[Ziroc]

Someone compiled this list, and WOW, I agree with a lot of them.
(BTW, did you know anti-aliasing is broken in NWN2? lol. And there are memory leaks confirmed. Patch 1.03 will fix these)

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1: Cant "Duel Wield" from a Quick Slot, or even use a Sword and Shield from a Quick Slot.

2: Very Limited Voice Commands and no real easy access to the Sound sets. Why was pressing "V" so bad that it had to be taken away?

3: Context Sensitive Menu is Limited in comparison to the Radial menu. While the Context Sensitive menu is quicker in some situations, the fact that the Radial menu allowed you access to everything at all times means it got more much more use.

4: Very Poor Area Design, it seems that both interior and exterior world spaces suffer from rudimentary design flaws, such as cluttering up combat heavy spaces with placeables forcing your character to get stuck and die.

5: Combat Animations are appalling, actually... they are so bad they are not even there, no dance of death, no special combat conditions animations such as cleave which leaves combat feeling like whack a mole.

6: Character animations are staggered and unrealistic.

7: Music and Sounds have been recycled to an appalling degree. Roughly 95% of the Sounds from NWN have been reused for NWN2, Including Voice Sets and area music. This would have been a sentimental bonus if NWN2 had any of its own music or voice sets, but instead NWN2 rests upon the laurels of NWN.

8: Characters do not always perform cued actions in combat if already attacking. Casting spells from items or using feats/skills is very hit or miss. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't and you and everyone else dies.

9: Death and re-spawn system Makes the OC a Joke on any Difficulty setting, the only real challenge NWN2 poses is dealing with the game stopping bugs and fighting with the UI.

10: Selecting targets in combat is slow and unresponsive meaning that often times instead of meeting a foe and engaging in combat your character will run past the MOB you were attempting to select because you clicked the ground instead.

11: Moving through doorways with any Camera is extremely awkward.

12: The OC Plot line is dull and cliche, with no real emotional connection to the PC.

"Do you know about your mother? No, Oh well Its not my place to tell you, so I wont just yet because its really not my place and its the only character hook we have that we need to reveal much later on so that you feel as if your character and history played some part in the story."

13: Character heads and hair are hideous and there is an extreme lack of selection. FaceGen could have easily been implemented, even for multiplayer. (Taking a Tip from unreal Tournament and having new user content if missing loaded on a map change.)

14: Character Portraits are as ugly as the heads they belong to. The old Portraits allowed players to be unique and creative.

15: Weapons are very basic and look out of place in comparison to the rest of the world, some of them like the Scythe's look as if they have been directly imported from NWN's with no changes made to update them.

16: The DM Client is awkward, clunky and is missing rudimentary functionality. It almost feels as if basic functions of the DM Client have been locked away from the people trying to use it, making it less of a tool, more a proof of concept.

17: Give/Take Level & XP is Missing from the DM Client.

18: Player Lists or a "Who's online" list is missing for both Multiplayer and the DM Client.

19: There is no "sit on the ground" animation, it has been replaced with "Kneel" which will make RPPW's a somewhat awkward task as most RP took place with people outside, sitting on the ground.

20: Chat Box is tiny and text quickly and easily disappears making Role Play very difficult if interacting with someone who can piece more than 2 words together at a time.

21: Chat "Rolls up" from players and disappears far to quickly, once more making in depth RP difficult .

22: Messy and overcomplicated UI for the toolset that makes duel monitors to manage all the menu's not an option but a requirement.

23: Swimming, Climbing and Jumping is absent, there is no real reason as to why these could not have been added. Where is the fun in improved terrain if all you can do is look at it?

24: By the Book adherence to the Rules in 3.5e, like all good DM's Bioware knew when to fudge the rules to make the game a more enjoyable experience.

25: Color Palette for Character creation is extremely limited and forces players into cookie cutter molds.

Why not open up all the color options, or even take a step forward and allow people to enter in the html code for the color they want.

26: No fat Character Models, the original NWN's allowed you to choose fat or thin, young or old.

27: No height slider for characters. Its one of the very few "New" features of NWN2 so why not let people use it?

28: Dialogue at times in the OC is sometimes downright funny, and not intentionally so. "Texan" Swamp farmers and "Irish" Wood elves for example. As well as those Lizard Folk running behind the poor farmer with torches like something out of groucho marks. You expect them to have top hats and Cains or cigars.

29: "Spearhead" dialogue options that don't even present the illusion of choice, but instead force the player down a predetermined path.

Whats the point in presenting multiple dialogue options if they all lead to the same response or some outcome?

30: Walkmeshs must be downloaded for each server without even so much as an automatic download feature.

31: NPC AI is horrific, that means the player must Micromanage everything otherwise NPC's will run off and get themselves (and possibly you killed) or stand around and refusing to engage in combat.

32: Automatic NPC "Open lock" or "Disarm Trap" fires inconsistantly. Sometimes the animation and voice will fire but the NPC will not actually unlock the door or disarm the trap.

33: Path finding is a joke, for all the walkmesh "improvements" the NPC path finding is so poor that the only thing you can be sure of is that if left to there own devices NPC's will either run around in circles or get stuck on an object.

34: WSAD Controls are hyper responsive that makes using WSAD Movement or even changing which direction your facing a difficult and finickety task.

35: Spells all look the same, while what few VFX there are look wonderful, spells no longer feel unique. In NWN's every spell had its own VFX (Even if it was just a culmination of several other VFX's added together) you could tell what was being cast purely by how it looked. Now there are so many spells that look exactly the same that you could be looking at the spell effect for 4 or more different spells.

36: Multiplayer Pausing in the OC is heavy handed and often times completely unnecessary. Not every dialogue is going to break the game, sometimes you just want to open up a merchant.

37: Dialogue Pausing will fire in combat, the rest of the world goes on but the other player not involved in the dialogue can not respond to attacks (They can still get hit and die however.)

38: Screen Turning happens at a snails pace, forcing players to use the middle mouse button if they want to turn the camera.

39: Every Camera Option has a major (and aggravating) issue with it. Top Down will become obstructed by walls or get pushed in so that you cant see anything. Free Camera has no real place in an RPG, even RTS games stopped using it. Chase camera has no way to easily turn around without moving forward & Driving Camera has major issues in interiors and especially doorways with becoming obstructed.

40: No First person perspective option, which makes interior ceilings a mute issue as the camera has to be at such a low angle to see them that it is something you only see when you want to take a screenshot, not when your actually playing.

41: Because the Game Forces you down one path "Alignment" and alignment shifts are a mute point. The Only time you get to be evil or attempt to maintain an evil alignment is via very crude and brutal "Kill them all" actions instead of "Talk a little first then kill them all" good response.

42: No real romance options in the OC, that is and always will be one of the guilty little pleasures of Gamers (Male and female alike3.)

43: NPC's only have enough personality to be annoying, there is no means to interact with them or get to know them.

44: Everything Leaves a loot bag.

45: Chat options are jumbled around or missing. The Old Whisper is now speak making the Talk/Listen radius far to small, the new Whisper is now tell, and DM Chat appears to be missing entirely.

46: No Multiplayer "Players" or "Who's online" list which makes it especially difficult to find players as a DM.

47: The OC has very little place for your character to be anything other than an Elven/Human Ranger. While you can choose to play any class or race, the story and gameplay all point to Elven/Human Ranger and make you feel a little out of place, going against the grain being anything else.

48: The overall visual Aesthetic looks exactly the same as NWN's especially in interiors, so much so, that unless you are really in close (with exception to lighting) you could mistake them for the same game.

This is a shame as the new Graphics engine gets underplayed and understated more often than not.

49: The Toolset is counterintuitive, especially in light of the previous toolset. Powerful does not have to equate to "Awkward to use." After over a month of working with it, there are still times I have to stop and think about "How" I'm supposed to do something basic. Took 3 weeks to Untrain "Z" as Raise/Lower instead of "Height Lock" as it is now.

In fact, its almost as if every command in the tool set now does the exact opposite of what it did in the old tool set.

50: in the OC NPC's are forced onto you, you have no option but to take them along and eventually dump them in the Tavern.

51: No Vertex Weighting, Hair is static, clothing is static. For a New and improved graphics Engine it seems rather limited when it comes to rendering the characters.

52: Load times are horrific, with 2 gigs of Ram and a 3 GHz processor there is still enough time waiting between loads from one area to the next to make a cup of tea.

53: It feels as if the number of clicks to do the most basic and simple of things has increased exponentially. Click, Drag, press Shift while standing on your head and drag your inventory item to Denmark.

54: Context Sensitive menu delay is far to long, even at its lowest settings its unusable in combat situations.

55: Inventory tetris has been replaced with tiny bland Icons that makes finding something in your inventory almost impossible. It all looks the same and some of the icons in no way shape or form look like the item they are attempting to represent.

56: No Exploration in the OC, An Area "Opens up" and appears on your map when what little story there is is forcing you to go there, and even there you can only walk the predetermined path. Even returning to a previous area is fruitless as the NPC's have no life, no spark, nothing to say or add.

57: Resting is still hypersensitive to creature proximity with no relation to the fact that there are 5 walls between you and the creature that you cant rest because of, and because of the way that most of the dungeons are designed, when you need to rest you often have to back track trying every little nook and cranny in the hope that you can find a spot that's "Just right" its as bad as trying to get reception on a cellphone in the 90's... can you hear me now?

58: When you die in multiplayer the MOBS do not respond and instead will hover over your corpses so that when you hit "re-spawn" they will kill you again... and again... and again... and again... and again. It doesn't add to the "Difficulty" but it does make dieing a very aggravating and frustrating experience at times. I would much rather loose some xp than die 40 times in a row due to the 10 archers all aiming for me the instant I re-spawn.

59: Minimap is pretty much useless unless it is to act as a spoiler.

60: No Fog of War except for in interior world spaces, but even then it only applies to unopened doors, as the player can instantly see all the corridors in a dungeon. It must be great to be able to see around corners. (Once more, poor area design)

61: You have to buy and sell items individually. Selling or buying potions one after the other after the other is extremely aggravating. What happened to "How many would you wish to buy/sell" I mean hell... if even Pokemon Emerald can add that basic functionality to merchants why cant NWN2?

62: In game books have no personality, they used to feel like you were reading a scroll, now the book text looks like yet another pop up menu.

63: In game Cut scenes have no volume control, dialogue will be really quiet and then very very loud then quiet again.

64: Cut scene cameras have been poorly placed and do not seem very streamlined or tested, sometimes your looking at the NPC's leg, sometimes the Sky, your characters arm or the back of there head or the screen is cut in half because its partly buried in the ground.

65: There is no feeling of contact in combat, blades pass through MOB's, spells fire and red numbers flash and that's about it, sometimes if your lucky you will get a reaction hit.

66: No ability to be naked, or even semi naked. Characters are in a permanently clothed state... did GTA:SA Scare people that much that now even undies are taboo?

67: You can no longer assign an auto function for an item on the quick slot bar. In NWN's you could select that an item would cast light, or heal or whatever... now you have to go via the Context Sensitive menu which makes using items a pain in the arse.

68: The VFX for Light spells (IE The glowing orbs above the players head) get in the way in any camera mode where the camera is not really far back or high up.

69: No Sneak Animation.

70: Animations do not always fire (Which seems to be a problem carried over from NWN's.) You Will stand over an Object when you should be Kneeling, or "Open" animations will fire after the door is already open etc.

71: +1 Items are still the gawdawful "Copper" color meaning that normal items are still more aesthetically pleasing and look more "real" than items that are 100x there value. This is more a personal dislike and distaste from the original.

72: Not enough random loot in the OC, you Kill X Mob and get Y item way to often, which makes replaying the OC none to thrilling.

73: The "Seamless" transition space for areas is wasted more often than not in the OC and adds unneeded Bulk to user mods which compresses the problems faced by PW creators due to the module size limitations because NWN2 acts like a bloated tick when it comes to areas.

74: The World Map Transition Icon is large, garish, destroys immersion and is often times placed in a position where you have to move the camera behind the transition otherwise all the PC will do is open and close the transition doors that the Map transition is sitting on.

75: No Mounts or Mounted Combat, something that was achieved for NWN's late in its life and was a promised feature of NWN2, so much so that it appears on the presale box.

76: Only 2 Dragons that can only be moderately tinted.

77: Tinting for Buildings and Creatures is extremely limited, often only being the roof or the buildings trim and a great many buildings or placeables cannot be tinted at all.

78: Hair styles are almost the same for every race which does very little for character diversity.

79: More quest bugs than you can shake a stick at, everything from the Game Crashing when attempting to load a cut scene, to quests repeating themselves over and over again even after you have completed them.

80: NPC Death/respawn system sometimes gets stuck and your NPC's will not automatically stand back up after combat, cant be healed and cant be raised... and you cant leave the area you are in to get aid so your left with only the option to reload from a previous save and hope they don't die, and if they do... that they stand back up again.

81: Impossible to open doors have been placed in seemingly "key" areas and where MOB's can still attack you.

82: Game is artificially limited to 20 levels (much like DVD regions) references are made to Epic Level feats in the 2da's and there are even feat Scripts left in from HotU. While this has little effect on the OC it could of had a great deal of effect on Multiplayer.

83: Most of the "New" Content in terms of feats and PrC's seems to be taken directly from The Players Resource Consortium. While I know it all comes from the same fount, it just seems a little odd that things the Community had already added and had become popular and Successful make it into NWN2. So many PrC's and feats to choose from and yet
the same ones keep on cropping up.

While I know this is because both draw from 3.5e and both listened to the Community's demands... I cant seem to shake the feeling of "Been there done that, that's new? I thought that was always in NWN?" and I half expect to open up the tool set and see the same scripts from PRC in NWN2.

84: Quest Giver NPC's feel as if they are fighting with you in order to give you the quest they are forcing on you. Your trying to go from A-B and NPC X appears out of no where and demands or whines you into doing quest Z and you have to sit through 20 layers of the same repeating dialogue in order for you to mark the next area you have to get to. Sometimes it actually seems it takes longer to get the quest than it does to complete it.

While I have no problem with dialogue (What is an RPG without dialogue?) the quest givers just feel stilted and like they are dragging it out for everything its worth to the point that your hitting "1" just to get through the same convoluted tripe once more.

Give me with detail, depth and story, don't bore me with reiterating the same point or goal from the same NPC et infinitum to the point that the quest is a dead horse long before it has begun.

85: The US Limited Edition is a Joke, The Rings are Incredibly Cheap. I mean, I was Expecting Cheap, but not Cracker Jack Cheap, and just who's fingers are the rings supposed to fit? To large for a kid, to small for an adult. The Cloth Map is Tiny and Thin and the Concept Art Booklet is all Screenshots or Tiny little Sketches that would have actually been of interest were they not half an inch by half an inch in Size.

Compared to the UK version getting The Original NWN With Expansions, we seriously got jipped. Granted that is all the Publishers deal and in a year they will probably sell "NWN Complete" Packaging NWN/SoU/HotU, NWN2 & All premium Modules just before Obsidian releases there first expansion for NWN2.

86: The Run animations for duel wield make the PC's look like Bella Lagousey as Dracula, trying to shield his face from the sun.

87: Cloaks look horrible, not only are they once again paper thin but the way they attach to the PC's shoulders leave you looking directly through the "Loop" at the shoulders if your not wearing armor with huge pauldrons to hide it.

88: There is no feeling of Travel between Areas as the world map is tiny, they feel like exactly what they are, which cheap and Dirty fast travel options between instanced areas. Even Fallout went so far as to give you a little dotted line between point a-b and the option to stop off or have an honest to god, truly random encounter.. not just a planned encounter popping up before you can go to the next predetermined area.

89: NPC's have no Spark of life about them in terms of NPC to NPC interaction. They are extremely scripted, so much so that if and when they do spuraticly spout a line of dialogue its as if they are looking for there blacking marks on the ground and holding up there script.

"Hold on guys I think I have a line here.. Ok here it goes. We have now reached the City of Neverwinter, You two pissed me off on the journey... no don't actually bother responding to me or having an actual discussion with me about anything, and I'm not actually going to go anywhere like I said I would but instead stick to the group"

In KotOR, NPC's would stop and have conversations with each other depending upon who you had in the party and where you were or what actions your character had just made. NWN2 lacks even that small amount of depth giving you no way to interact with your companions except when the game occasionally allows you to have a dialogue option or two with them... which generally has no effect on them, they do what they were going to do anyway and you either loose or gain influence for agreeing or disagreeing with them.

Granted they are a hell of a lot better than the original NWN's but in comparison to even KotOR2 they have a great deal to answer for.

Even the abortion of the TES Series that was Oblivion managed to give the NPC's some personality, so Radiant AI was not very advanced but it at least made an attempt.

90: Interior Tile sets are extremely limited, while It is nice that we can fit together different tiles in some sembalance of a master List, that does not excuse the fact that there are crucial... key tilesets missing.

Sewers for example.

While I understand you only added what you would need for the OC it still leaves the modding Community high and dry on some tileset basics.

91: One of the worst crafting systems ever conceived. Having to Buy "Molds" for everything you want to create... you don't cast anything in a Mould, Weapons and Armor are tempered, not Poured. Has no one at Obsidian ever been to a Blacksmiths Forge or even to your run of the mill Ren fair?

Its a quick and Dirty Craft system ripped mostly from KotOR because every RPG apparently has to have one.

92: The OC is totally Monty Haul, Swamp Farmers with +1 Weapons, Low Level Lizard Folk with Flaming/Lighting/Whatever weapons. Oh look, I found another +4 Burning Sword of Doom, toss it onto the pile we have going.

93: The Cityscape of the City of Neverwinter is bland, uninteresting and placeables seem to be tossed around randomly. Why is there a mini Obelisk in the middle of the road? Why do the Docks have a Gazebo? Why are all the doors missing? I mean, I understand not wanting to make an interior for each building you place, but surely a tiny little cell with an NPC to talk to... oh that’s right I forgot, no main plot related dialogue or Life to any of the NPC's not in your party.

94: Middle mouse Button is a horrible way to control the camera, considering how little the context sensitive menu is used it would have made far more sense to switch Right Click/Middle Click Functionality... or even offer it as an option in the controls.

95: No "Quick Switch" option between two sets of weapons, NWN's had it, KotOR had it, why does NWN2 lack the option? Why am I switching to a bow, then having to re-requip both weapons via the inventory screen in the middle of combat?

96: The Limited Edition box opens upside down. Most every game opens from the top, NWN2LE opens from the Bottom... why? Now after a couple of days of not being taped up, the bottom has bulged out and the LE Box no longer will stand up on my shelf of its own accord, its pushing games off with it which is getting rather aggravating.

97: The shiny cover paper on the regular edition of NWN2 smears the ink of the CD Key, so in great Atari NWN's tradition they CD key is illegible and requires guess work.

98: NWN2 is not an "Old School" RPG, It is an outdated RPG that was rushed and regurgitates the Content of a 5 year old RPG. When did we change the meaning of the term "Classic D&D" to mean "Limited and Compromising" hmm?

I am truly surprised that Websites and Magazines are giving it the Ratings it has been getting, the only accurate score was pulled because the reviewer was making a statement about AD&D in general, not the actual Game.

There is no attempt at being New, or doing something Inventive, Its just half arsed attempts at cobbling together aspects that worked in other games.

99: Pre-release was over hyped and then botched to the point that it killed a great deal of the thrill and excitement for the games actual release. To say the pre-release toolset debatable lowered my expectations is an understatement. I picked up 2 Copies of NWN2 with all the enthusiasm of buying milk... i was actually more excited by Guitar Hero 2 then I was for NWN2 (That I had been waiting for expectantly after HotU and they announced they were making plans for NWN2 and Obsidian taking the franchise out of Biowares hands.)

100: NWN2 rests far to much on the laurels of NWN's and the NWN's Modding Community, it in no way, shape or form stands solely upon its own Merrits. People have upgraded there systems, spent hundreds or thousands of dollars (Or Ero's depending) to play this game. The Community deserved better, the Players and Fans deserved better. NWN2 needed to be in development for another year, perhaps even two. Instead Old Content has been regurgitated, and features "new" have only been half implemented due to time constraints.

People really did not ask for much, If all NWN2 had done, was update the graphics a little and left everything else exactly the same then people would have complained a lot less.

NWN2 attempted to do far to much and instead accomplished almost nothing that it originally "promised" and have managed to trample on what made the original so great.

This will be a great game in a year, perhaps even two. The Community instead of having to bandage a couple of sore spots have to regrow limbs... and NWN2 is heavily In need to core patching (And perhaps even an expansion) to fix basic functionality and implement missing features.

101: As if to rub salt in the wounds, A 7 day free Trial of DDO was included with NWN2 as if to say "If you want D&D Multiplayer? Play DDO, you have no more choice because we have striped out everything that was good about NWN Multiplayer and left only the shell for you to look at" It really is salt in the wounds at everything we have lost.

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