MMOs: Impressions of D&D: Neverwinter

Dungeons and Dragons: Neverwinter is an MMO developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Perfect World Entertainment. Despite what you may be thinking, this game actually has nothing to do with Turbine's D&D: Online, nor does it have anything to do with Bioware/Obsidian's Neverwinter Nights series. Neverwinter is an MMO taking inspiration from a campaign setting of the tabletop D&D game and basing game mechanics around the 4th edition books. Having shifted publishers numerous times and changing focus from a co-op multiplayer game to an MMO, can Neverwinter stand out amongst the horde of F2P MMOs?

(Please note this is a first impressions article, so I will not be covering everything the game has to offer; just the first 30 levels or so of content. Also, this game is in open beta so keep in mind nothing I mention here is finalized.)

Starting off with character creation, there are 7 races to currently choose from, each of which have a pair of passive abilities and a couple base stat increases to choose from. From there you can choose one of 5 classes your character can be. Obviously, some races will excel at certain classes, but there is nothing restricting you from making a spell casting dwarf or a tanky elf. Each class fulfills the traditional tank/healer/dps role respectively as seen in many other MMOs and doesn't offer much in the way of variation from these roles at the time of this article. Once you've rolled up your stats and allocated your bonuses, you are moved on to customizing the actual appearance of your character. Aside from hair and tattoos, the preset options are limited; however, there are scaling sliders for the body and face to get your character exactly how you wish them to look.

Past that is a screen prompting you to select your character's deity and background. There are actually quite a few to choose from, but this is all for role playing purposes only. The deity does cross over into actual gameplay by allowing you to ask for their favor once every hour and be rewarded, but the rewards do not vary based on class or deity chosen. After finalizing all the details and inputting a name, you are whisked away to city of Neverwinter to begin your epic journey.

One of the first things you'll notice is a reticule on your screen. Neverwinter is a reticule combat MMO meaning you must actually aim your attacks and abilities in order to use them. There is no tab targeting or clicking an enemy and then rolling your face across the keyboard here. Whether healing or trying to deal damage, you must place your reticule over your target which actually makes combat far more engaging. Coming from someone who played the healing class, I found healing in a group to actually be quite a bit of fun since I had to constantly move around and get a good angle to just see my allies. It was very hectic and really did a good job of keeping me on my toes. The only flaw with this system I noticed was an aim assist that seems to be built into it. If an enemy happens to run across your reticule, it will lock onto them for a couple seconds which means you may accidentally send a spell flying into their face rather than the 3 story tall dragon trying to eat you. As far as I could tell, there was no option to disable this either, so it can get slightly annoying, but it's nothing game breaking.

Neverwinter also employs a dodge mechanic into the game where the player must actively dodge attacks. Each class has a unique dodge that can be activated by double-tapping a directional key which consumes part of your stamina meter. The meter only allows for two consecutive dodges, so it's wise to save these for big attacks rather than trying to dodge everything that gets flung at you. Since dodging is limited, the enemies, of course, have exaggerated attack animations to give plenty of warning to the player. The more powerful enemy abilities will also have red indicators placed on the ground so you know exactly where to dodge to. As a side note, there is no “tagging” system in this game so, as long as you deal some damage to an enemy, it won't matter who hit it first.

Something else you may notice right off the bat is how small the UI is. Unlike other MMOs that require the player to balance 50 abilities between 4 action bars, you are actually given 9 abilities to work with. “At-Will Powers” are mapped to the left and right click buttons on the mouse and act as the standard attack and a quick use ability with a low cooldown. “Encounter Powers” are mapped to Q,E, and R and are more powerful abilities with longer cooldowns than At-Will Powers. “Daily Powers” are a class' most powerful abilities which are mapped to the 1 and 2 keys. Daily Powers require actions points that each class builds up in different ways and one Daily Power will drain all of your actions points upon use. Each class also has a slot for 2 passive powers which give small percentage boosts to your stats or abilities. Finally, each class has an ability mapped to the tab key which basically grants a temporary boost to their Encounter Powers or standard attack.

As your character progresses, they will gain power points which can be spent to unlock or rank up abilities. You will quickly realize there are more abilities than there are slots on the UI which means swapping abilities in and out as you unlock more is an integral part of the game. By level 37, my character had 4 At-Will, 5 passive, 8 Encounter, and 3 Daily Powers to choose from so planning out how to spend your points ahead of time to fit various situations is a good idea. Leveling up also grants Feat points. Feats basically function like a 2-tiered skill tree (heroic and paragon) that give passive bonuses and also help your class function based on whichever abilities you prefer to use the most.

Arguably the most important feature of any MMO is the questing and Neverwinter really doesn't do much to stand out from every other Fantasy MMO out there. While it does have fully voiced NPCs so you aren't forced to read quest dialogue, the quests themselves are typical fetch quests or “kill x number of y mob to collect 20 of z”. The combat certainly helps alleviate that sense of familiarity, but it will eventually come creeping back to anyone who is a veteran MMO player. That familiarity will also be made more evident to anyone who is tired of theme park MMOs. The questing areas within Neverwinter aren't terribly large and every race/class goes through the same areas no matter what. If you're a fan of exploration in your MMO or variety upon making a new character, you will be disappointed.

The questing in Neverwinter isn't particularly challenging either. While the combat does make it more chaotic and fun, the big flaw is that enemies drop lots of healing potions. And I do mean TONS of healing potions. You can actually play through a good chunk of the game without ever needing to buy healing items since one quest can easily net you a dozen of them. The potions are also on a relatively short cooldown making death extremely rare for the first 30 levels of the game. The easy difficulty also stems from the fact this game took a page from SWTOR's book and gave every class access to companion characters tailored to a specific role.

These companions can tank, heal, or do damage for you if need be even if they have a tendency to be slow to react or get stuck by running their face against a sconce when on stairwells. Companion characters can gain experience and be sent off for training once they can attain a new rank to improve their stats. At this time, the companion system is not yet completed, so they cap out at rank 15. This means they will start to outlive their usefulness by the mid-30's which may not be a bad thing. Inadvertently, this results in quests after that point actually ramping up in difficulty since your companion devolves to nothing more than a slight nuisance as enemies swarm around your character. If you can stick with the game for the first 30 levels, you will eventually find just about every quest becomes a challenge as enemies grow stronger and more numerous while your companion can do nothing but repeatedly kick an enemy in the shins.

Another page taken out of SWTOR's book is the crafting system. Each class is given a skill which is used on nodes spread throughout the world for crafting materials. Aside from gathering materials; however, your character doesn't actually make anything. Instead, your crafting (also tailored to be class specific) is all done by nameless NPCs you hire and send out to collect some materials or make gear. This system doesn't quite work the same way SWTOR's does; unfortunately, since there isn't really any worthwhile gear to craft at any point. Quest rewards and random loot drops will just about always be better than anything you can make so, for now at least, crafting is served to only help people just starting out or to sell on the game's Auction House.

Speaking of the Auction House, it's time to bring up the currency of Neverwinter. This being a F2P game there is, of course, the cash shop and the currency tailored for that, but there are two other forms of currency the game employs. Like D&D, there are copper,silver, and gold coins handed out as quest rewards or given for selling to a vendor. The coins are actually not the main form of currency in the game so these are really just used for buying mounts or health potions. The main currency used is Astral Diamonds gained through daily quests, praying to your deity, and successfully selling an item on the Auction House. Astral Diamonds are the only currency allowed when using the Auction House and several vendors trade valuable and very useful items for AD. These diamonds can even be traded in for the cash shop currency, Zen. Don't get your hopes up; though, as you will need tens of thousands of AD to get enough Zen for anything useful in the cash shop. Aside from shops and the Auction House, AD can also be spent to speed up a companion's training timer and speed up the crafting process. AD is by far the most useful currency and is relatively easy to obtain so long as you don't mind logging in every day for daily quests.

Thankfully, these daily quests do not involve mindlessly slaughtering x number of enemies, but instead only require the player to complete a PvP match, Skirmish, or Dungeon. I didn't get much time with the PvP, but I gathered that it was a 5v5 defend/capture points style match. I do not believe there are any other game types at this time, but it's all but guaranteed Cryptic will develop more as the open beta progresses. Skirmishes are essentially a 5 player wave defense type scenario or miniature dungeon that can be completed in about 15 minutes. Skirmishes, as well as Dungeons, allow for companion characters which makes battles all the more chaotic as 5 players and companions cut a bloody swathe through waves of enemies. The Dungeons themselves are pretty standard as far as MMOs go; linear dungeon/castle/sewer/whatever with clusters of enemies strewn throughout with the occasional boss fight. I will say; however, that these dungeons can be pretty difficult since the game tries to compensate for the 5 companions by throwing in large groups of enemies. This, again, inadvertently makes dungeon runs more arduous than intended making this one of the few MMOs I've played with difficult group content.

Here, I have saved for last what is quite possibly the most interesting and unique feature of Neverwinter, The Foundry. This is a system that allows players level 15 and higher to create their own quests and share them with the game's populace. Playable Foundry quests can be accessed from any tavern or by bringing up the “home page”. These quests work off of a community rating system that does a very good job of keeping out half-assed or mindless grinding quests in favor of ones people took time with and are well put together. Another great feature is that Foundry quests scale to your character's level making them the perfect alternative to grinding out levels should you fall behind. The only flaw currently with the system is that quest creators can not set the end quest reward. At this time, the end quest loot appears to be completely random, but these quests are still quite a bit of fun and a great way to gain levels. With this system you can even play through levels 15-60 without ever touching the main quest.

Accessing the Foundry quest creator is done through the character select screen. All of the assets, AI patterns, and maps are already generated, it's just up to the player to put it all together into a comprehensive quest line. There will eventually be a tutorial for this system, but it is not implemented as of yet. If you wish to brave the Foundry, it's probably best if you are already a programmer or are willing to endure hours upon hours of trial and error. If you create one good enough, Cryptic will advertise it on the in-game Home Page and other players even have the option to tip you AD once they complete your quest. It's a great way to get noticed by Neverwinter's community and to test your developer and writing skills.

My opinion may be skewed a bit since this was my first experience with a reticule combat MMO, but I thought this game was incredibly fun to play. No other MMO has given me an experience like desperately trying to find a dwarf amongst a swarm of enemies and a dragon just to apply a simple healing spell. The gameplay is very amusing and even has an element of strategy by balancing which abilities you use at any given time. The game certainly has flaws and will quickly tire out those sick of theme-park MMOs, but I feel it still has enough there to be unique. The Foundry system alone is enough for me to recommend people at least give the game a try. I would even say try it while it's specifically in open beta as the inadvertent difficulty beyond level 30 makes the game even better in my opinion. The final game is supposed to launch sometime this year, but I hope Cryptic keeps the difficulty and sense of utter chaos certain encounters can bring out. A western developed MMO that is well polished and actually difficult would not be a bad thing at all.