Vympel wrote:There is a massive list of all the high quality modules (I said nothing about custom dungeons, so I don't know why you saw fit to bring that up) with their own plots, story lines, and modificiations on the vault sites, IIRC. This was what the game was marketed as- there was never a huge emphasis on the single player side, and it shows- both in the game with it's relatively straightforward plot (which I still found enjoyable) and in the material surrounding the game.
Modules are traditionally custom dungeons with a plot thrown in for motivation, not modifications of the game itself.
Single Player was marred by terrible game balance
How was it unbalanced?
Traps were hideously overpowered, the resting system gave spellcasters the ability to constantly use their most powerful spells with virtually no limitations, the teleportation system allowed players to run away partway through a dungeon and then pick up precisely where they had left off (wounded monsters didn't even get to heal at all), and Bash is ridiculously powerful, anyone who is not a fighter get anally molested by an NPC with Bash.
terrible NPC interaction, and an incredibly linear storyline which was trite and annoying to say the least. So the story sucked, the balance sucked, and the world interaction sucked.
Compared to what?
Compared to the quality of work we saw in Baldur's Gate. You don't need epic scope to have a decent reputation system or character interaction. The style of the games were different, but unless KOTOR has you playing as Anakin Skywalker (or Luke), the scope is still going to be different than Baldur's Gate. It's not a fallacy to expect the same general level of quality found in Baldur's Gate in NWN.
As far as plot, well, I'm sorry, but NWN's plot is not good. The ending was terrible, it lacked closure, and it was so scripted I could taste it. I had developed a "romance" with Linu, but yet the game didn't take this into account when dealing with Aribeth at the end. Brilliant, way to drop the ball there. Not only are the romances half-assed, they don't even consider potential conflicts at all.
Yes, I'm aware that the focus on NWN was the engine itself, and that was made painfully aware to me when the game was released. Multiplayer takes time to establish a decent player base, and even more time if you expect mods to carry it through. Mods extend a game's lifetime, but the game has to have a good lifetime for anyone to be interested in it enough to make or wait for a mod in the first place.
NWN manages to find a curious balance between the game being way too short and rushed to fit the story they provided (which was fairly epic, it just happened too quickly) and overinflating the game with hours of pointless combat against incredible odds.
