NWN 2: Storm of Zehir - Review @ G4tv

[Dhruin]

NWN2: Storm of Zehir has been reviewed at G4tv, with a score of 4/5 even though the author doesn't sound that excited. Let's go straight to the conclusion:
If you're a fan of Neverwinter Nights 2 then this is a no-brainer purchase. The over land map section of the game is hardly revolutionary but does add a much more open feeling to the game - and finding random magic weapons and toys hiding in the trees on the way to town is always a nice bonus. Obviously if the original game and its first expansion bored you to tears this will as well, but we don't figure you'd have read this far if that were the case.
More information. (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=11118)

[darklord]

There's no link to the review! Here you go,

http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/reviews/1902/Neverwinter_Nights_2_Storm_of_Zehir_Review.html

Generally good review, except the reviewer think the Swashbuckler is "a high-level, niche class" (it's not it's a new base class)

Daniel.

[DArtagnan]

I still haven't tried this one - but I seem to be hearing conflicting reports about its length. This review calls it lengthy, which is not what I've been hearing from other sources.

In my opinion, a CRPG isn't lengthy unless it's at least 20 hours long for an experienced gamer - and I have little interest in a short game of this nature.

Can anyone tell me roughly how much time I can expect to spend playing this, if I do most of the side-stuff?

[Starwars]

I definetely spent longer on SoZ than MotB on my first playthrough. If you're the exploring type, I would definetely say more than 20 hours.

It being short is one complaint which I seriously have no idea how one could make about SoZ. Unless you're just burning through the main quest (which is not that long I might add), there is definetely plenty to do and find.

[Nikus]

Took me about 30 hrs, explored all I could find. It took me less than half of that to finish MotB.

[DArtagnan]

Thanks for the info :)

Think I'll give this one a look.

[txa1265]

I have spent well over 20 hours and am not near done, but then I have also spent too much time meandering the overland map ... that is a good and bad thing.

[Relayer]

This is on my "to get" list but not really sure.

I thought the NWN 2 OC was mediocre - although compared to NWN 1's OC it could be called an epic masterpiece, heh.

I wanted to love MoTB, but I really hate the engine. Great story, characters and setting but the camera control is horrible, the interface feels cumbersome and the dungeon designs are extremely dull. Aside from that combat wasn't very difficult.

I'm hoping Obsidian get to do NWN 3 and it's on a much better engine. Heck, I wouldn't mind if they used ToEE's engine! As long as they don't go all 1st Person :)

[NFLed]

I was on the fence about getting this due to the reviews. The most scathing comment for me was that the main storyline was very short and uninteresting so I worried about not becoming immersed in what was going on.

I went ahead and purchased this anyway and am having a ton of fun with it (not just fun but a ton of fun). The main storyline is not epic save the world but it is enjoyable and fits, and it's not short it's a decent size. There are a whole lot of sidequests and your characters make an impact on the world not just through questing (which is fun) but also through helping build the economy with an optional and fun system for setting up trade routes etc.

This doesn't just feel like a NWN2 home-built module as some have commented, it has several new features including the overland map (which is a big part of the game), trade routes, teamwork feats, etc.

I haven't finished but I've probably played about 30 hours so I'm probably 3/4 of the way through, it doesn't seem small to me.

[aries100]

Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir are not stand-alone Crpgs; they are expansion packs or add-ons to the original NWN2 OC Crpg. 20-30 hours for an expansion pack is very reasonable, imho. I would like to see a third expansion, too.

[Cabel Blacke]

Storm of Zehir feels a bit like a make-up to me... i.e., a bit of the complete game that NWN2 developers originally intended to produce, but perhaps ran out of time. I particularly like the way skillchecks are handled now in conversations. Being able to actually use those conversation skills, similar to how they would be used in pen and paper session, is a great improvement over the classic Bioware version. The game is certainly longer than 20 hours if you do any number of exploring and sidequesting, etc.