Even if you just play what comes with the GOG pack, it's absolutely worth $10 (though you can get about 10 classic D & D games for $25 when they are on sale a few times a year). On top of that, there are at least 3 or 4 premium modules that are easily obtainable for free nowadays with a Google search that are as good as either expansion pack.
NWN's excellent Aurora Engine was built from the ground up to accommodate custom adventures, with limitless modding capabilities and the option to have an actual live DM on your gameserver. Sadly, with the recent collapse of the Neverwinter Vault once hosted by IGN, many great mods were lost forever, including a few of my own creations.
NWN2, on the other hand, feels clunky as hell. The awful music (yeah, why not have an orchestra with a chorus whine like there's no tomorrow when you encounter something you can kill with one hit), awful sound effects (whenever you cast a spell, be prepared to hear someone stir their bloody tea vigorously) and even worse visuals (NWN looked far better IMHO) really make this a horrifying experience. If playing this crap at all, play Storm of Zehir which is, thanks to some technical improvements, much more playable than the OC and MotB. If you're still interested in the OC & MotB storylines, better watch a let's play or something, as there really isn't much variation in terms of story development anyway.
how interesting, I feel the exact opposite way about the NWN series ( although I never played with mods, so maybe that could have had a part in it) I felt that NWN was clunky as piss, to the point where it was almost painful, since I love playing warrior type classes having that one attack per round at level 1 was just terrible, and since you don't have a party in NWN ( 1 companion does not make it a party) some battles just take FOREVER at low levels, and its not even because they are "epic battles" its more of you both need 19s or 20s just to hit each other, and with one attack per round with each character, it slows down to a drag,
then second, I think NWN looks absolutely terrible, it has not aged well at all, it is so blocky, it's more or less a higher resolution of N64 graphics, this was very noticeable when I was playing it months ago, but again, I don't use any mods, so I don't know if any of the mods fix this, but NWN to me, just feels old
and then NWN 2 came out, and in my opinion, it actually looked quite beautiful, especially the character models, they really put some big effort in making the character models look great ( although the same love didn't go into the monster models, and if you do close ups on the baddies you fight, sometimes they look a little terrible) but with that being said, the environments looked A LOT better, and the game was a lot less blocky looking
when it came to the music, I actually enjoyed the music from both games, ( also NWN 2 took a lot of their music from NWN in its complete originality) so I really have nothing bad to say about ether game's music, if anything I might lean a hair closer to NWN 2 because they had a couple of tracks that I really really liked
but campaign wise, I think this is what makes or breaks the NWN games regardless if it is the first or second game, and out of all the 6 campaigns I enjoyed storm of zehir the best, all the other ones to me just felt mediocre in comparison, and ironically enough, SoZ probably had the least effort put into to it in terms of development time ( given on how short the expansion can be) but for me, it was still the most fun, now that I think of it, maybe I will go play a SoZ run just for the lols....
I never played with mods, so maybe that could have had a part in it
I referred specifically to NWN's Aurora Engine and not the vanilla game as such. NWN understood as a standalone interactive adventure is plainly horrible. It's much like Dungeon Siege, but worse in all aspects.
so many people praise motb as the best thing since pst. i just see it as a poor man's planescape and kotor 2 did a better job as a successor.
does not help the fact that nwn 2 runs so badly.
I like both MotB and kotor 2 a lot so I don't enjoy putting those games up against each other.
Kotor 2 has a bit of a funny history though with the whole Team Gizka project that eventually collapsed, until finally Hassat Hunter and that team picked up the pieces and finally made a functional restored content patch.
So it did take awhile for Kotor 2 to become what it is now.
Funny thing, I recently reinstalled and modded my NWN game and am planning to play through the OC again.
I enjoy the game. Granted that's because I was a little kid when I first played it and it's hard for me to be critical of a game I've known for so long but it's well worth playing for a mere 10 dollars. I think the fact that the game still has a respectable multiplayer community, last I checked anyways, speaks volumes about its worth.
I actually also think the OC has a few gems in it despite the overall meh quality. The Charwood plot was pretty great, as was Chapter 3, which was probably my favorite part of the whole thing. I think the gameplay was mostly bland because of the flat companions rather than the quests themselves.
so many people praise motb as the best thing since pst. i just see it as a poor man's planescape and kotor 2 did a better job as a successor.
does not help the fact that nwn 2 runs so badly.
I like both MotB and kotor 2 a lot so I don't enjoy putting those games up against each other.
Kotor 2 has a bit of a funny history though with the whole Team Gizka project that eventually collapsed, until finally Hassat Hunter and that team picked up the pieces and finally made a functional restored content patch.
So it did take awhile for Kotor 2 to become what it is now.
Vanilla kotor 2 vs motb..I'd say motb wins.
vanilla kotor 2 does not exist to me anymore. it's either restored or bust. but i'm really biased towards kotor 2 as of the big MCA games i played it first and even un finished i loved it.
but really my issues with motb are as such.
1. it suffers from the exact same issue tob does. it should have been a full on game not an expansion.
2. nwn 2 engine is pretty bad imo. and the only games i find that run rather well on the engine that began with nwn 1 are the kotor games and witcher 1.
3. for being a pst successor it really has alot of needless combat that bogs the game down [ again same thing as tob]
4. the poor man's planescape thing. in pst the story was about you. your past lives and those that you effected. in motb you are a player in someone else story so it does not have the same feeling. again kotor 2 did this much better.
5. and finally. this should have starred a new character. there is no reason for this to be a continuation of the oc. besides two things it's a stand alone story.
Yeah both games and expansions pretty great. However, NWN1 has aged poorly graphically. If ever there was a D&D game that would benefit from and enhanced edition... NWN2 is still full of bugs to this day
I wish the nwn2 toolset wasn't so hard to use, I would love to make sweetski adventures and such, but after a while of trying to use it, I gave up, couldn't figure out how to set scripts for joinable team mates
The Charwood plot was pretty great, as was Chapter 3, which was probably my favorite part of the whole thing.
Yeah. I really liked Helm's Hold for its difficulty, too. Also, Aribeth. Great character, gorgeous voice.
I thought the OC companions were great!
Plus Xanos, Dorna and Deekin in SoU; Deekin, Nathyrra, Valen and Aribeth in HotU. The banters, interjections and romances were some of the best by BioWare.
The Charwood plot was pretty great, as was Chapter 3, which was probably my favorite part of the whole thing.
Yeah. I really liked Helm's Hold for its difficulty, too. Also, Aribeth. Great character, gorgeous voice.
I thought the OC companions were great!
Plus Xanos, Dorna and Deekin in SoU; Deekin, Nathyrra, Valen and Aribeth in HotU. The banters, interjections and romances were some of the best by BioWare.
hmmm...... nwn companions....... never used them much if at all, my half-orc bard/fighter/dragon disciple scythe wielding character didn't need no help from anyone
I view the original NWN as the enabler of Neverwinternights 2. (NWN2)
NWN2 is in my perpetual playthrough list with Baldur's Gate 2, Morrowind, Dragon Age 2, Planescape Torment, Divine Divinity, Two Worlds both.
I'd be happy for that list to be longer, but with NWN2 the typical heroic main campaign against a super-natural and devastating evil is elevated by really well written band of characters.
Sand is my personal favorite. Neeshka and Bishop are exceedingly well loved. Casavir and Elanee will do.
hmmm...... nwn companions....... never used them much if at all, my half-orc bard/fighter/dragon disciple scythe wielding character didn't need no help from anyone
Here is the one I used in Hordes of the Underdark:
hmmm...... nwn companions....... never used them much if at all, my half-orc bard/fighter/dragon disciple scythe wielding character didn't need no help from anyone
Here is the one I used in Hordes of the Underdark:
She was a weapon master. Everything just died. :P
I wonder if that was the same one I used, I remember doing extra acid damage, how high did your critical hits reach? I would normally average around 240 or so damage, and I had one critical hit reach 270
My WM consistently critted for around 300. Definitely got lots of 300+ crits over the course of the campaign. OP as hell, but still so much fun. Normally I avoid epic campaigns but HotU and Aielund Saga are two that remain fun even into the epic lvls.
Have you read my Arcane Archer recounting? I forced all my companions to wield ranged weapons.. even Aribeth. That was a fun run, too. Though not quite as EZ..
Comments
then second, I think NWN looks absolutely terrible, it has not aged well at all, it is so blocky, it's more or less a higher resolution of N64 graphics, this was very noticeable when I was playing it months ago, but again, I don't use any mods, so I don't know if any of the mods fix this, but NWN to me, just feels old
and then NWN 2 came out, and in my opinion, it actually looked quite beautiful, especially the character models, they really put some big effort in making the character models look great ( although the same love didn't go into the monster models, and if you do close ups on the baddies you fight, sometimes they look a little terrible) but with that being said, the environments looked A LOT better, and the game was a lot less blocky looking
when it came to the music, I actually enjoyed the music from both games, ( also NWN 2 took a lot of their music from NWN in its complete originality) so I really have nothing bad to say about ether game's music, if anything I might lean a hair closer to NWN 2 because they had a couple of tracks that I really really liked
but campaign wise, I think this is what makes or breaks the NWN games regardless if it is the first or second game, and out of all the 6 campaigns I enjoyed storm of zehir the best, all the other ones to me just felt mediocre in comparison, and ironically enough, SoZ probably had the least effort put into to it in terms of development time ( given on how short the expansion can be) but for me, it was still the most fun, now that I think of it, maybe I will go play a SoZ run just for the lols....
does not help the fact that nwn 2 runs so badly.
Kotor 2 has a bit of a funny history though with the whole Team Gizka project that eventually collapsed, until finally Hassat Hunter and that team picked up the pieces and finally made a functional restored content patch.
So it did take awhile for Kotor 2 to become what it is now.
Vanilla kotor 2 vs motb..I'd say motb wins.
I enjoy the game. Granted that's because I was a little kid when I first played it and it's hard for me to be critical of a game I've known for so long but it's well worth playing for a mere 10 dollars. I think the fact that the game still has a respectable multiplayer community, last I checked anyways, speaks volumes about its worth.
I actually also think the OC has a few gems in it despite the overall meh quality. The Charwood plot was pretty great, as was Chapter 3, which was probably my favorite part of the whole thing. I think the gameplay was mostly bland because of the flat companions rather than the quests themselves.
but really my issues with motb are as such.
1. it suffers from the exact same issue tob does. it should have been a full on game not an expansion.
2. nwn 2 engine is pretty bad imo. and the only games i find that run rather well on the engine that began with nwn 1 are the kotor games and witcher 1.
3. for being a pst successor it really has alot of needless combat that bogs the game down [ again same thing as tob]
4. the poor man's planescape thing. in pst the story was about you. your past lives and those that you effected. in motb you are a player in someone else story so it does not have the same feeling. again kotor 2 did this much better.
5. and finally. this should have starred a new character. there is no reason for this to be a continuation of the oc. besides two things it's a stand alone story.
However,
NWN1 has aged poorly graphically. If ever there was a D&D game that would benefit from and enhanced edition...
NWN2 is still full of bugs to this day
I thought the OC companions were great!
Plus Xanos, Dorna and Deekin in SoU; Deekin, Nathyrra, Valen and Aribeth in HotU. The banters, interjections and romances were some of the best by BioWare.
NWN2 is in my perpetual playthrough list with Baldur's Gate 2, Morrowind, Dragon Age 2, Planescape Torment, Divine Divinity, Two Worlds both.
I'd be happy for that list to be longer, but with NWN2 the typical heroic main campaign against a super-natural and devastating evil is elevated by really well written band of characters.
Sand is my personal favorite. Neeshka and Bishop are exceedingly well loved. Casavir and Elanee will do.
She was a weapon master. Everything just died. :P
Have you read my Arcane Archer recounting? I forced all my companions to wield ranged weapons.. even Aribeth. That was a fun run, too. Though not quite as EZ..