Neverwinter Nights 2

The Good
The Electron engine which is a modified version of Bioware's Aurora Engine (used in the game's predecessor, Neverwinter Nights) achieves in displaying a graphically detailed world. Although by no means as sensational as the graphics in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (which was released before it) - they are somewhat different styles of RPG and for Neverwinter Nights 2's purpose, the graphics are good.

The music for the game is extremely well done, fitting in the mood of the game. Voice acting is also very well done which helps you immerse that bit more into the game.

The best part of the game is what Obsidian Entertainment does best - they make you feel like you're in the world by giving you choices, and heaps of them. The decisions you make along the way will change the way your party and other characters react to you, determine what quests you will do and ultimately alter the ending of the game. OE once again brings their Influence system from Knights of the Old Republic 2 which (as the name implies) determines how much influence you have over your party members. Influence can be gained or lost by you performing actions that are either in-line with their alignment or not. The more influence you have with a party member, the more likely you'll unlock side plots. This brings me to another good point of NWN2 and that's its re-playability. With so many ways to end the game, different alignments to choose and different race/class combos, you'll find every experience of the game a different one.

The Bad
Once again, Obsidian Entertainment, while strong with the story and re-playability of the game, somehow released the game with a myriad of bugs. Apparently a lot of material was cut from the final release, just as it was with Knights of the Old Republic 2, however this time at least most of the game appears to tie in much better than it did with their first attempt.

The system requirements for this game may be a problem for some gamers as well since you require more graphics processing power than what you traditionally did with existing RPG titles of this sort (I tried running with 2xGeForce 6800s in SLI and it ran very slow, even on lowest settings - although on a single 7800GS it worked fine).

The Bottom Line
Neverwinter Nights 2 is a contemporary role-playing game that is strong on story and just like a good book will keep you wanting to come back for more, urging you to continue turning each page, just to find out what happens next. The game does have its flaws, namely several bugs plus debatable performance on seemingly sufficient systems, however when compared to what's good about the game, these issues often pale into insignificance.

If you're a fan of Bioware's more story-focused RPGs (e.g. Baldur's Gate) or of Knights of the Old Republic, this game is definitely worth a look.