Neverwinter Nights 2 Expansion Pack: Mask of the Betrayer
Rating:  -
the spirit energy angle ruined it for me. Would like to have spent more time in the adventure and less time looking for spirit energy.
Rating:  -
I've played most of the major BioWare (as well as others') RPGs -- Baldur's Gate, Planescape, even the most of the original Ultima series -- and really enjoyed this game. Engaging story line, rich characterizations, good NPC AI, immersive environments.
In many ways I found this even better than NWN2 OC, because frankly, I found all the empire-building aspects of that game very tedious after a while, what with building the castle, etc.
The thematic plot of the game really played on the good versus evil aspect that's so much a part of the series (as evidenced by the stress on character alignment) and though the nature of the ultimate foe wasn't a surprise (and I won't say more to avoid spoiling) I think it was very well executed, and a lot of fun.
The side quests aren't just go-fetch, either. They add a lot to the game, and are fun in and of themselves.
Buy it and enjoy!
Rating:  -
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.
Rating: -
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!
Rating: -
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.
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