无冬之夜 2

Neverwinter Nights 2

黑曜石工作室成立后的第二款游戏仍然是生软（BioWare）公司游戏的续作，《无冬之夜 2（Neverwinter Nights 2）》世界观采用被遗忘的国度（Forgotten Realms）背景设定，并以修订过的《龙与地下城》3.5 版规则集为基础。游戏内容包括一部篇幅较长的单人战役、一套功能详尽，可用来制作自定义内容的工具集，以及多人模式——玩家可以创建永久的角色扮演服务器，或是与一二好友共同游玩。

《无冬之夜 2》最吸引人的特点是它那拥有大量可选种族、职业和构筑选项的角色系统，玩家在角色升级过程中可以选择多个职业。从选项的丰富度来说，很少有游戏能跟本作相提并论。玩家可以扮演一名专精暗杀的侏儒牧师/盗贼^[3] ，亦或一名阿斯莫^[4] 术士，用黑暗魔法和一把火焰附魔镰刀击杀怪物。

游戏为每个职业提供的几种不同的初始角色模板也令人印象深刻，给像我这样对《龙与地下城》规则知之甚少的玩家提供了充分的指导。本作在满足了“强度党”对游戏内容的要求之外，也让新手能够轻松上手。

Obsidian's second game, once again a sequel to a BioWare title, Neverwinter Nights 2 is set in the Forgotten Realms, based on a modified Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 ruleset. The game features a long single-player campaign, an elaborate toolset for making custom content, as well as a multiplayer that allow players to create persistent role-playing servers, or just play through the game with a friend or two.

The most impressive feature of NWN2 is the character system, sporting a very generous amount of classes, races and build options, including the option to pick multiple classes as your character improves. Few games can compare when it comes to the sheer variety of options for creating and developing your character. You could be a gnomish cleric/rogue who specialises in assassination, or perhaps a half-angel warlock mowing down enemies with dark magic and a fire-enchanted scythe.

Equally impressive is that the game features several template builds for each class, providing ample guidance on what to pick for players who, like myself, have little prior familiarity with the D&D ruleset. It is everything a power gamer could hope for, while still being entirely accessible for the newcomer.

《无冬之夜 2》采用了由《无冬之夜》使用的极光引擎（Aurora engine）升级而来的电子（Electron）引擎。黑曜石（Obsidian）工作室把引擎采用的应用程序编程接口从 OPENGL^[1] 换成了 DirectX^[2] ，为 Xbox 360 上的发行做准备，但是由于资金不足，该项计划未能实施。

NWN 2 uses an updated version of NWN's Aurora engine, called Electron. Obsidian moved it from OpenGL to DirectX, planning for an Xbox 360 release. However, due to lack of funds the port was never made.

角色系统只有一点瑕疵，那就是描述文字有点少，导致玩家如果想要进行一些深度规划或是想深入了解自己做出了怎样的选择，则往往需要求助于 Wiki 等“外援”，不过只有对细枝末节很在意的玩家才会觉得困扰。

可惜的是，战斗系统的水平完全不能与角色系统比肩。即时可暂停系统做得一团糟，笨拙的镜头视角让玩家看不出战斗中发生了什么，而“华丽”的魔法特效更是把玩家的视野挡得严严实实。

你大可以尽情施放魔法，因为休息次数没有限制，等于说施法次数和生命恢复也是毫无限制的。另外，因为 AI 水平低劣、遭遇战也设计较差，你往往没必要在战斗中采用什么特定的战术调度。上述缺点导致游戏中绝大部分战斗都没什么难度，基本上就是等着敌人的血条在战斗轮次中慢慢见底。

除了战斗，《无冬之夜 2》在对话和探索过程中还设计了多种多样的技能检定，同时还有个工匠系统，算是有用，不过玩起来并不会让人感到兴奋。可想而知的是，这些内容的乐趣极大程度取决于剧本和地下城设计，还好除了少部分无聊的区域外，剧本和地下城设计的都还不错。

The only real flaw of the character system is a slight lack of documentation, making external aids like wikis a requirement for an in-depth planning and understanding of your options, although this will only bother those who really like the gritty details.

Sadly, combat does not live up to the promises of the character system, featuring a messy real-time-with-pause system and a clunky camera that makes it hard to tell what is going on, further obscured by fancy spell effects that block your view.

And cast spells you will, because there's no limit to resting, and therefore no limit to spell-casting and health restoration. Combat is further hampered by a generally poor AI and, in the campaign, a lack of good encounter design, making tactics mostly unnecessary. Overall, most battles will amount to little more than watching combat rounds roll on while you wait for the enemy health bars to deplete.

Outside of combat, NWN2 also features various skill checks, both in-dialogue and while exploring, and a crafting system, which works but isn't exciting. The enjoyment from these activities depends a lot on the writing and dungeon design, which most of the time works well enough, a few boring areas excepted.

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¹ 译者注：OPENGL，全称 Open Graphics Library，中文译名开放式图形库，是用于渲染 2D、3D矢量图形的跨语言、跨平台的应用程序接口（API）。
² 译者注：DirectX，全称 Direct eXtension 是由微软公司创建的一系列专为多媒体以及游戏开发的应用程序接口。
³ 译者注：此处的”/”符号意为兼职，即该角色同时选择了牧师和盗贼两种职业。
⁴ 译者注：原文为“Half-angel”，并未在相关规则和百科中找到同名亚种族，以设定上最贴近作者描述的阿斯莫（Aasimar）族代替翻译，阿斯莫族的祖先中拥有一个天界生物甚至是一个神的血脉，并且具有不可思议的在世界上行善的潜力，阿斯莫是人类和一些善良的外来生物，或是一个善良神祗的仆人或化身的后裔。