If this game was stable, it would be an evolutionary improvement on NWN 1. Unfortunately, like the first one, is is remarkably unstable. Unlike the first one, it does not seem to have been patched to stability. It crashes a lot, and sometimes crashes so hard it breaks task manager and requires a hard shutdown to clear. Beyond that, it's the usual fare: running around, getting in fights, cursing the AI, turning the AI off, NO turning the AI OFF, wait, why is the AI "off" but still acting? *facepalm*. If you can get past the stability and the AI, it has the classic "rest every fight because why not" syndrome, which doesn't play well with third ed's linear-fighters-quadratic-mages syndrome. The combat is also fluid, in a bad way - there are mobs of rogue-types who will happily run straight past your melee, AoOs be damned, to gank whoever they feel like ganking. But on the bright side, friendly fire is off by default, so you can fireball the ensuing furball until the enemy stop twitching... honestly, is this engaging or fun tactics? There's also the camera, which I found a minor annoyance, but still annoying - it spontaneously zooms in and changes angle a lot, and looking around for doorways is actually a chore at times. I quit in the city of neverwinter without ever getting into the locked off district. It's a shame, because there are bits in here that could have been good. But bits aren't enough. If it didn't crash all the time I'd give it two stars, and if the AI actually turned off when the button says it's off I might go as high as 2.5. I'm also playing Baldurs Gate 1 (enhanced) and Pathfinder Kingmaker at the moment, and both of those make this look like amateur hour.

NWN2 is a weird game. It's pretty much identical to NWN1, aside from better graphics and better gameplay systems. However, it never really caught on as much as NWN1 did. There aren't as many modules that were made for it, and nowhere near as many PWs. Eventually it was abandoned, and because the game never got an "Enhanced Edition" upgrade like NWN1 did, it's incredibly buggy in it's current state. However, if you can get it on sale, then it's worth playing for a nice little gem known as "Mask of the Betrayer". It's an expansion of NWN2's base campaign, and it's without a doubt the best official module in the entire NWN series, and arguably one of Obsidian's best works. It's brutally difficult, borderline unfair, and riddled with bugs caused by NWN2's ancient engine, but at it's core is an incredible story and an amazing adventure. Aside from MotB, there isn't really much here. There are a few decent user made modules, but at the end of the day you'll get more mileage out of buying NWN1 instead.

If you don't have time and want to quickly check out this game, just play Mask of The Betrayer, its amazing!

The controls and camera suck for the base game even if the story involves some interesting decisions. However the expansions developed by Obsidian handle excellently, and Mask of the Betrayer is a truly interesting campaign you can skip straight to.

I enjoyed this game, even the original campaign which apparently a lot of people hated (though at first I thought all the companions were really annoying). Bugs were my main problem. There were just so many of them. When I thought I'd seen them all, another would emerge. For the most part, it was nothing major, but I did have to reload a few times or go hunting on Google for a solution. So, if you want to buy this game, I'd say save often (like, twice as often as you usually do) because you probably WILL have to reload to an earlier save because of some bug, and it probably WILL be super inconvenient for you. And don't buy it if bugs make you very angry.