Re: New NWN content

On Wed, 26 Feb 2025 17:05:26 -0000 (UTC), "Mark P. Nelson"
<markpnelson@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Tahitian pearl <j63480576@gmail.com> wrote in news:m26f9jFnfk6U2@mid.individual.net:
>

Does your description change about NWN II?  I've got that in my
collection yet haven't played it.

>
I thought the engine for NWN2 was vastly improved, and I quite enjoyed the original campaign
as well as the add-ons.
>
It never became as popular as NWN1 for reasons I have never understood, and NWN1 is still
more popular today.

NWN2 was actually fairly well regarded at release. It got good reviews
and sales. It just didn't have the same longevity as its predecessors.
And, in some ways, it _was_ the worse game. It's combat was less
satisfying; more flash, less animation. It utilized (from what I
vaguely recall) a new camera system that a lot of people disliked.
Looking at older reviews, I see a lot of people complaining about poor
optimization and bugs (but then, really, what game didn't suffer those
complaints). Apparently mods were also more difficult to create, with
more powerful but less accessible tools. Throw into that a rather
unexciting and very traditional fantasy story in an utterly generic
setting, released into a market rife with such things and it's no
wonder that NWN2 struggled to remain relevant.

I think NWN's lasting popularity over its younger sibling had more to
do with the fact that it had a head start in mods, and that NWN2
didn't offer enough advantages over the first game for all the modders
to start over for the new engine. In fact, from what I recall, that
was one of the biggest complaints about NWN2; it just didn't seem to
do anything that much newer or better than the first game.

So while NWN1 felt fresh, NWN2 felt like 'more of the same'. Throw
into the fact that a lot of infrastructure had already been built up
around NWN1's modding community and that modding the first game was a
lot easier, and it's no wonder NWN1 remained pre-eminent. Especially
after the second game's biggest advantage --it's slightly improved
visuals-- became less noticeable as the years went past (and NWN1
Enhanced upgraded the original).

But really, neither NWN really struck a lasting chord with gamers.
It's got a niche of dedicated followers and modders, but it's not one
of those, "You gotta play this old classic game" that gets trotted out
like "Ultima 7", "Diablo II" or even "Fallout 3".