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Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer

User Rating:

ESRB: Alcohol Reference,Blood,Mild Violence,Sexual Themes,Violence
Publisher: Atari
Genre(s): Role Playing Game
Home Page: http://www.atari.com/nwn2/motb/US/...

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By: Antti Summala Nov 20, 2007

Promise yet to be fulfilled

I have to say I'm tempted by Okku's offer - Mask of the Betrayer can become a burden

Mask of the Betrayer is a chilling, almost horror-like adventure, but there are very few opportunities for chillin' in it. Your terrible affliction haunts you most of the way, and you'll have to be at the top of your game to beat the odds stacked against you. In practice, this means a lot of effort and quite a bit of headache trying to figure out the best items, weapons and spells for your character and companions. On the other hand, an uber careful character build makes it possible to waltz through the game, soloing every combat (or so I'm told).

Neverwinter Nights 2 has improved a lot in one year, but it still doesn't reach the multiplayer capabilities or popularity that the original Neverwinter Nights enjoyed in its hayday. Hopefully Obsidian Entertainment takes the lessons learned from NWN2 to heart, and the next expansion redeems the title in even the hardcore fans' eyes. Those who have stuck with NWN2 all this way are truly hardcore, and Mask of the Betrayer is a solid expansion for any fan of the series.

Summary of YouGamers Hardware Testing

The publisher of this game state the following specifications for their minimum and recommended requirements:

Component	Publisher's Minimum	Publisher's Recommended
Processor	2.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4 / AMD Athlon XP 2000+	3 GHz Intel Pentium 4 / equivalent AMD Athlon 64
Memory	512 MB	1024 MB
Graphics Card	128MB Pixel Shader 2.0	256 MB Pixel Shader 2.0
Graphics Card Example	ATI Radeon 9700 PRO / NVIDIA GeForce 6600	ATI Radeon X1600 / NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT/GS
Free Disk Space	5.5 GB free space	5.5 GB free space
Net Link	Not specified	Not specified

To learn more about how YouGamers performs its hardware testing, click here. Through our extensive gameplay and hardware testing across the full spectrum of PC configurations, YouGamers suggests that one should use the following guidelines for an appropriate minimum and recommended setup:

Component	YouGamers Minimum	YouGamers Recommended
Processor	AMD Athlon 64 3400+ / Intel Pentium 4 540	AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ / Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
Memory	1 GB	2 GB
Graphics Card	ATI Radeon X1650 256MB / NVIDIA GeForce 7600 256MB	ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT 512MB / NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB
Free Disk Space	5.5 GB	5.5 GB
Net Link	Broadband	Broadband

Scores

To learn more about our scoring methodology, please click here.

Gameplay	78	Mask of the Betrayer has solid writing and all the trappings of a great RPG title, but feels boxed in by the level design. Too much of what you see is just a visual prop, and in the post-Oblivion era, that's just not good enough.
Graphics	83	Settings turned all the way up, the graphics are wonderful to look at. The illusion of a living, breathing fantasy world is obstructed by the various GUI elements, and marred by LOD bugs such as shadows and models popping in and out.
Audio	88	Sound design, voice acting and musical score are definite strong points for Mask of the Betrayer. The music rarely gets repetitive and never intrusive; instead, it's responsible for creating suspense and thrills throughout the adventure.
Technology	65	Engine optimizations and bug fixes have made Neverwinter Nights 2 a much better game than it was upon release. That said, the system requirements are high for an originally 2006 title - Mask of the Betrayer doesn't add anything that would seriously affect the requirements. The long loading times between tiny playing areas are inexcusable today.

OVERALL

Mask of the Betrayer is a great epic level fantasy role playing campaign, based on aging and limited technology, with two glaring flaws: a dysfunctional multiplayer mode and a very high barrier of entry. That said, if you finished Neverwinter Nights 2, this expansion is definitely worth getting.

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