Neverwinter (Xbox One) – First look

 

Dungeons and Dragons’ MMORPG has landed on Xbox one to some mixed reviews. I decided to voyage into the vast world of Neverwinter as a newbie to the MMORPG world and see what it’s all about.

Neverwinter is a free to play game developed by the people at Cryptic Studios. This title is from what I am told, is very similar in style to the World Of Warcraft franchise letting you quest it up with your friends, form guilds, do raids, dungeons, crafting and everything else you would expect from the genre. This is not an official “review” as I am only about 15 hours into the game at this point, but wanted to give you an idea of what you can expect from this title.

Right from the get go, the opening cinematic was pretty on point. You witness an invasion of the un-dead and a pretty excellent battle showcasing some of the classic builds in the D&D universe. It clearly established the villain and the problem occurring in the world and did it with flair.

Character creation was also a very pleasant surprise. I didn’t expect much from a game that didn’t cost me a dime, but the sheer number of races, class specializations and diversity in backgrounds was only the beginning. Your physical appearance is as unique as you or I, with many ways to alter your characters face, hair, tattoos, scars and even physical build. (They had boob sliders. Thank goodness for boob sliders!) I actually enjoyed making my Elf/Human hybrid girl, and was excited about how much I could deck her out.

 

How well does a MMORPG work as a Freemium title? Surprisingly well.

My initial reservations were based on my experience in the mobile gaming industry. Working on two freemium titles and learning about monetization and micro transactions did kind of suck my soul out as a gamer. Knowing where people would be most likely to spend money and when the best time to give them that option was something that made sense to me, and with the help of some fantastic co-workers (Hi, Mike!) I learned a lot about the world of micro transaction free to play games.

Surprisingly, during the first 15 hours of the game that I have played thus far I did not need to spend a dime. I did, but I did not need to. The balancing is quite fair, and while you may not get the coolest mount in the kingdom, you can certainly complete your objectives without getting your ass handed to you. I expected to be tossed into hard combat scenarios that would force me to spend real money to get “Zen” in order to purchase in-game high level gear and weapons, but I actually had no need to do it at all.  So far, I have had a great fun experience and could have done it without spending any money. They give you a companion for free at level 15, which is something I purchased before hand but did not actually need to. You get access to mounts at level 20. In between, you may want to purchase some backpacks to hold more cool junk but you find merchants often enough that it’s not needed. You can use premium currency to rush wait times for things, but it’s not that big of deal. You can purchase keys to open these special loot lock boxes for a chance at some high level gear, but to date I haven’t gotten anything good and will no longer be doing this.

The controls for the Xbox one are fairly fluid and easy to pick up. There is no real button tutorial beyond how to fight and use potions, but I seemed to pick up most things quite quickly. (Except how to jump, thanks Ashton for giving me some tips last night!) Overall I think they did a good job adapting a PC title to a controller considering the serious decrease in complexity and amount of buttons they were working with.
So, what else is there to attract you to this game?

– Daily Dungeons and Skirmishes to earn you bonus XP and special currency

– Many classes/races to build and explore

– Tons of unique companions and mounts

– An auction house to buy and sell neat stuff

–  Vast world, decent visuals lots to explore

– Fast paced combat

– Guilds to create and join

So, what is my beef with Neverwinter? Surely there has to be something. Right?

Well, no! As a newbie to the MMORPG realm (as I am a hardcore console fan and never got to enjoy WoW on the PC) I am quite enjoying this experience so far. I don’t have to spend money, but I will because I like cool things and think the developers did a wonderful job on this game and deserve some cool hard cashola in their pockets for their efforts. There is plenty of questing to be done, and I am nowhere near being even close to finished with this title. There are more features than you can shake a stick at and frankly, I haven’t even began to explore half of them.

 

If I had to pick on one thing in particular to complain about, it is how smart the devs are at their strategy of getting you to part with your money. This games makes you want to spend money. Between offering super cool things like panthers as companions and announcing to the whole world every time someone opens a lock box and gets a special rare drake mount, it’s like dangling crack in front of the average gamer who needs ALL of the things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not mad about it but I have to give a nod to how annoyingly much I want to dig into my wallet and pull out the credit card. I do find the Zen to be overpriced, though – $20.00 will get you 2000 Zen, which is really not even enough to buy any of the cool things. A package shouldn’t cost someone $50.00 the valuation on the in game currency is WAY too high.

Overall, Neverwinter has been a breath of fresh air and a great introduction into the world of MMORPG’s for me, and I will likely continue to play this title for quite awhile. If you are a fan of Dragon Age, WoW, Darksiders or other classic dungeon raiding, boss battling, looting RPG’s you will surely enjoy Neverwinter, whether it be on the PC or on Xbox One.