A great, fun romp though the world of Neverwinter, but ultimately does not leave an impression.
1. Stable, haven't encountered any major glitches so far
2. Revamped interface, more polished graphics
3. Good story, hooks you in from the start
4. Sound and new spell effects are awesome
5. Creating your own party is amazingly fun!
6. Overland map, makes traveling much less tedious
7. Skills are more balanced and important
8. The new economic/trading system is fun
9. The new resting/healing system is more realistic
Cons:
1. Character interaction is lacking, NPCs are not as interesting
2. Not sure about the new crafting recipe system
3. Voice acting is not great.
4. Content is very lacking, there's just not enough to do here.
I initially gave this game a 9.0, but I have reduced it to a 7.5. Storm of Zehir was fun, but by the time I had finished the game, the excitement of the new features had worn off and the lack of content was obvious. The frequent and long load screens (which will happen with frequent encounters) became increasingly annoying. The engine of the game has been flawed from the beginning and it hasn't improved much here. The game frequently slows down on my 2.2Ghz Core2duo, 3GB ram, 8800GT computer, and I am running it with most effects turned off (including shadows). The storyline was great to start off, but you soon come to the realization that if you strictly follow the main quest, you will clock in at 8-10 hours (a generous estimate). The voice acting is uneven at best and you get the sense that this expansion didn't get the time and the money to really make it a great game. Furthermore, creating your own party is fun at first, but quickly becomes stale. I would rather have 6 or 7 NPCs to choose from to make my party as long as they had something to contribute to the main plot and the atmosphere of the game.
One of the things I like about the developers at Obsidian is that they are willing to experiment with each new release. In Mask of the Betrayer, it was the dark new storyline, the spirit meter, the shadow realm and the well rounded NPCs (how cool is it to have a bear god in your party). Some things work better than others, but it is their willingness to take risks that has made the Neverwinter Nights such a successful series.
Storm of Zehir continues in that proud tradition with the ability to create each member of your party, interesting villains (yaun-ti is not your run-of-the-mill evil snake cult), decent storyline, new trading/economic system, overland map, in addition to the expected new items, new monsters, new side quests, new spells and new classes. Yet, none of the new features are fully realized. Most towns consist of a common room at an inn and a temple room. I hope they keep the overland map and the trading system in NWN 3. Obsidian has set the bar high for themselves and Storm of Zehir is ultimately a mediocre addition to the series. Unfortunately, Storm of Zehir also inherits problems from Neverwinter Nights 2 such as the long load screens (diminishes the well-implemented overland map feature) and poor camera control. But since this is an expansion pack, I didn't expect these problems fixed.
There is a lot to enjoy here, but the load screens, lack of content, and lack of character interaction really hurts the overall enjoyment. Recommended, but don't expect too much.