Sword of Zehir / is it boring?

[aron searle]

So i've played it to the point where you are (not) teleported to candlekeep.

So far all the encounters and quests take part in small caves that hold maybe 20 monsters at best, but normally about 10, and they are always easy, and so never worth the loading time.

The story, needless to say, may as well not be there, but then I knew that before I bought it.

Because of thisIi haven't bothered to do hardly any of the side quests i have picked up (which all seem of the fetch variety anyway). This means when I (didnt) teleport to candlekeep, i suddenly found myself in an area infested with level 10 monsters, with me being level 5 (This is not challenging in a fun way, but simply frustrating).

So the question is this. Is it worth going back and leveling up abit first, are any of the side quests in the first map worth it, or are they all silly little 2-3 room dungeons that you can clear out in the same time as it took to load, in other words, garbage.

Or should i just hack the game, and give myself XP to level 8ish and push on.

Or is the rest of the game basically like the first act, loots of unimaginative 2-3 room dungeons, not worth the loading time wait, should i just not bother with SOZ?










Oh, and another question. Is there actually any point in investing diplomacy/bluff skills etc, so far all the dialogue options these skills bring are worthless, and pretty typical bioware fake choices?


*Edit, fuck my spelling stinks, i'm drunk.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Or is the rest of the game basically like the first act, loots of unimaginative 2-3 room dungeons, not worth the loading time wait, should i just not bother with SOZ?

Dungeons get *drastically* better after Samarach, so yes, it's worth to play further.

Oh, and another question. Is there actually any point in investing diplomacy/bluff skills etc

Yes, though while there are few occasions that have dialogue skill checks with impact, they all also give additional options with random encounters.

 

[FeelTheRads]

with me being level 5 (This is not challenging in a fun way, but simply frustrating).

Something like this happened to me too, except I was a bit higher in level. I don't even know if you can go back (except for loading, of course) but I wandered around a bit, got to the fortress and then my jaws cracked in a hideous yawn.

Dungeons get *drastically* better after Samarach, so yes, it's worth to play further.

I already fell for that with "NWN2 OC is so much better after the orc caves". Well, guess it what? It wasn't. After the orc caves came the undead caves, and then the gith caves followed closely by the bugbear caves.

 

[DriacKin]

in before 'SOZ is SOZZY!!'

Also, it's 'Storm of Zehir', not 'Sword of Zehir'

 

[MetalCraze]

The game is very boring, it is not worth your time. It won't become better later, except "dungeons" will stop being 2-3 rooms and start being 3-4 rooms. SoZ is even worse than some of the fan mods, you'll learn that soon enough. You can continue playing it of course - but only if you somehow enjoy an awful NWN2 combat in very claustrophobic areas because there will be nothing but this.

It was basically Obsidian's attempt to grab some cash very quickly while not investing anything because even VOs are done by amateurs and developers themselves.

Better play a real dungeon crawler.

 

[Jaesun]

I had a blast with a party of all bards. kick ass.

We 0wned the realms!

 

[aron searle]

My main problem with the dungeons is the size of them, or lack of.

Do they actually get bigger as well as (subjectively) better, because of the appalling and frequent loading times, a 2-3 room dungeon is just plain fucking annoying.

At this point I would rather have spoilers, than play it and find more of the same.


EDIT = seems my question is answered, 3-4 room dungeons at best = delete save games and ignore.

 

[Micmu]

Dungeons get *drastically* better after Samarach, so yes, it's worth to play further.

Link to that user mod, please.

Or do you mean that one large, trap-ridden snake temple just before the final battle? Because that was basically the only dungeon in the game (and not a pit).

 

[Erebus]

SoZ has a few decent dungeons (such as the temple of Umberlee or the final dungeon), but even they are not long and developed enough to be truly rewarding for the player.

Although there's some fun to be had here and there (the final battle is very entertaining and challenging), it remains sparse. There are some interesting elements and innovations, but they don't save Storm of Zehir from being boring.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

It's best to avoid Sound of Zedem and NWN2 in general at all costs.

 

[poocolator]

It's like they cut costs and ended up directly minituarizing their dungeons. It's kind of like what Bethesda does with story & dialogue. Hmm... no wonder they got so filthy rich from Oblvon and Failot 3.

 

[Zomg]

Are they small because you get to the set piece fight right away or are they like the normal shitburger D&D game dungeons where you run down same-texture corridors fighting trash enemies in side rooms for twenty minutes before you get to the set piece fight, except smaller? First sounds like an improvement.

 

[ricolikesrice]

no zomg. sadly it isnt that way.

you get amazing dungeons like a crypt(how original!) that is one room with 4 coffins. you click the coffins and get some gold, you click another coffin and 4 ghosts spawn and attack you. just 4 boring ghosts that are killed in a matter of seconds. the content of said dungeon is 15 seconds whereass entering takes about 15-30 seconds (if not more depending on your pc) and exiting does the same. SoZ design in a nutshell.

granted this is one of the worst examples but honestly,roughly 2/3 of the dungeon in soz work sorta that way, i.e. no special background lore for that dungeon, no interesting encounters, no good art design, no atmosphere nothing. just a couple of rooms, monsters and a bit of loot.

there s a handful of bigger dungeons and supposedly the last one before the final fight is "good" (stopped playing before that though, just from hearsay) but even the "better" stuff is just "better" measured on the SoZ scale.

combat is mostly completely trivial unless you encounter stuff that is many levels above you (like one particular dungeon with snakes in the first half). apparently good encounter design = throwing stuff 5+ levels above you at your party and having you figure out to exploit their dumb AI/pathing to beat them. yay.

i have never seen dungeons as boring & uninteresting as in SoZ ever before and that sadly includes even Oblivion which SoZ dethroned in that regard.

anyhow, if you truly wanna play NWN2, try out the mods "conan chronicles" and "sublety of thay" - those are pretty playable. the later one is roughly 20-30 hours too.
or just replay MOTB. heck the OC is many miles above SoZ.

and if you want a good (the best) "create your own party and explore a (interesting) world" ... just get realms of arcania 1-3 . granted, they may look very ugly nowadays - then again SoZ thanks to the untalented art designers at obsidian doesnt look good either. best part about SoZ was making me replay RoA .

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Actually, the trick with the snakes was that they had some serious buff magic, handily done away with Warlock dispelling. l2p

And the final dungeon is absolutely terrific. There are also a number of such dungeons in the later half of the game, such as a tower where you move up until you fight a challenging trio of two fighting vampires and an illithid spellcaster.

 

[ricolikesrice]

Actually, the trick with the snakes was that they had some serious buff magic, handily done away with Warlock dispelling. l2p

awesome trick right there - dispelling . i didnt say they were hard. killed them on 2nd try and probably only died first time because after the snorefest that combat was before, i wasnt prepared for a fight with something apparently 5 levels above my party.
when i was, a properly buffed tank in a doorframe, and a few dispells from behind = dead snake. i.e. exploiting dumb AI/encounter design that wouldnt rebuff/debuff nor notice fighting a hopeless battle against an almost unhittable tank with the whole party unloading from safety.

that there is potential for even NWN2 combat showed the nighthowls in nestlehaven mod, at least in its first dungeon (rest was shit). good fights mostly with groups of enemies that were made like parties (spellcasters, tanks, healers etc.). coupled with the "sweet spot" of the levels between 6-10 where you dont have access to the truly imbalanced stuff yet that made for some great combat never seen before(or after) in the NWN2 engine.

as for the supposedly one or two good dungeons in the later half. considering this is mostly claimed by the same guys who also thought the first half wasnt bad i d believe it when i see it, but being able to see it would require another 20 hours with one of the worst RPG experiences ever - i think i ll pass :D

 

[DriacKin]

anyhow, if you truly wanna play NWN2, try out the mods "conan chronicles" and "sublety of thay" - those are pretty playable. the later one is roughly 20-30 hours too.
or just replay MOTB. heck the OC is many miles above SoZ.

Mysteries of Westgate was also fairly enjoyable.

 

[Lesifoere]

Yes, SoZ is boring. I desperately wanted to like it and would have liked to congratulate Annie et al on what a good job they've done... but I can't. The loading times combined are too much, the story doesn't exist, the dialogue choices are fake, the two-room dungeons are horrible, and despite the attempt at tactical gameplay, NWN2 combat is NWN2 combat.

 

[Lockkaliber]

I enjoyed the exploration immensely and believe it or not, I found the combat actually challenging and enjoyable when I didn't go with a powergaming party. I found the whole expansion to be a nice wink to old school cRPGs.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

awesome trick right there - dispelling . i didnt say they were hard. killed them on 2nd try and probably only died first time because after the snorefest that combat was before, i wasnt prepared for a fight with something apparently 5 levels above my party.
when i was, a properly buffed tank in a doorframe, and a few dispells from behind = dead snake. i.e. exploiting dumb AI/encounter design that wouldnt rebuff/debuff nor notice fighting a hopeless battle against an almost unhittable tank with the whole party unloading from safety.

Fun fact: that's exactly how you're supposed to do it. Confirmed by the level designer of the dungeon over at NWN2 forums. You weren't exploiting anything.

 

[MetalCraze]

I found the whole expansion to be a nice wink to old school cRPGs.

Too bad you haven't played old school cRPGs. Because SoZ has absolutely nothing in common with them. Ah you mean "old school" cRPGs like IWD. But even it was better.

 

[felicity]

The yuan-ti holy guardians always cast dispel in my game; they also cast entanglement, tricky bastards. I have TonyK's AI installed, it's supposed to improve monsters AI so I guess it's working.

I like SoZ better than MotB on the virtue that SoZ has made major gameplay improvements like the party creation and party conversation system and the overland map. Afterall, NWN is primary about community contents. It's only a matter of time we'll see some quality community modules made with these features.

I'm waiting on this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hj2oM7QMKk

For modules with challenging combat, I can recommend the The Shadowdancer's Vault.

 

[Darth Roxor]

The yuan-ti holy guardians always cast dispel in my game; they also cast entanglement, tricky bastards. I have TonyK's AI installed, it's supposed to improve monsters AI so I guess it's working.

They also used that when I played and I didn't use TonyK's AI.

 

[LeStryfe79]

I felt that the small dungeons fit the overall flavor of the game. Creating an entire party to traverse across a couple of decent sized areas had a cool retro feel to it. Other great things about SoZ include party conversation and an insane number of skill checks. I actually felt STAMP of ZOD was closer to D&D than MotB or the OC. Unfortunately, the concept of random battles drag the game down due to the ridiculous number of loading screens you have to deal with. At the end of the day, STAMP of ZOD was a good yet slightly misguided effort that could have been awesome with a different engine.

Also, the music in SoZ is AMAZING

 

[Lockkaliber]

The yuan-ti holy guardians always cast dispel in my game; they also cast entanglement, tricky bastards. I have TonyK's AI installed, it's supposed to improve monsters AI so I guess it's working.

They also used that when I played and I didn't use TonyK's AI.

A dumbed down version of TonyK's AI was implemented in SoZ by Obsidian

 

[felicity]

Indeed the music is best of all NWN, the combat music especially.