Obsidian's first expansion is out. Should you care?
Neverwinter Nights 2's narrative continues with the Mask of the Betrayer expansion, which turns out to follow a darker, more interesting storyline then the original campaign. Gone are the obvious comic relief characters like Khelgar, replaced with a handful of more sincere and less stereotypical personalities. This includes, if you play your cards right, a giant bear spirit by the name of Okku, who we referred to lovingly as rainbow bear during our playthrough. I mean,
The original campaign was much maligned for its preponderance of bugs and glitches, many of which have been cleaned up through a number of product updates released since last year. So you get a much more stable, functional experience with the expansion, though it's still sort of rough around the edges. Characters sometimes get glued to environmental objects, pathfinding screws up from time to time, and we experienced a few moments when quests didn't complete properly, forcing us to reload our game and try again. It was nothing so serious as to really hamper our experience, however, so if you skipped the first release now's an excellent time to dive in and satiate your Dungeons & Dragons itch.
From the beginning you can either import an existing character or start building a new one. Since this is a high level expansion, you'll have a boatload of battle options as soon as the action gets underway. Our Fire Gensai Favored Soul, suitably named Toasterhead Gillysnarkins, was gating in demons almost immediately. By the end Safiya, a Red Wizard, could unleash epic spells like Hellball and the ridiculous Mass Fowl. It's great for seasoned players but overwhelming for any newcomers, so if you do pick this up, you might want to run through the original campaign for a bit to get used to things. Mask of the Betrayer requires the original game to play, so it'll be sitting around anyway, might as well make use of it.
Instead of tromping through the standard fantasy fields and forests of the Sword Coast, the expansion brings you to Rashemen, a spirit-infested land where witches and Red Wizards maintain order and shadow portals open the way to demons and gods. To keep with this ghostly theme and reinforce the driving force of the narrative, your character is burdened with a spirit meter, a mechanic which essentially keeps you on the move and forces you to be much more selective about when to rest your party. Through the meter you do gain a few neat abilities with more unlocking as things progress, but ultimately the meter felt more like an unnecessary nuisance than a well-integrated gameplay feature. You'll figure out how to deal with it eventually, but throughout the game it remains an annoyance.
Meter issues aside, you'll find Mask of the Betrayer's narrative to be well done overall. You don't spend loads of time dungeon crawling mostly because there aren't that many huge dungeons to crawl around in. Most combat areas are smaller and feature fewer enemies than you might expect with a game like this, keeping the focus on plot and character development. A notable exception is the Academy, which requires a surprising amount of problem solving skills to complete. It can be an enjoyable diversion, featuring a number of side-quests to absorb your time like a golem boxing match. It really jumps out of nowhere, however, and slows down the game's otherwise high-tempo progression. It isn't really a problem, just unexpected. When you do head out into the field to fight, expect some challenging resistance, as many foes in the game will easily shred an improperly buffed party.
Like in the original campaign, if you feel like taking a break from casting Meteor Swarm and swinging your + 5 mace, you can talk to party members, ask what their life was like before meeting you, earn loyalty bonuses for being sympathetic, and ultimately gain a better sense of the game world and why you're doing what you're doing. It turns out those you eventually meet up with have quite different, elaborate, and interesting takes on how events eventually need to be resolved, which adds depth to the narrative and colors your decision-making with twinges of emotional attachment.
You can expect the same kinds of dynamic dialogue options and outcomes here as with the original campaign, though these are ultimately more engrossing. If you prefer the brute force method you can mow down many of the game's obstacles, but there are some particularly intriguing dialogue options should you take a more diplomatic approach. And other parts of the story, such as playing nether-lawyer to a pour soul in a demonic contract dispute, are just as entertaining.
Another improvement from the original are the graphics, which seem to perform better in this expansion. They're still not great, though spell effects, armor, and lighting are well done, but the game still seems to require far too much hardware muscle for what it's displaying onscreen. Betrayer manages to move past such issues by offering more imaginative environments, like the Shadow plane and dream realms. And rainbow bear. Then there's the camera, which can be annoying since you'll need to frequently adjust it, regardless if you're playing from behind-the-shoulder or top down modes. Still, you can usually get a good view of the battle eventually.
Closing Comments
Mask of the Betrayer is a fine expansion pack from Obsidian. It's a more stable experience, seems to run slightly better, and more importantly delivers a narrative that, for the most part, proceeds along without getting tangled by the catches of cliche. Its characters and their interactions are sure to strike many satisfying chords within the hearts of the Dungeons & Dragons fans, though those uninitiated in the ways of these types of games should steer their attention toward the original before tackling this high-level affair.
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