I finally finished the NWN official campaign.
Surprisingly, my Druid was only a lowly level 15 at the end of the campaign. That’s probably due to my having quite a retinue by my side as I played the game. The larger the group, the lower the XP earned and I usually travelled with a henchman, an animal companion and a summoned creature so that explains my slow advancement.
The fact I had a relatively low-level character meant the final battle was a bit of a pain. This was compounded by the fact the designers removed the cheatsy teleport and rest repeatedly option for the battle against the boss of bosses. I only realised this after I had exhausted most of my Druid’s offensive spells but fortunately, I had saved most of the scrolls and potions I had found and this hoard helped turned the tide of the battle.
My overall impressions of the official campaign? The first two chapters were bland and although the campaign did pick up steam in the third chapter, I still found it lacking.
For one thing, there weren’t any memorable characters. Aribeth could have been a contender but she wasn’t given much opportunity to make an impression on players characterisation-wise aside from a few exposition-heavy conversations.
There was a mildly touchy-feely moment towards the end when Tomi, my sidekick of choice, expressed nervousness about the prospect of dying but whatever sympathy I had for the character was lost the moment he said, “Woot!” Death is too good for people who say “woot!” Don’t get me started on people who spell it “w00t.”
On the whole, I was indifferent to the characters in the game. In contrast, the Baldur’s Gate II characters were so vivid and engaging, I would always feel bad whenever one of them died.
Talk the talk
A screencap of the final conversation from the game. (Certain details have been blurred to avoid spoilers being revealed because life as we know it would not be worth living if anyone should suss out minor story details about a two-year-old game they haven’t played yet.)
The differences between the various reply choices in NWN conversations when juxtaposed always cracked me up and these conversation nodes were no different.
Reply 1 would suit the unassuming hero.
Reply 2 just screams 12-year-old “w00t”-ing h@XX0r.
And reply 3? Halliburton executives!
