NeverWinter Nights of the Old Republic - me likey!!!
What makes NWN 2 a success in my mind is that it is more story driven than it's predecessors. I know this absolutely infuriates the die-hard RPG fans that like the open world, but this is what I like. Furthermore, NWN 2 did away with a majority of the boxes, crates, etc. in the game. There's still plenty of items to acquire throughout the journey via the quests, merchants, and..yes...your chest or crate. Also, unlike NWN 1, this game actually works. NWN 1 was a constant crash monster on my high end pc and video card. NWN 2 runs smooth as silk. So in summary, here are the pros/cons of the game:
Pros:
1) Great and intriguing story 2) Story driven
3) Good if not great graphics
4) Cool items and weapons, but the entire game is not spent finding them
5) Generally excellent D&D gameplay
6) Music is atmospheric and suits environments
7) Interesting characters
8) Overall engrossing fanstasy world
9) You acquire a keep and get to upgrade it - now how cool is that
10) Single-player game appears to be fairly massive
Cons:
1) Inconsistent voice acting - for each good voice actor there are twice as many atrocious ones. I'm from the south(US) and don't feel it's right to have a southern accent in a fantasy rpg or really any american accents for that matter
2) Decent sidekick quests but should be more tied to main character. This tends to be a problem with a lot of RPGs. You complete a couple of sidequests and then your team is just there for fighting. Their story and dialog trees should progress with the game. 3) Although the main character influences the other team characters it does not appear that alignments can be adjusted - at least I haven't found a way. Really blows that the ranger is evil.
Well, that's enough for now. Again, I'll beef this review up after I finish the game. From other reviews, which are certainly mixed, I've gathered that the ending is somewhat disappointing - I hope this is not true. This is the first game that has kept me up all night in a long time.
I hope more RPGs are like this in the future. This reminds me a lot of KOTR without the turned-base strategy. Actually, I think it would be cool if this was a TBS - it would be easier to manage combat especially spell-casting.