Neverwinter Nights 2 Storm of Zehir Expansion
Neverwinter Nights 2 Storm of Zehir Expansion
Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN2) is a computer role-playing game set in the fantasy world of the Forgotten Realms, one of the popular campaign settings of Dungeons and Dragons. It takes the player from the tiniest of villages into a sweeping tale of danger and war, chronicling their rise from a peasant to a full-fledged hero of the Realms, defending it against one of the greatest threats of the age. Build a character that suits your style of play - good or evil, chaotic or lawful, with any number of skills, feats and professions available at the click of a button. Whether lobbing fireballs and researching forgotten spells as a powerful Wizard, hacking a trail through legions of orcs as a Fighter armed only with a battle axe and your courage, or taking on the role of a Rogue that can slip into the shadows at a moment’s notice, the choice is yours. Choose your alignment, your allies, your companions, and how you want your character to develop… design the character you want, role-play the way you want, and carry the battle to the enemy.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Hard core fans will love it.
For those who thought Neverwinter Nights had ended…you will be pleasantly surprised. This is the second expansion in the NWN series. There aren’t many changes but it does get you back playing the game. As the world recovers from the damages of the last campaign, a sect arises that worships the god Zehir. You start on a boat with a massive storm approaching…which is always a good way to start a quest…but most hardcore fans will see what’s coming a mile away. Once the ship wrecks it is up to you and your mates to navigate this new land with lengthy quests that will help make a name for you and your crew.
One of the biggest changes is your ability to fully customize every aspect of your party…they do include pre made designs…but trust me, take the time and build the party you want. But the most talked about addition is the 3-d map (overland map) that you use to move from point-to-point. It also shows you the location of all the enemies, allowing the user to decide whether to avoid confrontations…or to attack with swords blazing. Long time fans will also be introduced to two new races and three new classes.
Another less significant addition is the trading system, this is the users’ commerce, but it is really lack luster in Storm of Zehir…which you’ll find yourself avoiding whenever possible. The graphics haven’t improved much, but the sound is top notch…it does an excellent job conveying the emotions and scenes of the game. Despite the short comings this is a good addition to the Neverwinter Night series that gives you plenty to explore and plunder. Over all there is plenty to justify the second expansion and fans of the series will find themselves in similar places as they begin playing again.
1 Star Unforgivable
Based on the synopsis, I was rather pessimistic about this game, but I enjoy the Neverwinter franchise, and was eager to find myself mistaken.
I can forgive the endless loads. I can forgive the dozens of tedious encounters, all of which involved killing mindless monsters and none of which involved imagination. I can forgive the error-prone controls. I never actually finished the game because, even though I was a couple of levels higher than the game recommended, the last fight was impossible. Even that I can forgive.
Someday I may forgive the wretched voice acting. I might even be able to forgive that fact that the Neverwinter franchise is too cheap to hire the original actors when reintroducing characters from the original NWN2 campaign (using Dave Walsh instead of Asa Siegel for Bishop in MOTB made me want to drop-kick my computer . . . when they hired someone else to play Khelgar in SOZ, I had had it).
As I said, the synopsis I was given made little sense, and I suspected that the story wouldn’t either. I was wrong. There was no story at all. The half-hearted attempts at plot exposition and character development were turgid and purile. It had the sophistication and intrigue of a second grade school play (no offense to second-graders). There was no character interaction; it was like a party full of mannequins.
Before anyone accuses me have lacking the imagination to make up my own story, let me defend myself: There is a reason why I read, a reason why I play table-top D&D and a reason why I play video games. Table-top games allow me to invent my own characters and plots; video games and books allow me immerse myself in someone else’s inventions. If I wanted to immerse myself in something like SoZ, I’d reread “Jane and Dick.”
4 Stars Great Game! Like the Party Sytstem!
I really liked having multiple of my own custom builds in the party while still being able to have a cohort minority in the party. The game still has a biased protagonist leader (the character you loaded into the module) like Baldur’s Gate II (you have to hack through multiplayer, join with a single client and take control of some or all the slots), but unlike Baldur’s gate II, the the leading protagonist isn’t treated as anything special in the plot and all party members get the most of the epithet feats. The teamwork feats are cool and all current party members get those too upon grant.
The dungeons are much smaller, which is a bummer. I generally like the random roaving overland encounters (Ultima Exodus was like this) but I know other people don’t. But it is your 2nd biggest source of experience (quest rewards are 1st). Also the in-party dialog is a lot less, and the game doesn’t have companion influence, and very few things alter your alignment like in the original campaign. The Merchant company, if you really develop it, will make you filthy rich and you cannot even come up with a way to spend all the money. This requires most or all caravan routes setup, fully upgraded, with you helping out with the security by ‘joining’ the battles at the wagon trains as you see them get attacked going from point a to b (caravans do not get attacked or suffer damage off-screen), which can get very tedious. The new crafting system is much easier to use, but you have to have the recipe to craft. Can’t just look it up online and craft without a recipe like in the OC.
The plot is a lot less demonic (not in praising them or having them win, just in glorfying their strength, power, and numbers) than the OC or MoTB. It is more like playing regular-old D&D. There is still a lot of statue/idol worshipping and one statue-idol that actually does stuff, for the christians. Also the Forgotten Realms god of commerce, Waukeen, appears to have taken over all religious worship within the game, which signals that the love of money is being promoted big-time.
The party conversation is a sinch to put in your own modules. The player-creaed party system isn’t too bad, just have to set up a campaign with the built-in toolset plugin. Your own module scan have whatever party size limits you want, and there is a separate player-created party size limit (set through a campaign property), and a larger total party limit (set through script). The overland map is not as easy as it requires a lot of scripting to get things to work right.
1 Star Worst of the NWN2 games
There were two things that most people disliked about NWN2…the horrible faces of the characters and the awful load time. So what did they do? NOTHING about the first and a horrific INCREASE IN THE AMOUNTS OF LOADING. You have to load to go from the map to the towns/caves/towers and even load to fight. So what used to be 5 mins of loading (where one or more players got stuck and lost connectivity)with 30 or so mins of action is now 5 mins of loading x 2 mins of fighting x 10 times! To say I got bored is an understatement…and I tried several times to give it a chance.
And only one of the players get to move across the map leaving the others to watch and then to wait for saves, and wait for the fight/area to load.
This expansion is also very anti-spell caster as sleep to renew spells is not allowed in any area other than an inn (that you pay to rent a room) or the map (where you may run into trouble.) This is ironic because Resurrection is NOT automatic so you need a cleric; unfortunately, a cleric needs to be able to sleep to renew spells to heal and to resurrect.
I have no idea who rewrote the engine and this expansion but they should be fired for not giving a rat’s butt about what the people who went out and upgraded their pcs just to play the awesome graphics and put up with the lousy load times were saying about NWN2…Not MORE loading, LESS time loading.
Geez. How hard is that to get?
4 Stars Big plus, some minuses
The big plus here is FINALLY being able to control your party to the same level as Baldur’s Gate and some of the older D&D games. You can create every member of your 4 person team from scratch and control how they level up. There is also room for 1 or 2 other pre-created people in the party. Unlike some other reviewers, I don’t really miss all the bickering and cut scenes you get with pre-created party in NWN2:MOB, for example.
The new world map is overall a bit of a minus. There are just too many wandering monsters and the fights all take place about the same way - the monsters running at you in group from medium distance. Blast them with area spells, clean up and you are done - gets a little monotonous. Can’t say I really like the whole trading thing either - just a distraction.
The story line seems pretty standard stuff so far - I am not really that far into it. Lots of doing various favors and errands for people. And haven’t we had the Yuan-Ti as the bad guys before?
Tags: Battle Axe, Campaign Settings, Click Of A Button, Computer Role Playing Game, Core Fans, Dungeons And Dragons, Fantasy World, Feats, Hardcore Fans, Last Campaign, Legions, Lengthy Quests, Massive Storm, Neverwinter Nights, Neverwinter Nights 2, Nwn2, Orcs, Playing The Game, Role Playing Game, Ship Wrecks
