Atari made it official today that development is underway on the first official Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion, Mask of the Betrayer. The expansion is due for release during spring this year and will introduce a new campaign, new levels, new weapons, new spells, and much, much more (sounds like an infomercial ... but where are my free set of steak knives???). Of course, the the game is set in the Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms universe which has been made legendary by Wizards of the Coast.

Players will find themselves back in the Forgotten Realms shortly after the events of the original Neverwinter Nights 2. The player will find themselves waking up alone and stranded beneath the earth. Cyril Voiron, Marketing Director of Atari Europe said,

"With Neverwinter Nights 2, Obsidian delivered a high quality role-playing experience, reinforcing their position amongst the very finest studios working in the field ... With this Spring expansion pack Obsidian are bringing a wealth of brilliant new content to the fans to make the unique Neverwinter Nights experience even richer."

The expansion is said to be set in the spirit-rich Rasheman, near the powerful nation of Thay. After you begin playing the expansion, your character wakes up underneath the earth, surrounded by spirits where you will enter in to a journey to discover what your destiny really is.

The expansion will offer:

"An exciting new campaign; epic levels; dozens of new feats and spells; new races; base classes and prestige classes; new companions; new weapons; armour and crafting options; hordes of new monsters; and enhanced modding tools."

Feargus Urquhart, the CEO of Obsidian Entertainment, said,

"Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer's engrossing campaign will conclude the storyline that began in the original Neverwinter Nights 2 and focus on combat, exploration and classic D&D dungeon-crawling ... We're also making new advances in story and character development as well as improving upon the acclaimed companion Influence System used in both Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2."

Neverwinter Nights was not the greatest of games out of the box. What made it a great game was the number of mods and expansions which were created by the developers and the gaming community. Considering the first expansion is already on its way hopefully we should be able to see a repeat performance with Neverwinter Nights 2.