Posted on: August 3, 2025
IronGuy410
Verified ownerGames: 357 Reviews: 17
Clunky, buggy, absolutely fantastic
The original Neverwinter Nights 2 campaign starts off at an OK 3 and then gradually climbs up to a solid 4 by the end. I'm giving this a 5, however, because Mask of the Betrayer is genuinely one of the most fun and creative fantasy stories that I've played through in a video game, on par with Planescape Torment with how it explores faith, law, and the value of upholding or resisting the status quo through the lens of DnD cosmology. The leap in writing quality from the OC is so immediately apparent that I could understand why some people online say to just skip the original campaign and go right to MotB. Personally, I enjoyed working through the campaign even though it was much more Forgotten Realms-by-the-numbers. The characters are charming, you visit a variety of DnD places and do a bunch of DnD things, and once the pace picks up in the latter half, it feels like a fun, old-school adventure with that special kind of shallow but winking good nature that you don't see much of anymore in fantasy games. As for this new version, I started my character in NWN2 Complete and then transfered over when the Enhanced Edition came out, so I can say with confidence that if you're approaching this for the first time, there's no reason why you shouldn't pick up this version, and if you have the original already then there's no reason why you should. The most important new feature is that it will just install and run on a modern computer, which the original did not do for me without some fiddling. All the old bugs are still there, and the game itself still feels like it's always on the verge of breaking down like RPGs from this era tend to do (by the end, I had no less than three quests just lingering in my journal that I definitely had already completed, among other silly bugs like that). But then again, that old busted feeling, the somewhat clunky gameplay, these fun characters and this incredibly imaginative writing, all feel like definitive parts of NWN2's charm.
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