The game itself is my favourite all-time. Unfortunately, the GOG version is plagued by severe problems. If you haven't played it for more than a few weeks, you're forced to watch the intro when you open the game. No way to skip it and it's probably 3-4 minutes. This has been a problem for years and never been fixed. On top of that, the GOG version has a tendency to break the graphics, causing them to become blurry. I really wish the GOG people had been more thorough with this game. It deserves better than the poor implementation GOG offers.
This game is the hightligt of the series for me, reaching the right balance where it is engaging with a lot of opportunities, yet not overly complex.
Going back to this game after playing MOO 2 is somewhat frustrating. It is much more primitive and slow. However, the basic ideas are there and it's a fun experience expanding your civilization in space. The various factions add a lot of replayability value as it can be a totally different type of game for some of them.
Like BG1, Enhanced actually enhances the game without introducing game-breaking bugs (as the EE for NWN has a habit of doing every few updates). It's a quality game, although in some aspects clearly inferior to its predecessor. Tons of quests make sure you always have something to do - but tons of quests stacking on top of each other and often interfering with other quests, you're already struggling to complete also mean you never have a break. In BG1, there was time to digest what you were experiencing. In BG2, you're constantly pulled towards something and often in different directions at the same time. It would have been nice if the developers had done something to reduce what feels like quest-spamming. Well, maybe not quests alone, but your teammates also have a lot to say and something what happens in relation to them further complicates things. Pathfinding... I forgot to mention this in my BG1 review, but it's also a problem with the EE there. Occasionally players will move into the same spot and be stuck for a while. Very annoying and boring having to reload or wait until they break free. At least they're not permanently stuck (memories of NWN arriving...). The game is not quite stable and crashes a bit too often for my taste. There's also the graphic problem, where I need to use a complicated trick to have the game shown on my regular monitor instead of the small screen on the laptop. In spite of the problems, it's a game with immense quality, which I highly recommend for fantasty/RPG fans.
I have been quite satisfied with this purchase. Unlike NWN's "enhanced" edition with game-breaking bugs, this actually feels like a step up from the original game, in spite of some challenges. The additions enrich the game and some elements are working considerably better than in the original game. The challenges include the occasional crash (no particular pattern) and graphic issues. I am playing on my laptop, connected to a regular computer screen, but it requires a kind of trick to actually display this particular game on the big screen (closing the laptop and using ALT-TAB to get out of the game before it finishes adjusting to the new screen size - which will result in black screen - then returning to the game, allowing it to adjust to the correct resolution to display it on the big screen). Even after reinstalling it and trying various tips I found online, I couldn't get it to start up normally without first having the laptop open. Some of the additions seem a bit awkward or king of forced(pressure to be "politically correct" or "inclusive"), but at least it's generally really well implemented. I feel this is actually a step up on the original and deserves a good rating, in spite of the problems.
Installing the original NWN on this computer after I upgraded it to Windows 10 will be a huge challenge. I chose to buy and install the Enhanced Edition from GOG. It took a long time to make it start with a more reasonable delay (half a minute instead of several minutes) and I am deeply disappointed with the EE. You can't expect everything to be perfect, but game-breaking issues that appear repeatedly and complete lack of support is unacceptable. Some modules are at least playable, but you expect more from an "Enhanced Edition" than some minor improvements (possibly major ones in the multiplayer part, which I don't use) over the original game and then some game-breaking bugs that make many modules and at least one of the standard campaigns (SOU) unplayable. Some reviewers praise the options offered to module makers. What's the point of creating a better module, if the module is broken at the player's end? Who are you making the modules for? Players or yourself? And sadly, that is the case for NWN EE - for example, you can enjoy the first parts of Swordflight - only be be merged with a chest at the start of part 3! No way to escape or proceed. You can reload and do it again with the same result, but your game is effectively over. NWN EE *breaks* Neverwinter Nights, it doesn't "enhance" it. Deeply misleading title and price - I can certainly understand people using words like "scam". I'd love to see a working version of NWN on GOG. This, however, is a disaster. The original game has effectively been ruined and is unlikely to be fixed. Beamdog ignores reports about these serious problems and they aren't fixed. They keep selling this broken product, without warning potential buyers about the issues and lack of support. Be prepared for a major disappointment if you decide to invest in this. It will only work until you run into one of these EE-generated problems that force you to start a new module and hope that, by some miracle, EE doesn't ruin that.
