I'm a console player at heart. About a year ago I finally got myself a decent PC and proceeded to do what any god-fearing male in his mid-20s would do upon procuring a fairly state-of-the-art piece of hardware: I hid the practical programs and applications in the bottom of the desk and bought myself a slew of gaming entertainment. Being a single-player boy in this MMO world I bought older games, the first being the well-received Neverwinter Nights. To keep this paragraph short and not reiterate information I'm sure has been said before, I'll leave my impressions of that game to one word: awesome. Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN 2) has finally landed with a new development team in tow, some new toys to show off, and mighty large boxers to fill. Let's rock.

The Good
The first thing I noticed about NWN 2 was how good it looked. The graphics are a big step up from the first game, but don't branch out much from the established look, which is a fully 3-D top-down perspective with low background detail. I played at medium-high resolution (1152 x 752) with high textures and was able to notice a lot of the little details, such as the individual stones on the cavern floors or the individual links in my character's armor upon close-up. The lighting effects are decent, torches and fireballs set off really excellent flickering effects, and really create a nice sense of depth in the more crowded dungeons such as tombs or caves.

While the graphics emulate and update the style of the original game, the story presented by NWN 2 is far superior. It conveys an epic quest that is integral to a game like this, really giving the player a sense of impending danger and the scope of an impressive, fantastical world as backdrop for their actions. The dialogue and acting are silly, but fun, keeping the game light and swashbuckling and not deflating the adventure or selling out the concept for some cheap irony. The key success of the story and writing is the interaction between the player's character and the NPCs that he or she will encounter in the game. The influence system measures your choices and actions against the established personality of your companions, with the player either gaining or losing influence based on how their companions behave. The more influence the player has, the more they can talk to a companion and gain side quests. It's pretty cool and adds a little more strategy to choosing companions other than "I need a tank and a magic-user." Plus, it's always fun to play with characters that actually like you.

The Bad
As good as the graphics are for this game, the animation is slightly choppy and, in the most criminal of crimes, not very exciting during the action scenes. In the original game, the fight scenes looked scripted in the way the characters were animated, with feints and side-steps occurring in between turns and numerous attacks on display. The characters act stiff in NWN 2, with the combat looking repetitive if a fight goes on long enough. Also, there is an action called Cleave, where if your character kills an enemy, they are given other unlimited attacks against all enemies surrounding the player. Instead of a nifty action of the player smacking each character with extreme prejudice to convey the Cleave attack, text appears above the enemy's head with the damage listing. That's it. That's disappointing and kind of a bummer in combat. The interface and character/inventory screens are clunky and aesthetically unappealing. They work well enough but seem unwieldy. The artwork for all of the weapons and items are crammed into one small inventory block instead of, for example, spread over three blocks for a sword or six blocks for armor that would include the requisite space for some cool artwork that shows off the swag. As is, it's sometimes hard to tell what is what, with every item occupying the same amount of space and having little-detailed, cramped artwork.

The Ugly
I don't mean to nitpick, but my character was ugly. Ugly as sin. I get to customize my character you say? It's my poor design skills that have made my character ugly? Possibly, but given that I thought every head or face choice was harvested from the ground surrounding the ugly tree, I think it's a case of all characters just looking ugly. I found not one combination worthy of projecting my sexy visage to the digital world and thus had to settle and keep my camera zoomed out.

Minor gripes aside, Neverwinter Nights 2 is a more-than-worthy successor to the first game, delivering an exciting story and fun characters. The adventures are suitably epic and the danger is plentiful enough to keep even the most hardened role-player on his or her toes.

- doctordoom99