Developers: Cryptic Studios
Publishers: Perfect World Entertainment
Release Date: June 20th, 2013 (Out now!)
Genre: MMOARPG
Price: Free-to-play, Cash Shop optional
A old friend with a new coat of paint would be my summery of the Forgotten Realms city of Neverwinter. Fun, deep, and community driven. A solid presentation is a brisk aspect to this game for many Dungeon & Dragons fans. From the opening CGI, I was given a display of all of the classes being demonstrated in a time of crisis. The plot point being a Briefly assuming her pre-Lich appearance, the Lich Queen Valindra attacks the soldiers of New Neverwinter, as new grounds are being built outside of the original city, which is being similarly repaired. Valindra’s actions spark the Battle of the Bridge, in which Barrabus the Gray and Drizzt Do’Urden are rumored to be present by gossipers at a pub in the shattered Luskan. Each soldier tells his own story of the battle until one soldier reveals that Valindra’s attack was going badly until the Blue Dragon, a leader amongst Thay, helped her escape. The soldier finishes by asking the people where they will be and what they will be doing when the dragon attacks again.
While Thay makes their own advances, the Netherese, under leadership of the necromancer Idris, take the lost artifact Deathknell and use it to forge an alliance with the barrow lords of Ebon Downs, thus providing them with the power to raise an army of dead to raze the Sword Coast. The Netherese have already destroyed the village of Grimhollow, prompting Lord Dagult Neverember, Protector of Neverwinter and Open Lord of Waterdeep, to recover the shards of the Deathknell and defeat the Netherese.
The setting of Neverwinter takes place in a time when the eponymous city is plunged into chaos after the disappearance of the last Lord of Neverwinter. In the aftermath of the Spellplague and the rage of a Primordial Fire Elemental almost destroying Neverwinter, as seen in the novel Gauntlgrym, the remaining citizens form factions and struggle for dominance over the populace as the dead begin to rise and attack “the city they once called home.
Now we have discussed a first impressions of the first chunk of the beta located here. Now from those concerns and questions asked to the developers went into the finalized product? It is not as easy to even-out any game partly without taking the compound elements that makes a class interesting, or under used. So generally a lot of bugs, and quest tweaks have been addressed. Cosmetics and shortcuts are the primary feature in the cashshop. Now before the Anti-free to play police come in whining that this makes the game buy to win. It does not, even if you do need those shortcuts, they can be easily received with trading Astral Crystals in for Z coins. Yes I know I blew your mind, and kicked the soap box from under you there. The game is based a lot like how Guild Wars 2 works with its clever Black Lion system. Where, your credit card, or some slight effort pays off, for even doing common things that the game has to offer in the first place.
I was playing as the Drow Race. To me a pretty mysterious and exotic out of the lot. Next to Half-Orc, like what kind of crazy crap was going down in the half-orcs lifestyles, geez. Humbled, I was granted access by the Developers to be able to play with this race. I instantly played as a Trickster Rogue. Which is a mixture of stealth, and high damage per second. I started with the introduction of the game (which I have ran this thing 50 zillion times when I tried out the beta). The race and the class all felt like a glove. Survivability is a big part of a comfort zone of any new, and veteran player. So I rolled max on the prime stat of Dexterity (Max when you start being twenty). The rules of Dungeons and Dragons is well presented in this game. Making sure not two character rolls are the same. Now for some the downsides, at the moment a few classes such as Great Weapon Fighter has damage output issues. Which are being addressed.
The world in this game is broken up into fragments, which are instanced. Locations such as Neverwinter, and areas around the city are all made up of sections. Dungeons, quest areas, and the overall map included. As many will use the same old line “well wow is completely open world. While that is wow, this is Neverwinter, pleased now you understand that. The mass volumes of players on each map would case massive lag. So to aid this the zones are also in such format. I personally do not have a problem with being able to move around smoothly while I trek around pirate coves, or the main city.
Combat is what really drawn me into the experience, feeling like a hack ‘n slash, at the same time a structured MMO. While many games used this format including Phantasy Star online. It works well for what it is, and each class has a flow to them. Trickster Rogue feels like a genuine Rogue, being able to disable traps, and having the highest Dps in the game. While single target, they are a awesome support class. The Cleric is also a interesting class, while many complain about them missing a Mace and a Shield, I grown to enjoy there talisman, and ranged attacking. Feeling more like a dedicated support who can take a few bumps and bruises. There main trait is being able to heal for large amounts of Healing per second(HPS). While in Beta they were considered “BS” due to there huge damage output and lack of healing stats. Many wanted them nerfed down a bit. Did this happen? Many still complain they are overpowered, what is the point to being in a dungeon crawler if you can barely solo if you choose to being a spec healer? I would rather have some sort of insurance I could survive a few scrapes and output some damage, then be a silly cloth healer. I tested out the Cleric post Beta, and they feel as fun as they were before, working well in large groups in instances. Trickster Rogue (my personal favorite out of the lot) is pretty fun, it offers fast paced, and interesting game play. While rarely having any sort of crowd control abilities until later on, they are awesome as major DPS players. It is scaled til the end of time that a Rogue is always a sneaky, stealth character who would come out of no where and murder your health bar on a whim. This game, allows you to create one ether as a support tank, a crowd control specialist, or as the go-to destroyer of small enemies quickly, helping keeping the Clerics job a lot easier. I could go on and on about my enjoyment so much so of the brutally addicting to play class. However, I am here to describe how damn good this game is.
As a mention before, the cash shop is actually very limited to what you really need for items, exception for crafting that is. Professions consist of Leatherworking, Leadership, Platesmithing, Mailsmithing, and Tailering.
One of the more unique and pretty impressive bits to this game, is if you are at work, or not in the mood to log into the game, but want to keep up your crafting in the game, you may do so via browser. Think of the basics of micromanaging. It is very basic, you obtain items via the professions box which opens up by pressing N. This can be accessed through two points of entry. Browser, or in game. Very handy, and is included in the game for no cost. From the low point of 8 minutes to 18 hours(to research new hired help) can allow you to craft more then one thing at once, however the catch is you need to level each of the following professions mentioned above. To fully max out this crafting system on this, would take months. Also requiring some real life money if you want to speed things up. But for those who want to play for free, you can grind Astral Diamonds to buy a professions pack.
Astral Diamonds is the in game currency for trading, While the games coins are merely for buying potions, and materials for your crafting projects. Before you flip a table, this is easily found by doing dungeons and quests through out the game, so it really is pretty fair to obtain. Just requires patience, and time. Another fragment of this game is Z coins, which is used for the games over all cash shop. The scale for trading the AD to ZC is 100 equals 310 a single Z-coin. Which is pretty nuts. Specially since you get one thousand from praying @ campfires, or from portal idols. So if you were to do the time, you would end up buying the Z-coins before you know it, or simply farm the diamonds.
The Leveling in this game is strictly open minded. You can PVP, level up to sixty pretty quickly. However that one linear track is present during this, it is not a bad thing, as the stories during quests are pretty interesting. The nature of each quest is practically, kill ten zombies, light a touch. And you are done. Some times however, I felt less interested in the story during the swamp location where you visit many tombs, but I will keep my lip shut beyond the reason why you are there. You do get a chunk of experience points and level within two quests turned in(so it is wise to not turn in the quests until you do every task out in the field, dungeon and or where ever first). Also mentioned in PVP, you can level in sessions, so if you feel that competitive bone rattling have at it. I played roughly seven times. It was decent at best. I am more into lore and stories told during my adventures. Pre-builds are very obvious , as I see some rogues, and Control Wizards running around with the same stun locking combo. So If you plan this for your experience play as they do in Rome… wait that does not sound right. While in Rome, do as the Romans do. There we go.
Gear is perhaps a staple for character development. Whether You run as Guardian Fighter or a Devoted Cleric you need to make sure your damage/healing output is based off of what your play style formats too. Armor Class (AC) increases your base damage resistance, lowering the amount of damage you take from incoming attacks. In the game it explains everything pretty well in a very entry level format. All of the classes have there own set of armor they use. Leather is Rogue, Chain is Cleric, Cloth is Wizard, and Plate is Fighter. Weapons in the game are pretty awesome, rogue being able to Dual wield Daggers, the Guardian Fighter dealing with shield and single handed weapons.
In Closing:
Dungeon and Dragons: Neverwinter Online is not a innovator, but more on the lines of a open minded mmo based dungeon crawler elements, on steroids. When I placed through the game a few things did bother me. How the seeming economy had control of the Zen Coin to Astral Diamonds conversation. While this may seem unreasonable to the population in the game, for those who grind the AD it is pretty brutal. I think there should be a simple affordable, and reasonable flat rate for the exchange. I understand too the Asian perspective for the cash shop, unlike a lot of western mmos, eastern is boldly socialized. To learn more of what I am talking about: Click Here. At the same time I see major Western influences with the leveling system, and character scale, which is based off D&D 4th edition rules if I am not mistaken.
What can I say other then it is addicting to be able to mix play styles if I wish, such as typical fetch quests, to dungeons on the fly (queuing of course). Cryptic brought out a stunning and simply down to earth appeal to this game over all. While most of my complaints are small fragments. Such as when loading through to other areas instantly I crash, however when patches row through I find most of that disappearing and I can assume the game is more optimized, allowing me to max out my settings and enjoy the lovely locations. The pattern for enemy sets seem the same, such as: Zombies >> Werewolves >> Humanoids >> Undead. Repeat. Variety felt limiting on said monsters but the rest of the game was very fun to play through.
The Foundry while having a few issues, is a interesting beast, you can create and publish levels. You can finally be that true online Dungeon Master, you waffle eating fool you! We will be making a few levels for the game as the Foundry gets tweaked and fixed with some bugs. While it is still in a open “beta” this was something are we not basing the game off due to it is a work in progress. Download it people, it is a impressive free to play game. With many features and options to progress.
9.0
