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What NWN2 should have been to start with

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: October 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Many new things are added in this expansion. The plot for the new campaign is interesting, but seems a bit forced. The new races, which consist primarily of the various types of genesai, are absolutley terrible, as is the half drow. The epic levels are good and seem well thought out, although it only goes to level 30, rather than 40, like it was in the original NWN. The new prestige classes are average to poor, but the new primary class, the favored soul, is a good option for people wanting both melee skill and the versatility of a sorcerer.

In addition, several tweaks seem to have been made to the game engine. The game runs much more smoothly, and cut scenes no longer suffer from glitches. This greatly improves the experience.

Improves the Original by Leaps and Bounds

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 18
Date: October 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As one of the many who were somewhat disappointed with NWN 2, I approached this expansion with a little hesitation. Deciding to let this be the make-or-break game for me in regards to Obsidian Entertainment (the developers of this game), I went ahead and bought it. And boy, am I glad I did.

This expansion tremendously improves the original NWN 2. I loved the story of the campaign - it's more mature, the writing is better, the pacing is better, and the characters are all more enjoyable. I wasn't sure how they were going to incorporate the story of the first campaign into this one, but they managed it quite well. If you miss some of the dialog it may not seem to mesh, but trust me, there are explanations in-game.

The environments are absolutely great. Some of the new tilesets and placeables should add a lot to those that are making modules. The music is fantastic as well; each piece suits its location perfectly, and really helps add to the atmosphere.

The additions are both good and bad. As the other reviewer noted, the Genasi race are pretty crummy, and the half-drow are basically half-elves with darkvision instead of low-light vision. The new base classes are interesting, but the prestige classes are where the new additions really shine. Sacred Fist, Stormlord, and the Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep really add options to some base characters in regards to builds. There are some others as well, but I'm typing this review too early in the morning to remember 'em. :-p There are also new feats (epic, mostly) and a lot of new spells, some of which come in really handy during the tougher fights.

As for performance and mechanics, it's much improved. The gameplay is smoother, the graphics are better, and overall it's got all of the polish that NWN 2 should have had. The new camera takes getting used to, but once you do it actually comes in quite handy.

Before this gets too long (Amazon recommends between 75-300 words...hah), let me close up by saying that if you thought the original NWN 2 was even halfway decent but were annoyed due to its feeling rushed and the myriad bugs and issues, you really should get this. It's a fantastic RPG, and it's one of the best new RPGs I've played in years.

Atari is on the right track!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 9
Date: October 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'm very excited with this title as i've waited forever for this expansion pack to come out. Great graphics, great sound, and overall great overall gameplay. I haven't put this game down since i got it the other day.

I love Atari

I like it, except...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 23 / 26
Date: October 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was late getting Neverwinter Nights 2, and I was very happy with it. I'm running Vista with an NVIDIA 8500 graphics card, and it's super smooth. The look and feel and play of the game is great. I have to say that I haven't played any other games since I loaded this on my computer about a month ago.

For the expansion, there are some new races, new classes, new feats, new spells, and new areas to explore. These are all top notch. I love most of the game. My only real beef with the game is that they did not really stick to the 3.5 D&D rules, but came up with a different rule set where the player is cursed with a spirit energy addiction that requires feeding on the energy of spirits and undead. It forces the player to either suppress the addiction, making your character more LG, or indulge in the addiction and eventually need to kill everything that moves to live and feed your addiction. It doesn't really support LE, CG or TN alignments very well, since there is not much middle ground due 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.

Say it isn't so!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 13
Date: October 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

First off, let me say I was really pulling for this game. Despite the bugs that the original had, I have a solidly entertaining run through, both times I played it from start to finish. I was really looking foward to picking up my old character and making a new run through the NWN universe.

That hope quickly died as I started my first run through. I opted to create a new character, as I was anxious to take the new genasi out for a spin. A few min later my fighter/duelist walked out onto the scene. Over the next few hours I found my anger and frustration growing. First to rear it's head was AI issues, which had supposedly been worked on. My wizard buddy still loves to both overspell, and cast spell types inappropriate for the situation (ex, spell resistance in a fight with all melee types).

I also seem to be having some issues with the scaling of combat. Now, it's possible that it's because I made a new character (18) instead of importing my old one (20). I'm starting over with the import, but even so, the fights seem incredibly difficult in places. This almost makes the game unplayable.

So, I am going 3 stars because it's a blend of a 5 star plot (so far), and a 1 star implimentation.

Watching paint dry is more exciting.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 20
Date: October 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've never played a neverwinter nights game before so I decided to try out mask of the betrayer after doing a little research and watching a few gameplay movies.

Well to say I'm unimpressed would be an understatement. The controls are clunky and difficult including everything from fighting, walking, trying to explore or even camera movement. I actually thought I would need a motion sickness pill with all the jerky movement... Simple things like moving and camera movement quickly become hassles and a pain.

The story so far seems like something a 9 year old made up... My character pissed off a bear god and now this bear god and some of his spirit friends are waiting outside the city gates to kick my [...].I mean if this bear god had any self respect he and his friends would just level the whole freakin city instead of waiting outside the city gates like some two-bit street thugs...

The game has bugs, quite a few... I had to start over after a npc that I was talking to started attacking me for no reason and My ally kills her.

Combat isn't very exciting, hit, pause, hit, pause, hit, pause ...that gets old very fast to someone like me that has never played these games before...

The graphics are okay... The controls and camera are to much of a hassle. The story is really pathetic so far...I'm giving the game 3 stars because there is some potential that it could get better the deeper I go into the game, hopefully.

I really can't recommend this game to anyone that hasn't played this type of game before...

**UPDATE**
A few months later I still stand by everything in my review, this game bored me, so I stopped wasting my time trying to give it a chance to impress me. Waste of my time and money. I found "Two worlds" better than this game, and everyone knows what a steaming pile that game is.

Great expansion, somewhat annoying gameplay...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: October 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Firstly, I played this on a dual-core 2.13ghz pentium, 2gb ram with a Nvidia 8600 GTS on Vista 32-bit.

Okay, I loved the vanilla Neverwinter Nights 2 and the expansion is great in terms of storylines and the involvement with your new buddies is superb. Rather than have a variety of NPCs that travel with you following traditional race/class lines you will gain very distinct and original companions, I'd say more but I wouldn't want to spoil anything!

One of the bad things mentioned countless places is the Soul-Eater "feature" that rears its ugly head at the end of ACT I. I have mixed feelings, in that it makes the game more challenging but really detracts from your ability to explore freely, talk to NPCs because you are constantly watching your soul meter. Also, if you deviate from any extreme alignment like Chaotic Evil or Lawful Good, you are going to have a heck of a time.

The gameplay overall is fun and challenging, with a big increase in difficulty level for the fights you will have. 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.

Some differences between the original

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: October 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Let me start off by saying that I was... am a big fan of Neverwinter Nights 2. Great storyline, cliffhanger ending. I looked forward to this expansion.

The storyline here continues on where the NWN2 left off. You wake up in a strange land on the other side of the continent from where you ended NWN2. There is no trace of your allies from that game, and you have a gaping wound in your chest...

The story takes off from there.

The allies/friends you gain in this new realm are intriguing. Each has their own reason for wanting to help you as well as some pretty strong powers. It's up to you to figure out how to get them to trust you enough to help them. And when they do begin to trust you, they'll share their power with you.

OK, pros and cons of the game, the stuff everyone wants to know about:

Pros - Story. Graphics.

Cons - Camera angles. They've changed the camera controls from the original NWN2. In this game there are only two camera controls that equate to "chasing camera" 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...

Buyer beware!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 29
Date: October 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have played and enjoyed Neverwinter Nights 2, so I was looking forward to this expansion. First of all, I need to point out that it does not come on PC CD-ROM, as Amazon advertises--the only PC version is DVD-ROM.

After I installed the game, the first thing I noticed is that the camera is much harder to control--a real challenge. Graphics are somewhat improved, and the occasional jerkiness of the animations in the original game have been corrected.

But (and this is a BIG but) the Mask of the Betrayer expansion messed up the original install of my game! As the expansion provides new starting options, I designed a new character to play from the beginning. When I reached a critical plot point early in chapter 1, the game refused to acknowledge that I had achieved the goal needed to proceed. Loading an old saved game from later on in the story, I found more game-stopping bugs that had not existed before. I uninstalled the game, thinking to just reinstall the original MWN 2, but that game will no longer install properly. As a result, I cannot play any version of the game now (and my computer more than meets the specs for optimal performance).

My advice is this--don't risk the expansion until you have are thoroughly played out using the original campaign!

MotB: Great product, not-so-great technical implementation

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: November 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you are lucky enough to play this game without any technical issues and you like games like Fallout, Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape: Torment, Knights of the Old Republic and so on, you probably won't be disappointed. It has a good story and is quite non-linear. That is, your choices actually matter (not always, but far more often than in any game I can remember). There are many instances with multiple paths and there are multiple endings for your character and all of the companions. There weren't many companions (5 total + some temporary), but I really liked the ones I found (didn't get the Evil one). They're very much integrated into the story and often have things to say. Also, if you make friends with them, you get some very useful bonuses. The difficulty is reasonable as long as you pay attention, though unlike many other games, it is possible to play yourself into a corner.

In short, it is an excellent game; my favorite since BG2... or it would be if not for the bugs and technical issues. First, if you're buying it for a laptop, be warned: they simply do not officially support laptop video cards (Mobility Radeons and GeForce Gos). The box says one thing and once you've bought the game, the Readme says quite another (you can find the real requirements on the Tech Support forum at Bioware's site). That said, after creating a custom driver for my machine with extremely helpful third party tools, I was able to play it on my laptop and it ran quite well. Neither Obsidian nor Atari were of any help (beyond saying "Update your driver") with this or any other issue I encountered (and there were quite a few) -- all tech support I received was from fellow players.

Ultimately, I do recommend people who are into Western single-player CRPGs to try this game -- there are precious few that reach this level of sophistication. Hopefully, they'll eventually patch the majority of the bugs and I'll be able to recommend it unconditionally.

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