Neverwinter Nights 2: French Preview/Interview Redux

The Player Character (PC)

Animation
- The eyes move
- The lips move
- When the PC breath the lungs fill

Customization
- Hairs : you can change the color, the tone and the haircut
- Skin : you can change the tone. Sub-races : All the tone aren't allowed. A drow will not have the red color, for this sub-race you will be able to choose dark grey to bright grey.
- Eyes : you can change the color.
- Name generator : it seems to be virtualy infinite.
- Armor : more customizable than in NWN1, there is the possibility to do a real asymmetry and each part seems to move independently.

PC Creation : level 20 max and you can take 4 classes.
- Races : Gnome, Halfling, Elf, Dwarf, Humain, Half elf, Half orc
- Sub races (for the Elf and Human) : Drow, Sun elf, Moon elf, Wood elf, Aasimar, Tiefling, Human. The sub-races are less powerful at start but compensate this after some levels.
- Classes : the 11 base classes and the Warlock
- Prestige Class : Harper Scout, Sacred Fist, Shifter, Shadowdancer, Shadow Thief of Amn, Magus, Warder, Weapon Master, Red Dragon Disciple, Arcane Trickster.
- Alignment : the 9 alignments.
- During the campaign the player have a castle he must manage. The alignment play a role in the events that take place in the castle.
- The hencmen you can recruit depend of your alignment.
- The castle can be attack and other things.
- Characteristics : Same as NWN
- Background to choose at start. The background influence the campaign and the reactions of others characters during some dialogs.
- Skills : Same as NWN1 but more craft skills.
- Feats : divised in sub-list so you don't have a big list with all the feats but a lot of short lists.

Campaign :
The first chapter is a progressive learning of NWN2. You also learn more about the world and obtain some levels.
It start at West Harbor where you're an anonymous person and you try to make a reputation. The first quest are independent of the main story but help you to make a reputation.

Dialogs :
2 types of dialogs
- With a minor NPC : it's the same as in NWN1 with a dialog box where you choose your answer.
- With a major NPC : there is a cut scene where you can see the lips and the NPC move. The dialog stop when you must click on an answer. This dialogs are like as those from KotOR.

Castle :
You can manage a castle. You can recruit people to make more living. The castle can be attack and siege engine can detroy the walls.

Game interface :
The interface presented wasn't the final.
- Icons : more colorful and explicative than in NWN1
- Musics : they're not done, they will be done at the end of the development
- Windows : you can move them but you can't move the windows out of your screen. The portrait of the PC can't be moved.
- Hide the tiles : the part between the PC and you are more or less transparent.
- Skill bar : contain Hide, Search, and so on.
- Quick bar : 10 bar with 12 slot (so a total of 120 slots)
- Menu bar : On NWN1 it was under the PC portrait. In NWN2 it isn't the case.
- Mini map
- PC portrait
- Other portraits (henchmen, etc.) : under the PC portrait
Except the portraits, all this bars can be moved.

Environment :
- Sun : impact on the shadows. The position of the sun depend of the hour and of the season. The intensity of light can be change. Possibility to add mist around the sun.
- Sky : Clouds (you can change the speed, their position with regard to the ground, the density), 2 tone of color, reflection of the sky on the ground, mist (you can change the color, the density and the distance)
- Water : the water reflect what is newt to it. You can change the movement, the speed of the movement, the color. If the water isn't too deep you can walk in it.

Henchmen and companions :
- Companions : you can control it in the same way as in KotOR. When you pause the game you can give orders to you companions. You can add you companions spell to your quick bar and select them to launch them more quickly. There is definite AI you can select. You can modify the spellbook and the inventory of your companions
- Henchmen : Same as in NWN1

Spells :
When the spell is cast, the icon appear upon the head of the character. The spells don't affect the environment (the forest will not burn because you cast a fireball). In the game, nothing is destructible by default. You can see the area of effect of a spell before casting it.

Toolset :
The toolset support multi screens so you can have some windows on a screen and some windows on another screen. You can open many windows. There is tab to navigate.

Castle area :
Like the reality, give an impression of gigantism.

Rural Area :
Trees, grass, water.

House area :
Some bug with the shadows. You can see the shadow create by the light that goes through the windows. So when the sun move, the shadows change.

Mapping :
It's simple and ergonomic.

Creatures enlargement :
You can modifiy characters by changing one to three settings. The item that the character use change in fonction of the enlargement.