Good evening gog.com community!

I purchased NWN2 a while ago, and I was so excited to play through the campaign. NWN 1 is one of my favorite games of all time, and the sequel was aiming to be my FAVORITE game. It looked promising. But when it came down to it, I got bored with the main campaign in 2; the characters were uninteresting, the environments were uninspired, and the performance from the engine was atrocious. So I uninstalled.

I've read that some of the later campaigns are fantastic. Can I play these without experiencing all of the first campaign? Should I even bother with this game? I've only completed Hordes of the Underdark in the first game, and I also have Fallout 1, Arcanum, Planescape Torment, and Temple of Elemental Evil left to play.

If it helps, I love the Baldur's Gate games :)

Thanks for your input and reading my post!

For both Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2, the original campaigns were haphazard, but the subsequent campaigns hit the mark much better.

I'd say Shadows of Undrendtide is worthwhile in NWN1. Technically speaking, Hordes of the Underdark is a continuation of the campaign (though this can easily be missed; aside from a brief allusion to the characters travel in the plane of shadows and association with Deekin, there's no other connection between the campaigns).

Mask of the Betrayer is technically a continuation from the original campaign of Neverwinter Nights 2, but there are few recurring characters or plot lines. It's widely regarded as the best official NWN2 campaign. Storm of Zehir is solid in own right, with exploration-driven mechanics and making the best use of the 3.5 skill system I've seen. Not much replayability, though, since exploration loses its intrigue when you've already done it once.


There are also plenty of great player-made modules.

*blushes* I seem to have gotten my expansions backwards. I've completed Shadows of Undrentide. It's HotU that I have yet to complete. What would you suggest, Darvin?

If you liked Shadows of Undrendtide, then I would definitely recommend Hordes of the Underdark. Just import your SoU character over and keep playing from there. It basically picks up shortly after your escape from the plane of shadows at the end of SoU.

For NWN2, I'd recommend just going into Mask of the Betrayer straight (skip the OC; if you weren't enjoying it, don't bother continuing with the slog). You'll be bumped straight up to level 18 and can just take it from there. There aren't that many plot threads continuing from the original campaign, so just keep going from there.

Storm of Zehir is worth the playthrough; make a party of four level four characters and just go at it. It's much more free-form than the other campaigns, especially if you like overworld exploration. If you're still hankering for more after that, download some user created modules. Plenty of awesome ones.


As for the other games you mentioned, I can only speak for Planescape and Temple of Elemental Evil. The former is a very plot-heavy game, and interesting in that you'll want to maximize your character for plot interactions rather than for combat. Temple of Elemental Evil is on the far other side of the spectrum; it's about combat, facing ever-increasing danger and challenge. It's a bit buggy, though, so the fan-created "Cricle of Eight" patch is highly recommended.

Thanks for your help! I'll start with NWN and work from there. Have a nice day!

You might want to try some of the user modules as well. I actually skipped all of the official campaigns. I may play Mask of the Betrayer sometime but I've been very happy with user created campaigns. Harp & Chrysanthemum and the Maimed God Saga are really great. Reminds me a lot of a pen and paper D&D sessions.

I love the original campaign, the Mask of the betrayer is totally confusing and annoying. Not sure why people rate it higher than the original, baffles the mind.

However one important detail to note; You can import your character from the original campaign and continue to play. I'd totally do that.

I've started on Act 2 of the campaign now, and things have picked up a little. Act 1 was rather slow, but it does improve. No idea about the rest of the game, but like you, I haven't heard great things about it either. Doesn't necessarily mean it's shit, just not as good as BG2's plot and NPCs. I'd like to get through it in any case, and import that character into MotB. That is appearantly the official campaign that is truly good.

Everyone has different opinions, and that's totally fair.

I find there are two key problems with the original campaign:
Too Much Filler: there were too many areas that were just repeated fights against mooks, indistinguishible from the last set you dispatched, and these areas were often obscenely large.

Contrived Plot: while there are some parts of the story that are done quite well, there are others that are just contrived drivvel. Getting into Blacklake District is the worst example. I could rant about it, but this guy does it way better.

It does have its moments of awesome, but it is a complete slog in other places. There are some great parts of the NWN2 OC if you can make it through the long slog. I'd say Act 2 is definitely the finest portion of the game. Act 3 is definitely a step backwards, but it isn't as bad as Act 1.

Act 2 has been okay so far, though I suppose I shouldn't go into details about it here. Some I like, other things were just WTF and felt forced. I'll read the article you referenced when I've finished the game, whenever that might be. The game has certainly picked up after the horribly drawn out Act 1, so that is good.

Neeshka is clearly influenced by Annah in Planescape Torment, but she isn't done nearly as well and for the most part just annoys the heck out of me. Perhaps they were influenced by BG1 with the city too. But in BG1 there were lots of quests and side quests in the city, and many were actually interesting, while in Neverwinter there were just a lot of filler and quasi-fetch quests. I was so glad when that was finally over. Then we got to Blacklake, and it felt a bit underwhelming. In general, so many houses everywhere, and we can barely enter any of them. But I've probably said too much already and shouldn't enter more into spoiler territory. I'll read the article when I've played more.

The article only talks about act 1, so you don't need to worry about spoilers. The NPC companions aren't well developed in the OC. Sadly, Neeshka actually is one of the best-developed characters.

And yeah, the city is pretty underwhelming compared to Amn or Baldur's Gate.

Cheers, then I can go ahead and read it without fear of spoilers :)

Yikes! Neeshka is one of the best developed? Christ. Suppose she gets more meat on the bone later then, because it's not too impressive so far. With a couple of exceptions, it seems like the character design phase has been guided by one principle: how can we make this NPC as annoying as possible?

Some annoyances aside though, it's actually a pretty decent game. I've had more fun with it than I thought after the first few hours, when it was more tempting to watch grass die than get to terms with the UI, artificial idiocy and the camera.

I loved neshka!

I love hearing her say..... Boy he gives me the holy's that just cracked me up..


the other thing i really enjoyed about the game is running the keep later.. Was a huge step up from the BGII keep quests. IMO best keep story ever done in any game.. (if someone can think of better please post the game, maybe ill give it a try)