Neverwinter Review

I discovered my favorite quest in Neverwinter about 30 levels in, when I stood overlooking a fiery pit with my dungeon group scattered around me. And suddenly it hit me: I couldn't stand these people. I'd grown sick of the tank's inability to hold aggro and the mage's smartass commentary, and so I slew them and took their loot. Like Michael Douglas in Falling Down, I'd somehow become the bad guy – the boss even – prompting five-man groups of adventurers to rush in and try to take me down. (I've no idea what I would have dropped.) It was awesome, silly fun you just don’t find in most other MMORPGs, particularly not free-to-play ones. And here's the really surprising thing: I was playing a user-created dungeon called Tired of Being the Hero. For all of the flaws springing from Neverwinter's dogged linearity, its high-priced cash shop, and over-reliance on instances, developer Cryptic gives all of us the tools to create more memorable dungeon experiences than you'll find in its big-budget cousins. Who needs raids in a fantasy MMO when you can create scenarios like this?

Cryptic certainly gets the high-fantasy ambiance of Dungeons & Dragons right, at least, but Neverwinter isn’t an overtly pretty game outside of a few breathtaking vistas. Character models themselves look like holdovers from the PlayStation 2 era, though they’re extensively customizable and the world itself is full of little surprises. Most notably, Neverwinter has a physics system absent from most other MMOs. Slam your sword into a barrel or bump into a tapestry - and shock upon shock - they move! (Bummer, then, that you can't sit in chairs.) Where Neverwinter’s visual failings are most noticeable is in the sad fact that the models for my character’s armor and weapons scarcely changed throughout my trek to the level cap of 60. Aside from my helmet and cloak, I could have taken a screenshot of my Warrior at 55 and claimed he was level 25, and few people would have been the wiser.

Although Cryptic created an extensive storyline that complements this rich D&D world, it’s not the most trustworthy of dungeon masters. Even with questgivers delivering fully voiced orders by actors of widely varying competence, the plot never succeeds in forcing its way to the foreground of the experience. It doesn't help that quest progression in Neverwinter is as straight as one of Drizzt's arrows, bumping you from one quest to another with almost no consideration given to exploration. Even in the few moments when I thought I'd found a hidden quest hub, I later found that the natural quest progression would have led me to that spot anyway. On the bright side, quest hubs are so well spaced that Neverwinter generally avoids the tedious, pointless jogs from one quest giver to another, aside from the long gallop back to the stage's entrance once you've beaten the final bosses in one of the many instanced solo quests.

A good thing, then, that hacking and slashing your way through Neverwinter and its various environs tends to be fun, even though you're limited to five classes (and two of those are just variations on melee warriors). That's partly because the combat's rather simple, relying on clicks of your left and right mouse button for core attacks and a handful of hotkeys. Indeed, Neverwinter's action combat and its limit of a mere eight abilities owes far greater debts to Diablo III than to the rummage piles of abilities in MMORPGs like World of Warcraft or Rift. Playing as a Great Weapon Fighter, I was impressed by the viscerality and weight of my attacks, and by the fact each ability has its own animation. By the time I hit level 20, I found myself believing that the class captured the "Me smash'em" aspect of warrior combat better than most other MMORPGs I've played. With a wide range of area-of-effect abilities, I'd jump into piles of enemies and laugh as they fell beneath my blade.

Perhaps a little too easily, though. With its heavy emphasis on instanced solo dungeons, Neverwinter isn't an actively social game to begin with, and the inclusion of NPC companions only enhances the drive toward self-reliance. As I hit level 16 on my Fighter, I thought I'd need to pick up friends to progress further because I'd taken to chugging health potions with every pull (there's no passive health regeneration). But that's when I picked up my cleric companion. With her steady stream of heals, I could just spring into a pile of enemies and slash away for the rest of the journey, and be all but invincible as long as I remembered to keep them off of her. Oddly enough, you can even take NPC buddies into five-man dungeons with a full group of other players, allowing a little breathing room for your healers during enemy swarms since almost everyone else brings along a NPC healer, too.

Indeed, Neverwinter relies excessively on those hordes. Almost every single boss fight in the dungeons (single or five-man) relies on fighting a big baddie while staving off waves of his or her cronies. It adheres so strongly to this template that, as I write this a single day after my last login, I'm having trouble recalling the specific strategies of any particular fights. That's a shame, because the dungeons are filled with stunning vistas and secret passageways that unlock for class-specific professions like Dungeoneering, but as a result of the over reliance on similar mechanics, they tend to drag on for far too long.

And that's why the Foundry missions are so fun. The Foundry allows players to create their own D&D-inspired content, leading to missions that, in many cases, are far more enthralling than the ones Cryptic designed for us. Cryptic had already made a name for itself using the same concept in Star Trek Online and Champions Online, but the ability to create your own dungeons assumes a new vitality Neverwinter's Dungeons & Dragons' fantasy settings. Some players use it to create episodic "real-life" versions of pen-and-paper D&D scenarios they first thought up back in the ‘90s, while others use it to develop memorable storylines or set up barroom brawls.

This is where Neverwinter's best hope for longevity lies, as the ability to make your own content - and play and vote on content made by passionate fans - far outstrips waiting around for official content patches. Alas, Cryptic placed some odd limits on the Foundry creation process, such as not allowing enemies to drop specific items for use later on in the dungeon, which ruins the sense of immersion and good storytelling. Somewhat humorously, it also includes few safeguards against "leveling dungeons," which allow you to beat up Neverwinter's deadliest NPCs and leech off their XP while they just stand there motionless.

Player-versus-player combat also suffers from some strange deficiencies, as it offers only two five-versus-five battleground maps and one giant 20-versus-20 battlefield at launch. Even with the pleasures of the action combat, the variety grows sale long before the level cap – particularly when you throw in lingering class imbalances. As for crafting, it's just not that engaging. You technically don't even take part in the actual process; much as in EVE Online (and Star Wars: The Old Republic, for that matter), you hire specialized workers who run out in get the materials and make armor or potions over the course of mere minutes or many. The design keeps you in the action, sure, but few things in Neverwinter hurt so much as reaching the high levels of the crafting skills and realizing that, unless you have the luck of Neverwinter's Tymora, you'll likely need to spend premium currency in the markets for rare components.Which begs the question: what does it cost to play Neverwinter? On one hand, it doesn't pressure you to invest money in it for much (if any) of the leveling process; on the other, the cash shop starts to make its presence known around the endgame. For me, it was respecs that first sparked some worry. Although you can technically earn enough cash for respecs by earning premium astral diamonds through daily quests and the auction house, the going rate is such that you'll usually end up spending around six bucks for convenience when you want to respec. Some of the other prices are more frightening than Neverwinter's dungeon bosses. Certain companion characters (which you'll need if you were foolish enough to choose a non-healing companion for a melee class) cost $30, and epic mounts will drain around $40 from your bank account. Still – and here's the kicker – you can play Neverwinter entirely for free if you have the patience to grind out premium currency or don't mind limiting yourself to severely limited inventory space. Everything else is for convenience.

It’s been eight years since the initial PC release of Neverwinter and five since the console release, so how is Neverwinter holding up? I played the game from start to max level and beyond to find out.

My first encounter with Neverwinter was at the release back in 2013. Being a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons, and all the previous games set in the Forgotten Realms, I had high hopes for the release.

At the time it turned out to be a decent game and ended up being a sort of secondary MMORPG to my main ones which were WoW and Everquest at the time. Neverwinter was fun to occasionally play with a small group of friends and maybe clear a few dungeons together.

One of my biggest problems with Neverwinter initially was that it didn’t feel like Dungeons & Dragons at all. Especially the combat which is more like an action RPG feels misplaced in a D&D game.

The world also feels very small and cramped since you click on the map to travel from zone to zone. It just doesn’t feel like a big open world, it feels like a series of small zones where you can only move where the developers want you to.

Most houses or buildings in the game also have no functions and can’t even be entered except for a few in the city of Neverwinter and in the quest hubs. This also makes the world feel like the MMO equivalent of a western movie set.

Every zone in Neverwinter is instanced with only room for 20 players which also ruins immersion a bit. When more than 20 players are in a zone at a given time, a new version of that zone is created. Often tens or even a hundred of the same zone are active at the same time.

Over the years I have returned sporadically to try new expansions or modules as they are called in Neverwinter.

There have been a lot of these modules in Neverwinter in its eight years of existence. 23 to be exact.

These modules have ranged from fantastic (Storm King’s Thunder) to downright terrible (The Heart of Fire).

This is a common issue with MMORPGs, and you often end up playing in periods when the game is good.

So then the question is, is Neverwinter good now?

Story & Leveling

The story of Neverwinter follows the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons, which has millions of fans all over the world. It was brought into the video gaming mainstream with games like Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, and countless more.

A new story arc is introduced to the game with the release of new modules. The latest module is set in Dragonbone Vale, where players are tasked with hunting down the mysterious Cult of the Dragon.

Earlier modules have been set in all over the realms from the frozen plains of the Icewind Dale to the Jungles of Chult, and unless you pay to complete these modules through the Zen store, you will have to spend quite some time in each of these locales to gain boons which will improve your character.

Some modules and areas are very fun and engaging while others feel rushed and even incomplete. The main area of Avernus is basically just a reskinned version of the Guild Stronghold Map, which ruins the immersion a bit for me personally.

Leveling in Neverwinter is much faster than it was if you go back a few years, and it is most enjoyable and engaging if you are playing for the first time. Reaching level 20 can be done in a day or so, but don’t think the grind is over at this point. It has just begun.

End-game

Recent updates have made Neverwinter less grindy, but you should still be prepared to spend months playing to reach any sort of end-game unless you are prepared to sink some money into your character.

You have to grind to get your boons, gear, mounts (which are very expensive), companions, and then of course artifacts and enchantments which will take a long long time to level to the highest ranks.

A lot of this content is time-gated as well so you have to come back and progress a little every day.

This does open up for quite a lot of theorycrafting and meta which is one of the strengths of Neverwinter. I really enjoy this part of the game. There are a lot of different skills, items, and systems you can use to bring your character to the next level.

If you come to Neverwinter as a hardcore MMO player or as a raider from WoW or any other game, it will feel like there isn’t much in terms of true end-game.

In Neverwinter, you have skirmishes, dungeons, epic dungeons, and trials. I would define only epic dungeons and trials as end-game as skirmishes and dungeons are usually very easy and are mostly used for leveling.

Trials only take about half an hour to complete and consist of just one boss encounter with no trash. Epic dungeons generally take less than an hour. Only the trials and dungeons from the latest couple of modules will provide any real worthwhile reward to challenge, which makes it feel like there isn’t really much of an end-game to speak of in the traditional sense.

These trials and epic dungeons tend to be very hard though, often impossible for PUG’s so if you are the type of player who enjoys tough challenges, this is definitely a plus as the dungeons are well designed and fun.

If you enjoy solo play, doing dungeons are in no way required in Neverwinter. You can still reach high item levels with gear obtainable from solo play.

Generally, it’s just a gear set, weapons, and a few other items that you only get through high-end dungeons. Slightly less or sometimes more powerful gear can still be obtained through other means.

Is Neverwinter P2W?

So now you might be asking yourself, is Neverwinter pay-to-win? Its business model is as a free-to-play game with an in-game shop. The base game is free and so are all the modules.

The only thing that you can optionally pay for is the Zen currency which will buy you almost everything in the game from mounts to companions and various services.

All mobs in the game will also drop lockboxes, and keys to these are only obtainable from the Zen store. These can be addictive to buy as you can get some very rare rewards from these.

You can also exchange Zen for Astral Diamonds which is the main currency used on the Auction House in Neverwinter, and on the AH you can buy almost everything, so although you can get everything in the game without spending a penny, I would still say it falls in the category of a P2W game.

Who is the game for?

MMOs are often hard to review since players look for different things in games. If you like big open-world sandbox MMO I would say Neverwinter is not for you.

If you want to grind a few hours a day in a pretty casual MMO with an engaging action combat system, then I would say give it a try. Especially on Xbox or Playstation, the game works well due to there not being a ton of skills and abilities to press.

It’s also a great game for players who enjoy theorycrafting and don’t mind a bit of a grind to reach the end goal.

Population & Community

There are no official numbers on the population of Neverwinter, but MMO-Population.com estimates it at around 160k daily players.

Neverwinter peaks out at about 3000 players on Steam, but it does seem like the majority of players play through the arc launcher and not on steam.

Most zones in current content modules have hundreds of players at all times, so I would say the player population is healthy and you should have no problem finding friends or a guild to play with.

As with many smaller MMO communities, Neverwinter has a generally helpful and friendly community. The Neverwinter Reddit is active as well and you can usually find answers to most of your questions there.

Summary

I landed at a final score of 7,5/10 for Neverwinter, and it might be worth playing depending on the type of player you are. The score might go up with the next module release or it might go down, only time will tell, but for the time being Neverwinter is a decent game to sink a few hours. It’s hard to argue for Neverwinter being your main game though, it’s just more side-game material.

What do you think of Neverwinter, let us know in the comments bel

Verdict

Neverwinter isn't a hardcore MMORPG, nor is it likely to compel you to cast aside your current favorite MMO to devote your full attention to it. But taken in small doses, it's a generally fun and free romp through one of fantasy's most beloved universes, and the player-generated Foundry missions occasionally yield more memorable moments than fantasy MMOs with massive budgets.