Today at E3 there was a playable version of the much-anticipated Neverwinter Nights 2. The game sports its brand new graphics engine, plus a deeper character development and customization scheme. Unfortunately, this build was so early that we found it almost unplayable.
The lighting and graphics engine is most definitely a massive improvement over the previous game. Zooming into a close-up of the character revealed graphics perfectly on par with a top notch FPS. Zooming out to regular playing level also showed everything to be more detailed, impressively so. Down to the bags of feed or barrels strewn around a house the detail is painstakingly applied to every object and building in the new world.
However there were some very severe clipping issues, a completely unwieldy control scheme that involved turning to the direction you wish to go and THEN pushing forward, (which for some of us is the most hated way to control a character ever) that marred the gameplay. People were stuck halfway through doors, and attempting to use items involved some serious graphical glitches. While we didn,t have enough time with the build to determine the customization of the controls, or to get much more information other than “more of that Neverwinter experience that you know and love, but enhanced,” but we,re sure that this will flesh out to be better than the last installment, but not until the engine,s issues are sorted out and we can check out a more playable build.
