Review Mask of the Betrayer Review

[inwoker]

Good review. Slightly unproffesional in normal meaning.

But this reply amazed me:

That's the best part. They[choises] are very easy to miss. Before writing my review I looked at several walkthroughs. In every one I saw plenty of stuff that they missed and had no clue that an alternative path/outcome exists.

Because some unprofessunal bastard and hooligan once said:
"That's what makes Fallout so awesome. No, not the nuke. That "I never realized..." thing."

Where is the inconsistency?

You misunderstood, because of my sucktable english. I meant, that it's amazing that we at last got game with ""I never realized..." thing".

 

[VonVentrue]

Woah, this sounds almost like an entirely different game from NWN2.

It *is* an entirely different game. Different mechanics, style, design.

I concur.
A great review, VD - it pretty accurately reflects my feelings; now that my copy has finally arrived, I am truly awed by how much MotB improved upon its predecessor.

 

[denizsi]

VD's negative reviews are way better structured and more comprehensive.

 

[Gambler]

Now I remember why I hate D&D. I just realized that my initial wizard build was screwed up, because having int 18 at 18th level is not nearly enough, especially if I want to play by real rules, not some "special" version where your party has all kinds of bonuses.

The amount of options (half of which are cosmetic useless crap) during character generation is ridiculous. More so because the usefulness of them is determined by the game designer and cannot be predicted in advance. Even more so because even useful options don't do much by themselves.

 

[Jeff Graw]

You know what's interesting? MOTB is the first expansion I've bought for a game I've pirated. It's just that much better than the original. I'm about half way through right now and I can't really think of much to complain about. The combat's boring, but that's about it.

MOTB has raised my standards for modern RPGs, and maybe RPGs in general. Hopefully Obsidian can keep the ball rolling with their next title.

As for spirit eater mechanics, the only bad thing that I can find about it is that not eating spirits makes you more good. I'd say that not eating spirits is somewhat good, helping spirits is good, and devouring them is evil. However, if an evil character doesn't eat spirits for the sole reason of getting his meter down he has selfish motives and shouldn't turn more good because of it. Obsidian could have easily rectified this with some dialog option like "I don't care about the spirits, I'm not devouring them because it looks like I'll have a longer life this way."

 

[elander_]

Lost like I'm going to buy this game after all once they start selling a pack with both the main game and the expansion. My ideal D&D game would something with like MotB gui, dialog choices and companions and ToEE combat. I find the spirit meter game play could be more simple and provide more lore rewards for the 'evil' side. I like it because it combines game play with lore relevancy. As a game play device alone is nothing special (which is a shame) and it adds little to the already poor combat system in terms of strategy. I assume it's purpose is to create a stronger link to the world.

I don't have any performance problem with any game since i got a P4 3Ghz almost 2 years ago so i think i won't have any problem with this one. I also have 1Gb of fast ram (DDR2 or something) and that helps a lot in getting the pc stable for games. Other than that i have a shitty Radeon 9600 pro with 256 of vram. My PC can run practically anything at a more than decent speed and with some pixel shaders turned on as long i use a modest screen resolution and texture size. Sometimes the cpu and the quality of ram affects performance more than the graphics card itself.

 

[Badesumofu]

And the discussion on the Bioboards begins!

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/vi ... &forum=121

lol.

 

[The_Pope]

The moron indicator is working :D

 

[Badesumofu]

Yup :D

Funny stuff.

 

[LarsWestergren]

Lost like I'm going to buy this game after all once they start selling a pack with both the main game and the expansion.

You won't have to wait long. NWN 2 Gold Edition has a preliminary release date of 2007-11-09, according to Swedish sites at least.

 

[Hazelnut]

Thanks for the info Lars.

And welcome to the Codex!

 

[elander_]

You won't have to wait long. NWN 2 Gold Edition has a preliminary release date of 2007-11-09, according to Swedish sites at least.

That's great and right on time. I haven't played a well written crpg with some freedom of choice for ages. The dialogs from the screen shots even look like they were taken from a 'choose your own adventure' book.

And the discussion on the Bioboards begins!
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/vi ... &forum=121
lol.

Some of these guys have a strong argument there. VD should have warned people that they may not like the spirit meter. I mean if someone is an Halo player who gets confused when they aren't told where to go the spirit meter may be a serious problem for him because it forces him to explore to keep the spirit hunger satisfied. The general opinion seams to be that this is an acceptable feature except for the way alignments work with this which irritates some people.

 

[Lumpy]

The people who dislike the Spirit Meter are a vocal minority. How ironic.
And Vault Dweller being a "tool" - Lollers. He's probably bashed and praised every developer at one point or another, especially Obsidian.

 

[Vault Dweller]

That Lorstaff guy (who called me a tool) is something else:

"And the last bloodline I found pretty bad. I mean I guess it's an RPG, but I had no options, I couldn't explore, make choices, they were all premade I just had to discover all the premade choices....not how I like to RPG."

 

[Troll]

That Lorstaff guy (who called me a tool) is something else:

"And the last bloodline I found pretty bad. I mean I guess it's an RPG, but I had no options, I couldn't explore, make choices, they were all premade I just had to discover all the premade choices....not how I like to RPG."

Heey, the guy is clearly a visionary. The ideal RPG should be able to modify its universe to the player's actions, aka having an autonomous working AI.

p.s. - don't read the rest of his comments, they'll only prove he's an idiot.. he's trolling better than i am anyway

 

[cardtrick]

Hey, the Codex comes off awesome in that thread. VD sounds like a visionary rebel and the RPG Codex like a bunch of sages who people should have listened to all along. I like it!

 

[Volourn]

"It *is* an entirely different game."

No, it isn't.


" Different mechanics"

Nope.


", style,"

Not real ly.


"design."

Nah.


All it is a NWN2 expansion that seems to be better than the original. It's not really new. Nor is it different. Not that it should be. It's an expansion, afterall.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I'm sorry but the author of that article is a tool. He characterizes a VERY controversial mechanic as if it were a god send. I hope nobody listens to this idiot, the Spirit Meter is definitely not a winner as far as I am concerned. If he had at least attempted to warn people about the very plausible chance that they will not enjoy the spirit meter I could at least respect him.

But I'll put RPG codex down as a review site I will never listen to.

Great! Does that mean we don't have to listen to you either?

 

[Krokar]

ojective

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Flawless victory.

 

[Vault Dweller]

"It *is* an entirely different game."

No, it isn't.


" Different mechanics"

Nope.


", style,"

Not real ly.


"design."

Nah.


All it is a NWN2 expansion that seems to be better than the original. It's not really new. Nor is it different. Not that it should be. It's an expansion, afterall.

NWN2:
extremely linear, focused on unavoidable combat, meaningless dialogue options, generic "farm boy/girl saves the world" fantasy.

MotB:
non-linear, focused on dialogues and exploration (you need to explore to see everything (locked/hard to reach areas of Shadow Mulsantir, for example) and open new options (the mask fragments)), meaningful dialogue options, unique setting, personal story.

Need I say more?

 

[Volourn]

Like i said better; not new. And, the setting isn't new. It's the Forgotten Reams. That has tons of games based on it. The rules are the same, the mechanics are the same, and even the dialogue is the same system. Better; not new.


P.S. The NWN2 OC also had 'meanigful dialogue options'. Also, the expnasion has a lot of focus on unavoidable combat as well.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Like i said better; not new.

New? I said "different". You said "no, it isn't". Let's not re-imagine the conversation here.

And, the setting isn't new. It's the Forgotten Reams.

Too narrow. How about "fantasy DnD!" for a definition?

That has tons of games based on it. The rules are the same, the mechanics are the same, and even the dialogue is the same system.

I see now. So, both Planescape Torment and Icewind Dale 2 are practically the same games? One's slightly better, of course, but still the same in its core.

P.S. The NWN2 OC also had 'meanigful dialogue options'. Also, the expnasion has a lot of focus on unavoidable combat as well.

Only the ratio is reversed.

 

[fastpunk]

And the discussion on the Bioboards begins!
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/vi ... &forum=121
lol.

What an interesting discussion! So much fuss over such a little nuisance. It seems the mechanic actually is a moron detector! [sarcasm]We should use it as a codex benchmark for new members.[/sarcasm]

P.S. The NWN2 OC also had 'meanigful dialogue options'.

Where? Bloody hell, I must have missed them.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

And the discussion on the Bioboards begins!
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/vi ... &forum=121
lol.

What an interesting discussion! So much fuss over such a little nuisance. It seems the mechanic actually is a moron detector! [sarcasm]We should use it as a codex benchmark for new members.[/sarcasm]

P.S. The NWN2 OC also had 'meanigful dialogue options'.

Where? Bloody hell, I must have missed them.

Trial. And the events preceding that as you gather evidence.

If you're rude to a woman who asks you to bury the dead of Ember, for example, then she testifies against you at your trial. If you piss of Shandra then she doesn't offer her support either.

There's lots of different meaningful dialogue options in the trial, and you can even end up being found guilty even though you are innocent.

 

[Jeff Graw]

Eh, not all of the comments are negative on the Bioware forums, and I have to agree with a couple of the posters there too. VD doesn't really need to use swear words (and it does make him look a bit immature), and while I don't have a problem with calling out idiots, it could be done more subtlety.