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I think it was about a year ago that I finished this game. I only finished it once before with a Fighter/Mage and I remember really enjoying the game. I didn't mind all those item-retrieving quests at the time. I haven't played any RPGs since because of time constraints. Now however I find myself with all the time in the world so I decided to reinstall NWN and give it another go, to relive the experience so to speak.

This time I thought I'd play a rogue character and I took him 'til Port Llast. Then, all of a sudden, it hit me. Oh. My. Freakin'. God. This. Game. Sucks. Where was all the fun I had the first time through? I don't remember it being this bad... Was I being delusional? How could I have blinded myself to all the flaws this game so apparently has? Did I want to believe in the hype of NWN so much that I simply blocked out the negative aspects of the game? The answer is yes, I believe I'm guilty of all the above. NWN is boring and repetitive. The experience of playing NWN nowhere nears the heights of the BG and IWD series or PS:T.

But I did not give up hope. Maybe, just maybe I'm bored because I've been through the OC before. I already had SoU installed so I gave that a shot. Yes, playing a fresh campaign will surely bring back the enjoyable memories I initially had of NWN, I told myself. After creating a new character and watching the intro, I had my very first quest in SoU. I had to... retrieve four items.

NWN, allow me to introduce you to the garbage can. Good riddance.


Now I wonder if you guys had any thoughts similar to mine? I know that was 60 hours of my life I'll never get back.

 

See my post in this topic

 

Well, don't let the fact you are charged to find four items stop you. Sou is a rather good campaign, though not achieving the heights of hotu. The main objective may be the same, but the way you have to proceed is much different from the oc. So don't dismiss it on the fact that you need to get some items.

 

I agree that the Official Campaign leaves a lot to be desired, because it massively over-emphasizes stupid combat thanks to hordes of dumb encounters placed on every freaking map.

But SOU is a little different. Encounters are more scripted and more intelligent. There's usually a way to bypass tough fights, or reduce their difficulty, by talking with the right person beforehand. You can even talk your way out of many fights, and doing so gives you advantages later.

As Meatdog said, Hordes of the Underdark is outstanding, and very challenging. Not much dumb fighting here either; enemies are intelligently placed in preplanned situations, and there are some very tough fights as a result. Lots of extra character-development goodies, too.

Also, there are many truly outstanding fan-made modules available for download at nwvault.com. You can't really go wrong with any of the modules in the Hall of Fame, IMO.

 

Sigh, couldn't they have thought up of better quests than 'item-retrievals'? I've lost count of how many times this quest has been thrown at me throughout the whole game.

Anyway, I decided to give the game a chance. I trudged through the first hour or so, and I liked how there were more dialogue before combat. I suppose SoU has improvements over the OC but it remains to be seen if the improvements are enough to sustain my interest in the game.

By the way, is it just me or are the battles hard/unfair? I'm playing a fighter character with Xanos (concentrating on sorcerer) and it seems that I die a lot. Somehow, I keep getting terrible rolls in combat while the enemy hits me as if I'm rooted as a tree. With 16 STR and Weapon Focus I still spend most of my time swinging in the air, and a 12 DEX and 8 points in Parry skills does nuts for me. Maybe I've just lost my skills after a one year hiatus from RPGs...

 

The fights in SoU are much more difficult than the ones in the OC.