Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Expansion
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Video Game Reviews of Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Expansion
Customer Review: Great game
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great game. I loved the original and the expansion is just as good.Customer Review: Some interesting additions but more flash than substance
Summary: 2 Stars
Oh, Obsidian. You are such a visionary company and you have so many wonderful and innovative ideas but why, oh why, do you insist on giving short shrift to your writing? Every time I've played one of your games, I have had the sensation that you are on the cusp of something great but then you invariably fail to carry through, so that the end result leaves me feeling that you got impatient to release your game and so just hurriedly finished it off. While this is nowhere more evident than with the lamentable Knights of the Old Republic II, I fear you have suffered from the same problem with this game.
The overland map concept, first off, is one that is a very good idea--in theory. When I first began playing the game, I enjoyed discovering new areas and having overland encounters. After a while, though, I grew very, very tired of the encounters. For one, there are far too many of them and it is very obnoxious and breaks the flow of the game to be continuously assaulted by a low-level group of monsters that has no hope of defeating my party. Perhaps this problem wouldn't be quite as annoying if it weren't for the fact that the load times of this game--the entire NWN 2 series, in point of fact--are so long as to be inexcusable. It got to the point several times where I was ready to abandon the game entirely because I quickly grew tired of it taking so abominably long to complete quests because I was attacked at every turn. This is but one example of a concept for which Obsidian deserves credit. It's simply too bad that they ruined their own concept thanks to the annoying flaws described above.
As for the dungeons, they were tedious at best. Most of them were one-room throwaways and, after a while, I had the feeling that every dungeon I entered was more or less exactly like the one before it. This was a huge disappointment, especially considering the fairly vast scope of the game. While I also tend to grow tired of dungeon after dungeon that consists of 15 levels with unnecessarily long tunnels, it really bored me to go into a room, kill something, and then leave without any sort of substantial payoff.
The trading system was another intriguing concept but this one was also more or less killed, this time by bugs. This is yet another thing about Obsidian that drives me straight up the wall. I don't expect any game to be perfect but Obsidian has an unfortunate tendency to release games that have some very serious issues with bugs. It was very frustrating to spend so much time making my way from one town to another only to find that, due to a bug with the storage system, the trade goods that I had shipped simply vanished into thin air. Yes, players did devise workarounds for this problem but the simple fact of the matter is that the problems shouldn't have existed in the first place.
Last but not least was the thinness of the overall plot. This wouldn't have been as obvious if it weren't for the silent party members. Yes, being able to construct your own party from scratch could be rather nifty but I don't really enjoy that level of micromanagement. I'd rather have interactive party members to help enhance and drive the central story than be running around with a bunch of drones of my own creation. It would have been nice to have the option of picking interactive party members or creating my own party from scratch. For the most part, I didn't even think of the party members as having names. Instead, they were ciphers like: the mage, the rogue, the fighter... Obsidian's writing can be brilliant at times but I feel this is the aspect with which the company is the laziest. The problem is that if you want to create a truly stellar RPG, you are not going to be able to do so by giving writing short shrift. There are hak 'n' slash games a-plenty for those who don't care about story. I play RPGs because I expect to get some sort of story out of them.
Overall, I was very disappointed in this game. I think it would have been a lot of fun and a very strong game indeed if all the focus hadn't been on the flashy aspects at the expense of the foundations that make an RPG enjoyable. I hope that Obsidian will take this under consideration in the future because I firmly believe they could be one of the best game developers out there if only they'd exert themselves to try a bit more.
Customer Review: Its OK.
Summary: 3 Stars
It's a solid game but somewhat lacks in plot. In addition, I was able to get all the way to the end as Level 14, then was killed by the big boss easily. Scaling of the encounters would do a lot to help this...Customer Review: A much needed improvement to the series.
Summary: 4 Stars
Neverwinter Nights 2 was pretty good, Mask of the Betrayer had some very nice dialog between characters as well as famed voice actors Crispin Freeman and Steven Jay Blum, but it's story was pretty linear.
SoZ doesn't have the same depth that Mask did, but it definitely isn't linear! I haven't beaten the game yet but I've enjoyed it a lot so far, while there are some areas I wish they had gone a little further with I think it's a great improvement to the series overall, I am hoping that the next installment, be it expansion or whole new game, mixes Storm's overall style with Mask's deep and gripping story and character interactions.
If you've already purchased Neverwinter Nights 2 and the first expansion and enjoyed them at all, then you should enjoy this expansion as well.
Customer Review: Video games do not cure cancer.
Summary: 5 Stars
After seeing yet another good game ripped on by basement dwellers with insane expectations, I feel compelled to defend Storm of Zehir. The weak spots include few new classes, (though the Swashbuckler is pretty interesting) some modest, standard oversights/glitches, (biggest issue: buffs don't last between combat and the overland map. Potentially just changes the flavor of the fighting, but I think it'd better off fixed) and a campaign that leans on the short side.
The well done aspects of the game, however, easily overshadow a few flaws. The new party system finally allows one to build a party of hand-made PCs, which was badly past due in NWN 2. (BTW: do a little digging online to find an easy way to expand your hand-made party to six instead of four. YAY!) The new conversation system allows characters other than the party leader to respond to dialog. Finally, your Rogue in the back can mouth off to the bad guy with the inflated sense of self-importance using Taunt before the stabbings begin. The overland map is a great addition, allowing the player a lot more input on who to fight and when, as well as offering countless uses for skills such as Listen, Spot, Survival, Search, Hide, etc. Battles are finally tough enough to matter, even to the point where I actually (*gasp*) didn't succeed every time. VIDEO GAMES ARE SUPPOSED TO MAKE ME FEEL LIKE A WINNER. :'(
The voice acting didn't hurt my ears for once. The world is well made with a lot of character. The streamlined town system allows you to do what you need to do without waiting through a thousand load screens and prancing through filler areas looking for the damn blacksmith. Some of the areas are nothing short of stunning graphic-wise, and the hidden stuff makes wandering around the countryside worth the trouble.
The biggest "problem" Storm of Zehir has is that NWN 2 is so huge, versatile, and well made that the expectations among many of its fans are absurd. Back in the real world, it's a very good expansion that is merely an enjoyable way to kill time instead of capable of curing cancer.