Neverwinter Nights Expansion

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Tzzird

Supreme [H]ardness
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The Mask of the Betrayer seems to have some decent reviews. I played the original NWN2 a while ago, but do not have the disc anymore. Any chance I can play this as a standalone?
 
You'll need the original game in order to play the expansion.
 
Did they ever fix all the problems with NWN2? I tried playing when it first came out and cant remember being that disappointed in a game before. Terrible camera, terrible performance...ugh.
 
Monkey God said:
Did they ever fix all the problems with NWN2? I tried playing when it first came out and cant remember being that disappointed in a game before. Terrible camera, terrible performance...ugh.
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I'm in the exact same boat. I played the original for about 3 hours before I had to eBay it. I just couldn't accept the amount of bugs, bad AI and lack of pathfinding. It was a mess.

I could see a great game underneath it all though, and I've just been kind of waiting for the game to get thoroughly patched.
 
PoweredBySoy said:
I could see a great game underneath it all though, and I've just been kind of waiting for the game to get thoroughly patched.
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Same here. I couldn't believe that this game came from Bioware. I bought it a few months ago and played about 2 hours of it before I put it away. Once it's fixed I'll gladly play it.
 
I hated the original campaign for NWN2. Boring and unoriginal. However, I've been playing Mask of the Betrayer for two days now, and it's incredible. This is what NWN2 should have been to begin with (which, ironically, is what I said about NWN1 when Hordes of the Underdark came out).

To address your questions, the camera system has been completely retooled and can be configured to pretty much anyone's tastes now. Also, performance has been significantly improved for me and the new artwork and effects are stunning. I don't want to spoil some of the more interesting locales, but post-processing and shader effects are used creatively to give certain otherworldly places a lot more character.

Everything seems to have been improved a little, and most things have improved quite a bit. Pathfinding for NPCs can still be a pain sometimes, and for some insane reason it autosaves after you reload a game (I mean, WTF?) but I haven't had any major frustrations yet.

I definitely reccomend picking it up if you want some tasty epic level D&D goodness.
 
USMC_Grunt said:
Same here. I couldn't believe that this game came from Bioware. I bought it a few months ago and played about 2 hours of it before I put it away. Once it's fixed I'll gladly play it.
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It didn't come from Bioware, it came from Bioware's buddies, i forget their names.
 
bobbydole said:
It didn't come from Bioware, it came from Bioware's buddies, i forget their names.
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Obsidian

And aside from the graphics issues, I really didn't see many problems for the few hours I played the game before.

Maybe I was just blind with giddyness since the sequel to NWN was in my hands or maybe I was still enticed by the even better toolset that I looked beyond the flaws. lol

:p
 
Tzzird said:
The Mask of the Betrayer seems to have some decent reviews. I played the original NWN2 a while ago, but do not have the disc anymore. Any chance I can play this as a standalone?
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If you have NWN2 installed, you can buy the expansion via Atari.com as a download and play without any discs. For what it's worth, most bugs have been worked out. I'd recommend the game to anyone who enjoyed NWN2.
 
bobbydole said:
It didn't come from Bioware, it came from Bioware's buddies, i forget their names.
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Wow I didn't know that. I think I just figured it was Bioware because the official forums are on their website. I'm glad they fixed the camera, that was one of the biggest problems I had with the game. Not being able to manuever it where I wanted it to go, having objects and NPCs disappear. There were a few others that I can't remember, but it was almost unplayable for me.

I was just incredibly dissapointed after NWN1 being one of the best games I've ever played. There were high expectations and I was horribly let down and couldn't believe they even released it, but I didn't completely give up hope. I think I should reinstall it now.
 
ive been keeping my nwn2 update with patches..and there have been many. ive been waiting for mask of the betrayer to come out and ill retry the game again. like everyone has mentioned the camera angles were bad and annoying and a few bugs that made me put it down for a while.
 
knothead34 said:
ive been keeping my nwn2 update with patches..and there have been many. ive been waiting for mask of the betrayer to come out and ill retry the game again. like everyone has mentioned the camera angles were bad and annoying and a few bugs that made me put it down for a while.
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but how is it now?
if I were to dust it off and patch it up, would I be simply getting angry again?
 
I was just looking around on the NWN2 forums, and it looks like people are still pretty pissed off. Supposedly they just released a new patch a week or 2 ago, and people are still fuming.
 
I was at first very happy with the expansion. Bug and performance wise i have had no issues and everything runs great. In that regards and the storyline so far is better than nwn2 OC.

After playing longer i'm realizing it is very lacking in certain areas. No items, sure there are items but if you were to compare the number of items and loot you get in BG up to NWN this has nothing. I've gone up ten levels so far and i think i have replaced maybe 4 or 5 items on ALL of my characters. I liked BG and NWN where i was finding lots of loot and could look forward to getting new things...this one not so much.

Only a handful of NPCs. There is one fighter, so far, and he doesn't even use items except for 3 things.

Obsidian games just seem very unfinished to me. Good stuff is there they just don't seem to get it polished.
 
Every single game I've seen come out of Bioware has been astonishingly buggy. I've play betas that are as polished as CS 1.6 by comparison.
 
Weird. I just visited the Obsidian website, and it said that they've only developed 2 games. NWN2 and KOTOR2. Are they the Bioware handoff? Also, KOTOR2 wasn't nearly as good as KOTOR in my opinion. Seems like they are ruining whatever Bioware hands them.
 
Yeah it seems Obsidian works on the Bioware IP's that the originator doesn't want/have the resources to work on. I wasn't too big on NWN2 too, in addition to a dull story IMO, the performance was atrocious. Though it seems that patch 1.10 fixed much of those issues. From a virtual slideshow playing @ 2560x1600, the game runs at a respectable 30-40fps at that resolution with all settings maxed running the latest patch. Though I noticed that they no longer allow you to max all the settings for the advanced shadow options - setting one value higher results in a couple of the others scaling down.

EDIT: When I mean those issues, I'm referring to the performance related issues. Story still sucks.
 
I picked it up but haven't really had a chance to actually play it. I played through the first one without issues really, dunno what everyone else is complaining about.
 
My gripes with NWN2:

Compared to it's peers you get lower frame rates for lesser quality graphics. along with that the faces of the characters are those that only a mother could love.

The game doesn't adhere to what it's based off. Kinda like buying a basketball game that doesn't use the rules of basketball.

Clipping issues, get stuck a lot on edges. Blast happy AI, I fear my teammates more than the enemy.

I have yet to be able to get myself to replay the first chapter, I've made it through the game once. . . just con't get myself into the game enough for a second time.

None of my problems with the game are all that bad, but there really just isn't anything that makes NWN2 game stand out.
 
Monkey God said:
Did they ever fix all the problems with NWN2? I tried playing when it first came out and cant remember being that disappointed in a game before. Terrible camera, terrible performance...ugh.
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Ever try Ultima IX? :p

I loved NWN1 and all the expansions and official modules, so I should definitely get NWN2. If I can pry myself away from Full Tilt Poker....
 
DejaWiz said:
Ever try Ultima IX? :p

I loved NWN1 and all the expansions and official modules, so I should definitely get NWN2. If I can pry myself away from Full Tilt Poker....
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NWN > NWN2
IMO of course

Haven't managed to convince myself to finish the expansion yet but i am thinking about playing NWN thru again or maybe bg series. this expansion did not give me my dnd fix in the slightest.
 
I think I'm going to have a go at it again tonight. I hear they've redone the camera system, although many people don't like it, but there are some work arounds for it. I kept having a problem that when I went into dialog while I was moving my camera (I'm contantly repositioning my camera for the best view), the camera would spin rapidly and wouldn't stop until I exit the dialog. Other times it just wouldn't respond to any mouse or keyboard commands. Hopefully they have done something about that.
 
Just found that this will be $20 at Best Buy next week... I've been loving NWN 2, and should have it hopefully done by Sunday, so I'll definitely pick this up :D
 
I hear it adds some additional classes/races in addition to campaign, but can you use those additional classes in the original campaign or just in the expansion campaign?

I've had this game since BF of last year, and tried to play it for about 20 minutes, decided it felt wrong and was not enjoyable enough at the time. its still installed, just waiting for something to kick start it so if the expansion brings something to the original game too (so I can finally get my money's worth out of it) the I'll probably pick it up....

edit-nevermind, I just found a thread answering this on the offical forums. for anyone else wondering: http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=591809&forum=121
 
NWN 2 is in *incredibly* slow starting game... it really dosen't pick up until you start heading to Neverwinter, to be honest. I was bored in the first couple of hours as well.
 
I finished Mask of the Betrayer yesterday. Excellent story, interesting characters, and more epic level badassery than you can shake a Quarterstaff +5 at. There are some truly impressive battles in the game, and the visuals are the best of any RPG I've seen to date. Watching five Red Wizard masters throwing spells at me was fun, although it definitely made my 8800 GTX sweat a bit.

I played through with a good Fighter/Weapon Master; I'm going to run through again with an evil Fighter / Wizard / Red Wizard / Eldritch Knight.
 
Ok, I reinstalled it and played quite a bit over the weekend. One I got used the the camera (which follows your character's turns unlinke NWN), it was actually pretty solid. I am having a good time with it now. I'm just happy the damn thing is working. Once I get through the OC I might pick up the expansion.
 
I'd pick up the expansion first, then play through both. The expansion has a lot of interface improvements, especially regarding the camera.
 
I think most (if not all) of the expansion technical improvements - including the new camera system and engine optimizations - are included in the latest patch for the original NWN2. So if you want to try out the interface and performance improvements, you don't have to buy the expansion right away. Just update the original game.
 
good to know everyone is enjoying it better now...two line [H] user reviews are about 100% more useful than IGN...
 
I was a big Baldur's Gate and NWN fan, but I felt that NWN2 was a big letdown. I got about halfway finished with it and put it down permanently. I didn't care for the performance, characters, the horribly dated looking UI, the camera, or even where the plot was headed.
I might pick up my savegame if this expansion is decent, but I'm not really sure if I want to bother.
Someone just needs to take the first Baldur's Gate and remake it in 3D.
 
Ok, so I've been on the fence about NWN2 for a long time. NWN2 has received a lot of bad press, but MOTB seems to have fixed a lot of the problems from what I hear. So here's the question I have. If I don't already own NWN2 is it worth spending $50 between the original and the expansion (since it isn't standalone) just so I can play MOTB?
 
Itchyeyes said:
Ok, so I've been on the fence about NWN2 for a long time. NWN2 has received a lot of bad press, but MOTB seems to have fixed a lot of the problems from what I hear. So here's the question I have. If I don't already own NWN2 is it worth spending $50 between the original and the expansion (since it isn't standalone) just so I can play MOTB?
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Thats the question id like to see answered as well.
 
I guess that depends on how bad you want a PC RPG right now. If you can wait, there will probably be a lower priced release including NWN2 and the expansion later on.
 
Domingo said:
I was a big Baldur's Gate and NWN fan, but I felt that NWN2 was a big letdown. I got about halfway finished with it and put it down permanently. I didn't care for the performance, characters, the horribly dated looking UI, the camera, or even where the plot was headed.
I might pick up my savegame if this expansion is decent, but I'm not really sure if I want to bother.
Someone just needs to take the first Baldur's Gate and remake it in 3D.
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I'd love to see BG revamped too, but this is the closest you might come:

http://www.pocketplane.net/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=143&Itemid=98

basically BG 1 running in a BG 2 engine...additional AD&D rules, classes added and a bunch of additional quests/mods.
 
I DL'd the latest normal NWN2 patch last night and I will say that the performance seems better. It looks like they overhauled a few things about the game. They changed the game icon, they tweaked a lot of the settings, and I did notice a performance boost with lighting and details turned up. It reset all of my control hotkeys and settings so I didn't play for long, but I might give this game another chance.

As for Baldur's Gate, I still think that trilogy (Throne of Bhaal was virtually a sequel considering its size and scope) was one of the most fun gaming experiences ever. I love how simple it was to play, yet you could do anything you can do in NWN and more. They should look to it's UI for inspiration.
 
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