At long last, Atari has officially announced the Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir expansion pack, which is scheduled to arrive sometime in the fourth quarter of this year courtesy of Obsidian Entertainment.

Fans of Neverwinter Nights have suspected an announcement was coming soon. Neverwinter News posted a translated press release originally found on the Spanish website Neverwinteros.com, revealing that a new Neverwinter Nights 2 expansion pack is in the works. Fans could also head to BioWare's NWN2 forum and find this forum topic to be of high interest, confirming that the mysterious announcement of the Storm of Zehir expansion pack is in actually development.

According to the forum post, several members from the Mask of the Betrayer and the original Neverwinter Nights 2 team are currently working on the expansion pack along with a few new faces. The game will gear towards the adventuring player, offering open-ended exploration using the new Overland Map, and full party customization that lets you create the ideal group (seen in Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale).

Storm of Zehir's 15-hour story line foreshadows events that will take place in the Forgotten Realms (now governed by the new deity, Zehir), the well-known fantasy world that will be utterly changed thanks to events derived from the upcoming release of the Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition ruleset. Although the forum post suggests that old story threads might be revisited, the Spellplague will be in full force, a result of Mystra's (goddess of magic) demise by the hand of the dark god Cyric. This means that magic and magical items will be far scarcer in the expansion.

Atari states that the game picks up in the aftermath of the defeat of the King of Shadows, and the Sword Coast is "in the midst of an uneasy economic recovery." According to the publisher, the story involves trade syndicates that have sprung up to exploit the post-war turmoil. In order to increase their own fortunes, players can either ally with a syndicate to create a trade empire go it alone through Faerun by raiding caravans and selling items on the black market. There's also a new faction on the scene called Yuan-Ti, an evil, shape-shifting serpent.

Storm of Zehir is the second expansion pack released for Neverwinter Nights 2, and will offer new classes, playable races, spells, creatures and free roaming across the Chultan Peninsula and Sword Coast. The expansion will feature an improved multiplayer experience and will enable modders to take advantage of the Overland Map, the Trading system and "other world-building enhancements." Atari stated that the world's economy reacts to the player's overall choices, and that with enough work, players could transform their meager merchant company into a booming financial empire. With the ability to roam free in a non-linear world, the financial and experience possibilities could be boundless.

"The "coolness" of an overland map of this style is in its ability to change how navigating the world feels," wrote J.E. Sawyer, lead designer at Obsidian Entertainment on the Neverwinter Nights 2 official forum. "Instead of simply selecting a location to visit, you can freely explore the environment. Encounters spawn in as you travel - sometimes helpful, sometimes not-so-helpful - as do "surprise" locations that your characters can uncover with their skills (e.g. Spot). And because encounters on the map do not auto-scale in difficulty to your level, risk/reward becomes an more interesting part of exploring." According to the press release, the farther from civilization the player roams, the more difficult the encounters become.

There's no doubt that the upcoming expansion pack looks to take the Neverwinter Nights franchise into a whole new territory. Stay tuned for more Storm of Zehir news as details are released.

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