Neverwinter Nights 2: Action Trip NWN 2 Review: 84/100

Ure "Vader" Paul, editor at Action Trip, sent along notice that the site had posted its review of Neverwinter Nights 2. Scoring the game "very good" at 84/100, the review focuses heavily on game play rather than the technical portions.

Throughout the game, I managed to notice a few things. To begin with, you'll have your hands full on all your journeys and you'll have a lot of fun while battling against a variety of foes. In addition to that, I found that the new-fangled "Puppet mode" made things a whole easier when you head off into combat accompanied by several battle-eager NPCs. The feature allows you to take complete control of your characters and prohibits them to do anything without specific orders. This was handy since my henchmen were often rushing into certain death without heeding my commands. The AI, apparently, needs additional fine-tuning. (As always, in nearly every game ever released.

NWN 2 doesn't exactly feature any jaw-dropping visual moments, although it certainly shows off a satisfying range of visual effects and spell effects (some of the later battles will look very epic in scope). Well-designed and highly detailed models make it a pleasure to watch your characters as they develop into valiant high-level avatars. You'll also watch them as they make their way through vibrant and colorful sceneries, such as forests, canyons, swaps, dungeons, etc. Unfortunately, some areas clearly lack more polys and richer texture patterns, which did come as a slight disappointment. It also appears that a great number of players experienced some difficulties tweaking Neverwinter Nights 2 and optimizing the game's performance. From our own experience, the games runs best when you tone down certain shadow effects. That's, of course, if you happen to be playing on a relatively weak rig.