Neverwinter - New Perfect Worlds game by Cryptic

[Jaerin]

Recently Cryptic Studios (Champions Online, Star Trek Online, City of Heros) and Perfect Worlds (Torchlight 2, Blacklight Retribution, Rusty Hearts) announced the open beta of a new F2P Dungeons & Dragons based MMO, Neverwinter.

Unlike the previous Neverwinter Nights game this is a fixed 3rd person camera action button masher RPG that is famous in several JRPG games. Unlike in those games this one seems to put much more weight into your abilities giving it more of a WoW like feel. Based on the Dungeons & Dragons 4th edtion ruleset this game brings a relatively standard Forgotten Realms setting. The game also includes a dodge mechanic very similar to Guild Wars 2, but because casts require you to be standing still it is not quite as fluid. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but requires a little getting used too. Over all the combat feel fast, responsive, and very interactive with lots of fairly fast paced action.

Because this is based on DnD4 your powers are categorized into the same type of setup as you would have in the pen and paper game. You have 2 at-will abilities that are your main spam attacks. There is no mana so everything is CD based. On top of those 2 at-will abilities you have 1 Mastery, and 3 Encounter powers. These tend to be your bigger attacks and utility spells on a 5-15 second cooldown. In addition the 1 Mastery allows you to assign an encounter power to it and give that one power an additional boost. This might be a ice bolt hitting and exploding instead of just being single target. Finally you have a icosahedron (20-sided die) in the center that fills up with action points as you use other abilities. Once this is filled you can use one of your two equiped daily powers. These abilities tend to be much bigger finisher or burst type abilities. Depending on how other skills work these could be up very infrequently (every 2-3 fights) or multiple times a fight.

For classes there are 5 current options, Great Weapon Fighter, Guardian Fighter, Trickster Rogue, Devout Cleric, and Control Wizard. Each of the classes plays differently and have fairly unique styles of play. Each class generally offers 2-3 different paths that you can choose to build your character, but some of those differences do not show up until you get to level 30-35. Further classes appear to be in the works, but no announcements as to which classes might be next.

As with all the other Neverwinter games this one brings one of the mainstays of the series forward in the current generation. That is the ability to construct player made content. This is done in the Foundry and allows the player to make a quest with custom areas and dialog. Then you can publish the adventure and allow everyone to give it a try. There is already a couple dozen or so quests that range from a simple grind to a full featured quest adventure. This seems to be a very promising feature and although I have not tried it, from what I've heard it is pretty feature rich to allow for lots of options. I don't believe you get to create the loot, but there is a reward chest at the end usually.

This game uses the same Zen currency that other Perfect World games use for their payment transactions. The options in the store range from cosmetic outfits, respec tokens, pay chests, expanded bags, banks, and some crafting materials. Unlike many other F2P games though this one does allow you to convert your currency completely from in-game currency to Zen and back. This allows you to grind the in game currency, Astral Diamonds, and convert them to Zen on the exchange. The price is very much in flux right now, but it seems like you can convert a fairly decent amount each day if you continue to play regularly.

Overall I haven't seen a game that has captivated me like this since WoW. The combat feels fluid and interactive without feeling like a meaningless button masher and the story and world seems well written. The game is still in open beta, which appears to be mostly a soft launch, but there are some bugs and things that need to be improved. There will not be any more character wipes.

I would highly recommend that if you are looking for a new fantasy game you check it out.

Sign up for Open Beta: http://nw.perfectworld.com/

[WizardTrokair]

Good review, thanks for writing this up. I'm currently a level 7 Control Wizard and enjoying the gameplay. Looking forward to checking out the Foundry and working on my own content, if the interest holds me.

[CreativeXtent]

thanks for the info... now just to download the client. big ass thing.

[nixxor]

Looking for someone to do this quest with on dragon, add or pm me.. @nixxor2

[Playingnaked]

Found this while i was surfing, thought it might help you guys speed level

Firstly -

Some option changes to allow you to leave the game running idle whilst you level
Go into options and keybindings and change the keybind for at while 1 to "Left Click"

Then -
Join any boostmap on foundry and stand at a ranged distance on the platform and press the left mouse button.
You should stary continually firing.

**NOTES**
The idling only allows for 15 minutes idling due to the fact you get kicked automatically after that time -AUTO KEYPRESSERS DO NOT STOP THIS- Im working on a work around for this so you can stay there as long as you like(or the mission lasts). So make sure you wiggle your mouse every 15 mins.

If you would like to leave the window dont alt-tab out as it may pause your castings instead windows-tab out as this has no chance of affecting the game.

Make sure you target before clicking the left Mouse.

[Kraevan]

I just realized that the torrent that I started a week ago, and then I thought I paused it to play Xbox, actually downloaded. So I need to start working on this...

[Draku]

Great review! I have a lvl 8 dwarf tank, great game & best of all its free!

[Zathan]

I just tried this game for the first time today and IMO it's trash but thanks

[cdmichaelb]

I just tried this game for the first time today and IMO it's trash but thanks

I find it quite fun. You can't think of it as an MMO though, it's more of an RPG that happens to have a lot of other players in it.

[khushi]

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