How I long for those halcyon days of West Harbor. At least there, in the original Neverwinter Nights 2 prologue, I woke up in my own bed, meandered about a cozy hovel nestled quietly on the northern edge of the Sword Coast, looking forward to nothing more dangerous than an archery contest at the town fair.

Then again, that’s not necessarily the stuff of adventures. And in the Forgotten Realms, nothing stays quiet for long.

Disquiet, however, describes the dark imagery and murky imagination forming the unlit façade in Mask of the Betrayer, the first official expansion to the original Neverwinter Nights 2 campaign. Your epic-level character can be carried over into the new story, although staring “Fresh” with a new level 18 – 20 character is an available option at the start as well. There are loose dovetails in Mask of the Betrayer that trace back to the original campaign, but this is a standalone adventure, to be sure.

You awaken underground, alone, and not immediately able to stand up. There’s an empty feeling in your chest cavity, and an inexplicable brooding within you that is rearing its ugly head. You’ve managed to open your eyes in the eastern realm of Rashemen (that’s north of Thay and bordering Lake Mulsantir, for those of you keeping track at home). Amidst this rude awakening, clutching pillars surround you, and they have a feverish vision to bestow – not unlike the shadowy themes clawing their entire way across this dans macabre.

On your feet once more, the opening’s flat, cavernous run-through reminds all to readily of the camera’s need to be babysat, despite purported improvements to its general implementation. At its best, the near-object fade is as lazy as ever, keeping your fingers poised on the pause button, haggling for a decent angle on the action. The stutter-stop motion of Dungeons & Dragons, however, is still rather conducive to this style of gameplay.

The roof is now raised to level 30 for your character, from the previous 20, but nobody promised a cakewalk in the getting. The optimization going into the game engine not only keeps Mask of the Betrayer running a tighter graphical shift, it makes way for bigger epic-level spell effects to bedazzle audiences near and far on the game screen. No longer casting cantrips and dancing lights, you’re officially mired in territory with spells named “Avasculate” and “Cacophonic Burst.” Having a dictionary nearby is helpful.

The difficulty level is decidedly unfriendly to newcomers, and eve to rusty returning players. Becoming a proactive team leader has never been more important, but running your companions marionette-style is strictly reserved for only the hardiest micromanagers. Earning your way across this beautifully-sculpted narrative now proves taxing of your skills and patience.

The most notable gameplay change is the introduction of Spirit Energy. Your travels take a through-the-looking-glass approach early into Mask’s chapters, and the hungry, menacing spirit within you desperately forces your hand in devouring other spirits. Like a soul-sucking vampire, suppressing your hunger takes a heavy toll on you, while succumbing to your hunger naturally keeps your gauged abilities on full.

Kindly enough, the developers saw fit to equip one of your party members with an Enchanter’s Satchel, which works as a mobile workbench for alchemists, freeing up commute time for transmute time. The crafting procedure is -- just as every other square inch of the world -- rife with rulesets and wracked with number-crunching, made all the more apparent since the nature of D&D constantly exposes the “man behind the curtain.” There’s no fourth wall protecting you from your statistics, and the dice (metaphorically) c...