Customer Reviews

Neverwinter Nights(tm) 2 Official Strategy Guide (Forgotten Realms) (Official Strategy Guides (Bradygames))

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I'm not impressed by this. There is some useful information, but much of it is regurgitating details about feats & spells that you can find in the PDF manual that comes with the game.

The biggest disappointment was that while the walk through basically took you through the game with some optional quests it didn't say anything about the Influence system with your party members.

For those of you not familiar with the system introduced in KOTOR you could converse with party members and get to know them better, this would affect how they behaved later in the game. Nothing in the guide gives you direction on which conversations can influence your party members or what options you should pick to gain or lose influence. In fact, the description of the NPCs is nothing more than the stats you'll see when they join the party and a brief 3 line blurb.

Additionally if there are any secrets or easter eggs in the game they were not mentioned in the manual.

Disappointing.

This is about one of the most useless manuals I have ever purchased for a game. I say this with the manual for TES Oblivion as a guide for what a game manual *should* be.

There are only the very shortest of blurbs for each quest in the main storyline available. There are NO side-quest walkthroughs or guides, so if you're like me and have completed Act II before realizing there were people you were supposed to have recruited for Crossroad Keep, well you're hosed. Not only Crossroad Keep, but any side-quest you may have missed. I've found out tons of important and necessary info on the NWN2 Forums that simply do not exist (and should) in this official guide.

I'm just astounded at the complete lack of any real, useful information in this manual. They spend the greater part of the book talking about Character Classes (in the free guide in the boxed game), Spells and Equipment, and very little of it going through what matters most. The actual gameplay.

I've rated this two stars because the enemy stats, maps, spells and equipment breakdowns are interesting and sometimes *gasp* helpful.

My overall recommendation is to save your money and check out the official NWN2 Forums for tips and help, or GameBanshee for a useful walkthrough.

Unsurprisingly, the fine folks at Bradygames have a non-functional 'Contact Us' form. If I put this product out, I, too, would want to make certain that I couldn't receive any feedback regarding it. So here, instead, is the text of my complaint to them, so that you might spend your money more wisely than I did:

Greetings!

I am writing to you regarding the absolutely abysmal strategy guide that I purchased for the game Neverwinter Nights 2. The Bradygames logo on it and the words "Official Strategy Guide" conspired to convince me that I should buy this thing - a treacherous act of deceit that I have yet to recover from. The guide for "Bully" was fantastic, and I have tons of others from Final Fantasy X and X-2, GTA:San Andreas, Front Mission 4, etc. I'm no stranger to Bradygames, and I'm usually more than satisfied with my purchases. But in this case ... well, allow me to list my specific greivances:

1) A huge percentage of the book's contents are directly from the instruction booklet. This is unnecessary padding. It can be safely assumed that I have the instruction booklet, or can download it. I don't need to pay you guys for an extra copy.

2) The 'strategies' are inane, and almost always boil down to "Keep your spellcasters back and have your tanks attack". Any tip that might actually make a fight easier (that I couldn't have come up with myself without half a second's thought) is only given when they're absolutely necessary to triumph. Ideas about where to lure enemies, trap locations (I'm especially upset that traps aren't pointed out at all in the maps). The numbers of enemies present are kept intentionally vague, a la, "Oh, yeah, there's a few spiders over there."

3) The enemy information is perfunctory at best. Special attacks? Special defenses?

4) NOT A SINGLE SIDE QUEST IS COVERED!

5) Information that's just missing. Hey, did you know that there's an iron golem in the Ruins of Arvahn? Well, thanks to reading your guide, I certainly didn't!

6) And finally, the fact that item crafting is only covered in the most slipshod way. You'd think that the fact that you can make your own magical items, armor and weapons would be quite a draw, wouldn't you? It's a shame, then, that there isn't a SINGLE magical item crafting recipe covered in the entirety of this book!

Now, I'm a firm believer in adding something positive to any sort of negative criticism, but honest-to-god, the only thing I can come up with is "the pictures were nice". This 'book' was a travesty, seriously, and from now on, I'm going to opt for Prima books whenever possible. This is seriously inexcusable.

As has been stated in the other reviews, no real substance to this book. I just wanted to add that this is the worst proof-read ever done. My six year old could have done a better job proof-reading. There are even entire passages that appear to be in French. WTF? You would think that as the person typing this out you could go back over your own text. Obviosly didn't happen.
See? It's not even that difficult. I just corrected two errors in my review. Before it was even posted. What a novel concept....

Unfortunately, this is one of the least helpful "strategy" guides I've ever used. Most of the information is in the manual, and the information that you REALLY want from a strategy guide, such as side quests, character subplots, and hidden secrets, is 100% absent. I was most disappointed that it didn't explain the character influence system - what situations and responses would change your influence, and what the ultimate result would be. For example, does influence trigger a side quest for each character or only for certain ones. Influence is hardly even mentioned in this guide. Another glaring omission is the lack of information about item crafting. I expected this guide to detail the different crafting materials, spells, and gems needed to build your own arsenal. Again, hardly even mentioned. I'm not sure what the value of this guide is, really, since everything in it would be discovered in the course of the most casual gameplay.

I wouldn't even bother writing this review with how bad this guide is, except there has to be an outcry at the crime this book is.

It delves too deeply into the classes which is about the only thing it delves into. Good information, but long winded and a good portion of it not useful. It seems to skim and skip over the whole game. Hinting and gesturing. It's worth 2 stars because it has some information and will help give you an idea of what to look at for building up your character, but nothing else. As if they were afraid to spoil anything. If I didn't want anything spoiled, I wouldn't buy the book. And now the only thing that's spoiled is my opinion of this game guide. It completely falls short of anything towards useful.

The guide is horrible. I mainly picked up the guide to get some quick and lazy tips on the crafting and influence system. While the crafting system is briefly touched on, the influence system is not, except to say you'll get a good boost here or there for some response. Also, there are numerous spelling errors throughout the guide, that had to give a second read to make sure I understood exactly what they where saying.

So if you're looking for an in depth look to the game, with answers to side quests, easter eggs, or even detailed boss and quest fights, figure it out on your own, the strategy's for a few of the fights don't really help, except if you run with the basic group, as in the original and first members you pick up.

But there are a few good points, but doesn't make it buy able. The beastiry is decent, and came in handy a few times. Also, the warlock spell progression list, and easier access to prestige classes as good. All and all, the guide is not worth the money, as was stated earlier more then half of the book can be found in the original game guide, and the other in the 'read me' or various information sources inside the game.

Do you remember when games were an actual an art-form and were sold with respect to the paying customers? Innovative games that came in beautiful detailed cardboard boxes. Included were a number of artwork items (paper or cloth maps, pewter figurines) and thick, detailed guide booklets. Nowadays, all we get is a cheap plastic case. Usually broken.

Well, now the faceless accountants that run the gaming business decided to take the next shameless step: they are trying to sell the Game Guide as a Strategy Guide! Yes, this is the case here: a weak walkthrough (one can find much more detailed and helpful ones on the internet) and then whatever should have been included in a classic Game Guide: general maps, weapons list (without unique items), and incomplete lists of NPCs & enemies (bestiary).
Check your good old BALDUR's GATE: the above were all included in the Game guide!

My advice: Don't even think about it!

Being a big fan of Bradygames Guides over the years I find the quality and quantity of information in this product to be shockingly dismal! The guild for Final Fantasy XII is amazing; it's artwork and complete documentation of the game are supurb!

Reading this product is like being in a vast field of uncut hay with tractor that refuses to pull-start but has a 'Bentley' hood ornament. Sad.

A waste of money...free online resources are FAR more complete.

I have only just gotten to the city Neverwinter, but have already noticed a number of things that don't sync up in the game and the guide. The most likely reason is patches have changed certain things. All in all a good guide, but not the best I have ever had. The maps are just so so, often not containing all the information that you might need, as well as some maps not being included at all. Also the orientation of the maps is often much different than the starting point in game, which calls for alot of book turning. There also doesn't seem to be a list of crafting recipes in the book, only a list of items that you can make.

You most likely will need another source of information (online guide, etc) if you are like me and want to find and locate all the items and quests located in this game.

Good luck!!!