Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1078 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Atari
• Released on: 2006-11-02
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: Windows XP

Manufacturer's Description
Bards sing tales of heroes from ages past, but never have the Forgotten Realms so desperately needed a champion. Years have passed since the war between Luskan and Neverwinter, almost enough time for the wounds of war to heal. But the brief peace the Realms have known may be at an end. Tension growing between the mighty city-states means the Sword Coast again teeters on the edge of open war. Unnoticed, a greater danger stalks the City of Skilled Hands. Unbeknownst to the denizens of the North, deep in the Mere of Dead Men, dark forces from across the Realms have been rallied under the banner of a legendary evil. If left unchallenged, all of the North is doomed to fall under its power.

Even in this darkest hour, hope remains. A mysterious relic is borne to Neverwinter in the hands of a lone hero so that its secrets may be unlocked - secrets that carry the fate of all the North. So begins an epic tale of shattered alliances, noble acts and dark deeds to be told across the Realms for generations to come.

Customer Reviews

Very pleasing
I found this game very enjoyable and suffered very few glitches, apart form the fact the game occasionally decides to crash in cut scenes that flow between acts. So long as you save often, this really isn't mu of a problem. My other main peeve is that the game does not grow progressively harder, instead the difficult varies constantly. Battling a red dragon is far harder than the end boss encounter, or the end dungeon for that matter.

I had no problem running this on the highest settings and my pc is nothing new (if you have issues with the higher settings, make sure everything is running fine, coz it might not be (as people I've talked about this with have often discovered)).

Many core and prestige classes are present and a dedicated path for both good and the more evil characters for much of the game. These different paths also add different plot points and adventures, making it worthy of replaying. A better system for creating your own items (which I found simple and fun) which I spent alot of time playing about with to create some odd, if powerful items for my characters to use.

All your henchmen are now controllable and you get to gain and lose favour with them (try to gain it though, you'll see why later).

Also, you get your own keep to repair, strengthen and a army to raise (try getting more than 750 men coz that's my record so far!), though the storyline tends to become more linear when you get the keep, the game is alot of fun.

The true down side is the poor ending, it's nothing special in any way, in fact I felt it more of an anticlimax.

The game still deserves 5 stars though, mostly for the fact it has so much playability and a number of subplots and side quests to undertake that oyu may need to play the game several times over to make the most of them.

The toolset is far to over complicated this time though, I struggled for a while with the one in NWN1, but this time I cant get it to do anything at all, not even move around the area you're building in! Sadly this section of the game package makes me drop it a star. A shame really coz the toolset from what I've seen from downloaded modules is quite impressive.

Great Game, Flamin awful camera control 'tho!
As a fan of the original NWN, and baldurs gate icewind dale etc... i have been equally impressed by the game. It's nothing new, but hey, if i wanted something original i sure as hell wouldn't be playing D&D Rpg games now would i??
The graphics such as spell effects are often spectacular and enjoyable to watch, although i would recommend a high spec pc to play this game on in order to get the full effect.

There are some major worries with the game, mainly the camera. With no exagerration, the camera is absoloutely awful! despite the several camera options top down, driving camera etc.. not a single one of them allows you to flawlessly follow your character and the action. Often i run into fights long before i see the danger coming, as the camera has an awful tendency to "look backwards" as it were instead of showing you whats ahead of you. And after lengthy load times often the first thing you will see is a blank wall or the road at your feet!
Also the AI of your party members is not incredibly helpful, and requires many hours of tweaking before they finally react to situations in a helpful manner.

This aside, the game itself provides hours of entertainment, with an engrossing (if unoriginal) storyline, fantastic (but cliched) characters, and fantastic gameplay.
All i can say is hey - if you like rpgs you'll love this one - if you don't - this isn't about to change your mind!

Cheers!

Not half as bad as many make it
I've just finished this game, and although there are many points which I can easily criticise, I do not find the game half as bad as many would make it.

First, Graphics: Many are saying they're too flashy, they don't run on their machine. I can't run them at maximum either, but at a low to medium the game still looks great (about three billion times better than its aged predecessor) and runs smoothly on my 2 and a half year old machine.

Second, Gameplay: Reviewers are saying that the game is purely linear, that its like watching a film. I disagree. The main plot is linear (as was the predecessors), but allows for a number of interesting choices. Combat (the majority of the game) is as entertaining as in most recent D20 games (KotoR, NWN) and non combat parts are quite entertaining as well. Many improvements have been made over NWN1 in the design of dungeons and quests. You no longer crawl through endless dungeons fighting seemingly endless numbers of opponents, rather the number of opponents is just enough to make you feel like you're ready to move on and usually once that feeling kicks in you've almost reached the end. The game also avoids a large amount of senseless walking by usually offering you to quickly return home after a quest has been completed. This avoids the ridiculous "stone of recall" used in NWN1.

Third, Storyline: I really enjoyed the introduction to the game, the tutorial and what not. What an improvement over NWN1! After that the game launches into an epic fantasy story which does tend towards cliché especially towards the end. All a matter of taste really. I personally enjoyed the companion quests the most. The fact that your companions generally have lines in most dialogues and that they each have a story with many meaningful sidequests makes them the highlight of the singleplayer campaign, for me.

Finally, some criticism: Yes, it is true the game seems rushed. I encountered only one major bug throughout the entire game, but there are many bits that seem very "rough". As a developer myself I have no problem ignoring that and instead enjoying the many details which make up the game world (ever tried to take Elanee back to Georg and his Swamp Elf story inWest Harbour?). The interface is by far not ideal, and inventory management across several characters is particularily poor. It also seems that the quality of content seems to deteriorate towards the end of the game. This is a typical sign of a rushed game.

Finally, let me say this: I finished this game, unlike this predecessor. I always got bored with NWN1 by chapter 3 (having played through a horrific chapter 1 a so-so chapter 2 previously). If you liked Knights of the Old Republic and could imagine playing a fantasy game, you'll like this game. If you're a die hard oldschool Baldur's Gate / NWN1 / Icewind Dale fan, you might not like the modern design ideas which have influenced this game.