Computer role-playing games fall into two camps. Fans of titles like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion want open-ended experiences and total freedom to explore an imaginary world. But the players who prefer Baldur's Gate II or Neverwinter Nights trade freedom for surprising plot twists, witty sidekicks with dark histories, and protagonists who have a personal stake in saving the world. On those terms, Nights 2 could have been a classic. The heavily scripted story livens up a straightforward premise—an ancient evil stalks the land, and only you can stop it—with strong dialogue and challenges that range from an extensive murder trial to a dueling-lutes mini-game. You can also skip the hours of scene-setting and get straight to the tactically intense battles, which follow the Dungeons & Dragons rule-set.
So it's even more disappointing that this terrific content comes in a dog-slow, buggy, badly designed piece of software. The interface is universally poor, especially the camera: You'll constantly struggle to get a good look at the action, let alone coordinate your characters, and navigating a tight hallway is like performing a colonoscopy on a dollhouse. The team at Obsidian wanted to make Nights 2 more immersive than the first game, which felt more like a tiled grid than a handcrafted world. But it falls short in the implementation, and it gets in the way of what people came for—an engaging, suspenseful adventure.