Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate
Mysteries of Westgatecover art
Developer(s)	Ossian Studios
Publisher(s)	Atari Interactive
Designer(s)	Luke Scull
Series	Neverwinter Nights
Engine	Electron engine
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	April 29, 2009
Genre(s)	Role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgateis anexpansion packfor therole-playing video gameNeverwinter Nights 2.It was developed byOssian Studiosand published byAtari Interactiveon April 29, 2009. The player creates a character and controls it, along with a group of three pre-designed companions, journeying through the game world. The gameplay is very similar to that of the base game.Mysteries of Westgatealso includes new monsters, music, and other tools, which can be used by players to create their ownNeverwinter Nights 2levels.

The game takes place in theForgotten Realmsworld, aDungeons & Dragonscampaign setting,in the area of Westgate. The player creates a character at the start of the game who finds a cursed mask belonging to the "Night Masks",athieves' guildat war with two other organizations. The player chooses which of these other organizations to side with, and embarks on a quest to lift the mask's curse.

Mysteries of Westgatewas made after Ossian Studios' successful work on the 2006 expansion packDarkness over Daggerford.The game's release was delayed to April 2009, despite its completion in September 2007, because ofdigital rights managementissues and coordination difficulties among the three companies involved.Mysteries of Westgatemet with mixed reviews; the game's plot and small amount of spoken dialogue were criticized by reviewers, while its music and low price for overall content were praised.

Gameplay

Further information:Neverwinter Nights 2 § Gameplay

Mysteries of Westgateis arole-playing video gamethat is based on the fantasy role-playing gameDungeons & Dragons,and uses thed20 Systemrules, which are based on determining the results of most tasks, such as attacks, by performing the equivalent of rolling a20-sided die.The player begins the game by either importing their character fromNeverwinter Nights 2or creating a new one that starts at character level 8.Each character has a race (such as human or elf) and aclass(such as fighter or wizard), which determine the character's main abilities.Mysteries of Westgatehas gameplay similar to the originalNeverwinter Nights 2and uses the same systems for gameplay elements, such ascharacter levels,combat, andmagic.The gameplay takes place primarily from anoverhead perspectivein a three-dimensional environment. The player moves and commands characters with themouse.

The game's designers estimate thatMysteries of Westgatecontains over 15 hours of gameplay, part of which is provided by pursuing optional side quests unrelated to the main plot.Mysteries of Westgate'scampaign features content that does not appear inNeverwinter Nights 2or its other expansions, including four new monsters (such as thewereratand sea serpent-like quelzarn), a set of "sewer" terrain tiles, and new music, all of which is available to players for use in the creation of custom levels.The pack includes over one hundredmagic items,equipment which the character can use during the adventure.

Plot

The storyline ofMysteries of Westgateis unrelated toNeverwinter Nights 2or its other expansions.It begins with theplayer character(PC) finding a cursed mask in adungeon,which causes the PC to have nightmares, and which cannot be discarded.The player soon discovers that the mask belongs to a group of thieves known as theNight Masksof Westgate.After traveling to Westgate, a port city along theDragon Coast,the PC discovers that the Night Masks are involved in a guild war with a rival group of thieves known as the Ebon Claws.The temple of Lathander is also fighting the Night Masks, and the PC is faced with the choice of joining the temple or the Ebon Claws.The PC is joined by three companions near the start of the game: therogueRinara, a former Night Mask; Mantides, a fallenpaladin;and Charissa, aclericofTyr.All three travel with the PC for most of the adventure.

The party then undertakes a number of quests, which vary depending on which faction the PC sides with. As the quests are completed, more is revealed about the cursed mask and how to get rid of it. The party eventually learns that the Night Masks are led byvampires,and additional clues lead them to the vampires' catacombs. After defeating the vampire Latasha, the PC travels through a portal to reach the chamber of the Night Masks' leader, Orbakh. Orbakh gives the PC the choice to either become a vampire or keep the cursed mask.

The game's ending depends on the PC's choice. If the PC chooses to become a vampire, former allies turn against the PC. Once they are defeated, Orbakh sends the PC to destroy the Ebon Claws. If the PC instead decides to keep the mask, Orbakh attacks; after his defeat, the leader of the Ebon Claws arrives with a group of followers and attacks the party. After the party is victorious, they kill the last of the Night Masks and free the player character from the cursed mask.

Development

Soon after the release ofDarkness over Daggerford,Ossian Studios' previous game, discussion began over the possibility of the company creating another expansion forNeverwinter Nights 2.Ossian officially proposed the game to Atari andWizards of the Coast,the owners of theDungeons & Dragonslicense, in the fall of 2006, with production beginning in January 2007.When asked about why theDungeons & Dragonssetting appealed to the company, Ossian Studios CEOAlan Mirandasaid, "All of our team members are [Dungeons and Dragons] fans, so developing a [Neverwinter Nights 2] game seemed like a great opportunity. "

During the game's early development stages, it was set in the Forgotten Realms nation ofRashemen.The location was changed because Obsidian Studios'Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayerwas to take place in the same area.At lead designer Luke Scull's suggestion, Westgate became the new setting for the game.Ossian wanted the game's setting to differentiate itself from bothNeverwinter Nightsand theBaldur's Gateseriesof games. They found Westgate, situated in another area of the Forgotten Realms setting, to be ideal.Miranda compared Westgate to a city-sized version ofStar Wars'sMos Eisleycantina: a "melting pot" of creatures from everywhere in the setting.Ossian said they decided to makeMysteries of Westgateexclusively single-player in order to improve the game experience.

David John, who had also worked on expansion packs for the originalNeverwinter Nights,composed the score forMysteries of Westgate,which took several months.In an interview soon after the game's release, Scull said "Some of [the game's] tracks are so good, I actually listen to them alongside my usual eclectic mix."Mysteries of Westgate'svoice acting was recorded inEdmonton,Alberta,Canada,with over 12,000 words of new voice-over material.The cast included some of the same people who previously acted inNeverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdarkand otherBioWaregames.Brian Dunn and Brian Watson, both of whom had also worked onDarkness over Daggerford,created the game's artwork and graphics.

Development ofMysteries of Westgateended in September 2007,but Atari delayed the pack's release, because thedigital rights managementthey wanted to use was not ready.The delay was also caused by coordination problems among Ossian, Obsidian, and Atari.The game was officially announced on October 22, 2007, with an estimated release date of "fall 2007".In May 2008,IGNreported that the game was scheduled for release that June,but it was further delayed, finally being released on April 29, 2009.Development ofMysteries of Westgatecontinued during the delays, to ensure the game's compatibility with the expansions and patches forNeverwinter Nights 2that were released after the game's completion.Scull said, "Kevin Smith, our Lead Technical Designer... had to bug fix and create new builds of the game with each [patch and expansion]."

When IGN's Steve Butts asked Miranda why the game was made available only through download, he replied, "From a financial perspective, digital distribution makes a lot of sense. It allows us to sell the Adventure Pack at a lower price point while still providing players with the same high quality gameplay and content that they've come to expect from NWN2 products.".Some of the game's voice-overs, monsters, music, and objects were released to theNeverwinter Nights 2community for free, for use in building custom adventures, without needing to purchase the game itself.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	73/100

Review scores

Publication	Score
1Up.com	B−
GameSpot	6.5/10
GamesRadar+	6/10
GameZone	6.9/10
IGN	7/10
GameStar	72/100

Reviews ofMysteries of Westgatewere mixed.1UP.com's Jason Wilson said that the game's plot is "an intriguing tale, and even after finishing the game, a number of encounters and plot points ring in my head... but the story's poor stitching distracts from its arc—I felt like a great hand... was pushing me through the plot, and the tale felt a bit muddled toward the end."Brett Todd ofGameSpotcalled the plot "rough around the edges",while GameZone reviewer Michael Lafferty said, "The game may have a disjointed storyline, but there are moments where humor shines through, and the game does take a few interesting plot twists. And the exploration of the city zones, the underground areas where the trolls abound, hold that sense of joyful discovery that make an RPG worth playing."Numerous reviewers mentioned that the impact of the mask which drives the story is minimal, having little effect on the actual gameplay.Lafferty said the side quests were not necessarily optional, as they were often a source of additional gold, and a certain point in the game's plot required a substantial sum of it to proceed.GamesRadar's Rich McCormick praised the game's storyline and main quest as some of its best points.In a review forGameStar,Christian Schmidt thought that the game's appearance and humor were poor, but recommended it because of its strong storyline.

Todd found the pack's difficulty to be "wildly careening" and stated, "Some battles are amazingly easy. You can soar through many scraps in moments, with your party carving up the opposition before you can tell if you're fighting a mummy or a zombie. However, others are absolutely brutal... There are more than a couple of moments in the game in which your party is ambushed by enemy spellcasters that rip you to pieces before you can even think about a proper response."He praised the game's music as blending in seamlessly with that of the original game, but criticized it for having a minimal amount of voice acting, with sequences of dialogue that begin with audio and transition into text.Steve Butts commented on this, saying, "the dialogue here really needs some work... you'll even be treated to some truly tortured sentences. 'Wait till you see how deep into the backside of evil I insert my boot in the name of justice!' is probably my favorite. It's too bad there's not more voice acting in the game, because hearing someone speak lines like that out loud may have given the developers an opportunity to edit some of the worst offenders."

As a result ofMysteries of Westgate's2007 completion and 2009 release, it did not feature the improvements present in the two previousNeverwinter Nights 2expansion packs, and received criticism because of this.Todd stated that the game lacks the artistic improvements ofMask of the BetrayerandStorm of Zehir,a sentiment echoed by Lafferty's review.However, Butts stated that "Westgatedelivers enough engaging content that the absence of all the latest improvements isn't "too agonizing."Several reviews noted that the fifteen hours of story and the new objects in the adventure pack make the expansion worth itsUS$9.99cost.

External links

• "Mysteries of Westgatehomepage ".Ossian Studios. Archived fromthe originalon September 29, 2009.RetrievedSeptember 24,2009.
• "Mysteries of Westgatehomepage ".Atari. Archived fromthe originalon August 22, 2008.RetrievedSeptember 24,2009.