NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer - Review @ GameSpot

GameSpot's review of Mask of the Betrayer criticises the spirit-eating mechanism and camera but praises the choices and puzzles, calling the expansion "mature". The score is 8/10 and here's a snip:

The expansion also does a great job of diversifying the gameplay. In NWN2, there was almost no situation that couldn't be solved with a little combat. On the other hand, Mask of the Betrayer is packed with all sorts of devious puzzles. For instance, a trip to a wizard school will have you trying to figure out an elaborate mirror puzzle, as well as attempting to break a contract with a devil. This is an expansion that will make you think, and that's a good thing.

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More information.

I came as far as

The Bad (...) The isometric camera can't remember its position.

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before losing all interest in what the reviewer had to say.

I don't find the camera to be a problem at all. It's a great game, best CRPG for a looong time.

I have read tons of complaints last week and posted in Watch forums asking about it, with no responses and decided to pick it up anyway Friday.

I am having constant problems with the camera and can't remember it's position, constantly reseting the Zoom in/out distance on each level change.

Next no matter how low I adjust the Speed of Turning on Edge of screen Mousing it's still way to fast, so I can't move it just a little to SEE were I want to see and forced to constantly fight the camera.

Additionally, I seem to remember there was away to allow you to Zoom out farther than the standard settings but I can't seem to find it or it was removed.

It maybe just me but it's much harder for me to enjoy a great story if I am constantly being pulled out of the GW into RL to screw around with techincal problems, too bad.

I keep it set to Strat mode only; it seems to be when you switch between modes that it forgets your settings. I use strat mode with it locked on currently controlled character. I mostly use the middle mouse button to move the angle around. It works fine for me, maybe if you experiment a bit with the strat mode until you find something that works for you, and then leave it in strat mode it'll go a bit easier.

Thanks will try, had been only using Character Mode, so maybe that's were all the issues remain.

I'll be buy this anyway. Not much single-player rpgs on market. If the only major problem is camera, I'll handle with it.

Just spend some time yelling at the camera control settings; I'm pretty sure you'll find something that's tolerable. The trouble is that most of the setting combinations result in unbelievably annoying camera behavior.

I've set mine to Strategy Mode, Always Centered on Player, Rotate when Mouse Hits Corner (not the exact words, but more or less). It's not perfect, but it doesn't get in the way that much either.

I agree with the other criticisms, by the way. Okku needs to be nerfed and the spirit eater mechanic needs rebalancing (in particular, the feedback loops in it need to be broken: as it is, if you make one set of choices, the game becomes almost exclusively about managing the mechanic, but if you make another set, the mechanic becomes so easy to manage it becomes no more significant than the "rest to memorize spells" one.)

As to the other rebalancing issues, IMO that's just epic-level D&D -- there are literally millions or even billions of character builds possible, which inevitably means that most of 'em are squibs, a few are overpowered, and the rest are somewhere in between. That, IMO, is a big part of the fun of D&D.