I agree with a lot of the points made in the review but I still thought it was a bit harsh.
The overall graphics are not "ugly", you can't compare everything to Oblivion - that game just set the bar incredibly high. And it also goofed as far as character face models. In Oblivion it's actually jarring - you have all this beautiful, photo-realistic scenery marred by some hideously textured NPC face. In NWN2 the player models fit the scenery more or less.
I also didn't think the gameplay was that bad - what ruined the majority of it were technical issues such as the camera/view angles and the NPC combat behavior. It WAS too linear but that didn't bother me TOO much since the characters were full of personality, dialog was well written and the story was decent.
The interface seems clunky at first but it actually turns out it's more intuitive than NWN's radial menus.
Don't get me wrong, I hardly think the game was perfect and I agree with most of the issues but I would rather play NWN2 out of the box than play NWN1's OC again. Actually, I'd rather rip my eyelids and pour salt in the wounds. That was THE dullest, most tedious RPG I've EVER played. Shame on Bioware.
As for NWN2, you were 100% spot on here: "needed more time and a lot more playtesting by gamers".
But I still don't think the OC was dissappointing at all. Fixing all the technical issues (camera, NPC combat behaviour, slowdown, add more functionality to map, improve inventory management (this was REALLY frustrating), etc.) would improve the game 100%. Hopefully they spend some extra time on the expansion to improve some of these issues and possibly make it less linear.
The overall graphics are not "ugly", you can't compare everything to Oblivion - that game just set the bar incredibly high. And it also goofed as far as character face models. In Oblivion it's actually jarring - you have all this beautiful, photo-realistic scenery marred by some hideously textured NPC face. In NWN2 the player models fit the scenery more or less.
I also didn't think the gameplay was that bad - what ruined the majority of it were technical issues such as the camera/view angles and the NPC combat behavior. It WAS too linear but that didn't bother me TOO much since the characters were full of personality, dialog was well written and the story was decent.
The interface seems clunky at first but it actually turns out it's more intuitive than NWN's radial menus.
Don't get me wrong, I hardly think the game was perfect and I agree with most of the issues but I would rather play NWN2 out of the box than play NWN1's OC again. Actually, I'd rather rip my eyelids and pour salt in the wounds. That was THE dullest, most tedious RPG I've EVER played. Shame on Bioware.
As for NWN2, you were 100% spot on here: "needed more time and a lot more playtesting by gamers".
But I still don't think the OC was dissappointing at all. Fixing all the technical issues (camera, NPC combat behaviour, slowdown, add more functionality to map, improve inventory management (this was REALLY frustrating), etc.) would improve the game 100%. Hopefully they spend some extra time on the expansion to improve some of these issues and possibly make it less linear.