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Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer

It's been nearly a year since the release of Neverwinter Nights 2, Obsidian Entertainment's follow-up to the immensely popular Neverwinter Nights. While NWN 2 didn't receive the same critical acclaim as its predecessor, gamers nonetheless welcomed the return of the role-playing king. This October will see the release of NWN 2's first expansion pack, Mask of the Betrayer, thus ensuring that nerds everywhere will remain in their parents' basements for a few more months of Dungeons and Dragons goodness.

Sniping hardcore NWN fans may be a bit low-brow, but the reality is that a strict D&D RPG all but excludes casual gamers. NWN 2 generally received above-average reviews, but it took a number of patches before the game lived up to its potential. At this point, it's safe to say that publisher Atari is catering to stalwart fans with an expansion pack; the additional content isn't meant to entice newcomers. With that in mind, what carrots are being dangled to move Mask of the Betrayer from store shelves to customers' hard drives?

NWN 2 is known for its long and very involved story. If 50-plus hours didn't satiate your need for exploring, fighting and chatting up NPCs, then Mask of the Betrayer offers up another 20 hours or so to your questing. Details are sparse at this point, but Obsidian have released some story snippets. Picking up directly after the events in NWN 2, the story plays out in Rashemen. The Red Wizards call the nearby Kingdom of Thay home, so they'll play a pivotal role in driving the action. Neverwinter Nights lead designer Kevin Saunders sets the stage for the story: "You awaken in a pool of your own blood. Your immediate goal is survival. The shard of the Sword of Gith has been ripped from your chest and in its place is a dark hunger, a craving that threatens to consume you." Dark and mysterious, indeed.

New environments mean new places to explore.

There's plenty of atmosphere, particularly when the sun goes down.

New Character Possibilities

Character development has been expanded, with the level cap increasing to 30 (from the previous cap of 20). The new cap applies to both base and prestige classes, so a current NWN 2 character can advance to the new elite levels. In addition to the races from NWN 2, the expansion introduces three new races: Genasi, Wild Elf and Half-Drow. There's little information available on the Half-Drow and Wild Elf races, but details have been released on the Genasi. Four Planetouched Genasi races are available, representing Fire, Water, Air and Earth. Unsurprisingly, a Genasi has resistance to its namesake element. As-yet-unnamed special abilities based on the selected element are packaged in, as is some degree of Darkvision.

New character classes include the Red Wizard of Thay.

Additional spells and new spell effects spice up the combat.

If you've made is this far through the article, then your inner geek is no doubt clamoring for more. You're in luck: a total of seven new character classes have been introduced. The two new base classes are takes on existing classes. Spirit Shaman and Favored Soul are magically inclined versions of the Druid and Cleric classes, respectively. That leaves five prestige classes, but at this point only four have been confirmed: Stormlord, Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep, Invisible Blade and Red Wizard of Thay. Obsidian is most excited about the Red Wizard class, as it's tied so intricately into the new story.

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: Gameplay Changes and Technical Improvements

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