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Genre: RPG

Format: DVD

Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

Publisher: Atari, Inc.

Mac Publisher: Aspyr Media, Inc.

Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.4.11, 2GHz Intel chipset, 1GB RAM, 6.5GB hard disk space, 128MB ATI X1600 or NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT, DVD-ROM drive, broadband Internet (TCP/IP) or LAN for multiplayer

Review Computer: 2GHz 20" Intel Core Duo iMac, 1GB RAM, 256MB ATI Radeon X1600

Network Feature: Yes

Processor Compatibility Intel only

Price: $49.95

ESRB Rating: T (alcohol reference, blood, mild language, sexual themes, violence)

Availability: Now

Demo: No

Official Website: www.atari.com/nwn2/US/

I'm not quite sure what the title of this game is supposed to mean. Yes, I understand that it's set in Neverwinter. Fine. But it doesn't just take place at night. And it doesn't just take place in Neverwinter. Seriously, doesn't Neverwinter Nights sound like the title of a 70s/80s teen movie? Don't you expect some kids from the Neverwinter Trailer Park / Soda Shop / Ski School / Dance Academy to be lashing back against authority on their last night before one joins the military, one goes to college, two fall in love, two fall out of love, and Martin Mull tears down the trailer park / soda shop / ski school / dance academy to set up a shopping mall?

But fear not, RPG fans. Martin Mull makes no appearance in Neverwinter Nights 2...at least not through the point I've reached in the game. Rather, Neverwinter Nights 2 carries on the tradition of other Dungeons & Dragons sanctioned games in that it offers a deep story to discover, a huge world to explore, countless spells to learn and weapons to master, many battles to fight, and even a little romance.

The first thing fans of the original Neverwinter Nights will notice are the improved graphics. Pretty much everything is alive with movement in Neverwinter Nights 2, right down to the grass. Shadows, lighting, water and landscape animations, spellcasting effects; all come to life in a way never before seen in a Mac compatible RPG, making for a very immersive experience. The game is gorgeous...provided your system can handle it. My iMac just hit the processor minimum and doubled the RAM minimum, and I still had to dumb down the graphics to get acceptable performance.

After setting up your character (you can't import your character from Neverwinter Nights), the game begins with a quiet tutorial set at a local fair. Here, you'll learn to fight, cast spells, and generally interact with the environment (non-player characters, objects, etc.). You can skip this and get right to the action, but the tutorial is quick and does provide some background on your character. Of course, it's not long before the town is invaded, and you're sent out to discover why.

Unlike in Neverwinter Nights, the sequel doesn't confine you to hiring just one other character at a time to accompany you on your journey. Rather, various characters are introduced throughout the story, and you can decide to allow up to three others to tag along when dictated by the story. You get complete control over their actions while in your party, and, even better, over their inventory as well. In other words, your support characters can schlep around all those axes and thief toolkits you've found, and when you go to sell them to some merchant who apparently can never have enough thief toolkits, you get the cash. Controlling the inventory and behavior of four characters can be quite a chore sometimes, but the positives outweigh the negatives. In the original Neverwinter Nights, if you were a fighter, you'd generally want a magic user as your partner. Here, you can take along said magic user, but also throw in a thief to help you disarm traps and unlock chests, and a bard to help talk enemies out of fights or into revealing important secrets.

As in the past, how you play your character will help determine how the game progresses. It drives to the same climax no matter whether you're a lawful good fighter or a chaotic evil monk, but how you get there is all the fun. Alliances are forged and enemies created by how you interact with people and by what paths you choose, meaning you can go back through the game multiple times as different characters and get a different gaming experience, albeit within the confines of the same story. The people in your party must be logically selected, too, as characters won't get along and could even quit on you if they're radically different in their alignment.

Neverwinter Nights 2 utilizes the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 rule set, which means nothing to me (there are rule sets?), but which apparently can be polarizing in the D&D world. Those of you who don't follow such things will at least want to know that you can pick between 16 races (8 base races and 8 sub-races), 12 base classes, and 17 prestige classes that are unlocked as you progress through the game. Knowing how to level up your characters can be confusing considering all the options, so you'll either want to really dig into the manual or let the game recommend your selections. Doing the latter may not always work for your method of play, however. As a fighter, the game kept telling me I need to increase my parry skill. But parry is a skill you have to turn on in battle, and I always forget to do that. Instead, I prefer to allocate my level points to skills that are always on, and that benefit me without getting in the way of how I want to fight a particular battle.

Now, obviously, I'm not very far into this game just yet. It's huge, and with the vast number of sidequests to divert you from the main story, there's plenty of game to be played here. It does progress smoothly, though, as the battles seem to be much easier than in the original Neverwinter Nights (or even the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games). In fact, numerous PC gaming sites recommend you crank up the difficulty to hardcore in order to get any real satisfaction from the game. Without that, it seems you're mostly just working your way through a story with numerous mildly annoying battles getting in the way. If you prefer the story side, fine. If you prefer the fights, adjust the difficulty level accordingly.

The music and sound effects in the game are fantastic. In fact, considering that most people won't be able to see the graphics in all their glory, the audio may actually be more enjoyable than the visuals (aside from the spell effects, which are really cool at any graphic level). The voice acting is also pretty good, and there's a lot of it. The plot is laid out largely in animated cut scenes, but you'll want to select a voice for your character that doesn't grate on your nerves, as you'll hear that voice a lot when fighting and exploring.

The big disappointment for hardcore D&D fans is that Mac users will once more not get the module toolset for creating their own adventures. However, Mac users will be able to use modules created on the PC. This, along with the online multiplayer modes, will give Neverwinter Nights 2 an incredible shelf life well beyond the scope of the large scale single-player game.

Neverwinter Nights 2 should be on store shelves this weekend, and is available for order from Aspyr's website. Watch for the full Applelinks review in the coming weeks. We won't, however, be reviewing any teen sex movies starring Martin Mull any time soon.