Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir

"Great in theory, average in practice"

Introduction

Storm of Zehir is Neverwinter Nights 2's second expansion, and its flagship feature is the ability to create and customise a full party with which you can explore a large overland map, with the hopes of recreating a gameplay reminiscent of the classic Dungeons and Dragons computer games. Between this and other features, Storm of Zehir succeeds in fulfilling its premise: that of delivering a non-linear group-based adventure filled with places to explore. However, it lacks ambition and some features are simply not as polished as they should have been.

Gameplay 7/10

Unlike any previous expansion of the Neverwinter Nights franchise, Storm of Zehir's main new features are closely tied to the stock campaign. Although these features can be used through the toolset to create similar adventures, this also means that you cannot replay the original two campaigns or other modules released to date using Storm's party creation system and overland map. Of course, such backward compatibility would be impossible without totally rebuilding the old campaigns, but the fact remains that, from a gameplay point of view, the main new goodies see a more limited use. If you find yourself not enjoying the campaign much (and some people will not), you will find that Storm brought you very little in the end.

Storm of Zehir adds a very liberal amount of core features to the game, the highlights being two new races (yuan-ti and grey orc), one base class (swashbuckler) and two prestige classes (hellfire warlock and doomguide). All of this allows for more character options, which is never a bad thing. Beside these however, Storm of Zehir does not provide much new material to the core game. A few new spells and feats were added, but nothing to write home about.

The rest of the gameplay features discussed from now own apply only to the Storm of Zehir campaign, and eventually to user-made modules that would use the system.

The idea behind party creation is that you get to create four characters instead of having only one and relying on companions that you recruit. The good thing is that it adds a lot of depth to the game, since you basically plan your group in any way you want; from a balanced party of adventurers to a group of demented gnomes. Obviously, it also adds a lot of replay value, as the possible combinations are virtually limitless. Storm of Zehir is the first D&D game since Icewind Dale 2 and Temple of Elemental Evil that allows you to really create any kind of adventuring group you want, and if you are the sort of player who likes to try different combinations with a variety of classes you will most likely enjoy Storm of Zehir. The bad side though is that companions/NPCs normally add a good measure of role-playing depth, since they have their own personalities and goals, and this is missing in Storm of Zehir. There are a couple of companions you may recruit, but they are quite nondescript.

Party creation is done in-game, through the use of a special book item that you will find in inns and such. This came in as a bit of a disappointment, as it makes it feel like the new party creation feature is merely attached to the game, rather than being an integral part of it.

Along with party creation comes party-based dialogue. When you speak to someone, or interact with something, the dialogue window that pops up allows you to choose which character in your group will reply or interact with the object. This allows each character to have a chance to value his or her skills, which often bring up new conversation options or actions. As a whole, I think this works pretty well.

In the same line of thought, the various skills tend to be used much more prominently than in the other official campaigns, both in conversations and when interacting with objects. The overland map sees an extensive use of skills such as survival, spot, listen, hide and move silently, and this is very welcome since those skills are unfortunately often left out in the cold. Of all the official campaigns released for both NWN games, Storm of Zehir is definitely the one that makes the most use of skills; and I see this as a very good thing.

Instead of travelling by clicking on an area on a drawing like in the two previous campaigns, you can now roam freely around two “overland maps”. The overland maps are essentially scaled down versions of a normal area, and you simply click to move around it. The maps are quite large and dotted with lots of random treasures and (extremely) small dungeons that you can uncover. There are also a couple of cities in which you can stop by, to trade or rest in an inn. Some of the cities have their own area map, but these tend to be extremely small. At its core, the overland map is a quite refreshing concept and it works nicely. For all intends and purposes, it can be compared to what is used in the Final Fantasy games. However, the amount of work that went on the overland maps means that the area maps for cities and dungeons were seriously neglected.

There are many roaming encounters on the overland map, as to keep things a bit spicy. Unfortunately, these encounters indirectly enhance one of Neverwinter Nights 2's main flaws: the abundance of loadings. Compared to other games of a similar genre, loading times have always been a torn at NWN2's side. The roaming encounters of Storm make this even more prominent because of the way they work: whenever you run into a random encounter on the overland map, you have to sit through a loading screen that takes you to a small “battlefield” map. Once you are done, you have to wait for another loading to get back to the map. These loadings are not really painfully long (though still longer than Oblivion's area transitions for example), but the real issue is how often you have to sit through them. Soon enough you will find yourself praying to whatever gods your characters worship to avoid encounters at all costs. More so than any other campaign or module, Storm of Zehir will have you wait and stare at the loading screen very often. A better system to make these random encounters smoother would have gone a long way into making the game more presentable.

Another, yet minor, point of concern is the camera system. Obsidian has tried through patches and both expansions to give more options to the player, and Storm emphasises their “three modes” approach. Basically, there are three main camera modes: character, exploration and strategy, and you can configure each of them with a plethora of options (too many for its own good). Whereas character camera is an over-the-shoulder MMO-like camera, and exploration is basically NWN1's classic top-down camera that we have all come to love, the strategy camera tries to make party-play easier by giving the camera an “Infinity Engine” feel (like that of Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale). Given the nature of the game, you will not want to stay often in character mode since it is too hard to control things while in this mode. On the flipside, the strategy mode, which should be the most appropriate one for Storm, simply does not feel streamlined enough to make party controlling smooth. In the end, I found that NWN1's camera style is still king, though it is not perfect for individually controlling all your characters. Instead of trying to develop vastly different modes, they should have focused on nailing down one mode that works for everything. Considering the game's focus on party play in a combat-heavy setting, it is a bit disappointing to have to struggle with control issues.

Ultimately, it all comes down to the fact that the Neverwinter Nights series was never made with party play and overland map travel in the first place. The engine is not very permissive to such mechanics, which limits the implementation of the features. There is no doubt that a more “classic” expansion more along the lines of Mask would have played more to the game's strength, but somewhere you have to admire the designers' nerve to try something different.

Story 6/10

Storm of Zehir is not a big winner as far as story is concerned. Despite the fact that the point of the game is to give players a chance to do some random dungeon diving and exploration, that does not mean that a good story is impossible to make. Storm of Zehir is an extremely impersonal and generic game, and the story feels more like an excuse to direct around people that would not be able to enjoy a sandbox game without having their hand held by Obsidian.

In fact, more often than not, you advance the story by developing the merchant company with which you are affiliated, which is accomplished by trading goods between various towns. The trading mechanics, which are so simple that the word “mechanics” is probably an overstatement, do not really have their place as the driving force of the storyline. Say what you will, but in a D&D game one should expect to brave dungeons and such to find treasure – and although you can do this in Storm of Zehir, the game forces you to play the delivery boy/girl for your merchant company sooner or later if you want to be able to say that you completed the game. The main questline even comes off as being a bit insignificant next to some side quests you pick up (most of which are rather dull to start with!).

As the introduction in the game manual puts it, Storm of Zehir is a “light-hearted adventure”; which is not a bad thing by itself, but it was simply not developed to a satisfactory level here.

Video 7/10

Not much has changed here. The head models are still quite ugly, but environmental eye candy is very nice. The overland map is very colourful and vibrant, and looks great overall (if a bit cartoonish).

Audio 7/10

Once again, not much has changed. A couple of nice new music tracks were added, and a few lines have a voice over. Voice acting has highs and lows, but remains average overall.

Replay Value 6/10

The replay value of the stock campaign does not come from trying different choices or aiming for different endings this time around, but from creating vastly different party combinations and testing them out. It arguable takes a certain kind of player to enjoy these things though, and although such players will probably enjoy the freedom and virtually endless party combinations that Storm offers, others who prefer more conventional adventures will find the game to be lacking in replay value.

As someone who (normally) likes to spend time creating greatly different parties, I have to say that Storm did not hold my attention as much as other similar games (namely Icewind Dale). As I hinted to earlier, the whole party system they have in place feels rough and the campaign itself is lacklustre in the long run.

Replay value in the Neverwinter Nights games mostly comes from community-made modules and multiplayer persistant worlds. More than two years after release, it is safe to say that NWN2 failed to gather as much momentum as the original game and the pool of available adventures, both online and single player modules, is much slimmer than it was for NWN1; and this obviously limits the replay value of the package.

Conclusion

Storm of Zehir provides a decent trip to the roots of Dungeons and Dragons, that of exploring wilderness and dungeons as a group of would-be heroes who seek fame and fortune. The party creation and overland map features work well enough, even if they feel a bit tacked on and unpolished at times. The campaign is decently entertaining, though one should not expect it to be a continuation of the kind of storytelling that took place in Mask of the Betrayer; it is a very different game style, with a bit of a “sandbox” feel. The game's most important flaws though remain the sheer number of loading screens you have to sit through, the forgettable storyline, and the lacklustre area design for cities and dungeons.

Down the road, Storm of Zehir is decently entertaining, but it does lack some depth, falling short of Mask's story and Icewind Dale's streamlined party mechanics. The good ideas are all there, but the transition from theory to practice was a bit rough.

Final score: 6.75/10 = 7/10
(50% gameplay, 25% story/replay value average, 25% video/audio average)

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/11/09

Game Release: Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir (US, 11/18/08)