NWN2 drivel

Over the weekend I had the extreme pleasure and pain of dusting off NeverWinter Nights 2.

For the most part, it is highly enjoyable but there are some aspects that significantly detract from what could make it an extremely fun game.

For the good parts:
First, the story line. It's detailed, well-thought and interesting. If anything, the story is the one reason I keep coming back.

Item crafting is cool too! I like making my own weapons. And by leveraging the leveling on my comrades I can usually get my magical armors, etc.

It's D&D! And it's the second-best implementation of the core rules I've seen. (ToEE was better, but that game has a slew of issues all it's own).

Ultimately these things keep drawing me back.

But, I get disgruntled easily and here is why:

Camera controls - you have to hold the middle mouse wheel down to pan the camera - and there is no option to change it to the right mouse. Even to simply swap the buttons.

Keyboard: While actually playing the game (but thankfully not in the login screen for multi-player and not in the character creation) - the game remaps my keyboard back to QWERTY - even though QWERTY is not even installed on my computer. It refuses to use my Dvorak key layout for the in-game shortcuts. As a result, I have to press "p" to rest, and "J" for my character screen, etc. It's bad. And it's frustrating.

And when I go to remap the keyboard, the remap screen swaps BACK to Dvorak, so then I go to press "R" where "R" is on my keyboard, but then it inserts "O". I gave up and am relearning the keys by position instead of letter - "Rest" is top row, fourth key.

And then, we arrive to the worst of it all.

In order to do anything significant while in town, you have to interact with the NPCs, but every time someone does (like to talk, or to open a buy window, or anything really) all the other players freeze while they get to watch what the first one chose. This causes so much dialog related down time it is insane and again, frustrating.

So, since I am playing with friends, I am going to finish doing so, but the game will be going back on my shelf when I am done.

And really, that's a shame. Because the story and possible interactivity cries out to keep going.

The frustration factor keeps it in check.