Neverwinter Nights 2

Neverwinter Nights 2 followed up on the 2002 original with the new Electron engine, which brought more modern visuals along with a reworked party system in which the player controls up to three companions at once, with the option to pause time for more tactical decisions in combat. The story takes the player to the region around Neverwinter, where they face an invasion by the King of Shadows and gradually uncover the connection between their own fate and an artifact called the Silver Sword of Gith, accompanied along the way by memorable companions such as the dwarf Khelgar, the tiefling thief Neeshka, and the paladin Casavir.

The game was built on the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition ruleset and offered an extensive editor for creating custom modules and campaigns, continuing the beloved community-made content of the first game and enabling the creation of numerous persistent multiplayer worlds run by the fan community for years afterward. On PC it required above-average performance at the time due to more demanding visual effects and expansive outdoor environments, which was noted in reviews as a weakness alongside technical shortcomings and bugs at launch. The campaign was supplemented by two expansions, Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir, the first of which is particularly praised for its unusually dark and philosophical story about a curse of hunger for souls.

Neverwinter Nights 2 is remembered today mainly for its expansions and its community's modular creations, which expanded the game with hundreds of custom campaigns and adventures. Even though the base game itself had a rougher reception than its predecessor, it cemented Obsidian Entertainment's reputation as a studio capable of telling deep, morally ambiguous RPG stories, a reputation it built on a few years later with Pillars of Eternity. The Electron Toolset, bundled directly with the game, allowed players not only to script their own dialogues and quests but also to build extensive exteriors and interiors, making the game a popular platform for homebrew campaigns played among friends over a network.

Why play it: For fans of morally ambiguous D&D stories and custom-made adventures thanks to the Electron Toolset editor, even though the base campaign feels rougher today than later Obsidian RPGs.