Nwn 2

[vee4473]

I mean this as a cry for help and a vent.

That is if anyone is playing this game. I bought it a while back, but the camera and bugs turned me off. So, I decided to patch it up and give it another try.

As of 1.10, the game is ok except for the camera. I hope i'm missing something.

I've never really played a game that had the camera as the sole factor that made it nearly unplayable. The camera options are cryptic and useless. You constantly find yourself, regardless of mode, as if you are disconnected...Like an audience member at a show craning his neck to see what's happening. Blocked by this, that. Camera follows here, doesn't there, what's that around the corner, who knows, quick pause the game so you can try to reposition the camera see what the heck is going on...rinse and repeat each battle.

The frustration comes from wanting to enjoy this game so much, yet having something that should be a 2nd nature control totally ruin it.

The camera makes it unplayable to me. How is that possible? As if this is the first time a 3D camera was used in an rpg.

I want to know what some of you think. I've played NWN1 and I never had this feeling.

What happened? Please tell me what i'm missing.

[snoopy369]

I think that NWN2 was doomed by the failing Atari label?

[DaShi]

I agree that the camera in NWN2 is a pain, especially after playing Guild Wars. However, what bothered me was having the game stall in the middle of a save. I reloaded only to find that I couldn't advance because all my quests were broken, plus my henchman was gone. It was early enough for me to restart, but with that and camera, the game feels so unstable. It's a shame, because the NWN1 was a great game and NWN2 has a lot of improvements.

[vee4473]

Every other aspect of NWN2 is enjoyable. It just takes a ridiculous amount of management to do nothing more than just control the camera so that you can see what's happening or even what's going to happen so you can control your own damn party.

I can understand a game failing because of the gameplay, graphics, AI etc... but because of the camera? Especially when the type of camera is nothing new?

I can play it, but I almost had a breakdown just doing a simple quest in the beginning areas. I literally had to stop and take a breather because it was more of an exercise in camera control (to see what's happening) than playing the game.

A bad sign. Such a shame to me at least.

[vee4473]

Originally posted by DaShi
I agree that the camera in NWN2 is a pain, especially after playing Guild Wars.

Exactly. After what we've all seen in GW and WOW, really simplicity and functionality at it's finest, how on earth could a company decide that this garble of convoluted, non functional camera options and non options be better?

I mean, sometimes you play games and think "haven't they been paying attention to things?, what is this?"

[vee4473]

I would actually prefer they reverted back to BG2 isometrics. At least you could see what was happening. I loved BG2. I'd take its graphics over NWN2's mess anyday.

[Stuie]

I actually feel like the camera has gotten *worse* in the latest patch, which was supposed to improve the camera. For some reason I can only get it to move forward/back and side-to-side. Only way to turn it is hold down the "w" key (I think it's w) and use mouse look, and then the mouse is so uber-sensitive that I can't control the camera.

So I gave up - I'll probably skip the expansion if I can't control the camera better. Like vee4473, I feel like I must be missing something....

[MosesPresley]

In addition to what has already been said, the audio clips were almost all reused from NWN iirc. To bad they didn't reuse the original engine with some nice updates.

[Dis]

I was thinking of trying this game now I'm done with world of warcraft. Though I wonder if I can go back to a game with inferior graphics after playing that. It just seems too clunky. Too bad as I had high hopes for it.

I'd also like to go back to Oblivion. That game just seemed tedious.

[DrSpike]

I didn't get around to this as the reviews weren't that favourable. With all the great games to play at the moment it may never get a look in actually.

[vee4473]

If the game was bad I really wouldn't care too much, but seeing as what i've played is good so far and I have read that it is a decent game up until the end except for the camera and system reqs.

But, that's what makes it all the more troubling. Wanting to play a game but having something so dopey break it.

I've tweaked with the settings and will try some more. I think i've gotten the camera so that it's ok outdoors. It's inside the dungeons where i've noticed the camera problems mostly. I'll scour the nwn2 forums more. It is possible to get used to it I guess and not have it bug you after a while, I think.

Funny part is that I, like Stuie, don't remember the camera being as bad in the original release. It was bad, yes, but it does seem worse now.

The party ai is a bit odd too. Characters running off and you're thinking "where the heck are you going?". But that's all changeable in the ai options...mostly...i think.

[Dis]

I haven't messed around with it much, I never even finished the tutorial part of nwn2. But I was pretty busy when I first tried playing it. I had other things on my mind at the time.

the first game I used manual camera controls. The same as I do for world of warcraft. though both games have options to have a follow type camera I believe. I just like being in control . So even if it means I have to readjust when I go down or up a hill, that's the way I prefer it.

[Dis]

hmm just noticed an expansion is coming out in a few days and is already out in Europe. at least according. And here I was thinking the game was considered a failure.

[Harovan]

NWN2 is a huge, steaming pile of crap.

I have had the misfortune to own it for about a year now. It came out with a lot of shortcomings, but I remember I was optimistic that things can be improved. Somewhere, I thought, is a good game in that needs to be dug out. I played it for about 2 months last winter and shelved it for the time being in the hope to play it again half a year later in a much better condition and with some decent modules to play.

I reinstalled and patched it up 1-2 weeks ago and got hit by some kind of a sledgehammer. Not only was the game not significantly improved, in fact it got even worse in some regards, the mentioned above camera control being one of them. But there are lots of other major tick-offs.

It is still a resource hog, unlike other games with vastly better graphics but less hardware requirements.

The game interface is still abysimal - What use do I have from 10 bars of hotkeys if I have to press twice for every hotkey - once shift+0..9 to select the bar and 0..9 to trigger? Did anyone who designed this ever try to press such a combination without looking at the keyboard (which is the very sense of a hotkey)?

There is (to my knowledge, enlighten me if I'm wrong) still no key to highlight all clickable objects, like TAB in NWN1.

There is still no cleave animation - mobs still fall down without any sign of what struck them. Yes, that is important.

The camera control is really outright horrible. There is not much more to be said about it.

That were just the tick-offs I endured in my short (only 2-3 days) return to a game which I once considered to have potential for improvement. I'm sure there's more crap to be found, but I'm not eager to dig for it. What use has a "potential for improvement", if the developers don't use it?

I returned to NWN1, which is so much better in nearly every regard. I'm not going to buy Mask of the Betrayer.

Obsidian can rot in hell for all I care.

Atari likewise. In fact, they already do.

[DrSpike]

That's pretty damning. But if they magically fix everything in the expansion (a common ploy) it'll be an advantage for me not having played the game as I'll miss the enraged stage.