Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir Reviews
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What Storm of Zehir does best is in bringing a little bit of Forgotten Realms to life without going too over the top on the story. Hardcore fans will no doubt enjoy the new technology and focus on authentic D&D adventuring, but those looking for another engaging solo experience will miss the cinematic elements and forgiving gameplay. Despite some great ideas, a few of which aren't as well realised as they could have been, this expansion just didn't excite us as much as we'd hoped, and we'd certainly have enjoyed the tactical combat more had the interface been a little more up to scratch.
While the other is at IGN's NWN2 Vault with a score of 8/10:
Probably the most enjoyable part of Storm is wandering around the large overland maps looking for the next town, crypt or dungeon. There are tens of interesting places to find, many of which are just lying around waiting for the next adventuring party to pass by. En route, if you have the right skills, you'll often find ancient traps, boxes of loot, unusual plants or all manner of other interesting things lying around the wilderness. This makes wandering around a slightly addictive pleasure particularly given that you are encouraged to recount your adventures to the famous Forgotten Realms explorer and author Volo who, no doubt, has a witty comment for inclusion in one of his esteemed travel guides. The only minus is that many of the crypts and dungeons you will find are rather small, often only a few rooms filled with a particular type of creature. These are fun to clear out but it would have been nice to learn a bit more about the history of a particular crypt before dropping in briefly to cleanse it of the undead. There's a huge number of side quests in the game, although most are fairly simple and involve fetching a particular item or clearing out a dungeon. Still, it's a lot of fun ticking each one off your list.
It'll come as no surprise that trading is also forms a major part of the new game mechanics. As (enforced) employees of a Samarachan trading company you have a responsibility to make profits by trading resources and eventually setting up caravan routes from town to town. It has to be said that the trading system gets off to a disappointingly slow start as your party traipses around Samarach with goods bought in one town trying in vain to find someone who'll take them off their hands for a higher price. However, the Sword Coast appears to have a less saturated economy with large differences in the prices between towns. Perhaps surprisingly though, the trading system ends up being more about setting up caravan routes than carrying around goods yourself. You will however often find yourself using income from the caravans to buy rare resources to use to improve your caravans. Soon enough, the whole of the Sword Coast will be covered with your caravans and you'll be running around fighting off the odd monster that got through the Greycloak patrols. Although travelling to new towns to set up caravan routes is addictive, the trading system as a whole doesn't really require much thought. Rewards from trading come easily and, with a bit of reinvestment, you can become extremely wealthy. However, progress through the storyline is tied into the trading system and if you move through the plot at a normal rate, trading will be a useful money-spinner rather than a source of near-infinite riches. You don't want your party to start thinking that they'd be a lot better off quitting this whole adventuring malarkey and just hanging around at base waiting for the money to roll on in!
