Deep and engaging, Mask of the Betrayer is a role-player's delight.

The best RPG since Planescape:Torment, Obsidian Entertainment finally live up to their Black Isle legacy. Simply one of the best RPG's ever made. The fact that it has a lower critic score than the travesty that is Dragon Age 2 is an insult to the obviously passionate people who developed this game. That passion died a long time ago at BioWare.

While the lack of inter-party banter, the silliness of everything being scaled for epic levels, and a few annoying bugs keep this from being a perfect expansion, being less than perfect is far from being bad. If you loved Planescape: Torment, chances are you will love this. If you thought Planescape: Torment was too wordy and needed more combat, chances are you will love this. If you don't know what Planescape: Torment is, find a copy of that when you go buy this. Mask of the Betrayer is much more polished than the original Neverwinter Nights 2, and includes an entirely new musical score, which is amazing, vastly improved voice acting, and a story good enough for me to say its one of the best RPG stories of all time. The engine has been optimized leading to much less lag, faster load times, and faster save times. The autosave has also been set to be more frequent, saving almost every time you enter or exit an area, but the superfast save speed means you aren't waiting for more than 1-2 seconds for the autosave to finish. I highly recommend this to anyone who loved the original Neverwinter Nights 2, and even some who didn't. If you couldn't handle the unoptimized engine, or long load times in the original, both are fixed. This is one game where the developers listened to feedback and fixed nearly every complaint.… Expand

I think its a great edition to nwn2 and smooths out some things. I still hate the camera and the lack of it really following you character correctly. I have played D&D online and the camera is perfect for me there, i wish the camera was better. And the new way cameras work to me made it all worse. But if you can get past that its awesome. The new races and classes make it that more enjoyable that i will be playing through the main story line again with the new options!… Expand

Easily the best RPG since BG2. It's so head and shoulders above NWN2 it's ridiculous.

This is how NWN2 should have ran and looked like when it was released. They have polished the game to a beautiful level and the new graphics are beautiful. The extremely upgraded influence system is fantastic, it actually gives you stat and feat bonuses from your companions, It also has a huge influence on the game as well. The only thing I wish they would have gotten better is the camera, it's still clunky and broken, not as bad as when the first game came out but it's still pretty aweful. But if you can get past that there is a wonderful game here. It turely does feel epic. When you consider lvl 20 in d&d is nearly god -like then you can see how powerful these 20-30 levels are, but trust me, the game is challenging and you'll need the extra power, every battle is a hail of magic and steel it's almost surreal the amount of power your characters release, and the new graphics engine was specifically designed to improve the look and effects of magic spells. The story is fabulous as well. I recommend this to d&d fans or anyone who just loves RG's.… Expand

A very creative game.

RPGs are at their strongest when they create a world of wonder and intrigue with strong and interesting characters to discover and explore, and Mask of the Betrayer does this with a mastery that is seen in only a handful of the genre's best games. From shadow planes to dream walking to soul eating to dead gods, Mask of the Betrayer is enthralling.

This "mere expansion" to Neverwinter Nights 2 is possibly the best story-driven CRPG that's been made. Following the legend of the spirit-eater of Rashemen, it sets you on a tale that spans thousands of years and crosses the Planes -- but a tale that's *personal* in a way no other game of this type has quite managed. This is the one where the biggest combat mechanic is there for a reason deeply linked to the story; where you'll actually believe it when you select the "I love you" option; where the ending will have you burst into tears -- and then start again, to see a different path the story can take. Utterly wonderful.… Expand

Long, engaging story, multitude of new abilities and choices that actually have an impact on the plot and the character progression. Loved every minute of it, great expansion pack.

The gameplay is weak, being hindered by NwN2's buggy mess of an engine, but the storytelling more than makes up for that. The best RPG tale woven since Planescape: Torment.

I have to admit: I've played about halfway through. I cannot agree with what othes have said concerning the performance issues which plagued NWN2. (Or the polish, but I'll talk about that later.) Truth be told, there hasn't been much of a performance upgrade from when it was first released. The engine is still god-awful. 8800GTX and Core2 @ 3.2 and 4 gigs of RAM, with all shadows disabled and 2x aa 8 af, the game clearly dips into the 20fps range at times when outdoors. And the outdoor areas in MOTB are smaller and less populated with stuff than they were in NWN2, so much so that the game feels like a beta or a user-made mod. Still, the game still simply doesn't look good enough to warrant the resources it seems to demand. However, Bioware wisely decided to start MOTB in an indoor area, which is much easier on the hardware than the large, highly populated town that the PC found herself in in the first game. NPC AI is horrible. Your companions bug out on one another when running behing you, cast ridiculous spells during combat, etc. My party NPCs have continued to fight each other to the death after winning a battle, more than a few times. Others have mentioned how difficult the game is, compared to the original. And it is. If you start fresh with the mediocre items the game provides you with and, most importantly, you choose not to micromanage companion NPC attack behavior, you will be dying a lot. I played through the first chapter as a paladin, and it was such a struggle that I had to roll a pure fighter, just to make sure I had the mojo to get through the scripted fight sequences. The story (so far) is typical NWN-- lots of mysterious warring factions with motives opaque, each led by a boss who is in thrall to another boss who is in thrall to another. As usual, it's easy to lose track of who's who. But however it pans out, one or more of them is responsible for removing the silver shard from your chest and/or cursing you with the 'Spirit Hunger' mechanic new to MOTB. (A nuisance mechanic more irritating because I can't spend forever re-arranging my inventory like I used to. Sitting in town and setting up your gear and swapping junk between party members just might get you killed, in the long run.) Instead of typical fantasy-world RPG companions, it seems as if Bioware wanted to do some really weird stuff this time around; Half-Celestials with antlers, A Narcissistic Sex-Starved Half-Witch-Goth-Boy, a undead-unliving curly-plumed Bear God who's colored like a Rocket Pop-- and others--will fill your party. Your home base at the beginning of the game is a theatre called The Veil. The Veil's nemesis is The Sloop. There's some dialog about how the Sloop puts on light fare to appeal to the masses, while the Veil's productions are deeper and more meaningful. It is clearly the game commenting on itself. Whether or not MOTB is deeper or more meaningful is debatable, but the notion that it's presumed complexity is the the cause for the Veil's financial struggles, as well as the notion that their plays are simply too much caviar for the general is probably correct. Here's the short version: It's not as good as NWN, the expansions, and NW2. It still performs horribly. It is darker. It feels much more narrow and slapdash than NWN2, which for all its problems had a wide vision and clean, professional layout. The only thing keeping me playing it is my interest in what happened to me and my companions from the first game, and the irritating level of diffuculty.… Expand

One of the greatest RPGs I've played. The moral choices were excellent, and the malevolent path was very fun. Had a great ending as well, much better than the first evil ending where you just become a servant. I'd hope for a sequel, but the guy's story is pretty much achieved. He's become akin to a god, an elder evil so to say.

An excellent game in the same vein as the Black Isle classic, Planescape: Torment. Well paced with improved graphics over the original Neverwinter Nights. As with any RPG though, it boils down to dialogue and character interaction, and this is where MoTB shines. Dialogue is clever and unique to each creature you encounter. The NPCs have unique, interesting, and strong personalities without being rude and abrasive (what's the deal with rude in-party NPCs that insult you constantly in a lot of modern RPGs? It's just dull. Why would you hang out with these people, much less trust them with your life?). Attention to detail abounds in this game. Great attention to detail abounds, such as load-screen text specific to the area you're entering and off-hand situational comments from your party during exploration. Highly recommended.… Expand

A game deserving of a 8, too bad that it's only a expansion of a mediocre game.

This is a difficult, burdensome NWN module, due to the gameplay-stilting "spirit eater" aspect. Thankfully I found the "cheat" to turn this feature off.

Epic story that follows the hero from the original NWN2 campaign. Amazing characters with their own backgrounds, limitless customization, many side quests, epic levels, and best of all, lots of room for player choices. There are several different endings available depending on your actions throughout the story. The endings are very satisfying, particularly the "evil" one. This is a PC RPG done right!… Expand