Neverwinter Nights was an iconic DnD video game and when it received a sequel from Obsidian, it was an interesting experience. The shift from Bioware to Obsidian would of course mean the game would be different, but it was still a multiplayer focused RPG that was great for those who wanted to make their own content for others to play. Neverwinter Nights received an enhanced edition a few years ago, and now Aspyr has taken up the task of enhancing Neverwinter Nights 2, but is the result worthwhile?
Well, Neverwinter Nights 2 Enhanced Edition is a very mixed bag. Playing on PC, this version seems lacking to say the least. Yes the previously made content works still, and it is based on the 3.5 ruleset, but the update choices are bizarre to say the least. Some issues from the original that were the result of technical limitations at the time are still present, such as Tiefling player characters still not having tales, and multiple bugs from the original being completely unchanged. These bugs include character animations, character model clippings, texture issues and simply getting stuck in glitched areas. This is supposed to be a remaster and yet many issues were left in, even bugs the community fixed years ago.
The textures have been upscaled, which sounds nice in theory, but whatever was done to upscale them did a terrible job and some disparity in locations and characters are extremely jarring. What’s worse is that the controller support that was advertised, does not feel optional at all because the new UI is heavily dependent on it, which takes away from the experience when playing on PC. When using a mouse, the original UI is present and that UI had plenty of issues fans were hoping to see improved this time around for mouse and keyboard users.
To be honest, in many ways the GOG version of the original feels better at the moment and that is never something you want to hear about a remaster. There are missing graphical options, keybinding is broken, and the multiplayer browser is inferior in every way. And to pile on, new bugs, such as audio issues, have been introduced in this version. Multiplayer in general feels horrible here compared to the GOG version of the original, and multiplayer is the main appeal of the Neverwinter Nights games.
So is this a complete disaster? Well, on PC this is not worth the time to play for now. Maybe in a few months or so, it will be fixed, but for now, stick to the GOG version of the original. But we also received console versions of this Enhanced Edition, so what is the story there?
Playing the console version of Neverwinter Nights 2 Enhanced Edition is a different experience and it becomes clear that this enhanced edition was made with consoles in mind. We played the Nintendo Switch version for this review, which itself has some issues. The port runs horribly on Nintendo Switch, but when played on a Nintendo Switch 2 system, is a much improved experience.
Neverwinter Nights 2 Enhanced Edition contains the main game and all expansions and official modules and is a deeply immersive RPG that encourages a co-op experience rather than controlling a whole party yourself. That said, some of the expansions and modules were made with single player in mind, which is good because the main quest is a bit by the numbers, Not to say it is bad, but nothing really stands out.
The gameplay is a fairly standard CRPG experience that sees you form a party, crawl through dungeons, fight enemies and level up, and explore the world. The character creation is rather deep, if a bit buggy right now, and allows for customization well.The game uses real-time with pause (RTwP) real time with pause combat that lets you pause the real time action to issue commands to your party, and it generally feels okay.
There is nothing that especially stands out in the main campaign though, but the expansions are another story. Mask of the Betrayer is an excellent expansion that focuses on single player content. It picks up after the main game leaves off, but adds in new mechanics that help to change things up in a good way. Storm of Zehir and Mysteries of Westgate, are still multiplayer focused, but do have some single player content, and are overall smaller and less standout than the original campaign and Mask of the Betrayer.
There are still issues on the Switch version on Switch 2, with the camera being a mess. This is actually a major issue on the PC version as well, especially when compared to the original version on GOG. It is not game breaking, but really hampers the overall experience.
So overall, Neverwinter Nights 2 feels like it did not even do the bare minimum for an enhanced version, and the focus seemed to be on porting it to consoles instead. This was a massive letdown and I cannot recommend it at this time. Even the console version is not enough to make me recommend picking up the game, and for now, I say give this a pass.
Disclaimer: Steam and Nintendo Switch review keys were provided
