Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of The Betrayer

"Like Fallout? Planescape? Arcanum? The good old days are back. Now with shiny!"

First let me just say that I am a veteran RPG player, and cut my teeth on games like Fallout, Planescape:Torment, and Arcanum (ok, pseudo-veteran). There has been a rash of games released these last few years which can be summed up generally with the following characteristics: Linear. No meaningful consequences or choices. Uninspired combat. Extensive preoccupation with ensuring the player cannot be subject to anything challenging, and that he is carefully guided so everything is made fantastically obvious. In my mind, examples of these faults are manifest supremely in the recent hit "ES4 Oblivion" (quest compass, combat consisting of two total attacks + spells + block, potential to be head of all guilds, complete linearity (quest-wise), level-scaling, boring story, no choices, next to no dialog).

I played NWN2 when it was released, and found it almost unbearably dull. Long, linear dungeon crawls with waves and waves of monsters, few dialogue checks (that actually mattered, most just triggered the same dialogue anyway), and worst of all a plot that was the very essence of cliche (you thought everything was cool, but "Hey! I'm actually the Chosen One, here to defeat a great evil(tm).....again!"). I'd read the developer news before the release of NWN2, and I recall comments espousing it's virtue and likeness to Planscape. So I was disappointed, and was not looking forward to MotB. On a whim (and in the throes of boredom) I decided to pick up a copy of MotB to kill a few hours. Let me just say this: Whoa. This game is incredibly good. I don't mean "in light of the droves of poorly designed Diablo clones and simplified semi-rpgs released in the last several years, it was good". I mean this is one of the best games I've played, ever. The

fact that I'm writing this review (something I never do) is testament to my respect for the game as well as it's designers. That being said, there are a number of bugs and issues (most of them minor) that I have encountered thus far.

But first, the good (mostly, anyway):

Graphics: Nice designs, good spell-effects, interesting layouts, and well drawn stills during loading screens. I'm not a big graphics person, so I'll leave it to the aficionados to make that call more in depth. Text floaters are used to flesh out the environment, which is just great. In my opinion, some of the written (dialog box style) descriptions were better than any cutscene graphics could possibly have been.

Sound: Very good. The atmospheric music isn't overly dramatic, which is something I always hate (over-dramatic music), and which inevitably makes me laugh when I'm supposed to be all hyped up for battle. Much of it has a dark theme, and is perfect for the environments. Very good EAX effects, birds, wind, crickets (great crickets!), and creepy stuff in the Shadow plane/tombs/etc. And you did something that I have often wished for in other games: multiple combat music tracks. Well done! Hearing the same song for 30 hours makes you want to power attack your speakers using your face. Let me also point out that I found the title music very reminiscient of PS:T, much to my delight.

Combat: Same as in NWN2 OC of course, which I don't feel strongly about one way or the other. I prefer the ToEE combat system, but naturally that is a different animal entirely. One thing I feel would be beneficial is a "collect all" button ala Sacred. In single-player, it is a bit irritating to walk around after large battles going "click, loot. click, loot. click, loot." I don't see how "collect-all" would be harmful to the gameplay. Of course this option would not be allowed in multiplayer.

NPC Interaction: Here is where this game positively shines. The influence system, which was irritating in the OC, is pulled off in MotB with a vengeance. *MINOR SPOILER* Gaining influence with Kealyn by lying (Bluff skillcheck) and simultaneously with One of Many (for the deceit) is one of a great many example that springs to mind. *END SPOILER* The abundance of skillchecks, many of which have a significant impact on the story/quests/party is something sorely lacking in any recent "RPGs". As a sidenote, each time I used a dialog line that seemed especially suited to my personal sense of humor, I gained influence with Gann =) I can't wait to replay with a "good" character just to see what lies down that path.

Another benefit of the dialogue mechanics is a benefit intentionally removed from a game like Oblivion as opposed to, for example, Fallout: You cannot complete all questlines with a single character. You make decisions, and those decisions open some doors while closing others. This is awesome as hell, and pleases me to no end. It makes the game longer than it technically is, since I am already eager to replay it. Two (or more???) games in one box. Now that's what I call "worth 30 bucks".

I was scornful of NWN2 for it's weak dialog after reading a developer comment (before the release of NWN2) about how the writing would be on par with Torment. With MotB, I have no choice but to admit that the writers have come fairly close to doing just that.

Performance: Runs smoothly on my rig (AMD 4000+, 2GB RAM, 7800gts OC'd) at 1024 provided shadows are set to medium. Loading times seem to be increasing as I play on, but nothing too bad.

Interface/camera: Usable, but it felt a little clunky to me. Also, and this may be a bug, but in my game (in strategy mode), moving the mouse to the left or right sides of the screen does not turn the camera as described in the options, even with the "scrolling" option disabled. This means I have to use the center mouse button to rotate, which is worse for me than the camera in NWN1. It seems that in places the camera is locked too close to the characters for my liking, and could be easily remedied by an option in the menu.



The Bad:

I have encountered a few bugs and several minor inconveniences, none of which are game-breaking but are still bothersome none the less.

-In the last fights of the round-robin combat in the Ice Troll Lodge, killing the final opponent with a spell that does damage in stages (magic missile, flame arrow, missile storm) causes that opponent to continue attacking after the combat is over, even though you cannot fight back (dialog icon appears when moused over).

-In the Ice Troll Lodge, taking the ice-water test wiped out my quickbars (fixable, but as a sorc with 5 bars mapped, it was annoying).

-I also encountered a bug that equipped one NPC with my PC's gear (thus duplicating all the PC's items while losing the NPC's gear completely), which was obviously a seriously bad thing. Thankfully I noticed it before I saved. Note: I have NOT been able to repeat this bug.

-A few CTDs while loading new areas, but this is pretty rare.

-Moving an item from a magic bag to your inventory causes the bag window to scroll back to the top, making it a larger task than it should be to move many items quickly from bag to inventory.

-Items must be moved from magic bags to inventory prior to selling said items.

-Items cannot be moved directly from an equipment slot to another character's inventory or into a bag.

-A "detailed information" page in the character screen would be a huge benefit. As it is now, you have to check each item slot/spell buff to know what your deflection AC is, and it is harder than it should be to compute your save vs. mind spells after gear/spell buffs. It would be nice to have all the details available in a dedicated space.

-You cannot scroll the information window while in dialog. Allowing this could be useful to review what has already been said whilst in dialog, and I cannot see any drawback to permitting this option. My guess is that the dialog window is frozen to keep the character from interacting with the environment during dialog, which I can understand.

-It doesn't make sense to me that when using magic that can only effect the caster, you have to target her anyway. Why make me click myself, when I cannot use the spell on anything else?

-I have experienced a recurring bug that kicks back and error message when changing zones and quits the game. It isn't happening right now, so I forget the text, something like "Unable to load module". I have remedied this by repeatedly trying to zone, but the is likely a better solution if you scout around. Very annoying.

Conclusions: This game is simply phenomenal. If you like a large but empty world to run around in, this isn't for you. If you like a deep, dark storyline with multiple paths, dialog options based on your skills/stats and memorable characters then this is the game for you. I can only pray the this game will bring back real RPGs again.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/17/08

Game Release: Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of The Betrayer (US, 10/09/07)