[Micah Foehammer]

I certainly do NOT agree with that list, at least not in it's entirety! A rebuttal:

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

True. Being fixed in a patch.

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?

And why is it number two on this list? Imho, this is a picky complaint.

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.

And imo the radial menu was cumbersome to use. Took forever to get to spells, the quick cast bar is MUCH faster.

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.

I wouldn't call the area design very poor and I have yet to run into a situation where the area design seemed unrealistic. As for pathfinding issues, I have yet to have a character get stuck.

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.

#'s 5 and 6 are just variations on a theme, and I don't agree. I do wonder what type of system this guy is playing on and if the REAL issue here is his frame rate.

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.

Okay, this is supposed to be a sequel to NWN 1, right? So why is importing content from a game that everyone liked a BAD thing?

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.

Never had a problem with this.

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.

*sigh* Why is the death and re-spawn system a joke? The reviewer offers us an opinion and NOT one fact to back it up. And to make matters worse, he switches gears in MID_SENTENCE and brings up a second completely different issue.

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.

This falls under the category of USER ERROR! The same thing could happen in NWN if you weren't careful. Pause the bleeping game if you can't target your enemies on the run!

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

Agreed. The camera angles do have a tendency to lose their place when making transitions.

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

This is the writer's Personal opinion - i don't agree at all.

13: Character heads and hair are hideous and there is an extreme lack of selection.

The included heads are NOT hideous - again that is the writer's personal opinion.

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

I agree on this one. I don't like the 3D portaits in the least. Again though this is a personal preference.

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.

Again this is supposed to be a sequel to NWN 1, right? So why is importing content from a game that everyone liked a BAD thing?

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.

Items 16, 17, and 18 are all issues relating to persistent world gaming and I could care less that the functionality the writer misses is gone.

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.

Oh for pete's sake, the "resting" animation just looks fine. Sit, Kneel - this is such a MINOR problem that I can't even believe that he puts it on this list.

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.

Agreed. This should be bigger.

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

Same thing as number 20.

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

Totally disagree. Except for the chat window, the new UI is far less obtrusive than the screen filling radial menu was.

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?

I'm surprised the writer excluded horse back riding! Sheesh.

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.

Not a valid point! We ALL knew that NWN2 was going to be based on v3.5 It was apparent from the get go that the main reason that Obsidian did the design instead of Bioware was because Bioware had a belly full of WOTC's micro-managing the game design and forcing Bioware to cut to the letter of rules.

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

Again, this in NOT true imho. There is more than enough color variation to customize your character.

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

Okay, there are a number of variations in body type, race and age and the only thing that the writer claims is missing is a FAT character model? Seems picky to me.

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

Picky

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.

Actually Orlen sounds more like Elvis to me.

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?

This may actually be a decent point. I have gotten the opinion that AT CERTAIN times, my dialogue choices did not matter. On the other hand, I CAN testify that the Diplomacy / Bluff / Inimidate skills DO WORK and they WORK well.

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

YAWN! Who gives a darn?

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.

AI has ALWAYS been an issue, and NWN2 is better than any of its predecessors. The writer also conveniently forgets how much we moaned over having NO CONTROL of the NPC characters, and now he seems to be complaigning that we have TOO much!

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.

Not for me. Works everytime!

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.

Again, imho pathfinding is a huge improvement over IWD, BG, and NWN 1. I haven't encountered anything close to what the writer suggests.

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

Again, I do not have this problem.

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.

Don't know if this is valid or not. I haven't played a spellcaster yet, so I can't comment. I am sceptical that the designers, who apparently used a ton of NWN 1 content already, would not have simply copied over the VFX effects for the 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.

Can't comment - haven't played in mplayer mode yet.

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.

Not an issue on my system. I wonder what this guy is playing the game on, an old P2?

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.

The top down / 3/4 bird's eye view has also been my favorite anyway and imho it has NO MORE PROBLEMS than it did in NWN 1.

40: No First person perspective option,

If you want a first person shooter go BUY ONE! This is supposed to be a CRPG with party dynamics and I want to be able to see my entire party at one time!

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.

BS! There is an entirely separate path for evil characters to take when first arriving in Neverwinter! You do NOT have to join the watch. In addition, there are a number of evil and chaotic actions one can take that can alter your alignment further down the CE path. Same holds true for LG. And if you want to maintain a true neutral alignment, that can be done too.

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.)

Again this is flat out untrue. There is a romance option for both male and female characters. You may not like the characters you are able to have a romance with, but at least you have a CHOICE!

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

Did this guy even play the game or TRY? Getting to know your NPC's is a matter of gaining their trust and influence! What did the guy expect? Walk up, say hi, and have the NPC swoon and dump his life story in your laugh in the first 2 minutes? Get real!

44: Everything Leaves a loot bag.

Maybe on EASY difficulty it does, but not in MY game.

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.

Again a DMclient issue.

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

Repeated. Same as number 18. You know at this point the writer starts loosing credibility. He is SO desparate to find 101 things wrong with this game, that he is actually repeating them.

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.

Again this the subjective opinion of the writer and I do not agree. At no time in the game did I feel that either my Paladin or dwarven fighter were out of place.

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.

I'll give the writer the benefit of the doubt on this one although I am not sure this is actually a complaint. Personally, I like the graphics although I am going to have to tweak the transparency a bit.

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.

*sigh* Toolset doesn't mean squat to me, so I could care less.


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.

This does have some merit. In fact, there are places where even if you TRIED to dump a certain NPC, you can't because he/she is REQUIRED for a specific encounter. That bothers me - I do NOT like being FORCED to take a character that I don't like.

In the interest of space, I am going to stop halfway thru this list. My overall reaction is this: The writer of this review does raise some valid complaints, and there certainly are some things about the game that SHOULD be fixed. But if you disregard his complaints about Mplayer issues and the DMCLient, the balance of his complaints appear to me to be simply matters of personal preference. It's one thing to not like a game because of its style (first person shooter) or content (Star Wars fantasy versus Medieval fantasy). But when you frame your personal preferences as "problems" you have crossed the line from objective to subjective. I hate to say it, but imo this "review" is simply a hatchet job. It seems to me that the writer was predisposed to dislike NWN 2 and was LOOKING for "problems", no matter how big or how small, real or imagined.

For balance sake, I will say that that NWN 2 is NOT totally without problems. There are bugs, there are issues with game play and there is an apalling lack of support for Mplayer / PW play. But a significant number of the bugs are being addressed, and there are patchs and new drivers which have substantially improved game play. This is STILL a great game (okay not a 9.5 great game) and well worth playing simply for the SP OC.