Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer Expansion Pack DVD ( Windows )

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Mask of the Betrayer excells in almost every RPG aspect. A very interesting plot takes place in a rarely explored setting of Rashemen, with its unique connection to the world of spirits and the main theme. NPCs and the main characters are well developed through dialogues and plot advancement, with NPCs motives and personalities exposed clearly and in an intriguing manner. I haven't encountered such well written dialogue, interesting plot and compelling characters since Planescape: Torment (1999). Main theme represents a refreshing addition to the game mechanics as well. There are plenty of choices, both those regarding the main theme and those not directly connected to it, and naturally, most of those choices entail distinct consequences for the game world and the player.

So, this game has managed to capture the essence of RPG gaming on PC and hopefully it will help reverse the trend of simplification of RPGs. I consider it among the top 10 games I've ever played.

Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer Expansion Pack DVD ( Windows )

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Mask of the Betrayer excells in almost every RPG aspect. A very interesting plot takes place in a rarely explored setting of Rashemen, with its unique connection to the world of spirits and the main theme. NPCs and the main characters are well developed through dialogues and plot advancement, with NPCs motives and personalities exposed clearly and in an intriguing manner. I haven't encountered such well written dialogue, interesting plot and compelling characters since Planescape: Torment (1999). Main theme represents a refreshing addition to the game mechanics as well. There are plenty of choices, both those regarding the main theme and those not directly connected to it, and naturally, most of those choices entail distinct consequences for the game world and the player.



So, this game has managed to capture the essence of RPG gaming on PC and hopefully it will help reverse the trend of simplification of RPGs. I consider it among the top 10 games I've ever played.

Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer Expansion Pack DVD ( Windows )

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The half-elf head models are still seriously fugly. But now they have drow half-elves which look like liverish old men.

On the plus side, I enjoyed the pc's relationship with Gann (I never cared for Casavir), I liked the Hag city it was cool... I liked the new models and the Genasi, particularly the air and water ones were awesome.

Overall this was a fun game with some great new content I hope modders will utilize.

Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer Expansion Pack DVD ( Windows )

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should invest in silver and adamantine weapons immediately. Paladins and clerics will perform well here.

The engine performs better too; with the 1.10 series patches, the memory leaks and frame-rate issues have been resolved on my power rig. However, it might be necessary to reinstall NWN2 before loading up MOTB--otherwise the Official Campaign (OC) might suffer some quest bugs.

The expansion enjoys more graphical options. Characters trip through monochromatic Planes, dank dungeons, and fuzzy dreams. Spot lighting also sees more use, and objects appear to cast stronger, more impressive shadows.

These colors cast upon new tile sets, including: a richly textured estate and a sewer-like underwater city. But the main setting is the cold, gray nation of Rashomen, styled on a combination of Native American and Scandinavian culture. It's not glacial like the lands in the original series expansions, but the landscape is not for those who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder!

Nor is the soundtrack. Obsidian introduces a ton of dreamy, often somber scores, both for Areas and for Battles. As far as sound effects go, MOTB reuses the files of NWN1 and 2, but it also uses a few custom creepy tracks.

Ultimately, however, the effects rest upon the story. And *Mask* is an odd one. The character falls into a maelstrom of curses and conspiracies culminating into a confrontation with Death itself. Along the way it questions both religion and nature, while the player puzzles together a mystery to the bitter end. To this end, the story entwines in themes of masks, costumes and theater. By afflicting the player with a curse, which affects a much wider conflict, the expansion also expresses a dramatic urgency in place of NWN2's casual journey.

But in achieving that drama, MOTB is also more linear than the OC. To navigate it, I was able to call upon a much smaller band of companions, and the four-member limit is rigidly enforced. At 25 hours in length, I beat it in about three days.

This can assure customers worried about the curse. Because the expansion is so straight-forward, there's not much to explore. Also, companions and items retard the curse anyways. Thus, only an incompetent player is going to have difficulty managing it.

Managing character itself is another matter. *Mask of the Betrayer* forces characters towards Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil alignments. Whenever the character acts upon the curse, it assigns a minimum two-point shift in lawfulness--shifts which rapidly add up. Bonuses do come with these extremes, including uber weapons or stat-boosting feats.

Otherwise, this conflicts with most alignment-restricted classes. A Good Barbarian cannot level up once he or she strays into a Lawful alignment, while maintaining other alignments forces the character towards Evil. While the morality shift is half that of the lawfulness, and while other opportunities exist to make moral decisions, only a skilled player is going to maintain the balance.

Another balance issue--the expansion is too short to justify its rewards. Nearly every chest bulges with thousands of gold pieces. While nearly every quest awards thousands of xp. This is out of scale with the OC, and causes characters to become too powerful too quickly.

Speaking of power, I come at last to the revised item enchanting system for *Mask*. Gone are the need for recipe books, ingredients, and even magician benches. With a few exceptions, every "recipe" is found in the item description for three new classes of essence: Volatile, Brilliant, and Pristine. The multitudes of undead drop these by the bucket load--no distillation required. There are also a handful of superduper essences that boost your weapons to absurd levels of elemental damage.

The enchantments focus heavily on elemental damage and stat-boosting. So you can forget about making Holy Avengers or Fortified Armor. You can boost weapons, armor, gloves, and shields up to +10 if you've acquired the right stuff from the Evil game path. And epic casters increase the maximum number of enchantments to four. But for some reason you can't enchant bracers, and there are no ingredients for bomb flasks or traps. While I appreciate the big boosts overall, I don't appreciate the limited selection of recipes.

But apart from these funky balance issues, I enjoyed playing this epic in a small package. Bioware never published a follow-up for veteran characters of the first NWN, so I'm glad Obsidian took on an actual sequel. A lot of performance issues are resolved and the enchanting system is simple and powerful. Obsidian also gave me a powerful character, and I hope another expansion comes along which can put it to the test.

-* for play balance problems.

Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer Expansion Pack DVD ( Windows )

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sounded more natural in this expansion, as if they were real people talking and that's definitely a plus. The lack of hysteria and grating voices was most welcome.

I do have some gripes, though. For one, I ran into a very major bug in the Academy of Shapers and Binders, one that would have ruined my game if not for the console cheats. Frankly, I think this is unforgivable. All games have bugs but it's unacceptable for there to be one that would result in a player reaching a total impasse in the game. Because I could not get one of the conversation options, I ended up having to cheat an item into my inventory in order to progress in the game. There's no way this should have been allowed to happen and if the story wasn't so strong I would have been very angry about spending the money on a game that is basically rendered useless by this bug.

The romance in the game was okay but could definitely use some work. If there's one thing that most developers could learn it is how to dole such plot points out over time. Instead, I spent the whole game building Gann's trust up in my character to finally have the whole romance played out over two dialogs at the end of the game. That's less than impressive. I would have liked for there to have been at least a hint of romantic tension there. On the plus side, though, was the romance feat. I thought this was a very nice touch. Still, in the epilogue it basically becomes apparent that despite all the passionate vows of happiness and love the romance doesn't work out at all in the end. My impression is that this is a stock ending so regardless of which sex you play as a PC you get the same ending. Why couldn't Obsidian have created separate endings? It would only have required changing a few lines of text and having the voice actor read some additional lines. What's the point of even having this plot point if there won't be any continuity to it?

Last but not least, I really hate the way the camera works in this game. I'm not sure which mode is which but both had major downfalls that I found extremely annoying. I hated how the one view did not allow you to turn the screen by scrolling to the corners and I hated how the other forced you to be so zoomed in that you could barely make your way through the dungeons.

All in all, though, I had fun and feel that the expansion was worth the money I paid for it. I'm certainly interested in another expansion.

Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer Expansion Pack DVD ( Windows )

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and "free camera" in the original NWN2. Personally, I can't really stand either. I wish they had kept the camera styles/choices from the original game.

Another con is the "plot device" that they've added. Yes, I get it. This game is for characters 18+ levels, so things are needed to balance gameplay so that you're not a god among mortals. But this... affliction they've chosen to add to the character is annoying. I know character development/stories are best when the main character is twisting on the horns of a dilemma, but this just seems contrived, as if it was added at the 11th hour. The affliction is not unlike a drug addiction. The story unfolds as you figure out what's happened to you and why.

But, all things aside, I'm enjoying this game. The story slowly unfolds where you find out little snippets of what happened to your past allies (who survived, who didn't...) as you deal with you affliction. You help your new allies with their problems and receiving their help with yours.

Much like the first game, this one starts off slowly, allowing you to get a feel for the game before things take off.

If only they'd fix the camera controls...

Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer Expansion Pack DVD ( Windows )

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Unless you are a melee fighter type its going to be pretty rough for you initially, especially if you don't import your 20ish level character from the original Neverwinter Nights 2 as you only start at level 18. Granted that's not a huge leap, but its enough to feel it at the beginning especially if you are a caster type character.

There isn't much of a frivolous atmosphere in Mask of the Betrayer, from the areas you visit, the NPCs you encounter and the story you traverse...everything has a sinister and dark nature to it. There are some good fights and action in this, but expect lots of dialogue, reading and choices in terms of Good and Evil.

Pros:
- Everything that was good about NWN2 and removed some of the bad!
- Great Music
- Good storyline
- Wide variety of class/race combinations

Cons:
- Spirit Eater Meter sucks
- Might be annoyingly challenging for non-imported characters/casters.

Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer Expansion Pack DVD ( Windows )

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to this spirit eating addiction. If you normally like to play as LG or CE, then you will love this game. I prefer more middle ground, frankly, but I still give it 4 stars. There are plenty of mods and other things available with the gaming community. After you have finished the official campaign, if you want you can download modules created by other players. Many of them are very good.