NWN 2: Storm of Zehir Catch-All (Icewind Dale 2.0?)
Saturday, November 15th, 2008 - 12:44pm
The next Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion is coming out on November 18th and from what I saw at Gencon, it looks pretty good!
Quote:
Game Features:
• Travel the Sword Coast and Samarach with the open-ended exploration of the new Overland Map. Use skills like Spot, Survival, and Hide to avoid ambushes and even find hidden locales and lost artifacts.
• Create your own full party of adventurers. Devastate your foes with a squad of fireball-flinging Sorcerers, form a solid wall of steel with a party of Fighters, or strike the perfect balance in your party by spreading out the classes you choose for your characters.
• Improved party gameplay with a sophisticated party conversation system, full party creation, and Teamwork Benefits.
It's a completely new game where you create your own party from scratch and you can even play online coop and actually participate in the conversations with NPCs together. Lots of interesting stuff in there, we'll just need to see how it all comes together.
A bit more info from a video interview at E3 here.
I heard that they were keeping Elysium in the ICU not because he needed intensive care, but because they needed to be careful of his intensity. - Wordsmythe
I've been looking forward to this since it was announced as it seems a little bit more dungeon crawlish than the other NWN2 games. I'm really looking forward to playing this online.
Staats wrote:
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Where's Elysium to come in and call Certis a filthy whore? I want reciprocity! Fight, fight, fight!
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Does sound just like Icewind Dale. I suspect I'm going to be all over this one.
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Mystic Violet wrote:
That downloadable mini-expansion should be available pretty soon too. I guess I have to step up my game, I never even got around to finishing the last expansion.
What I'm really appreciating is how each expansion seems to have a completely different flavour of it's own, rather then just being more of the same.
Also, if this, all the RPGs this year I haven't gotten to yet like Fable II, Valkyria Chronicles, etc., and the surprisingly high amount of PC RPGs coming out next year wasn't enough of a trial to fit into my schedule, now Certis has me full of the desire to play through the Icewind Dale series again. Dammit.
I would think the first rule of PR is to ignore forum people, because they vacillate between crazy and liar. - Elysium
Yum-yum-yum, can't wait for this. I expect it to go down nicely with my December leave.
Swing harder! Swing harder!
-- Lilarcor, Baldur's Gate 2
Is it just me, or has there been a glut of really quality RPGs this holiday season? Last year Mass Effect was basically the only one, this year I've lost track!
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Mystic Violet wrote:
What RPGs?
Also, I did not know this was coming out so soon! I detested NWN 1, but thoroughly enjoyed 2 and its expansion.
Fallout 3, Fable 2, Sacred 2, Witcher EE and I'm sure there are a few I'm missing.
And of course the MMO's. WAR, WotLK, LORO: Mines of Moria.
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Mystic Violet wrote:
Ah, I see.
Will it be worth buying NWN2 just to get this expansion?
Fear the flames...
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I would just like to add that Witcher EE has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had in a very long time. I cannot wait for this NWN2 expansion either. I'll be set for a year at the rate I'm finishing games (also working on Mass Effect and BioShock). Slow gamer bliss!
I had no idea another expansion was due out soon. Thank goodness Christmas is coming up soon.
I've got a review unit on the way. I'll update the thread once I put some time in!
I heard that they were keeping Elysium in the ICU not because he needed intensive care, but because they needed to be careful of his intensity. - Wordsmythe
Talking to a Mindflayer merchant:
"Please. We are not animals. Your brains might be delicious, but sometimes they are more useful in your heads than in our stomachs ... and your gold does have it's uses."
I heard that they were keeping Elysium in the ICU not because he needed intensive care, but because they needed to be careful of his intensity. - Wordsmythe
Certis, I served with Icewind Dale 2. I knew IWD 2. IWD 2 was a friend of mine. Senator, NWN 2 is no IWD 2.0.
I will check it out though.
"But 2004 might be ancient for a teenager, with their hippin' and the hoppin' and the bippin' and the boppin', they don't know what the jazz is all about." - Gravey
I'm finding the monster spawns on the overland map a trifle annoying. Those encounters simply aren't very interesting, take too long to load, and don't tend to yield that much reward either. I might be more kindly disposed to them if they fed more obviously into the trading game, but aside from hunting down the merchandise the swamp goblins stole and occasionally making sure your caravans go unmolested later in the game, I haven't noticed any way they do this. Also do make your first character, your ostensible party leader, a rogue. The game changes the party leader to the first character when you load on the overland map, which is a recipe for tears when you saved surrounded by monsters and go from sneaking happily along to O HI THAR, YOU CAN HAZ OVER 9000 FIGHTS
I have to say though, there's a pretty drastic difference in prettiness between the original locations and the ones in Zehir.
"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made."
Has anyone tried the multiplayer for this expansion? I lost interest in NWN2 a long time ago because they really dropped the ball with DM-run games compared to NWN1. A friend said he heard there were MP improvements in this version. Anyone know if that is true, and if so what improvements were made?
"It's a doggie-dog world."
-overheard on the subway, in a conversation between two gum-chewing girls
Any update?
My life is too busy, I've only been able to dedicate about 5 hours so far. I was disappointed with the party A.I until I remembered that I always preferred controlling everything (like Baldur's Gate) directly anyways. As Alien Love Gardner mentioned, the overland map spawns can be a problem when you're trapped in a small area with little in the way of room to avoid fights and no time to sneak a rest in. But that's only really been a big deal once so far. The random encounters are normally avoidable, it just depends on how high your tolerance for random battles is.
All in all, it's very Neverwinter Nights 2 in feel and execution on the gameplay front. I haven't seen enough story to judge yet, but the writing and individual quest plots lines have been interesting, but not spectacular. I'm really wondering if The Witcher has spoiled me in that regard.
I'm still enjoying my time, I just need a good stretch to really dig in. Pecking at it is not the way to play an RPG like this.
I heard that they were keeping Elysium in the ICU not because he needed intensive care, but because they needed to be careful of his intensity. - Wordsmythe
I know what you mean, I've put about four hours into Fallout 3 over four play sessions.
I never even finished the the first campaign in NWN2. I just couldn't seem to get a feel for the game as the combat felt really clunky to me. It was like it was more of a point and click diablo type rpg that didn't lend itself well to characters with tons of selectable skills. I probably just didn't spend enough time to get comfortable with the interface like I had with prior rpgs like NWN1 or Icewind Dale. Is the general flow of combat or the menu system in this expansion any different than what came stock with the base game?
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On a related note, if one had skipped the base NWN2 and the first expansion for no particular reason, would they be better off just skipping those and playing this (aside from the part where you need to buy the base NWN2 since this is an expansion, of course)?
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Not really, no. It's pretty much the same, although they have added some new death mechanics. Meaning that characters can actually die, rather than just nap through combats once their health has run out.
This is different, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's significantly better than the original NWN2. Mask of the Betrayer is a high level expansion, so it's a different beast.
I finished NWN2 and aside from the slow start and somewhat limp ending, I enjoyed it. I don't think you're going to be the poorer if you went straight to Zehir, though. It's a totally new game world/story.
I heard that they were keeping Elysium in the ICU not because he needed intensive care, but because they needed to be careful of his intensity. - Wordsmythe
Is the camera work more in line with modern games? I stopped playing NWN2 because i got tired fussing with the camera angles. It was much worse than NWN.
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So far I'd rate Mask of the Betrayer more highly, since the story's stronger and the settings more exotic. Even though it *is* ludicrously high level D&D. You can safely skip the main game for both expansions though. There's some callbacks to the original campaign, but they're mostly self-contained.
They've patched in more camera modes since release. The strategy mode works well for me.
"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made."
Just finished the main quest, and it was fairly weak. There's very little build-up to the final confrontation, and it ends up anti-climactic and rushed. I liked building up the trading company, but your actions there don't have any effect at all. You just do it to get past a certain point in the plot. Compare this to running your castle in the OC, where there's a definite payoff in the siege, and it's pretty disappointing.
"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made."
I'm about 4-5 hours in and not quite sure what to think of this one.
The graphics are definitely nicer. The camera doesn't seem much improved but I never had too much trouble with it before, maybe just experience with it through the original and first expansion (I use the "exploration" mode, the one centered on a character. It follows well, gives good freedom to look around and the AI works well. When I use another guy, I click on his portait and the camera jumps to him. Just be careful to turn off left click select in options and "defend master" in AI otherwise it's a nightmare). Speaking of the AI, the amount of customization you can do has been doubled. I was impressed. My warlock plays fairly smart without me even touching him.
The story has not been impressive. There's no more moving lips on speaking characters, which hurts immersion. I do not like the trade dynamic. It's slow and boring. I currently have 2 trade routes and have nothing to do but wait for money. If I try to go out and explore my level 8 party routinely bumps into groups of 8-9 level 11-12 monsters that just destroy me. I have a ranger/rogue with all the survival skills, so I can pick my fights, but it's just weird that I can't fight anything.
I suppose it's a problem with pacing; to go farther in the story I need trade bars, but to get those bars all I can do is wait, proactive exploring does not yield the bars. Plus, my party always seems badly underleveled and it forces me to just follow my caravans around, which is not fun. I suppose I could just find lower level monsters and hunt those repeatedly to level up, but if I wanted to tear my hair out playing a MMORPG, I'd do that.
It's definitely not another Icewind Dale. Dale had big, multilevel dungeons. This one is all about the overland map, with dungeons being small, one-room 30 second affairs. I'm still interested enough to keep playing this one (I did throw down money, afterall!) but I'm really not sure if I could recommend it; there's plenty of other RPGs out there, this would probably only do it if you're a big DnD nut.