We had the opportunity to check out the console edition of Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition and see what it brings to the table.
I have to start by saying I was excited to hear that Neverwinter Nights 2 was receiving a console edition at long last. Neverwinter Nights 2 is one of those games I’d heard about for years but had never actually gotten to play because I didn’t have a PC capable of running the game. But with the console edition offered with the Enhanced Edition, I can finally explore this iconic story.
Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition
Developed by: Obsidian Entertainment
Platform: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Release Date: July 15, 2025 (for console)
Neverwinter Nights 2 was originally developed by Obsidian Entertainment and released in October 2006 for Windows. It serves as the sequel to BioWare’s Neverwinter Nights and follows the 3.5 edition rules for Dungeons and Dragons. The Enhanced Edition includes all three expansions along with the base game: Mask of the Betrayer, Storm of Zehir, and Mysteries of Westgate.
For this review, I played the PS5 version of the game.
The Story
The story sees the player take the role of an orphan whose simple life is turned upside down when their village is suddenly attacked by a band of monsters. This sees the player thrust into a quest with seemingly the fate of the world at stake.
The story is divided into three distinct acts and takes the story through a number of iconic locations in Faerun, including the city of Neverwinter. Along the way the player assembles a team of adventurers to help them on their journey and multiple outcomes are possible depending on the choices the player makes during the story.
The story of Neverwinter Nights 2 was completely new to me and I found myself sucked in to it straight away. There’s an equal balance between exposition and dialogue and fighting enemies in dungeons encountered throughout the story. It says a lot of the quality of the game when I finally left the initial area of the game and felt a sense of wonder when my character began traveling down the road to the coast to reach the city of Neverwinter.
The Gameplay
Gameplay takes place from a third-person perspective as the player can control their character or any other person currently in the party as they travel throughout Faerun on their adventure.
The gameplay moves in a fairly linear fashion. Unlike its spiritual cousin Baldur’s Gate 3, Neverwinter Nights 2 isn’t an open world game and it’s expected the player will move from one quest to the next with little options for roaming the game world. After playing through a number of open world games, it’s refreshing to have a game that keeps you within certain bounds, it keeps the story from getting too overwhelming.
It’s difficult for me to say how well the game controls ported over to the console as I never actually played the original PC version. However, I can say for the most part gameplay proceeds smoothly. I did have some trouble remembering which button does what at first, but happily the developers include a list of gameplay controls that can be accessed at any time as a reminder.
The combat controls do feel clunky, at least at first. It took me close to an hour to realize that the player’s actions in combat are determined by the computer rolling dice (visible in a box in the corner) to determine if attacks hit or not. It also follows initiative so while you can hit the “attack” button as much as you like, your character won’t actually swing until it’s your turn. While understandable (and reminiscent of Baldur’s Gate 3), it was also extremely frustrating as the flow of combat would be broken by waiting for the system to catch up to initiative order.
Where I really take issue with Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is the UI for the inventory system. It is way too difficult to assign potions and other materials to different characters. Instead of being able to click a button and just healing a party member, I found myself doing a complicated rigmarole of going into the inventory, finding the item in question, transferring it to the character who needed to have it and then switching to that character so they could use it to heal themselves.
While I did eventually find a work around to make gameplay somewhat smoother, it didn’t need to be this difficult.
Some Gameplay Tips
For those wishing to give this game a try on console, a few tips before you get started:
- The game lets you manually save as often as you wish. It is highly recommended to save as frequently as possible as fights can go bad very quickly if you’re not careful.
- Remember when speaking with characters that not every conversation has to end in combat. Sometimes the game will let you reach a peaceful resolution, which can come in handy if your party’s health is running low.
- When making your way through a dungeon, be sure to check all the side rooms, there are usually potions or other important resources to be found.
While it is amazing to finally be able to play Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition on my console, the move to console from the original PC version is not as smooth as it could have been. Regardless there will be many hours of enjoyment to be gained from this new edition.
