Crimson Cherry 2: Demon Womb (Chapter1)

A flawed masterpiece, but a masterpiece nevertheless...

I played the original Crimson Cherry many years ago and finally decided to go for chapter two... I am not disappointed, it is a great mod with a lot of memorable characters and an intriguing story following the events we saw in the first chapter. That one was a NWN mod and now the author made the transition to NWN2 to bring the story to an interesting conclusion... well, not really a conclusion, that will have to wait for the next chapter, and I definitely hope there will be a next chapter!

As it is the story feels sadly incomplete.

But that is not the reason why I called flawed...

I know PaladinExtreme has been listening to all of this for awhile... but journals are really important for any RPG... and this is even more important if the story is either complex or placed in an unknown environment (yes, it is Faerun, but it has been changed a lot here). Not only some well written journal entries will help us following the plot and finishing the quests but they would also be instrumental in helping to develop your character's personality... not to mention that they give you a measurement of your progress through the narrative. 

Also, the *rest only in beds* is not a bad idea, unless there are no beds whatsoever after you meet the witch, at which point you would really need to be able to replenish your spells (specially since you are playing a human cleric) - some small, even hidden places where the character could rest would be very useful to say the least.

But those issues aren't really important. I created a female character, she was hardlocked as a cleric, I didn't rest before going to meet the witch since I didn't know I would have to and I ended up having to go all the way with no spells whatsoever... irritating? yes! But that doesn't mean I will give this mod a poor review... it is very good!

The theme is dark and the scenes are a bit extreme, but I liked it a lot and the descriptions didn't bother me at all... actually the first chapter was a bit stronger in this regard... here it seems the author was trying to control himself... and in my opinion he shouldn't have tried to do that! The sexual content is mostly avoidable and I expected more from a mod that aims to be really erotic... it seems we still have to wait for a NWN2 version of A Dance With Rogues...

But again, this is a matter of taste... and even though I think it could be improved I still think it is great!

Now all you have to do is to give us Chapter III... it is still a possibility, isn't it?

Played at normal difficulty with a cleric as required.

I found it more vulgar than erotic and the adult content didn't seem to contribute much to the plot. The plot seemed to be missing a few elements but with no journal to check, it's possible I missed something during play.

I found the combat more tedious than challenging. (Oh boy, more elementals, gee.) The resting restrictions made playing a Cleric and a low level one at that even more a matter of attrition than strategy. The author may have recognized that there was a balance problem as certain items and the quantities of some types of loot were made a bit excessive to compensate. Compared to the much better Maimed God's Saga which also employed limited resting/spell casting restrictions, this needs some work.

There were some interesting plot elements based on the deity of your Cleric. (Choices limited to Sune and Tyr, probably for logistical reason to keep the dialog options manageable.)

Some areas were interesting including a variation on underwater caves and survival I had not seen before. 

If you try this one, max out Concentration and Lore. You may also want to take the Martial Weapons Proficiency feat. 

Good luck.

I totally agree with GCoyote's critic! The lack of journal is especially irritating (the author writes that he received bad critics for the way he/she used it in previous mods... (???)). The author content isn't just what I expected. With all, I wonder where the story would have gone... so, not a bad mod.

All in all a very good mod. The story is a bit confusing, but the areas are nice designed and the background music is great. The fights were a bit to easy for me, but I didn't play a pure cleric rather a cleric / fighter. This could have changed the balance.

Now I would like to play Chapter 2, but it isn't on the vault. Does anyone know if it's available somewhere else?