Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition Review
Enhanced but Unpolished
Published by Aspyr, Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition comes to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. The game, based on the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition ruleset, is a follow-up to the highly acclaimed Neverwinter Nights and was originally released for PC in 2008. The game features an enjoyable 60-hour main campaign, plus three extra campaigns. Adding new features and quality-of-life improvements, this enhanced version attempts to make the game land gracefully on newer platforms and accessible to new RPGamers. However, it also includes several bugs that, combined with some features that did not age so well, make this enhanced edition an easy way to get into the series, but it lacks enough polish to dismay those getting into Neverwinter Nights.
The story begins in a small village where players create their character from a wide set of classes and races that enable highly personalized characters by allowing them to choose enhancements to base stats, moral inclinations, name, physical appearance, and many other traits. After creating the main character, the game takes the newly created heroes to a small village where they are tasked with competing in a set of contests that effectively work as a tutorial. Shortly after this, the village is attacked by mysterious fiends and is nearly destroyed, taking the protagonist on a dangerous journey towards the city of Neverwinter, where they are tasked with finding the brother of their foster father to learn more about the shard that seems to be the reason behind the attack. The story is divided into three acts that satisfactorily develop the story of the shards and the role of the protagonist in this plot. When the protagonist learns that it is necessary to end the powerful evil force behind the shards, the story goes from having a simple life in a small village to recruiting allied forces to fight against the King of Shadows. With plot twists here and there, the narrative manages to keep players interested in getting to the bottom of this issue throughout the whole game.
The city of Neverwinter and the surrounding zones, called the Forgotten Realms, work great as a setting, featuring several sidequests and substories. With missions such as gathering information to prove innocence in a trial or gaining the trust of the king of Neverwinter, the game offers a varied campaign. The characters that join this challenging endeavor add several side stories and interesting interactions, making the initial premise a lot more complex and gripping. Most of the secondary characters are fleshed out delightfully, with dwarf Khelgar standing out due to his peculiar personality and personal goals. Most characters who join the party have their own subplots, and it is up to players to decide if they want to help them out and complete these side stories to learn more about them. The writing succeeds in having some characters shrouded in mystery, and those with troubled pasts reveal their true intentions at pivotal story moments. Having at the core of the story this moral duality, players are free to decide whom to trust and whom they want to get closer to.
The party of heroes includes several races and classes.
While completing the main quest, the protagonist comes across several sidequests, with many of these being completely optional. The diversity of quests is welcome, and it is great to have the freedom to choose how to proceed in many situations, such as making certain alliances or simply fighting their way out. The protagonist is also tasked with rebuilding a fortress during the last portion of the game, with the progress made having consequences towards the end of the third act. This city-building feature is good, but it lacks enough depth to be fun for a long time or really engaging. One aspect that feels a little outdated is the fact that there are no markers or other indicators on the map, making for an unfriendly UI. This is very noticeable when tracking quests, with these quests just being added to a journal that can be accessed in the main menu.
Some dungeons include some puzzle-solving to advance, with these puzzles being varied enough to make it interesting when the time comes. There are also a lot of possibilities and secrets hidden that offer players a varied experience if they wish to revisit the game. Players are also free to intimidate, bluff, or engage in diplomacy, with the success of their actions depending on their stats, and with these decisions having a consequence in how some events unfold. For instance, they can convince an enemy to avoid fighting and to unite against another common enemy. One of the biggest issues is the presence of occasional progression-blocking bugs that, in effect, force players to reload prior saves. Fortunately, there are auto-save slots that enable players to backtrack to previous stages without losing a lot of progress.
With the new enhancements, players are able to choose whether they want to move by pointing and clicking, as in the original PC version, or use a new camera mode that enables them to move the characters using the joysticks. This is a good new feature that makes the game feel newer and more compatible with consoles. However, it comes with its drawbacks, as numerous persistent bugs make this second camera mode somewhat frustrating. For instance, the character gets stuck moving the legs without advancing. Moreover, some triggers are not really aligned and make simple actions, such as teleporting to the world map, harder than they should be, with players needing to move near the teleporting area several times until the trigger works as it should. The original camera, called strategy mode, has no problems, so there is a way around this issue, fortunately.
Talking to citizens is always a good way to find out about new quests.
Players can continuously personalize their party, as they are free to choose the abilities, spells, and other traits of their characters every time they level up. These decisions have a direct impact on exploration and combat, with their chances of crafting equipment, disabling traps, and opening locks based on stats. While crafting can be a big deal and allows the party to have great equipment, potions, and items, by using crafting components found along the way, it is easy to decide to ignore this feature completely. Its UI is highly unfriendly since the information is found only in recipe books. In addition, there is nothing to help shuffle inventory items, with the same character needing to carry all of them. What makes this more complicated is the fact that the inventory has a limited space, and every character has their own inventory. Since the player is only able to have three allies in their party at the same time, it makes it difficult to know who has which item.
Players can let the party fight using their AI or directly control their actions, allowing for highly customized instructions for each character that enable them to adapt to the party’s needs. This allows players to feel satisfied when, by choosing the correct actions or orders, the party successfully defeats enemies quickly. However, it is sometimes frustrating to have so many missed and dodged attacks as fights take longer than they should, making combat feel slow, mostly at the beginning of the game. Sometimes the AI has issues, and some combatants will stop fighting or following the leader, even when they are instructed to do so. If players can bypass this issue, exploring and battling is mostly a fun experience. Nevertheless, there are some difficulty balance issues, mostly with some bosses. While this can lead to frustration, players can change the difficulty setting at any time if they wish to do so.
There is a wide array of enemies lurking in the dungeons.
The presentation of the game serves its purpose without being impressive. Voice acting and music are the ones that shine the most, yet they are not strong enough to linger in the memory for a long time. Visually, there are some good-looking weapons and armor. The game also features a varied, pleasing set of enemies and dungeons. One issue is that facial animations don’t look very good, but one gets used to this after a little while, making it not that a big deal.
Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is an easy way to get into the franchise. Sadly, this version has few noteworthy new features and several bugs, making it not as good as one could have wished for. Nonetheless, it is great news that an iconic PC franchise is getting an enhanced version to reach more RPGamers. Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is a recommendation for those who love D&D, but they should expect some bumps along the ride.
Disclosure: This review is based on a free copy of the game provided by the publisher.
Highly personalized characters
Constant bugs
Some features haven’t aged well
Unfriendly user interface
3*. Nobody ever wants to include the old red box Neverwinter Nights from AOL in the 90s. This is the THIRD NWN.