If there’s one thing we’re all guilty of, including you, it’s forgetting to mention Neverwinter Nights 2 in the same breath as Baldur’s Gate II, Knights of the Old Republic, and Pillars of Eternity. The Obsidian RPG is one of my favorite games ever, and yet, I’ll still forget to bring it up when totting the best RPGs. It’s like it has a curse upon its name, fated to go unmentioned. But perhaps that’s finally to be lifted, with the fantastic news that it’s due to receive an Enhanced Edition from Aspyr.
BioWare’s original Neverwinter Nights launched with its own solid 60-hour solo campaign, but the game was primarily about equipping players with the tools to create their own online D&D campaigns. That’s where its legacy lies, certainly, and Aspyr subsidiary Beamdog gave that game the remastering treatment back in 2018. But Obsidian’s sequel, released four years later in 2006, flipped the script. Yes, this was also a game designed to make creating player campaigns as accessible as possible, but first and foremost, it was its single-player story, and wow. Featuring some of the best companion characters in any of the BioWare-likes that made up the glory years of the RPG genre, this was the tale of an orphan, raised by a master elven ranger, setting out to defeat the King of Shadows.
BioWare aided the development, much as it had for Obsidian’s other borrowed sequel, Knights of the Old Republic II, while the game had former Black Isle employees responsible for the extraordinary Planescape: Torment in prominent positions. It was a game created by a development supergroup, and it shone for it.
Of course, like so many 20-year-old games, it does feel awfully clunky now, so it’s excellent news to hear Aspyr is giving it a remaster. Here’s the trailer, but don’t get over-excited at the opening moments—that’s just a new rendered cutscene:
Rather crucially, this is going to ship with all the expansion packs, and given we’re talking about a game from 2006, that doesn’t mean a bunch of new outfits and a bonus gun skin—Mask of the Betrayer, a DLC expansion released in 2007, is a whole new three-act story featuring the same characters, but with new spells and abilities, and it was wonderful. Then, 2008 saw Storm of Zehir, which wasn’t quite as solid, but was a great last hurrah for D&D’s 3.5 ruleset. Lastly, there was 2009's Mysteries of Westgate, which wasn’t created by Obsidian, isn’t connected to the previous stories, and didn’t really hit at all. But for the sake of preservation, it’s great that all three expansions are receiving the same overhaul.
There’s not long to wait—the game is out July 15 across Xbox, PS5 and PC, although no signs of a mobile edition just yet. I mention that simply because the Android version of KotOR from Aspyr is quite so good.
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