Mysteries of Westgate (MoW) is the first (and probably the last) adventure pack for Atari and Obsidian's Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN2). It's been in development with Ossian Studios, a small indie developer spearheaded by former Bioware employee Alan Miranda. Turns out mister Miranda learned quite a few tricks from that experience, since the campaign he and his team have put together is simply great.

I'll not go into core NWN2 concepts, I imagine that between the original campaign, the two expansions, and this adventure pack, you've had enough time to get familiar with the gameplay and the D&D 3.5 edition rules. So yeah, if you've played anything NWN2, MoW should feel very familiar. It doesn't really bring any new classes or gameplay improvements, in fact, besides some custom visual and audio assets, the game is built entirely around the original non-improved-by-expansions version of NWN2. That might seem like a downside, but there's really little use for stuff like the overland map or the party conversation system in the sort of story-driven campaign MoW is going for (though some of the gameplay tweaks would have been nice, more on that later). All that being said, let's move on to story.

You start off on a boat in the Westgate harbor. In your possession is a unique domino mask, which is the cause of horrible nightmares which have lead to many restless nights. And to make matters worse, you can't seem to be able to ditch the thing, it somehow just ends up back in your backpack. People have told you that it belongs to a shadowy criminal organization called the Night Masks, who reside in Westgate. So you've come to the famed city on the Dragon Coast looking for answers. From here you'll have to ally yourself with either the Ebon Claws (another criminal organization) or the Church of Lathander, in order to get close to the Night Masks. So that means that there are two critical paths through the game, both having unique endings and quests. Overall, MoW presents you with a gripping story; it's more on the personal side, not exactly an epic tale, which is a nice change of pace from the 'epicness' of gaming in general.

One of the most important aspects of a role-playing game are the quests. And this is probably the best thing about MoW. Literally every quest has some sort of twist or turn. Initially, many quests might seem straightforward or simple even, but somewhere along the way something will happen and the quest will veer off into unique territory. So the game creates this marvelous feeling of surprise quite often, to the point that after many quests the game had me going 'that was neat!'. Granted, the number of quests is not huge, this is a fairly short game after all (around 12-14 hours); it's a a case of quality over quantity.

MoW also excels in terms of writing and characters. Dialogues are a pleasure to read, and the three companions you'll be able to pick up during your journey are interesting and unique. Granted, a rogue with a mysterious past, a fallen paladin, and a cleric with a sharp tongue might not seem that special at first, but you'll unravel many interesting bits as you progress. And there's a good amount of party banter, which does a great job of fleshing out the personality of your companions, but also holds plenty of entertainment value. Suffice to say that if you appreciate a game for its writing and characters, you'll find MoW quite pleasing.

And it's worth mentioning that the story moves at a leisurely pace, so you will have time to do some side quests and explore the city, which is totally worth it. One of the first things I noticed about the game is the excellent characterization of Westgate. From sign posts or monuments, to landmarks, to various encounters with the locals, the place just feels genuinely interesting. And the developers even included a number of lore books on the city and on the Dragon coast (all of which are fairly easy to come by) for that little bit of extra depth. Finally, all districts are open to you from the get go, but you should be aware of the fact that things do follow a certain order, after all this is a story-driven game.

Gameplay-wise, the developers have made a few smart choices, which led to an experience that's better than the original NWN2 campaign. For example, they've placed the game in the mid D&D levels (7 to 14), which avoids both the tediousness of lower levels and the lack of balance of the higher levels. These are basically the sweet spot levels. They've also been careful with combat encounters, as filler combat is kept to a minimum. And when it's time to get rough you'll have a good fight on your hands. Gameplay is satisfying as far as I'm concerned, though I will admit that the many hours I've spent with NWN2 have made me tolerant to many things that people might find irritating. So consider yourself warned.

I have very few things to complain about and most stem from the flaws of the engine. We all know about NWN2's performance issues, and while they're less obvious in MoW, the game still doesn't run quite as it should, specially with shadows turned on (mostly the medium or high detail levels). Then we have the permissive resting and death systems taken from vanilla NWN2, which lower the game's difficulty somewhat; I'd count both as flaws. The first and second expansion (Mask of the Betrayer and Storm of Zehir) did a lot to improve on these issues, but MoW was made before them. So, sadly, it doesn't take advantage of these improvements.

Bottom line: I found Mysteries of Westgate to be one of the best role-playing experiences I've had in recent years. Yeah, it's that good. It's supremely well made and full of interesting ideas, and a polished product I might add. That's a lot for $10 if you ask me.