Many Winter Nights lost
Many moons ago Neverwinter Nights was the first RPG’s I had ever owned and played on PC, the bygone days of having a less than sufficient PC and more than enough time to play it were long gone and the game got a release not too long on consoles, while the appeal was not there for me to give the console version ago it was enough to warrant an enhanced version of Neverwinter Nights 2 with all the expansions.
So here I am almost 20 years later playing my childhood once again but does it live up to the past I spent countless hours in. PC games depending on the game tend to for the most part not translate well onto Console although many have had great success in doing so. Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is not one of those games, Neverwinter Nights 2 on PC required many shortcuts and being able to micromanage your party is a challenge in itself and on console this hasn’t translated too well, the camera is certainly its biggest weakness and you will find yourself constantly battling just to get it in a position that you feel comfortable with, in open larger outdoor areas this is less of an issue but when you are inside houses or tight areas where other object exist you can expect the camera to jolt and get stuck behind objects and then suddenly find it snap back and up close to your characters. It definitely feels clunky because of it and that extra unnecessary steps need to be taken just to select a different character and manage your characters Inventory, these issues alone can certainly make the game feel immersion breaking.
Performance of Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is generally ok overall but I expected a bit more especially on PS5, the game suffers long loading times, something that I had when playing the game originally on PC which I did not expect to be a thing on a console with far more powerful hardware. The game certainly runs better but there are some slow downs in the heat of battle and again due to the game not having a massive visual upgrade, this is something I would not expect to hurt the performance of the game.
The game does not have next gen graphics, personally I feel like it does not need it, I actually enjoy the graphical style and I love how they tried to keep it as close to the original, there is something comfortable about this style of RPG from the early to late millennium that I enjoy, not just with Neverwinter Nights but many other games at the time such as Summoner, Oblivion and Risen. The UI is certainly cleaner and easier to look at and does the job providing you information but it has not changed much but still very much a charm to its original roots.
I had run into a somewhat ground-breaking bug during my time with Neverwinter Nights 2, although this was early on and I somehow managed to fix it, during the fair when you play as Amie Fern you are tasked with showing off several spells, one of which was the enlarge spell that I had casted incorrectly, because of this I was stuck in the fenced area and unable to recover the spell even though I had rested several times which did nothing, It was only until I had reloaded the game had this fixed it and I was able to continue, since then I had not encountered any others although being a ported PC game it is likely some may still have gotten through.
Neverwinter Nights 2 is a hardcore game and if you are looking for a more relaxed experience such as the aforementioned Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition may not be for you. Aside from the clunky gameplay that has not transferred well onto console, the games other aspects such as difficulty and micromanaging a team that might put you in a bad position if you respond lightly to its controls could be enough for you to not have a good time, adjusting to the controls takes some getting used to but once you do, Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is a massive game with so much potential and replay-ability.
The games sound and audio is fantastic, the classic fantasy music fits any situation be it you are exploring dense forests or in the middle of a tense fight or just casually walking through towns, the music does a good job of immersing you in its world. Voice acting is also great and there is a sheer amount of it which again also makes the game way more immersive.
Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition contains Mask of the Betrayer, Storm of Zehir, and Mysteries of Westgate expansions which can easily throw you into over 100 plus hours of content. Whether you are a fan of Neverwinter Nights or into Dungeons and Dragons and hardcore RPG’s and can get past the awkward controls, Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is still worth your time, if you are wanting custom campaigns and mods though then you will not find those here, although the game does retain multiplayer features across all consoles. Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is at its core the full released game as it was, now just on console instead.
Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is still a game I enjoy and I am prepared to sink many more hours into, bugs and clunky controls aside it is a game that I have fond memories of, hopefully these are issues that can be easily fixed and if so it will make the experience far more enjoyable, if you enjoy classical Dungeons and Dragons, complex battles and fine tuning your perfect party then I can recommend Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition but if you want an easier more casual experience then you may want to sit this one out.
A PlayStation 5 code was provided by Aspyr. This This article is featured on OpenCritic
