Review: Neverwinter

I’ve played the game Neverwinter for around 6 hours total and got a good feel for the game, it is a free to play MMORPG on steam. Being free to play is what interested me the most, as most MMOs these days charge a monthly subscription and you usually have to buy the base game too, that being said let’s get onto the game.

Gameplay

The gameplay isn’t that of your typical MMO, it’s more fast paced and the game uses more of a hack

and slash mechanic rather than using ability spam, there are a total of 7 classes with 10 races to play

as, all of which have their own unique play style and racial abilities, I decided to be a Guardian

fighter dwarf, this is your typical tank class boasting high health and various abilities to keep aggro

on you instead of your friends/other players. Your main attacks are done using the left and right

mouse button, it could be anything from swinging a sword to shooting an arrow, and then you have

4 abilities on your task bar as well as to passive traits and an ultimate move which usually comes in

the form of an AoE attack. The game is also more about being skilled rather than just using said

abilities, there are many attacks you have to dodge or evade; if you stand in them you’ll soon find

yourself dead, so overall the combat is more engaging of say world of Warcraft.

“Combat in Neverwinter is based on a version of fourth edition Dungeons and Dragons rules

modified to be more action-oriented and faster-paced than either the pencil-and-paper roleplaying

game on which it is based or even most other MMORPGs. Battles in the game are similar in some

ways to the combat in third-person shooters, especially with the unique key and mouse bindings for

the action bar and active targeting based on moving a reticule in the middle of the screen over foes.

Another notable difference is that there is no automatic health regeneration outside of combat

except at campfires, or when the character has some stats in Regeneration. This makes Health

Potions much more important than they would otherwise be.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skGOlUXPJkk

World/Story

The story takes place in Neverwinter, when the last lord of Neverwinter mysteriously disappeared and Neverwinter became a place for death to thrive, the dead rise from their graves and you are forced to fight for the city once more and fight the lich queen Valindra. At the beginning of the game you see a small cinematic where the battle of the bridge takes place. After this you are on a beach in a tutorial area, giving you more information about what has happened. Here is a link to the opening cinematic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0UMVHehRNQ

Enemies & Friends

Within the game there are many enemies, from a skeleton army to a menacing group known as the Nasher rebels, you will encounter an array of enemies from the smaller low health cutthroat to a high health enforcer. Most enemies encountered are humanoid, but there are other races such as drows, goblins and giants, there are a mix of enemies which all do different things to try and kill you, whether that be a giant trying to crush you or a cutthroat trying to use a powerful backstab on you, there will always be a variety of attacks you have to be weary of. Then comes your friends, whether they be other online adventurers or in game companions, they all have their own uses, I was a tank and my friend played a healing class, without him I would have found it very difficult doing dungeons by myself, then I had other friends who would put out the damage I could not deal, my job was to get hit in the face, and I was good at it. Then comes the companions, they can be sent to train and come back more powerful, although you can only have one active companion at a time they are still very useful, when my friend was not online I would use a healer companion to compensate, so it’s nice to not only have the online players, but your very own Ai friend. The game also boasts a large amount of players: “Neverwinter has over two million players, according to Perfect World Entertainment via a video on Polygon. The game launched back in June and takes place in the D&D world of the same name, thanks to developer Crytpic Studios.” -

http://www.vg247.com/2013/07/30/neverwinter-mmorpg-has-2-million-players-according-to-new-video/

Sound & Environment

The sound in the game was great; it really fit some of the locations wells and pulled me further into the game than I already was. The environments and graphics were great too, from crumbling castles to orc infested fortresses there was a lot of variety in locations and it really adds to the game, it’s never bland and boring and there always seems to be something new to look at.

Pay to win?

A lot of modern free to play games are considered “pay to win”, this is where you can buy items with real currency to gain a benefit over other players, so, is this game considered pay to win? Most people seem to think so; some of the added benefits are shown in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1eCG8JeXEw

The general thoughts from the steam community: http://steamcommunity.com/app/109600/discussions/0/630800446022352906/?insideModal=1

Final thoughts

The game was really great overall in the time I played, I only really scratched the surface of what was available, and I will most likely continue to play the game until max level and see what the endgame content is like. I really recommend playing the game with a few friends as you will enjoy the game a lot more with the right classes doing the right things.