Quite easily the worst role playing game ever created.

User Rating: 1 | Neverwinter Nights 2 (CD-ROM) PC
I bought this hunk of crap the day it came out. I returned it a day later. It was broken, buggy and completely unplayable. I recently picked it up again for cheap and thought I'd give it another go. I mean, there's been nearly FOUR years worth of patches since I last played it, it's got to be fixed by now right?

Did ya see my review score yet?

It's just as bad as the day it game out if not more so.

To start with, it's system requirements were off the charts in 2006, and even now on most modern hardware it still runs like crap. Who needs optimization right? In the GS review they mention that for such demanding requirements, it doesn't look very good...that's a helluva understatement. NWN2 is one of the most ugliest games you'll ever see. It's predecessor looked better, and considering how vile the models are in the first game that's actually quite an accomplishment. I actually gagged a little in the character selection screen, I couldn't believe how atrocious the player models look. It doesn't stop at the character models however. Weapons, environments and even spell effects are just unbelievably amateur. Even the cut-scenes in the game look like they were chopped together in first grade art class.

If the graphics were the only issues then I could live with it. But no, the list here goes on and on and on into infinity.

One of the more infuriating problems with NWN2 is it's AI, or rather, just it's A. Try as I might I couldn't find anything resembling intelligence anywhere. You're party members for example take the word "stupid" to great new heights. They will run head first into hordes of enemies, they will stand directly in front of foes as they get their heads bashed in, they will attack an enemy then disengage from the one their fighting and then run and attack another one 2 miles down the road, they'll get themselves stuck on enemies and in the environment...ugh, it doesn't stop. I actually downloaded a mod that would allow me to kick them from my party, for a time it was actually easier taking on groups of 10+ enemies all by myself. Turning party AI off is also pretty useless, as sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Just keep clicking the AI off icon until you're teammates start staring into space.

The voice acting is another aspect that will send chills down your spine. There isn't even one single voice actor in the game I didn't want to find, capture and torture in my basement, especially the voices for some of the villains and creatures in the game. Having people with absolutely no talent for voice acting...do voice acting is bad enough, but you can actually hear background noises when some of these idiots read their lines. People walking in the background, picking up objects, and on one occasion one of the actors is taking a sip of a drink while reading his !@#$%^& lines! Who put this game together? Obsidian or Bethesda? While on the subject of sounds you'll hear female NPCs talking in a man's voice, enemies who will grunt and groan in men, women and creature voices and I counted about 5 sound effects in total for the weapons. They couldn't even get the sound design right.

Oh and have fun playing as any class that has pets. As your character will randomly unsummon them for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Which is fun, as you have to not only rest to resummon them, but you have to wait for the cool-down to finish up too. Oh and let's not forget the famous pet glitch which still has yet to be addressed. Where if you have a pet summoned and transition from one area to another a member of your party can disappear permanently. Yeah go figure that one out. Actually, that might be kind of useful.

The control scheme also took it in the ***, it's just a mess. There are 4 different sliders just for camera sensitivity, no quicksave button is listed under the keymapping section, and there are 3 different modes for controlling your characters. "Character mode", "exploration mode" and "who really gives a damn at this point mode". Each one more pointless than the last. Trying to set this game up to use a control scheme more suited to your taste is also an exercise in frustration. Basically, don't bother, learn the one it gives you, be happy with how overly sensitive the camera is and be done with it. The only key you need to press anyway is the ESC key.

Some of the minor annoyances (which actually became major once I started thinking about them) are things like when you enter the loading screen a tab will pop up asking if you want to save. Why the **** would I want to save if I'm in the loading screen? Another thing that always troubled me with this series is it's use of "modules" and the way it loves to just shove them down your throat. For instance when a level is loading it will say crap like: "Unpacking module, loading 1 of 23 areas, unpacking updates, updating area" etc. Yeah, that doesn't just pull me out of the game at all. Is seeing that information at all necessary? Did someone forget about the whole role-play aspect?

As for the story...well, who gives a ****. With the horrible voice acting and such amateurish storytelling I could really care less.

The one bright side to the game, and I mean the ONE bright side, is that strategy is key if you want to survive. When your party members behave properly (which happened like once for me) the battles can become quite fun and challenging to play. But again, with such sloppy game design coupled with all the other issues I say again, who gives a ****

Anyway, I've had enough of this game. I'm going to go play a real RPG, an RPG that just runs circles around this garbage. Now where did I leave my copy of Mystic Quest...