Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate
Mysteries of Westgate
Developer(s)	Ossian Studios
Publisher(s)	Atari
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 Westgate (NWN2:MoW) is a computer role-playing game developed by Ossian Studios and published by Atari on April 29, 2009. It is an expansion pack for the Neverwinter Nights 2 game. The player creates a character and controls both this character and a group of three pre-designed companions through the game world, with gameplay very similar to the base game's. Mysteries of Westgate also includes new monsters, music, and other tools which can be used by players to create their own Neverwinter Nights 2 levels.

The game's plot takes place in the Forgotten Realms world, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting; specifically, in the area of Westgate. The player assumes the role of a character, which they create at the start of the game, who has found a cursed mask. The player soon discovers that this mask belongs to the "Night Masks", a thieves' guild at 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 Westgate was made after Ossian Studios' successful work on Darkness over Daggerford, which led Atari to ask them to develop Mysteries of Westgate. The game's release was delayed to April 2009 from its original completion in September 2007 because of digital rights management issues and coordination difficulties between the three companies involved in the game. Mysteries of Westgate met 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: [[:Gameplay of Neverwinter Nights 2]]

Mysteries of Westgate is a three-dimensional computer role-playing game played primarily from an overhead perspective, in which characters are moved and commanded with the mouse. It is based on Dungeons & Dragons, and uses the d20 System rules. It has gameplay similar to the original Neverwinter Nights 2 and uses the same systems for gameplay elements such as character levels, combat, magic, and classes. The game's designers estimate that Mysteries of Westgate contains over 15 hours of gameplay, part of which is provided by optional side quests unrelated to the main plot.

The player begins the game by importing their character from Neverwinter Nights 2 or by creating a new one that starts at character level 8. Mysteries of Westgate's campaign features content that does not appear in Neverwinter Nights 2 or its other expansions, including four new monsters (such as the wererat and sea serpent-like quelzarn), a "sewer" tileset, and new music, all of which can be used by players in the creation of custom levels. The pack includes over one hundred magic items, each with a description by the adventure's writers.

Plot

Mysteries of Westgate's storyline is unrelated to Neverwinter Nights 2 or its other expansions. It begins with the player character finding a cursed mask which causes the character to have nightmares, and which cannot be discarded. The player character soon discovers that the mask belongs to a group of thieves known as the Night Masks of Westgate. After traveling to Westgate, the character finds 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 attacking the Night Masks, and the character is faced with the choice of joining the temple or the Ebon Claws. The character is joined by three companions near the start of the game, who follow him for most of the adventure regardless of which path he takes: the rogue Rinara, a former Night Mask; Mantides, a fallen paladin; and Charissa, a cleric of Tyr.

The party then undertakes quests; the content of these quests depends on which faction was sided 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 by vampires, and additional clues lead them to the vampires' catacombs. After defeating the vampire Latasha, the character travels through a portal to reach the chamber of the Night Masks' leader, Orbakh. Orbakh gives the character the choice to either become a vampire or keep the cursed mask.

The game's ending depends on the player's choice. If the character chooses to become a vampire, his former allies turn against him. Once they are defeated, Orbakh sends the character to destroy the Ebon Claws. If the character 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

System requirements

	Minimum	Recommended
Windows
CPU	2.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent	2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D 805 or faster
Memory	1 GB	2 GB
Free space	350 MB
Graphics hardware	ATI Radeon X1950 512MB series, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 512MB series or higher	ATI Radeon X700or NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or higher
Sound hardware	DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
Network	Internet connection required

Soon after the release of Darkness over Daggerford, Ossian Studios' previous game, discussion began over the possibility of the company creating another expansion for Neverwinter Nights 2. The game was officially proposed to Atari and Wizards of the Coast, the owners of the Dungeons & Dragons license, in the fall of 2006. Production began in January 2007. When asked about why the Dungeons & Dragons setting appealed to the company, Ossian Studios CEO Alan Miranda said that "All of our team members are D&D fans, so developing a NWN2 game seemed like a great opportunity."

During the game's early development stages, it was set in the Forgotten Realms nation of Rashemen. However, this was quickly changed, as Obsidian Studios' Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer was to take place in the same area. At lead designer Luke Scull's suggestion, Westgate became the new setting. Ossian wanted the game's setting to differentiate itself from that of other Neverwinter Nights and the Baldur's Gate series games. They found that Westgate, situated in another area of the Forgotten Realms setting, was ideal. Miranda compared Westgate to a city-sized version of Star Wars' Mos Eisley Cantina; a "melting pot" of creatures from everywhere in the setting. Ossian decided to make Mysteries of Westgate exclusively single-player in order to improve the game experience.

Mysteries of Westgate's score was composed by David John, who had worked on smaller expansions for the original Neverwinter Nights. The music's creation took several months. In an interview soon after the game's release, Scull said that "Some of [the game's] tracks are so good I actually listen to them alongside my usual eclectic mix." Mysteries of Westgate's voice acting was recorded in Edmonton, Canada; the cast included some of the same people who previously acted in Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark and other BioWare games. Over 12,000 words of new voice-overs were recorded for the game's characters. The game's artwork and graphics were created by Brian Dunn and Brian Watson, who had also worked on Darkness over Daggerford.

Development of Mysteries of Westgate ended in September 2007, but Atari delayed the pack's release because the digital rights management that they wanted to use was not ready. The delay was also caused by coordination problems between Ossian, Obsidian, and Atari. The game was officially announced on October 22, 2007, with an estimated release date of "fall 2007". In May 2008, IGN reported that the game was scheduled for release in June, but it was further delayed. It was finally released on April 29, 2009. Development of Mysteries of Westgate continued during the delays, to ensure the game's compatibility with the expansions and patches for Neverwinter Nights 2 that 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 Miranda was asked 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." Mysteries of Westgate was originally going to be released solely through Atari's website, but other distributors were added.

Some of the game's voice-overs, monsters, music, and objects were released to the Neverwinter Nights 2 community for free, so that they could be used to build custom adventures without needing to purchase the game itself.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	71.67%
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 of Mysteries of Westgate were mixed. 1UP.com 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." GameSpot stated that the plot is "rough around the edges", while GameZone 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. GameZone found that the side quests were not necessarily optional, due to the large amount of gold needed to pass a certain point in the game's plot; the side quests are a main way of getting more gold. GamesRadar praised the game's storyline and main quest as some of its best points. GameStar thought that the game's appearance and humor was poor, but still recommended it because of its strong storyline.

GameSpot found that the pack's difficulty was "Wildly careening [...] 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." The reviewer praised the game's music as blending in seamlessly with the original game's, but criticized its for a having minimal amount of voice acting and sequences of dialogue that begin with spoken words and transition into being text-only. IGN's 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 of Mysteries of Westgate's 2007 completion and 2009 release, it did not feature the improvements present in the two previous Neverwinter Nights 2's expansion packs; the game received criticism because of this. GameSpot stated that the game lacks the artistic improvements of Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir, a sentiment echoed by GameZone. However, IGN stated that "Westgate delivers enough engaging content that the absence of all the latest improvements isn't too agonizing."

Several reviews closed by saying that the fifteen hours of story and the new objects in the adventure pack make it worth the US$9.99 cost, specifically noting its low price as being one of the game's advantages.

External links

• "Mysteries of Westgate homepage". Ossian Studios. Archived from the original on September 24, 2009. Retrieved September 24, 2009.
• "Mysteries of Westgate homepage". Atari. Retrieved September 24, 2009.