It is a shame that there are so many users with performance and crash issues, but I can’t relate: I only have a mid-range gaming laptop and my game has been running smoothly so far. Of course, I have the occasional glitches, but nothing remotely game breaking. Maybe I’ve been lucky. That said, I agree that the game is not really living up to the expectations. I was hoping for a step further than Read Dead Redemption 2 in terms of world building and NPC AI/animations, but so far it feels closer to Saints Row IV or even Mafia III (which had qualities in their own right). The rather idiotic NPC behaviour when driving on the sideway or shooting is truly sending us back to the early days of open world cities in gaming. I’ve read some things about characterization being shallow. That’s unfair to the enormous amount of work put into quality acting, at least for the English version that I know. Writers have been allowed to take time building moving, meaningful interactions. It is true however that this only applies to a select few characters. Outside of the main storyline, plot substance is thin; as far as I can tell, it’s mostly just about sending you to eliminate a target or get a package. Mercenary life, one could say, as expected, but a bit shallow if you have again RDR2 in mind… Yet, after 15 hours, the game still calls for being tested and explored. The structural richness and complexity of the city is a fact. Hacking and sneaking may not provide what you’d like, but that’s an expected result of being a low-level character. So, in a nutshell, is CB2077 impressive? Definitely. Is it enjoyable? Definitely. Is it the breakthrough of its time “defining new norms in worldbuilding”? I can’t say it is.
The first part of the game is enjoyable. There really is a Marsian feel with excellent lighting, dust covering everything and rovers rolling over the bumpy, barren landscape. Setting up the settlement is exciting, but also the time of your first trials and errors. Some complain about the lack of tutorial: as a matter of fact, the lack of tutorial is entirely justified by the nature of the game: no one was there before! And the game mechanics are easy to understand, even if optimization is something to learn as you go. As your first colonists arrive, tension builds up as you try to achieve balance between resource production and availability – this tension will remain throughout and will likely keep you tied up to the game. All in all, this was conceived as an innovative city builder that still retains gameplay rules of the genre (like occasional disasters to thwart your comfort). The game then largely becomes a game of resource management. The player is busy ensuring that all resource types are distributed where they matter, especially for maintenance. Colonists struggle to produce enough of the manufactured goods, while expansion is driven by getting more primary resources and building factories for other goods, in order to become self-sufficient before you run out of money. The technology tree is pretty standard, although in-dome buildings should be more thoroughly upgradable – like accommodations. Ultimately, the lack of feature automation can make it tedious to expand the colony on the map. Although there is always something to do, I find that the overwhelming focus on resource management takes away great potentials to vary the gameplay and get more involved in the adventure itself. There are several flaws that further limit this. The skeleton of a scenario is one of them, and it is unfortunate that there is absolutely no politics at any level in this game. Other city building games do lack a scenario by essence (this is, after all, your own story), but more time spent on exploration with more discoveries and world events would already make the game more interesting… the explorer rovers are underused except for some scarce anomalies. Domes are basically a nice idea, but the way they are designed ultimately kills the immersion. You select lucky folks to take the first steps of humanity into the colonization of Mars, only to find out that you have to fulfill their need… for luxury and shopping! It seems as if people would go all this way just to reproduce a tasteless commoditarian society without any concern for the entire new world they live in – research is all melted together in a “research lab” building, and all the exciting aspects of learning about Mars are reduced to the meager central plot. These living spaces are also all too perfect – no need for waste management, etc. – which strongly contrasts with all the constraints outside of the domes. This casual approach unfortunately breaks apart the only thing that holds this game together: the unique setting of Mars with its own challenges and rewards, and the adventure of living on another planet. The game’s identity is in everything around the domes – inside the domes, this could be any futuristic city building set up. The colonists are otherwise differentiated by a few traits that are again very unimaginative and blunt (“lazy”?!) and it so happens that a great many of them are... alcoholics. Yes, really, it's one of the "flaws" and it's extremely common. This may not be what you’d imagine for a selection of people to send on Mars. To the devs’ merit, the domes’ names are by contrast more creative than I would have expected in this case. In spite of this, it is still satisfying to see the colony grow and become more capable, and the game ends up being addictive anyway. I don’t think this goes much further than getting the biggest domes on your first playthrough, however, and the somewhat mundane domes would make you look back at your colony and wonder what the point of all of this was.
Neverwinter Nights 2 shines by its epic storyline, also blending excellent humour and plot twists, guided by a solid writing around a deep lore, and served by a lovely voice acting (for many of the main characters, at least). Memorable companions will stick around, in the like of what you’d find in a KotOR or Mass Effect, even if some of them are genuinely antipathetic. Remember also that this is from the era that had the Jedi Knight games come out, and from both the form and content, NWN2 yields a similar great atmosphere. The first part of the game will seem very linear for a lot of players, and there is indeed more linearity than some other RPGs, but it also gets much better as you progress. There is a grand adventure awaiting, covering a massive amount of what Fantasy D&D style has to offer. I cannot help but comparing with the recent Divinity:Original Sin II that’s been praised so much, in spite of the time and gameplay gap between the two games. I shrugged reading on Wikipedia that “complexity” was praised in D:OS2 compared to other RPGSs. With all its qualities, it falls short of matching NWN2, if only in combat complexity, with all the possible spell combinations, potions, etc – even if the elemental “combos” remain the strength of D:OS2. The maps will not be so large in NWN2 (another computer time…), and enemy encounters are conceived more traditionally, but it doesn’t make the world appear smaller (hell, think of a Baldur’s Gate or a Pillars of Eternity). In a way, it helps to focus on the plot and its events. Crafting can be tedious but is rewarding, as opposed to collecting items that are useful for barely a single level. Combat is especially easy, and even more casual gamers will want to play on a higher-than-normal difficulty level. Plot problems are also usually dead simple, with one issue on a map solved by a solution “item” on the same map. But – to me at least – that doesn’t bring down the fun as much as the opposite case, with puzzles solved by spotting a tiny poop on a gigantic map, or overfrustrating, overpowered foes (*half spoiler* although you can find at least one in NWN2 *half spoiler*) that make you want to stop playing and load a bad movie instead. Again, I can’t help but thinking about the last phase of D:OS2 which was, overall, awfully balanced (*digression* D:OS was much better in that regard, and others *digression*). Unfortunately, even after all this time, NWN2 is still buggy. Those won’t be of the worst kind, but they are unfortunate enough to take half a star out (which I can't). Often, the skill/spell commands are wayward and the AI doesn’t always execute them as it’s supposed to, which can be frustrating in the most decisive moments of a fight. Nevertheless, NWN2 is an underrepresented, underrated icon of the genre that at the time had the guts to make it into full 3D (when Obsidian is sorta backpedaling now with Pillars…) and should be on any fair GOG virtual rack.
