Neverwinter Nights 2 Expansion Pack: Mask of the Betrayer

5 comments

1. 

   Morgan J. on February 11, 2010 at 1:43 pm

   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.
   

2. 

   Vrond Winterwolf on February 11, 2010 at 2:11 pm

   Neverwinter Nights 2 MotB Has a great engine battles are fun. Bad guys use decent tactics they attack your healers and swarm to your offensive casters.

   The Plot however leaves much to be desired. With out giving away to much your end choices much like the end of the first game leave you ruined. (Unless you decide to go evil in which case you become a world killer)

   Sorry just not my cup of tea.

3. 

   K. Kanitz on February 11, 2010 at 3:07 pm

   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!

4. 

   J. A. Eastman on February 11, 2010 at 4:40 pm

   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.

5. 

   Tyrel C. Gilchrist on February 11, 2010 at 6:19 pm

   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!