Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition – Impressions

I’m not a Neverwinter Nights 2 expert, since I never gave the original release much more than about twenty hours or so for the first main campaign. That’s a minuscule amount of time, considering the collection on GoG, and now this Enhanced Edition comes with several expansions, and a whole sea of player made custom adventures. However, I do know why I never finished it. It had camera issues, party-control felt messy, stuttering, questionable story beats, and overall jank that brought the experience down. It has always been my plan to play again one day though, so why not now when the golden opportunity presents itself? With that, the only question remains: has the Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition remedied any of my concerns?

The good stuff
The visuals are improved. I can’t say with how much, but it’s definitely better, especially the lighting, and the most important part: performance. Neverwinter Nights 2 now runs incredibly smoothly, compared to my old copy from GoG, which is one of the fundamentals of enhancing any product. The menus are easier to read and navigate. However, I feel they took the easy route here by just making it clearer by switching it to a simple white/gray font on black background. It comes with zero flair, which sadly is very boring, particularly for something that wants you to be immersed for hours on end. There are also achievements to earn now, and the Steam version will have “workshop” access. This certainly makes it easy to find and use mods. And… that’s essentially it!

Trust me, I’m not trying to sound crass or dismissive here, but I have not noticed anything more distinct beyond the fancier (upscaled) visuals. While the performance improvements (more stable FPS) are great, it’s not too much, considering it’s what is expected going by what you pay for the product.

I should also add that you can now play the game with a controller. This is new, and a positive, but for me, it’s more a novelty than anything else, seeing what the genre is and how the game is structured. It works, but comes off as clunky, as everything takes time with a lot of menu-hopping. Yet, it’s cool to see that it has a dedicated UI with accommodating graphics for game-pad use.  

The same stuff
I don’t want to call this section “the bad stuff”, because that’s not true, but it’s the same stuff you already get, or have, depending on whether you already own the game or not from past releases. The plot is the same, which, to be fair, is expected. The camera, while I think is somewhat improved, still feels awkward, and past memories of me fighting it resurface while playing. It’s probably an engine limitation, but yes, the camera controls can still be a problem. I found it to be best played in “character mode”.

Your comrades still charge forward like maniacs in combat, and while you can limit their behavior under the “behavior” tab, it is somewhat fiddly, and makes the issues of the camera come through stronger. I like having some autonomy for my dungeon diving pals, but they still have a tendency to run off to the most distant foe on the map. Making the whole process feel more like advanced baby sitting than adventuring, with the camera battling you all the way while you try to herd the cats.

One of the most disappointing things that were not changed, or improved upon, is that characters still don’t sheath their weapons in any way. Not even a simple “stick-the-sword-to-the-back” trick for added immersion. Prepare to watch your knight wave his zweihänder in everyone’s face when talking to people, maybe even impaling some by mistake.

Should you buy?
Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition comes off as a bit “cash-grabby”, unless you consider that this release was likely aimed at consoles first and foremost. Then this release makes sense. So, while I don’t think this enhanced edition is bad, as I said, the performance improvement is top-notch. It does come with a hefty price for just that one aspect, if you already own the game in one way or another, that is. If this is your first venture into Neverwinter Nights 2, this is probably the best edition, and the version to buy. You get a lot for your 30 bucks! The OG campaign, plus several expansions that can easily stretch into hundreds of hours. 

Thanks for reading.

/Thomas

– Review copy provided by publisher –