NWN 2: Storm of Zehir Review

[Emabulator]

1UP has posted a review (http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3171538&p=1) of Obsidian Entertainment's latest Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion, Storm of Zehir. The final grade was a B+. What do you want your role-playing game to be? It's a subject that I've thought about a lot recently. While I love RPGs, the genre can drive me batty. Many push you through a story with a metaphorical Spear +3 at your back -- and that's fine when the story's good enough to warrant this. Others toss you into the game and let you do what you will, leaving you with this sense of aimlessness.

Dungeons & Dragons, at its heart, asks this question. Run properly, it's always been about what you, the player, wants -- not what the game designers want. I've always equated D&D with freedom. And I continued to think about this as I played Storm of Zehir (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3168049), the most recent expansion for Neverwinter Nights 2 (http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3134029) -- how, for the first time in years, a developer's really captured that sense of freedom.

[Zander]

This reminds me, I always wanted to try out Neverwinter 2.

How well does it run on a moderate PC/laptop? Might look into it.

[Emabulator]

This reminds me, I always wanted to try out Neverwinter 2.

How well does it run on a moderate PC/laptop? Might look into it.It runs great on my PC (GTX 260, AMD X2 6400+, 2GB RAM, WinXP).

The updated System Requirements FAQ (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=533511&forum=116) on the official forum may be the best place to look for more info. I'm not sure if you have to be a member to access that part of the forum.

Here's a partial copy:

Recommended:
3 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
1 GB System RAM
ATI X800 series, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series, 256 MB, or more, video card

Minimum System Requirements:
Windows XP (Windows 2000 added by Obsidian. Atari doesn't "know that", through now)
512MB System RAM
2.4 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
Hard Disk Space: 4.9 GB free hard disk space (twice that for unpacking space)
128MB Direct3D, Dx9 (hardware-compatible) video card and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver;
Minimum: ATI Radeon 9700 Pro or NVidia Geforce 6600
DirectX 9.0c software (included)
DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
DVD-ROM Drive speed: 6X speed or faster
Keyboard, Mouse

Supported Video Card Chipsets:

ATI X1950 series
ATI X1900 series
ATI X1800 series
ATI X1650 series
ATI X1600 series
ATI X850 series
ATI x800 series
ATI x700 series
ATI x600 series (Ouch - the Vanilla card is very slow)
ATI Radeon 9800 series (Amended) 9800 Pro, 9800 XT only
ATI Radeon 9700 series (Amended) 9700 Pro only
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 series
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 series
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 series
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 series
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 series (Ouch - the Vanilla card is very slow)

[Jotoco]

This reminds me, I always wanted to try out Neverwinter 2.

How well does it run on a moderate PC/laptop? Might look into it.

NWN2 Mask of the Betrayer ran well in my laptop. About 25FPS in 1280X800 with somethings in medium, most low.

It's a Dual Core T2130 1,86GHz, ATI X1300 64+256Mb and 3Gb of RAM.

The thing is, if you, as me, has one of those 5400RPM HDs you will have to find something to do on those loading screens. They take FOREVER to load. And you have to go through a loading screen every 5 minutes, TOPS. I spent more time looking at a God Damned loading screen than playing.

Those 3Gb of RAM didn't help any. The game seems to use about 500Mb and don't even acknowledge the rest.

[net7runner]

Man, this SoZ sounds like the original Baldur's Gate. About 80% of BG was optional - but venture off the main storyline slightly and you'd find that zones teeming with little side quests and all sorts of flavor. Many of the zones weren't even mentioned by the main storyline, but contained fully-fledged adventures for those willing to do some exploring...

[gawaintheblind]

The game was pretty good, but the toolset was terrible last time I tried it.

[ElPresidente]

Was quickly scanning through the credits of my review copy and did note the complete lack of a mention of Chris Avellone beyond appearing in the Obsidian executives list. I only just got the code so I'm yet to give the game a proper play test but it does interest me to note someone finding the main storyline weak considering Avellone's apparent distance from this project.