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Neverwinter Nights 2

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Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN2) is a computer role-playing game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Atari. It is the sequel to BioWare's Neverwinter Nights (NWN), a successful game based on the Dungeons & Dragons system. Where NWN was based on the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition rules, NWN2 is based on Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition rules (also known as the Revised 3rd Edition), changed to adapt to real-time gameplay.

Neverwinter Nights 2
Windows boxart
Windows boxart
Developer(s)Obsidian Entertainment
Publisher(s)Atari
EngineElectron engine
Platform(s)Windows
ReleaseUnited States October 31 2006
Europe November 3 2006
Australia November 16, 2006
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single player, Multiplayer

It was released in North America on November 1, 2006. Reviews of Neverwinter Nights 2 have been generally positive.[1] Gamespot[2] and IGN[3] both rated the game favorably.

Official Campaign

Comparable to the first NWN, gameplay starts by creating a character. Options include choosing the character's gender, race, appearance, and name. The player can also choose a character class, such as Fighter or Wizard, and customize stats (strength, dexterity, etc.) and abilities (skills, spells, feats, etc.).

The official campaign in NWN2 provides a pool of 12 NPCs who would join the player's party. In addition, the player can now gain or lose influence with party members, which will dictate outcomes to certain quests or even set strife inside the party. The crafting system from the original Neverwinter Nights has been revised, and players can now craft weapons, shields and armor, mix up potions, or create magical items with special "workbenches" scattered in towns and shops. Players will also be able to acquire a stronghold during the course of the campaign.

The game's locations include the city of Neverwinter, a new village named West Harbor, and the Mere of Dead Men. New NPCs include Jalboun of the Two Blades and the King of Shadows; Lord Nasher Alagondar returns from Neverwinter Nights.

The official campaign is set around the City of Neverwinter, although it will not be a continuation of the NWN campaign. It has been stated that a character playing through the official campaigns of NWN and its two expansion packs will have reached around level 30, so there is little that will be a credible 'challenge' to those players. In the NWN2 campaign, players will start from level 1, and there will be a level 20 maximum and the option to multiclass the player's character up to 4 classes (3 regular classes in addition of 1 prestige class). The official fact sheet says:

Bards sing tales of heroes from ages past, but never have the Forgotten Realms so desperately needed a champion. Years have passed since the war between Luskan and Neverwinter, almost enough time for the wounds of war to heal. But the brief peace the Realms have known may be at an end. Tension growing between the mighty city-states means the Sword Coast again teeters on the edge of open war. Unnoticed, a greater danger stalks the City of Skilled Hands. Unbeknownst to the denizens of the North, deep in the Mere of Dead Men, dark forces from across the Realms have been rallied under the banner of a legendary evil. If left unchallenged, all of the North is doomed to fall under its power.
Even in this darkest hour, hope remains. A mysterious relic is borne to Neverwinter in the hands of a lone hero so that its secrets may be unlocked - secrets that carry the fate of all the North. So begins an epic tale of shattered alliances, noble acts and dark deeds to be told across the Realms for generations to come.[4]

Plot Summary

Template:Spoiler

Prelude

The main plot of Neverwinter Nights 2 centers around a powerful force of evil named the King of Shadows and an artifact that can ultimately defeat the arch-foe. The protagonist starts out as a resident of the tiny village of West Harbor, which long ago served as a titanic battleground where the King of Shadows was thought defeated by most. The player character's fate is intricately tied to this historical battle, where the character's parents were killed, resulting in the infant character coming under the foster care of the elven ranger Daeghun. As the game begins, these events are long in the past, and the infant has grown to a young adult, never having left West Harbor.

Act I

The plot kicks off with the sudden invasion of West Harbor by extraplanar creatures called Githyanki and their hordes of minions. The Githyanki seem to be searching for something, and through cryptic exposition by the player character's foster father Daeghun, we are given to understand that there is something special about a particular silver shard found years ago at the King of Shadows' defeat, and that this object should not fall into the hands of the planar creatures. Daeghun sends the protagonist away from West Harbor with the silver shard, ostensibly to remove the object of the invaders' search from the village and thus prevent any further invasions. The player character, the "shard-bearer", embarks on a journey from West Harbor towards the city of Neverwinter, where Daeghun's brother possesses a similar silver shard, which might hold the answers as to why these shards are so important.

On the way to Neverwinter, the player character needs to go through a number of minor quests, and during them meets the first three companions -- Khelgar is a dwarven fighter who wants to become a monk, Neeshka is a self-interested tiefling rogue, and Elanee is an elven druid discovering that evil is spreading over the land and destroying her druidic circle. These three will be the player's only (and mandatory) companions until the party reaches Neverwinter, at which time the player gains more control over the party composition.

Ultimately, these early quests are completed to such a point that the party arrives at Neverwinter and talks with Daeghun's brother Duncan, which moves the plot forward by introducing a number of minor plot elements, most importantly the necessity of talking to Aldanon the Sage, who might be able to divine more about the nature of the silver shards. Unfortunately, Aldanon lives in a quarantined district, and in order to gain access, the player has two plot avenues open -- choosing to join the City Watch, or to work with the thieves' guild. Both routes have a number of minor quests before access is gained to Aldanon. During the Watch/Guild quests the party continues to be pursued by the Githyanki and their minions who wish to retrieve the silver shards, and additional NPCs/potential companions are introduced and join the party.

Eventually, the party works their way through to Aldanon, and discovers that a key character to unlocking the secret of the silver shards is one Shandra Jerro, a farm-woman the party met briefly on a minor quest prior to Neverwinter. The Githyanki, however, are one step ahead, kidnapping Shandra and using her as bait to lure in the player character. This sets the stage for the final confrontation of Act I, where the party ventures to the Githyanki lair to save Shandra and defeat the Githyanki once and for all. In this final confrontation it turns out that the silver shards are fragments of a powerful weapon, and it is discovered how the player character is tied to the shards in a very special way. With the Githyanki defeated once and for all, Shandra rescued, and a greater understanding gained of the silver shards and the player's part in them, Act I concludes.

Act II

Some weeks later, Shandra has joins the party, as it has been decided that since she still holds a key to unlocking some further mysteries regarding the shards, she remains in danger, and she will be safer with the party than without them. She becomes a mandatory party member for most of Act II, expanding the party size to five -- the normal party of four, plus Shandra as well, making it a total of five.

This act is perhaps the least combat-intensive of the three acts. With the Githyanki threat routed, a new enemy now becomes evident -- a more insidious one, as the Luskan ambassador to Neverwinter, one Torio Claven, frames the player character for the massacre of a Luskan town. By low justice, a commoner accused of such a crime would be extradited to Luskan to face trial in that evil city, but the authorities of Neverwinter concoct a plan for the protagonist to become the squire of a Neverwintan knight, thus becoming subject to high justice and able to hold trial in Neverwinter. A significant part of Act II is taken up by non-combatant investigation as the party gathers evidence to prove the protagonist's innocence, leading up to a very lengthy trial sequence heavy with social skill rolls. The investigation and trial sequences heavily showcase the party member Sand, a sarcastic intellectual elven wizard who for personal reasons takes enjoyment in foiling the Luskan framing plans.

Torio's scheming is ultimately undone, the protagonist is cleared, and the plot moves on to chasing down Torio's master, the evil wizard Black Garius who is in league with the King of Shadows. The party barely manages to interrupt a ceremony where Garius planned to betray the King of Shadows and take the evil entity's power for his own. Garius is thus defeated -- seemingly so, at least -- and the protagonist is awarded Garius' stronghold, Crossroad Keep, by the Neverwintan ruler Lord Nasher, making the player character a landed noble. Continuing with Act II's emphasis on non-combat matters, the protagonist goes on to spend significant time rebuilding the keep and pacifying the lands around it.

Act II then races towards a conclusion, with Garius and his minions Torio and Lorne all defeated. Shandra's subplot now picks up, as the party heads to a hidden stronghold of Shandra's ancestor Ammon Jerro, where Shandra's blood should theoretically open the way into the haven, where answers could be found regarding the silver shards. In a way, this indeed works, however upon entrance into the haven, Shandra is separated from the rest of the party, and discovers the haven to contain a number of trapped demons.

This climactic sequence features Shandra, guided by the suspiciously altruistic demons, discovering her ability to teleport within the haven, and trying to learn to control it. At the same time, the party races against time to try to make their way to Shandra before the demons get what they want out of her and the proverbial shoe drops. Alas, the party instead runs into the master of the haven -- Shandra's ancestor Ammon Jerro, whom the party may assume to be working for the King of Shadows. The confrontation turns volatile, with the party fighting Ammon, who is at the peak of his power within the haven. He is about to slay the party, when Shandra chooses to free the demons who were Ammon's power source. Bereft of vast power, Ammon becomes vulnerable, flees from the party, and slays Shandra in retribution, only realizing that she is his descendant when she is already irrevocably dying. Act II concludes with Shandra's death scene at Ammon's hands, and Ammon subsequently surrendering to the party once he realizes what he's done.

Act III

Act III picks up with the party's composition finalized. Many party members are in shock from Shandra's death, and some desire vengeance upon Ammon Jerro, however this cannot be fulfilled as Ammon has completed a ritual which makes his presence mandatory if the King of Shadows is to be defeated. Thus, Ammon takes Shandra's place as a party member despite most peoples' loathing for him.

The main antagonist of this act is the King of Shadows himself. A darkness is spreading across the land, undead minions rise, forming a growing threat, and this final act consists of recruiting help against the King of Shadows. Improving Crossroad Keep, finding allies and convincing them to join arms against the King of Shadows are the main thrusts of Act III. Ultimately, after enough power-gathering quests have been done, the enemy lays siege upon Crossroad Keep and has to be rebuffed. With the siege defeated and the enemy's army on the run, it is finally time to take the battle to the King of Shadows himself.

Armed with a reforged Silver Sword of Gith, the protagonist and the entire party invade the dark stronghold of the King of Shadows, where the entity is finally confronted. Some ill-treated party members might be enticed by the King's offers of power and might turn on the party during the final battle, and even the protagonist himself or herself may be tempted to join up forces with the darkness. Whether light or darkness ultimately prevails, depends on the protagonist's choices in this last encounter. Template:Endspoiler

Races and Subraces

The following races and subraces appear in the official campaign:

  • Human: The most common DnD race in existence. There are no human subraces in Neverwinter Nights 2.
  • Planetouched: Planetouched races were originally sorted as Human subraces (such as in Icewind Dale 2), but are now considered their own race. There are two Planetouched subraces:
  • Elf: There are four subraces of elf available:
    • Dark Elf (Drow)
    • Moon Elf
    • Sun Elf
    • Wood Elf
  • Dwarf: There are three subraces of dwarf available:
    • Shield Dwarf
    • Gold Dwarf
    • Gray Dwarf (Duergar)
  • Gnome: There are two subraces of gnome available:
  • Halfling: There are two subraces of halfling available:
    • Lightfoot Halfling
    • Strongheart Halfling
  • Half-Elf
  • Half-Orc

There are no subraces available for half-elf, half-orc, or human.

Companions

Template:Spoiler Companions are listed in the order in which they join the party.

Template:Endspoiler

Features

Game Client

The goal is for the interface and camera controls to be more flexible and customizable. Windows can be resized, dragged, and customized, using XML. Inventory icons are all the same size, unlike the previous game. The radial menu system from the original game has been replaced with a context menu system similar to Fallout 2.

As with the original NWN, NWN2 supports multiple players. Players are able to control parties with up to 3 non-player characters. The party system has been revised to include 'companions' rather than 'henchmen'.

Claims for character creation include advanced character customization, scaling of characters and monster, and deeper equipment customization. The game supports subraces in addition to the primary races. Static 2D portraits have been replaced with 3D avatars, similar to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

All of the base classes from NWN are present, and the Warlock base class has been added. Characters can choose up to four classes, up from the three supported in NWN. One of the four classes is reserved for a prestige class. All prestige classes from NWN are present in NWN2 except for the Shifter. New prestige classes include Arcane Trickster, Neverwinter Nine, Shadow Thief of Amn, Warpriest, Duelist, and Frenzied Berserker. More closely following Forgotten Realms terminology, Champion of Torm has been renamed Divine Champion and Harper Scout is now Harper Agent.

Characters are limited to 20th level.

NWN2 provides some form of support for many of the Forgotten Realms deities based on characters alignment, race and class.

NWN2 has a more complete crafting system based on appropriate skills than NWN. This system can be used to customize the visual appearance of weapons and armor, but only when the item is created.

A Dungeon Master client is under development as of October 12 2006. The initial goal is to provide functionality similar to what was present in early versions of NWN. The initial release will be "a pretty nut-and-bolts implementation aimed at giving DMs the basic, solid features they need to DM a module." [5]

Electron Toolset

The Electron toolset has been completely re-written in the C# programming language. The client allows multiple windows to be opened at once, unlike NWN. As with the original NWN, the toolset allows users to design their own modules to distribute to others or host on the Internet for online play. Some game content, including NWScript and dialogs can be directly imported from NWN. Exterior locations use a heightmap instead of tilesets, and for this reason, the module itself cannot be imported.

Pre-release Toolset

Neverwinter Nights 2's publisher, Atari, announced that the toolset would be available to pre-order customers for download one month prior to the retail release of the game in its entirety. Initially scheduled to be available on September 18, 2006, the pre-release toolset was delayed to September 23, then was again delayed until October 1. The cause and resolution of the last delay remains unknown. On October 1, many customers were enraged when the download was still not available due to a website script error. It later appeared on a European FTP site that everyone could download from, even users who did not order the Presell.

Unfortunately, the FTP requirement was not stated as a prerequisite to obtain the Merchant's Friend and the Toolset so dialup users who purchased the pre-order were frequently unable to obtain the content.

Since its release, the official toolset forums have received a steady stream of complaints from a portion of users who, despite meeting all system requirements, are unable to operate the toolset without frequent crashes of the program. As yet, no solution has been provided by the developer, though a minority have solved some of the issues themselves. It has been suggested that the download of the toolset from the European FTP or torrent clients is causing users to receive corrupted or incomplete copies. However, reports of these crashes comes from both those who downloaded the client "illegally" and those who legitimately received it from the Atari promotion.

The prerelease toolset expired on October 31st, at the time of the official release of the game and toolset in North America.

Update Client

As in the original Neverwinter Nights, the update client can be accessed from the launch menu to automatically search for new content and/or updates to the game. Before downloading any game updates, the update client will first download its own patch and update itself automatically (a function that is unchanged from the previous game).

Exclusions

The following features are not in the initial release. It remains possible that some or all of these features may be added in future expansion packs.

  • Epic levels, epic feats and epic abilities that are available in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark are not available for NWN2. (Though epic feats do exist in the game code and can be taken when used with the givefeat command)
  • The Shifter prestige class has been removed.
  • The Mystic Theurge and Sacred Fist prestige classes were planned, but later cut out due to time constraints.
  • Modules cannot be directly imported from the original Neverwinter Nights. Builders can import scripts and dialogs. The Infinity-Electron upgrade design changes the mechanics of how art assets are used.
  • Psionics are not implemented, although Illithid NPCs will have psionic-like powers. This was considered a design decision; psionic abilities would require the addition of a separate ruleset.
  • Riding will not be implemented in the initial release, although non-rideable horses may be included. As with psionics, above, mounted combat would require an additional ruleset, as well as a major re-balancing of game mechanics. However, some game boxes and marketing materials mistakenly list mounted combat as a game feature.
  • Skills such as sense motive, climb, swim, and jump are not included.
  • Flight and levitation are not included. The Electron engine uses 2.5D geometry like the original, meaning that while rendered in true 3D, the dimension of height has no impact on gameplay. (Also cited was the difficulty in designing a workable 'flight/levitation system': one developer's post on the Official Forums asked 'how does one click on an arbitrary bit of sky?')
  • Familiars have been reduced from fantasy creatures to real life animals that serve minimal purpose compared to the first game.
  • The Persuade skill has been removed and replaced with Diplomacy.
  • Placeables and creatures still cannot rotate on the "Z" axis at the time of release. Obsidian had said this would be implemented. The properties windows seems to have field (similar to NWN1's ___location) to key this in but two of the parameters are fixed to 0 and cannot be manually changed.

Production, promotion and release

The original Neverwinter Nights was developed by BioWare. In July 2004 Obsidian Entertainment announced they had begun production of Neverwinter Nights 2. Obsidian was founded by members of the defunct Black Isle Studios, which had worked with BioWare on the Baldur's Gate series. NWN2 uses a significantly rewritten and updated version of NWN's cross-platform Aurora engine, now called the "Electron engine". BioWare provides technical assistance for the engine.

Hoping to release an Xbox 360 port of the game, Obsidian decided to use the platform dependent Microsoft's DirectX Graphics API for Electron engine. However, due to the cost of developing an Xbox 360 version, Obsidian later forfeited the idea.[6] Consequently, Neverwinter Nights 2 was released for Windows only, unlike its predecessor.

The official website was launched on March 28, 2006. The first official screenshots, small black and white images of early models, were published in the manual of Atari's Dragonshard game, released in September 2005. The first full-size color screenshots were exclusively granted for an article in the December issue of the PC Gamer magazine, available in some US stores from October 10, 2005. More screenshots and low-resolution videos were released in the weeks leading up to and during E3 2006. An official trailer was released to the game's website immediately preceding the event. Unlike the lower quality videos circulating on the internet, the trailer shows no actual gameplay, but appears to be the game's opening cinematic. In the three or four weeks leading up to the release date (October 31), Obsidian released more media to the press.

The game went "gold" on October 17, 2006. The official release date was October 31, 2006 in North America and November 3, 2006 for Europe[7].

Production Team

  • Frank Kowalkowski - Lead Programmer
  • Josh Sawyer - Lead Designer
  • Ferret Baudoin - Lead Designer - Left March 2006 to join BioWare[8]
  • Tramell Ray Isaac - Lead Artist
  • Darren Monohan - Producer

Criticisms

The development decision of using DirectX API disappointed many Linux and Mac gamers. They anticipated that Neverwinter Nights 2 would run natively on their platforms like its predecessor; however, this never came to pass.[9]

At the time of game release, the game received some bad limelight for its poor graphics performance.[10] Additionally, GameSpy reported days after game release that the game contained showstopper bugs that would prevent players from continuing with the quest in question. Obsidian representative offered a workaround; however, the trick did not work for all situations.[11] A number of patches were released since that date. However, even with version 1.03, 1UP reported that the game is still buggy.[12]

References

  1. ^ "Rotten Tomatoes". Retrieved 2006-11-17.: 100% positive reviews, average rating 8.5/10, 6 reviews considered. "Metacritic". Retrieved 2006-11-17.: average rating 84/100, 16 reviews considered. "Game Rankings". Retrieved 2006-11-17.: average rating 84/100, 18 reviews considered.
  2. ^ ""Neverwinter Nights 2" at GameSpot". 2006-11-01. Retrieved 2006-11-17.: 8.6/10, "Great".
  3. ^ ""Neverwinter Nights 2 Review" at IGN". 2006-11-03. Retrieved 2006-11-17.: 8.6/10, "Great".
  4. ^ "ToTheGame - Neverwinter Nights 2 (PC) - Previews, Reviews, Interviews, Screenshots, Cheats, Release Date". Retrieved 2006-03-17.
  5. ^ "Kalia" (2006-10-12). "DM Client: The Real Deal". Retrieved 2006-10-17.
  6. ^ TVG Interview with Feargus U on DirectX
  7. ^ Atari European Forum
  8. ^ Nwvault article
  9. ^ Neverwinter Nights 2 Petition
  10. ^ Lopez, Miguel. "Neverwinter Nights 2 Review". Reviews. GameSpy. Retrieved 2006-12-10. it's impossible to talk about Neverwinter Nights 2 without mentioning the performance issues that marred it at launch, and are as of yet unresolved.
  11. ^ Lopez, Miguel (2006-11-03). "Neverwinter Nights 2 Out of the Box". Out of the Box. GameSpy. Retrieved 2006-12-10. we have encountered a "show-stopper" bug that has essentially brought our experience with the packaged campaign to a screeching halt.
  12. ^ "Neverwinter Nights 2 Patched, Still Buggy". Out of the Box. 1UP. 2006-12-06. Retrieved 2006-12-10.
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