Letters
Tank
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2003
- Messages
- 6,861
- Reaction score
- 1
Okay I admit it... I've only played a little HL2 Ep 2 and none of portal... I've been playing Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer. I know, I know!
I'm not all that far into yet, but I do have some mixed feelings on it. The new 'strategy' camera actually lets you manually control your whole party without the camera flying all over the damn place like in plain NWN2, so that's pretty cool... the bad part is that it's still not as good as the one Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale series had... is it that ****ing hard to at least match what was done so long ago? Jesus Christ... party formations? Auto-self cast for self-cast-only spells? Map moving? Ability to scroll all the way away from your character? HELLO?!
Anyway, your whole party being controllable actually means something now that you can actually do it.
The graphics are want-to-reach-out-and-touch good, and the music is pretty awesome too. Can't comment on the story yet...
Another plus is that it's an epic campaign so you get to skip all that crap of playing a boring low-level guy... low levels suck, always will suck, and can go to hell. Starting with real options and fun... what an amazing concept!
Now, on to the 'spirit meter'... see, you get this thing as of Act II that acts as sort of time limit to your weakening and eventual death (it drains slowly when doing anything besides dialogue then a lot when you rest) that can only be replenished in certain ways... mainly, devouring souls and increasing your craving for them, or fighting it back/putting them to rest. In a way, I guess it's sort of a unique challenge... but it's just so god damn annoying... you could still have all the story elements associated with being this 'spirit eater' without having to bother with this meter. The challenge actually seems to come from putting up with this annoying shit while trying to progress, and not it actually being challenging to replenish. Definitely a mixed bag... jury is still out on this one.
I'm playing a neutral wizard/red wizard/arcane scholar of candlekeep (pretty much just a straight wizard with some fancy names) specializing in abjuration spells. Combat and dialogue has been fun so far. The companions are far better than the shitheads from the original NWN2 (god they were so annoying... I was forced to play chaotic evil because I couldn't stand any NPC in that campaign... horrible), but still not up to the Baldur's Gate II standard.
So, first impressions are generally that it improves on NWN2 quite a bit so it's been pretty fun, but it's still annoying that nothing can hold a candle to what Baldur's Gate II and Icewind Dale II did. Mainly I just want to see if I'm the only one here that even cares... probably.
I'm not all that far into yet, but I do have some mixed feelings on it. The new 'strategy' camera actually lets you manually control your whole party without the camera flying all over the damn place like in plain NWN2, so that's pretty cool... the bad part is that it's still not as good as the one Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale series had... is it that ****ing hard to at least match what was done so long ago? Jesus Christ... party formations? Auto-self cast for self-cast-only spells? Map moving? Ability to scroll all the way away from your character? HELLO?!
Anyway, your whole party being controllable actually means something now that you can actually do it.
The graphics are want-to-reach-out-and-touch good, and the music is pretty awesome too. Can't comment on the story yet...
Another plus is that it's an epic campaign so you get to skip all that crap of playing a boring low-level guy... low levels suck, always will suck, and can go to hell. Starting with real options and fun... what an amazing concept!
Now, on to the 'spirit meter'... see, you get this thing as of Act II that acts as sort of time limit to your weakening and eventual death (it drains slowly when doing anything besides dialogue then a lot when you rest) that can only be replenished in certain ways... mainly, devouring souls and increasing your craving for them, or fighting it back/putting them to rest. In a way, I guess it's sort of a unique challenge... but it's just so god damn annoying... you could still have all the story elements associated with being this 'spirit eater' without having to bother with this meter. The challenge actually seems to come from putting up with this annoying shit while trying to progress, and not it actually being challenging to replenish. Definitely a mixed bag... jury is still out on this one.
I'm playing a neutral wizard/red wizard/arcane scholar of candlekeep (pretty much just a straight wizard with some fancy names) specializing in abjuration spells. Combat and dialogue has been fun so far. The companions are far better than the shitheads from the original NWN2 (god they were so annoying... I was forced to play chaotic evil because I couldn't stand any NPC in that campaign... horrible), but still not up to the Baldur's Gate II standard.
So, first impressions are generally that it improves on NWN2 quite a bit so it's been pretty fun, but it's still annoying that nothing can hold a candle to what Baldur's Gate II and Icewind Dale II did. Mainly I just want to see if I'm the only one here that even cares... probably.
