Neverwinter (PC)

Zach Goodier

Neverwinter is a free-to-play, Dungeons & Dragons inspired online MMO.  You can pick between several standard fantasy races, as well as the classes, between rouge, ranger, guardian, sorcerer, cleric, and warrior classes to develop your own character and create parties in this expansive and varied world.  You can, of course, go into PvP, as well.  You find the traditional loot and items that define most fantasy MMO’s, and you can spend money on weapons, companions, mounts, etc that are outside the free content.

This is not all of the races, but this is a look at the list.

Premise:

To begin with, this game is very socially oriented, but you can still go at it alone if you really want to, but you’ll be limited your experience greatly.  I played through about the first 15 levels solo before I seriously formed questing parties, and it makes the game much easier.  Solo can be a challenge, so whether you get your friends to play, or you just party up with random players, it isn’t required, but it does a lot to help make the game fun rather than tedious when you have to fight through waves of enemies.

You'll have access to all sorts of fun tricks for each class, making each feeling different in how they play.

Your character, like in D&D, levels up, acquires new abilities, and gets access to better gear and weapons as you progress.  There is a main questline, as well as optional quests you can take up.  There is also player-created quests, and once you reach a sufficient level, you can create quests of your own to share with the community. 

it all comes together rather beautifully, especially for a freebie.

Story:

In the story, an army of undead, lead by a monstrous queen, has attacked the city of Neverwinter, and you arrive near the end of an epic battle.  Neverwinter is able to repel the attackers… mostly, but some parts of the city lay in ruins, host to orcs, rebels, bandits, undead, and so on.  While not all of these groups are necessarily allied, they all seek to take advantage of the chaos to strike at Neverwinter.  You will help the soldiers of Neverwinter strike back against these foes, and save Neverwinter.

Gameplay:

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that this queen of the damned happens to have an undead dragon under her control.

This is where this game starts to set itself apart from other MMO’s.  This game really is more based on the player’s skill than other MMORPG’s, allowing you to manually dodge most attacks, even demanding you do when enemies wind up for punishing blows.  If you’re fast on the keyboard, you can easily dodge the heaviest attacks, but it also requires a good internet connection, otherwise you won’t be able to even see the attacks coming in time to dodge them.  So you really need to make sure your internet connection is up to par.  Party’s are easy to form, and you still have a lot of the hot-keyed special attacks that you would recognize from the standard MMORPG format.  But like I said, the key difference is less just pressing buttons and letting the character do the work, but it focuses more on player interaction, making you feel more connected to the character and more involved in the combat, if only in a minor way. 

Looks like he might have a bone to pick... (bad pun intended)

Graphics:

Graphics are exceptional considering the fact that this is a free game, and the character animations are also exceptional.  While this won’t blow high end games out of the water, you more than get what you don’t pay for here.  It can look a little cartoon-like at times, but you really can’t complain for a freebie.  Weapons are prone to the same pros/cons, some seeming a little oversized or overdone in some way, but that’s just my personal tastes, which generally prefer realistic designs like you’d find in Skyrim.

Obviously not mind-blowing with its visceral feel, but still pretty solid for a MMO

Overall:

This game is a no-brainer, go try it out, it literally costs you nothing (aside from the electric and internet bills you’re already paying for).  Most free MMORPG’s try to whet your appetite with free access, but horde all the good items for individual fees; this game is really no huge exception.  It should be noted that you can skirt around most of this with the auction system and “astral diamonds” that can be used to buy stuff, but that requires long hours of work just to afford some decent premium/VIP equipment.  So while you don’t HAVE to pay out of pocket, you’ll more than likely wish you had, so the standard free-to-play tradeoff is still more or less in place.  However, this in no way stops this from being a great game to play, and I was more than happy to sink in a few bucks so that I could not only support the crew for their great game, but also so I could get that wolf companion that my ranger was begging for.

Good:

-FREE!!!

-Respectable graphics and animation for what you DON’T pay for.

-More involved combat than many MMORPG’s.

-Players have access to most premium content without having to pay for premium subscriptions.

Bad:

-You’ll still wish you had just payed for the premium gear rather than having to invest hours into earning the required items.

-Some very minor elements of the cartoon-ish look can turn away fans of games like Skyrim that focused on more realistic aesthetics.

Scully Rating: 9 out of 10