Why I buy this one ?
- Neverwinter Nights 2 Expansion Pack 1 Mask of the Betrayer

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What our customer's say!

"Not As Good As The Other Packs", I am writing this review for my husband, as he is the player of this game.

He told me to say that he has always liked (very much ) the rest of the NeverWinter Nights series. He has about everything from the start.

He said they changed some things in this one that made it more difficult to play, also a little boring in spots. Wish I could be a little more specific, but I don't play this one myself.

He just said suffice it to say it is quite a bit different than the other packs, and he personally did not care for the changes.

"Interesting story, problematic curse.", PROS:
Number one pro would have to be the feeling of continuity. If you carry over a character from NNW 2, you keep all the titles (with pertaining plusses or minus') you earned. While, if you generate a character from scratch, you have none of these. I also like how all these little bonus' gave you a little something here, a little something there, to add up into some truly worthy gifts.

At first, I found the spiriteater meter novel and entertaining...that quickly changed, though (see CONS below).

Much improved, and much more entertaining, is the new character influence system. In NWN 2, it was easy to deduce what an NPC wanted to hear, and respond accordingly. On the other hand, in MotB, it kept me guessing. One example that comes to mind was when my female character attempted to sympathize with one of the NPC's (Gann, a half-hagspawn). Turns out that I wound up offending him and losing influence. Just out of curiosity, I went back and insulted his plight with his mother, and gained because! I had the hardest time with the half-celestial. Perhaps I just have a natural bend towards chaos and evil =P.

Next would be the wonderful and sharp dialog. Not once was I bored (the first time around!) with sections where you stop to converse for extended periods of time. Especially the dialog with Gann, who I found to be the most interesting NPC in the entire game.

Lastly, I just have to comment on the story: Who wouldn't love mincing it up with spirits, witches, and dead gods? The mood remains dark and brooding throughout, helped by the tilesets and music. When you find yourself in the hag's underwater city, tell me you weren't first a little creeped out by that exiled hags rantings (then slightly annoyed, and finally, driven just a touch mad?)? And I won't spoil it, but the whole thing with Gann and his mother? Whoo! Talked about messed up. Brings to mind visions of Dexter's childhood.

CONS:
Let me start off by saying that, at first, I found the whole "spirit meter" thing interesting and challanging...but that changed about 4 hours into the game. I spent a great deal of time, initially, just trying to stay alive, not having my own soul devoured. My suggestion is to allow the bear-god to live and travel with you. From there, head straight to The Woodman and clean up the woods. Afterwards, fuel The Woodman with some of your essense instead of eating him. Along the way, make nicey-nicey with Ozzie (can't remember the d@mn bears name). Between the two of them, by the end of act 2, you should have enough soul fortifying abilities to not have to constantly focus on just staying alive. At this point, it's safe to go back and cover skipped ground. Until this time, fly like a bullet to this goal, or you'll find yourself seriously hobbled.

Next is the selection of faces for some of the new races. I was disappointed with the face selection of NWN2, but completely disgusted with MotB. An average of 3 faces to choose from with the new races? I can't help but compare this to NWN and Elder Scrolls, both games you could seriously spend 30 minutes just trying to figure out what you wanted to look like. Some may say "so what?", but I must point out that I'm a serious story/character development kinda guy. I wan't to care about the character I'm playing, like some omnipowerful caring god =P. Part of this is choosing the look for your alter-ego.

The angles still blow, but at least the camera doesn't phase into walls and faces this time around.

Finally, I carried over my Warlock from the first game, even though I found her weak and one-dimensional. With some extra epic improvements, I can now burn the average baddy into oblivion. My eldrich blast now smacks 10 or so baddies, at once, for about 100+/- points each in the space of a few seconds. Such amazing power comes at a price, though. If an enemy combantant has any kind of spell protection versus spells 4th level or lower (it just so happens, all of your eldrich abilities don't pass 4th), you might as well throw rocks at them. Two troublesome individuals that come to mind are the Ancient Vampire, and any Paragon beasts. Who thought up these @ssbiters? You can avoid the Paragon beasts, who take almost no damage and regenerate 100 or so ridiculous points per round, but the Ancient Vampires? Well, better hope your clerics high enough to burn out their retinas with holy light, because your going to spend the next 20 minutes timming these @-holes back to death. Hope you find this review helpful!

"worth the wait, not worth the hassle", i put this game on pre-order the moment that i heard they were coming out with it. after months of anticipation, it arrived and i immediately installed it, and played it for a few hours. when i loaded it up again, it would not work. after combing through the Atari forums, i was able to discern that the product had some bugs that could be fixed via patch. the automatic updater would not work, so i had to download all of the patches individually, un-install then re-install both the base game and the expansion, and finally was able to play the game normally.

having such problems in the beginning put me off, naturally, but the game once working properly was well worth the wait - and it made the hoop jumping only just tolerable enough. a good game nonetheless, and newer versions of the expansion being made today have the patches included. i wish they had worked through the problems before mine shipped.

"Mask of Boredom ", Mask of Boredom

(Note this main contain Spoilers')

I'm not exactly sure why this game received a higher rating then NWN2-baffles me really. MOB is a terrible game with a boring storyline. The companions in this game were just as boring. They didn't interact with each other like in NWN2. Most of your companions were way too serious and acted more like stone animations then letting them come off as real people.

Furthermore later on in the game you soon find out about most of your former companions in NWN2. Most are either dead or missing. I found this to be a rather brutal way of just eliminating them. The companions in NWN2 I grew quite fond of them because of how much they interacted with each other and they really came off as if they had real feelings. With that I was really ticked off Ammon came up and said, "Oh by the way your former lover, Casivir is dead." This was rather heartless of the developers. You're only able to interact and grow your relationship with him towards the end of the game and now you found out he is dead. I really did enjoy my female character being involved with Casivir. They should have allowed him to live and allowed you to try and find him at some point. Maybe in the future they will bring him and have more adventures with more of your former companions.

The world you are in this game looks too dark and depressing and you're forced on some quest that in the end doesn't make any sense, leaving numerous questions unanswered.

Again I still say they should have allowed your character to continue on adventuring through Neverwinter instead of being in this boring land and with this boring story arch.

I do have to agree with people the spirit eating bar is rather annoying and really becomes the focus of your game then actually being able to do other things. Also the "new" Rest system they have in the game ticked me off, I preferred the rest in NWN2.

Looting is this game was crap, most of the time you end up getting essences off the enemies' you defeat, basically forcing you to craft items. Look I don't like crafting, it's too time consuming. I guess the developers were taking the lazy route and didn't want to come up with any new items for the game.

The end of the game made me somewhat happy (I got the good ending) seeing as to how I finally was able to go back to West Harbor. But once again it didn't make sense. It said at the end if you choose to take back up the role of Knight-Captain or find some other adventure is a tale for another time. Oh yeah my character just saved all of Fauren, got a sliver shard ripped from her chest, got some spirit eating curse on her and nearly died because of it and too add found out most of her companions are either dead or missing, including her former lover. Yeah, I'm sure my female character is so looking forward to finding something else to screw her over.

Bottom line watching paint dry is more fun than this Game. The developers need to look at Fable and Oblivion for references. I know they're trying something new, but honestly, it's just not working for me.


"A game that ended a 4-year slump on the RPG market ", 21st century hasn't been a particularly good era for RPGs. Despite its fast start (Baldur's Gate 2 and Arcanum) a downhill trend as far as RPG quality is concerned soon became apparent. With Vampire: Bloodlines (2004) being the last quality RPG and still failing to achieve commercial success, followed by demise of Troika games, RPG market became dominated by generic RPGs, exploring generic setting, with generic protagonist and generic NPCs, generic plots and generic dialogues suitable for cerebrally challenged audience. Paragons of RPG dumbification were Morrowind and especially Oblivion, where the essence of RPG, choice and consequence, was utterly lost and dialogues were, to say it mildly, retarded (so they can match Radiant AI). Unfortunately, since both mentioned games were appealing to a wider, less demanding audience, other developers followed suit and quality on the RPG market was nowhere to be found.

Unlike its predecessor (the original NWN 2 campaign), which was a huge disappointment, 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.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"A Rough Start", Its a tough go from the start without the right build. My imported Arcane Archer/Wizard is cannon fodder and nearly worthless unless buffed up just right. Which I find annoying. The cave you wake up in is stupid. There's +4 magic weapons laying all over the place. Citizens leave 1200GP in crates outside their homes. Evidently, I could care less about my former fellow travelers. Also, Thayan Gnolls are tougher than the Shadow
KIng but are servants to Thayan Wizards. At least Gann is with me now so I'm only the second easiest person to kill in my party. Some common pirates just killed me in three rounds in a bar brawl. This game is requiring a lot of suspended disbelief. Aside from that I agree with all the good things other people say and think its a must own if you got the first one, for future mods if nothing else. I'm expecting this will grow on me after I start over with another character, just don't expect love at first sight unless you're a half-orc barbarian.

"not too happy with it", I was hoping they would fix the camera problems in the expansion pack but they didn't! So you have to deal with the camera swinging all over the place. I didn't really like the whole spirit-eater thing...not enough instruction on how to use it so you just kind of fumble through. The ending battle is so long I wondered if I had somehow gotten into a loop and if I should reload my game. All in all...not very satisfying.

"Entertaining", This was a fun expansion where you play the victim of a curse trying to find out how and why you are cursed. I (like others) found the curse to be a bit of a drag and spent most of my time suppressing, the evil hunger. I kind of wish there was a way to auto-manage that since I spent a great deal of time dealing with it. I enjoyed the NPC's, Gann (a half-hag), and Safiya (a red wizard). I didn't take Okku, (I'm not a big fan of talking animals).

The quests were decent, but I felt the storyline was a tad dark. The wall was portrayed as the ultimate injustice and the dialog eggs you to destroy it. I was disappointed with the way this ended.

Cons: I didn't like the academy and wished there was an option to destroy the library and free the souls. Likewise the dark mulsantir was cool looking at first, but I missed the color. Didn't care for the Furnace plot or the evil ghost kid.

I found part 3 to be a bit rushed. The city wasn't fleshed out, and you pretty much are railroaded through it.

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.

"F@#$", With this expansion, the curse you get is lame, and makes the game almost annoying instead of fun. I feel rushed. I don't recommend playing any class that requires resting to cast spells. I learned this after investing 4 hours of time with an Eldritch knight. Rest = die. It will likely piss you off. Other than that, mostly fun.

"Stab the Betrayer...", ...An Epic Adventure with Sneak Attacks

UPDATED: 28 Jan 2008

As buggy as it was, initially, *Neverwinter Nights 2* brought together some of the best elements of the first series into an involved adventure. Now Obsidian Entertainment brings us *Mask of the Betrayer*, which extends both the story and the life of player characters. Though it does suffer from some balance issues.

Unlike the expansions in the first series, *Mask* is an actual sequel. After the climactic events of NWN2, your character awakes deep within a haunted barrow. Your inventory has been stripped of everything other than the armor and jewelry you wore. And the wizard in red isn't forthcoming with answers, as she approaches your stricken form...

Otherwise, MOTB feels a lot like those older expansions, particularly *Hordes of the Underdark*. It's a moodier, more mystical journey than NWN2. And no wonder--your character talks to gods, deals with witches, and exorcises ghosts. The undead play a much bigger role, as do spell casters, and players 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. Prior to the latest patch, *Mask of the Betrayer* forced characters towards Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil alignments. Whenever the character acted upon the curse, it assigned a minimum two-point shift in lawfulness--shifts which rapidly add up. Bonuses come with these extremes, including uber weapons or stat-boosting feats.

Otherwise, this conflicts with most alignment-restricted classes.Thus the 1.11 patch removed the alignement shift entirely.

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.