Taryen Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Just finished my 5th game of Dragon Age Origins and as much as I love it it's time for something new. Any suggestions? It looks like Neverwinter Nights 2 is similiar to Dragon Age Origins? Any truth to that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchos Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 In my playthrough of the original campaign of NWN2, I compared it often with Dragon Age: Origins. Previously, I had been comparing DA:O to Baldur's Gate, as Bioware had made that comparison themselves in their early promotions, but when I tried NWN2, I noticed that many of the things that I had thought were innovations original to DA:O had actually shown up in NWN2 first. I think you'll find that NWN2 is similar to DA:O in almost all of the best ways. In some cases it's better, though in others it's worse. The pathfinding is its greatest weakness. I recommend using the click-to-move control scheme for best results. You also can't create your face with sliders, but have to pick from premade ones, many of which are ugly (I recommend head and hair mods). I'd recommend some specific camera settings to make the camera movement comfortable, as well. In everything else, I can't praise it enough. I've written tens of thousands of words on the subject on my blog, but I also discuss the plot of the OC (hiding major spoilers, but discussing the general plot openly), and I often mentioned how something compared to its Baldur's Gate or DA:O counterpart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchos Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) One excerpt from my blog:So, coming from DA:O, which has 3 races and 3 classes to choose from, I was delighted with the character creator for NWN2, which sports 8 base races and 16 additional sub-races, with 28 classes to choose from, not counting specialisations within a class. I picked druid for my first character, partially because I've enjoyed playing a druid in WoW, and also because I liked the style of armour. Each of these classes has its own style of armour! And from what I can tell, it doesn't have to become obsolete once you find better armour, because the crafting system allows you to put up to 4 enchantments on it. So after selecting the druid class, I was further delighted when the character creator basically asked me, "okay, now what kind of druid?" with a selection of druid specialisation packages to choose from, or the ability to customise my own.http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--JygErorF_8/TmKdimBqaCI/AAAAAAAACPM/GiWcis7LLXk/s288/nwn2main%2Bclasses.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ji8y9S5lFCs/TmKdimHUFpI/AAAAAAAACPE/YThVaiOd37I/s288/nwn2main%2Bsubrace.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UcnHvEvUCX4/TmKdi_4xNjI/AAAAAAAACPU/b5JGahcja3A/s288/nwn2main%2Bclass%2Bpackages.jpg Edited July 18, 2012 by Tchos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taryen Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 Thanks Tchos for getting back to me. Is it still possible to buy Neverwinter Nights 2? I went to the Atari site and they don't sell it anymore. Which seems strange since I read good things about it and it seems like it still a popular game. Anyone know where to buy it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchos Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Also, if you install Kaedrin's PrC pack, you get 47 more classes and 123 more spells. Players can multi-class in this game, choosing a level in a different class when they level up. Different combinations of class levels, race, and skills allow you to unlock various Prestige Classes. As for purchasing it, as far as I can tell, the lawsuit between Hasbro and Atari over the D&D licensing is the reason Atari's D&D games were removed from the stores recently. But it looks like they're filtering back in under the Hasbro label. Currently, Impulse/Gamestop is the only online shop I know of that has brought them back so far, and they're not offering NWN2 separately, only in these two packs: http://impulsedriven.com/products/ESD-IMP-W3220http://impulsedriven.com/nwncomplete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchos Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 It'll probably take longer, but you should also add your vote on GOG for them to start carrying it:http://www.gog.com/en/wishlist/games/neverwinter_nights_2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taryen Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 Great! I was in the process of ordering DA Awakening from Gamestop. I'll just add it to my order. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amycus Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) Gamersgate sold the whole series before, but it seems that they have removed it entirely from the shop (thankfully, I can still download the copies I've already bought there before). Pretty sure steam also sold it before, but not anymore apparently. Shame, hopefully other's won't follow suit. Either way, I agree that NWN2 is probably the closest thing to DA:O right now (closer than DA2 at least), though it has some rough edges, and the ending of the main campaign was seriously rushed. Apart from that, it's a pretty good game though. And the expansion, "mask of the betrayer" is really great. It has only 4 companions, but they are all pretty well developed with plenty of dialogue. I wouldn't bother with the last expansion, storm of zehir, though. I never finished it, but it makes you create all your "mercenaries" yourself, with no real companions that you can talk to. It's a great game, but I don't think it sold very well, because apart from the rushed ending it was also filled with gamebreaking bugs for a long time, despite frequent patches. Thank Atari for that. Edited July 18, 2012 by amycus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tchos Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 (edited) The others already did follow suit. It was removed from all online stores just after the big sales in March or April. But it looks like it's coming back. I have to disagree with Amycus about SoZ. The creation of your whole party is a mechanic from the Icewind Dale games, and was also possible in the Baldur's Gate games if you chose to play it in multiplayer mode. The party dialogue system is an excellent innovation, and brings some personality even to your own created party. But in fact, there are recruitable companions of the same sort as in the OC and MotB in SoZ, which you can use to replace any of your created party members. They each have their own voices and dialogue in conversations, and they have unique comments and motivations when entering new areas, much like the conversations your party members would have with each other when you run across bridges in DA:O. Also, for some additional bugfixes after you've patched it to the latest version, I recommend Skywing's Client Extension.http://nwvault.ign.c...r.Detail&id=231 Edited July 18, 2012 by Tchos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amycus Posted July 21, 2012 Share Posted July 21, 2012 I have to disagree with Amycus about SoZ. The creation of your whole party is a mechanic from the Icewind Dale games, and was also possible in the Baldur's Gate games if you chose to play it in multiplayer mode. The party dialogue system is an excellent innovation, and brings some personality even to your own created party. But in fact, there are recruitable companions of the same sort as in the OC and MotB in SoZ, which you can use to replace any of your created party members. They each have their own voices and dialogue in conversations, and they have unique comments and motivations when entering new areas, much like the conversations your party members would have with each other when you run across bridges in DA:O. Really? That's great news, I gave up on SoZ about 15 min in, after making that assumption. Finally, I have something to play again when I get home. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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