest bug is one where the game actually deletes party members from your roster. It wouldn't be such a huge issue if certain campaign events didn't require you to have specific characters in your party at the time. See, the game stores character information every time you change scenery. However, when you have a familiar summoned, it will overwrite your useful tiefling thief or dwarf fighter, or what have you, with that familiar, effectively losing said character. It requires clunky file manipulation or a game restart, to fix which almost made me give up the game after 35 hours of playing. It is inexcusable to have such an enormous bug in the game a year and a half after release still in its code. Also, in order sidestep said bug, you have to unsummon all creatures every time you leave a scene, which is just irritating. Patch documentation state that this has been addressed, but this is a flat-out lie; I started a new game after all the latest updates had been installed.

Graphics 7/10
Even with the game's poor performance, the game looks okay. It kind of gets away with it much of the time because it doesn't require twitch action from the player. The backgrounds are pretty, with certain districts of Neverwinter being almost beautiful. The spell effects are the highlight of the game, with firebolts, mage missiles, and ice balls being flung all over the place during combat. It's very pleasant to look at while fighting, and satisfying when a meteor storm obliterates a boss character.

However the characters look like they fell out of a time warp circa 2001. They often look awful, and the hair is particularly bad. I would expect character models of this caliber on the PSP, not on PCs. Also, the graphics engine is buggy, with random flickering happening quite frequently. Again, this all depends on your setup, but it is the norm, rather than the exception, if forum dwellers are to be believed. Loading times are very high, framerates are low, and bugs abound. The camera is particularly suspect - it's kind of isometric, kind of over the shoulder, but you there is no automation whatsoever, so plan on constantly manually moving it to get a better view of the action. Even more frustrating is the fact that it doesn't save where you were last looking with it when you transition to a new area, so you end up with an awful view every time you gain control of your characters. I don't know what was wrong with the way the original camera worked, but it detracts from the game experience.

Sound 9/10
I don't really have any criticism here. The voice acting is of high-quality across the board, the orchestral music is compelling and fitting, and the sound effects are satisfying. This is easily the most consistent part of the game.

Summary
All of the issues can really creep up on you while you play, and it's unfortunate that there are so many of them because there truly is a lot of fun to be had here for the persistent. All of this isn't really new to PC gamers, who are used to doing all kinds of tweaking to get games to work, but a history of this doesn't exclude Obsidian from the responsibility of releasing such an unpolished an inconsistent piece of software. That having been said, once I got the game working at a stable rate, I had a great time discovering and becoming part of its world and the tale it has to tell. The bottom line is that it's fun, engaging, and deep. Keep in mind the bugs and problems you may encounter before making a purchase, but it has my recommendation.

Pros:
-Engaging story
-Great sound
-Fun, deep gameplay
-Lengthy campaign

Cons:
-Extremely inconsistent performance
-Mediocre graphics
-Difficult to get started
-Complicated game systems
-Lack of in-game explanation of those systems

Overall Score - 8/10

"4.5 stars", This was a fabulous game. I waited to play it until a significant number of the patches were out and I think that's why my experience with the game was considerably better than others.

I really enjoyed the storyline in this game. I thought it was engaging, deep, very well developed and told. I enjoyed watching my character go from barely taking on Lizardmen to fighting Dragons. I also felt like my involvement in the greater world at large was much better done than previous games. The NPC characters were considerably more interesting and I enjoyed having them in my party. I also liked that we could control 3 NPC's and for awhile even 4. Made it feel like a true adventuring party vs. NWN1.

Overall a great game that I would highly recommend to RPG fans.

"The RPG that changed my mind", I've been playing pen-and-paper RPG's since 1979, and since I moved to a new area I haven't been able to do that. I have tried computer RPG's many times, and always been disappointed because they lacked the flexibility and immersive feel of face-to-face gaming. The first Neverwinter Nights game impressed me by finally reproducing the game mechanics and feel of pen-and-paper RPG's, with a rich storyline. Neverwinter Nights 2 has retained all the good points of the first game with much better graphics and more options. I frequently found myself fully immersed in the game.
Computer RPG's still have a way to go before they match pen-and-paper; because there is no Game Master, there is no way to accomodate creative solutions, and while there are different paths to follow, they often all lead to the same result because of the limitations of a pre-programmed adventure. In Neverwinter Nights 2, the ending of the game in particular was a slight disappointment because of that effect. However, this is still by far the best computer RPG I have seen. Now if only someone would take the next step and allow for real-time control of the game world by a Game Master, combined with multiplayer effects!

"NWN 2 vs NWN 1", I'm not a die hard Black Isle / Baldur's Gate Fan. I'm not even a die hard gamer. I have however played many years of D&D (from 2nd edition to now) and all the original Neverwinter Nights Official Modules an a kit n kabootle of others. The main difference I found in NWN2 are:

Visual: The graphics are amazing.. compared to the blocky NWN1 models that always hurt the eyes, the environment rivals many of the other highly graphical games out there (blows EQ2 away par example).

Game play: However on the flip side this means that it's bloated and slow and I have an over adequate borderline over compensating machine.

The camera and key mapping I found to extremely clumsy without anyway to change binds to Mouse1-2-etal without going into the hex.

Story line: Very linear, a little boring, melodramatic and predictable. NWN1 felt like a more involved, free will oriented game. In 2, with the new video sequences the characters are overdone, predictable and sometimes just downright obnoxious. But not in the makes you role play better way.

Conclusion: So, having loved all of the amazing creativity that went into 1, I'm sad to say that I was let down by the much longed for sequel. While being set in Faerun and offering more playable character races, more beautiful models (still extremely limited if you're used to EQ, EQ2, Fate even Asheron's Call).

Still worth playing if you have a power machine dedicated to gaming and can manage to not lag with all the graphics settings on max. And for god sakes, don't play a bard.

"Could have been special, but....", I waited a year before picking up this game and the expansion, Mask of the Betrayer. Since the initial release in 2006 had technical issues and other problems, I decided to get this game only after the expansion came out and received good reviews (and supposedly fixed bugs and optimization problems). Unfortunately, not all is well with this game, even a year after release and the new expansion pack. It has a better single-player campaign than the first Neverwinter Nights, but is still just a cut above mediocre. If you are looking for the next Baldur's Gate-style epic, definitely don't look here. However, with some luck, some good player-made modules might be produced with the toolset that comes with the game.

Gameplay: Story-wise, this is a run-of-the-mill roleplaying game (RPG). Your character rises from rags to riches in search of his/her life's meaning and in search of the bad guy that needs to be vanquished. The game is based on the 3.5 Dungeon & Dragons rules and offers a lot of customization options for race, class, skills, feats, etc. There is an awful lot of loot to be found, bought, and custom-made. Unlike the first game, you actually have a party to control, which is both good and bad. The good part is that your party members have personalities and make the adventuring a bit more colorful. The bad, well, where should I start: pathfinding issues, not-too-efficient use of spells, suddenly vanishing party members, some suicidal behavior, and so on. You can let the AI control the party, but this works well only early on. Toward the end of the game, you'll need to micromanage each spell and sword swing. It's not as tedious as it sounds if you ever played classic games like Baldur's Gate. But none of the possible 10 or so party members that you can have around come close to the hilarity of a Boo & Minsc or the seductive intrigue of a Viconia from Baldur's Gate 2.

Generally, the pieces come together fairly well in this game. The inventory system and journal are decent, as is the interface. The camera can be annoying largely because it never seems to face in the right direction when you enter a new area. That is, sometimes north will be toward the right side of the screen or toward the left, forcing you to swing the camera around to match the direction of the map. You'll get used to it, but you shouldn't have to. A few things I really liked were the number of scripted events, the save system (none of that checkpoint stuff; you can save anywhere), and the death system (no one in your party actually dies unless everyone goes down in a fight). But the things that I really didn't like were prominent as well, mostly involving the campaign which was about twice as long as it should have been. There are a lot of busy-work quests in the game that add absolutely nothing to the story. Chapter 1 (there are 3 in all) is the worst in this regard, but monotonous chores and a somewhat nonsensical narrative plague the game throughout. There is about 60-80 hours of gameplay here if you try to do everything. A tighter, more compelling story could have been told in half that time.

Graphics: The game looks good, but certainly not great. With the patches and the expansion installed, I didn't notice any framerate problems on my mid-range computer, although the game sometimes did not load all of the textures in each area. Character models, monsters, and terrain are all convincing, and spell effects look particularly good. There are night & day cycles that make the game a bit immersive, though it is hard to get too immersed in a game that is best played from a high overhead perspective and that requires constant monkeying with the camera.

Sound: The music was great. I wouldn't mine actually owning a few of the tracks. The voice acting ranged from decent to good, but it was the usual RPG fare of Scottish-accented dwarves, English-accented elves, deep-throated demons, and the occasionally whiny acolyte magician (always with an American accent). Sound effects for spells and other things were appropriate.

Technical Issue/Documentation: The game comes with a rather lengthy manual, which is quite helpful. It also has a clever tutorial at the beginning. Whether you get it alone or with the expansion, prepare for up to a 30-minute install which includes downloading some big patches. The game was rock-solid stable for about the first 30 hours of gameplay. Then the crashes started. According to posts at the official website, people are still having a variety of problems with this game, even after all the patches. My issues involved the game refusing to load new areas and crashing during transitions. The first time this occurred (while leaving Ammon Jerro's haven), I was able to find a workaround solution on the internet. The second time (at Crossroad Keep in chapter 3) there was just nothing that could be found to get me around this. I never got to finish the game. This was very frustrating and more than likely will keep me from buying another game by this developer. In fact, I was so disgusted by this problem that I sold both the game and the expansion on eBay. I had really had enough of the main quest after 50+ hours.

Value/Recommendation: If you like D&D-style roleplaying games, this might be worth your while at the current price ($20). However, be sure to patch it and be willing to deal with the game's remaining technical issues. This is really not a good value unless you are going to play player-made modules and/or play online. As with the first game, the single-player campaign, while long and with a few high points, is largely unremarkable (and buggy) and there are better RPGs available.

Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)