Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate Interview
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GB: Can you give us a brief introduction to what gamers should expect from your Mysteries of Westgate module? Alan: In Mysteries of Westgate, you start off your adventure after arriving by ship to the infamous city of Westgate, a metropolis along the Dragon Coast where anyone is tolerated, even the vilest of monsters, so long as they have the gold to spend. You are here to seek answers for a mask you have found, which has inflicted a curse upon you. As a result, the terrible nightmares that you endure are slowly crushing your spirit, but no matter how you try to rid yourself of it, the mask always returns. The item in question is, in fact, a symbol of the Night Masks, a thieves' guild in Westgate. But this is no petty guild of thieves it is far more powerful and far more evil than that.
GB: How will Mysteries of Westgate tie in to the NWN2 and MotB campaigns, if at all?
Alan: MoW's story doesn't tie into NWN2 or MotB at all. We wanted the freedom to develop a top-quality story without having to work within the plot constraints from Obsidian's two games, so that called for a separate storyline entirely. Besides, MoW was developed in parallel with MotB, and we weren't developing an epic level game, so dependency on the expansion wasn't an option.
GB: How many new classes, feats, skills, spells, and items can we expect to see in Mysteries of Westgate? Will you be expanding on the epic level support introduced in Mask of the Betrayer, or are you focusing on the first twenty character levels only?
Alan: Atari's directive to us when we first began the project was to make it (custom content light,) so we intentionally made the focus the adventure itself, and spent a lot of time crafting the best experience possible. The character starts at level 8 at the beginning of the adventure, and ends at around level 14 by the end. Although we didn't include new classes or feats, we did add some new creatures, a new tileset, new placeables, and plenty of new music to the game!
GB: What areas of Faerûn will we be exploring during Mysteries of Westgate? Are there any particular locations you can tell us more about?
Alan: The game takes place within the city of Westgate, although there is the rare time where you do step outside of it. Mysteries of Westgate is very much a city adventure, and if you had fun questing in Athkatla in BG2, then you should enjoy exploring the different districts in Westgate. We did our best to pack the city full of sidequests in addition to the main adventure you'll be on when following the core story the ratio is pretty much half and half.
Players will be able to explore the Harbor Loop (the scummy docks), the Market Triangle (the seat of mercantile power of Westgate), and the Arena District, which is home to temples and, of course, the Westgate gladiatorial arena, the Quivering Thumb. For players who love a gladiatorial challenge, they're sure to find one there. A fourth location exists beneath the city itself, called Undergate, which holds more dark mysteries. There is definitely plenty to see and do inside this city.
GB: Mask of the Betrayer had less of a focus on combat than the original Neverwinter Nights 2 did. Would you say that Mysteries of Westgate will follow in this same direction or can we expect a lot of confrontation in the adventure pack?
Alan: I think we've done a very good job balancing between both the role-playing and combat aspects in MoW. We definitely don't focus (a lot) on confrontation, and I would have to say that things are scaled a bit more towards role-playing, with lots of interactions with NPCs and objects. There are many instances where players are given choices of how to deal with challenges, not all of which require combat, such as sneaking past a confrontation or talking your way out of it. However, we have plenty of challenging battles with nasty creatures that players have never seen before in a Neverwinter game, so don't put away that sword just yet. :)
Thanks for your time, Alan!
