![]() Every time the game built up a little tension it would dispell it by killing me ten times in a row until I was angry and frustrated. I did the same trash talking with the same bad guys, who would then put me and my party down with little fuss. Every battle was repeated a half dozen times. All of the drama was sucked out of the story as I ran though every cutscene twice. The final dungeon was a joke, an insult, a slap in the face, and a stupid waste of time. Then the game started giving me two impossible foes at the same time.Īnd who could forget this thrilling moment: These fights required numerous re-tries, as I seached for juuuust the right combination of spells and lucky hits that would get me through. Then the game started giving me two impossible foes back-to-back. I’d run around and try to get the AI to get caught on some bit of scenery, or sometimes they would skip a few turns for no apparent reason, which would give me little edge. Still, I’d muddle through, spending twenty minutes on a two-minute fight. Note that the load times in this game were brutal, so it took a while to win a fight this way. If I missed two rounds in a row, I’d load the game. If I got a good critical, I’d save the game. I’d have to go through the fight many, many times. The game was not kidding when it said impossible. Then in Act III I started meeting foes which were rated “Impossible”. Once in a long while I’ll meet a boss that is “Very Challenging”. So, you click on a kobold and it tells you “Challenge Rating: Effortless” Meaning I can kill this guy by coughing on him. The game has this little thing where you can examine an enemy, and judge his relative strength. Yet in every battle I was hopelessly outmatched. Was there some untapped pool of XP out there that I missed that would give me a couple more levels? I doubt it. Only in this game I wasn’t getting stronger fast enough to keep up with the bad guys. You’ve earned your rewards, and now you have the powers to face the final Big Bad. Usually in a computer RPG, your final race towards the climax has you dispatching bad guys at a steady clip. But after a while the game stopped being fun, because all the people who made it fun were dead. ![]() It has dozens of vibrant characters, and as I entered the last hours of the game I wondered if there would be any left.Īt first, this had the intended effect: I wanted to track down the bad guy and stop him once and for all. ![]() Characters were getting killed off by the six-pack. A whole bunch of those beloved characters bit the dust. ![]() Then as the second act finished and I entered the third and final act, the plot got ugly. The first two-thirds of the game were some of the best gaming I’ve had in years. (There is a little window which actually shows the dice rolls if you like to watch that sort of thing.) So, when I say “combat”, keep in mind that this is characters fighting while the game rolls dice in the background. This game is based on D&D 3.5 edition rules. Now I have the urge to skip all of that and shake my fist at the designers for a few paragraphs. I was going to wait until I was done posting the D&D campaign and then start posting the series on NWN2, just to keep the place from getting too cluttered. I have comments on the generous length of the game, the fun character generation process, the great visuals, some nitpicks on the overly heavy system specs, and lots and lots of approval for the dialog. I have several posts of fawning praise and gushy cheerleading about how wonderful the characters are and how interesting the story is. I have a whole series of posts like that for Neverwinter Nights 2, and now I don’t feel like posting any of it. Once I beat the game I’ll comment on the ending, which is where I decide if I liked the game or not. I’ll have a “First Impressions” post, then something about the characters, maybe a bit about the technology. Usually when I go through a videogame I have several posts.
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