Neverwinter Nights 2

[[JiF]Dandyman]

I just installed NWN2 and while I haven't had a chance to touch it I'll try and post some screenshots and first impressions soon.

[[JiF]Buick]

Hope you do Dandy...I'm interested in this one also..

[[JiF]Dandyman]

So far I am pleased and can offer this one point.

"If you liked the first one, you will definitely like this one."

I say that because of the following:

1. NWN2 is NWN with a major technical facelift.
2. NWN2 is NWN with a D&D rule upgrade to 3.5.

Point 1 is definitely the most obvious difference between the two games. The textures, effects, and animations are all a big step up. Point 2 is a little less obvious, and even more so for me. I haven't followed D&D rules, but I do know that NWN2 uses a new version of the rules than the first game. There are more races, classes, prestige classes, weapons, spells, monsters, etc, etc.

All of that being said, the game really isn't all that different from the first one. They've reused a lot of things from the first game and the most obvious is the audio. The music is updated, but the sound effects are damn near identical, if they aren't in fact the same sound files. Fortunately, this isn't really a problem as the sound in the first NWN was pretty damn good. I haven't delved in to the story very much, and while it hasn't really "grabbed" me yet, I'm expecting it will soon. The first NWN story was fair, but the two expansions Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark were exceptional.

For me the most appealing, albeit underutilized, aspect of the game is its multiplayer aspects of the game. There are already hundreds of servers out on the net and while many offer traditional party play, many of them are "persistent" worlds you can join without the monthly subscription you pay for most MMORPGs. Frankly, I've never actually tried this style of play, preferring instead to stick to party style play, but I think this time around I'll give it a shot sometime. Meanwhile, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the default story supports up to 4 players. I haven't tried it out yet, but a friend of mine and I are planning to do just that. No promises, (as in I haven't checked with my buddy) but I may have room for somebody to join us. We'll probably play once a week for a couple of hours.

One sad note on the MP aspect is that the game server is written in .Net and not available for Linux, otherwise I'd probably already have a server running.

[[JiF]Antman]

I loved NWN, tried time and time to get friends of mine to buy and play through the "singleplayer" campaign. I've been wanting to buy NWN2 especially since I recently purchased Icewind Dale I:II and HoW. I hesitate only because I'm not sure if my OLD OLD computer would support it. Otherwise I'd probably join you.
When I played, I played persistent worlds as well as team deathmatch and that was pretty interesting. It's cool how many interesting modules were developed. HiPS! HiPS!

[[JiF]Dandyman]

It is resource intensive, no doubt about that.