Neverwinter

MMORPG gaming has traditionally been a PC gaming thing. While some games have tried to find MMO success on console, most fail miserably. Neverwinter on Xbox One is giving it a whirl, giving Xbox gamers some D&D action. But can it deliver that real MMORPG experience.

Neverwinter is a dangerous place and only you can save it. Okay, well, you and every other player who chooses to log on. The storyline isn’t the most compelling at the start, although the opening cinematic is rather entertaining and fun to watch. It follows the usual course of MMORPG story telling as you move from one area to the next, helping defeat ever more powerful enemies who are threatening… something. The details are generally quite murky, but that works out just fine – it’s all just an excuse to run around killing things and getting cool gear, right?

Neverwinter 1

I was worried about the transition from PC to Xbox One, but the controls are actually phenomenal. They managed to fit the wide range of menus and controls brilliantly to the controller. This is aided by the fact that at the start you can’t actually do too much. Once you get used to the various forms of attack and movement, it becomes easy to add-on abilities and more interactions in the intuitive UI. Added to this, the usual MMO approach is used whereby every new feature is introduced with a quest to explain it to you. From equipping gear to developing professions or getting a companion, it’s all easy to understand and follow.

In fact, the game in general feels rather straight forward. Most of the time, I felt like I was running down a rather long, sparkly corridor. Yes, Neverwinter has the cool feature of giving you a sparkling path towards your quest objectives. Of course, if you actually like exploring the map and finding things for yourself, you will feel that this is far too much handholding. You can always choose to ignore the sparkling path (and sometimes find a chest for your effort), but it’s usually best to just go where you’re supposed to.

Neverwinter 2

Combat feels rather quick with a range of abilities depending on your class and character. I was very happy to take on the role of Trickster Rogue, combining throwing knives for ranged attacks and quick daggers in close combat. With daily abilities (that are misnamed because you can actually use them way more often) that feel exciting and worthwhile, as well as the need to dodge out of combat, it really is fun to kill all the things. I wish that there were use of the rumble and vibrating triggers, though – it would be much more immersive to really feel the damage taken and given.

Leveling in the game feels rather linear. I could choose which skills to upgrade, although that was then limited until I’d leveled up quite a bit, somewhat forcing my hand to spend points on skills that I knew I would never use just so I could unlock the next tier. Still, there are feats to unlock and you can even boost specific attributes every ten levels. While it’s exciting to level up, I rarely had major leveling milestones that I was hoping for when it came to skills.

Neverwinter 3

Gear, on the other hand, was a different story. There was a variety of cool gear that I could find and craft. Often, I was lugging around higher level gear, just waiting to reach that next level so that I could equip the perfect dagger/boots/ring. While the game has a “recommended” option for those who aren’t sure which gear is best, there are enough cool attributes that make it fun to play around with which equipment best suits your play style.

While I easily got sucked into the addictive loop of fetch, kill, hand in and complete quest, the game doesn’t feel particularly social. Gone are the player created dungeons that made the PC version of the game such a winner, and while there’s PVP and dungeon crawling, there aren’t many easy modes of communication. It ends up feeling like a rather solitary, quiet MMORPG. While this doesn’t seem like much of a bad thing to me – at least there aren’t the endless trolls of WoW – it certainly doesn’t bode well to keep an MMO alive, especially later in the game when it’s all about dungeons.

Neverwinter 4

There is a much bigger problem in Neverwinter, though, and that is the framerate and lag issues. Upon getting to the main trading area of the Neverwinter hub, the frame rates totally dropped. I couldn’t move and thought that I’d actually lagged out of the game. While frame rate issues are mo
st common in the hub area which is generally safe, I even experienced issues in the middle of combat when there were simply too many things going on for the Xbox One to process all at once.

There is no doubt that Neverwinter is well crafted, even if it’s not the most beautiful game you’ve seen on the new consoles. It’s well designed and offers a ton of content. The textures and designs feel a bit outdated, unfortunately, with graphics not quite living up to expectations. However, you’ll probably be too busy following the sparkling path to the next batch of enemies to notice too much.

While it offers in-game purchases, these are totally unnecessary for most gamers and aren’t pushed on players; I was never hit up for payment details or asked to buy premium currency unless I actually went to the premium currency shop. The entire game is free to play and it feels quite generous.

 

Last Updated: April 16, 2015

Neverwinter
If you've been waiting for an MMO on Xbox One, this is an easy recommendation. It's not particularly deep or intricate, but there's enough content to keep you busy for a long while. The frame rates are a significant problem, but probably won't deter anyone from playing the game.
7.0
Neverwinter was reviewed on Xbox One
66 / 100

19 Comments

  1. RinceThis

    April 16, 2015 at 14:10

    • Brady miaau

      April 16, 2015 at 14:41

      Ah, Master of Orion 1. Now that was a game. Clever design, fun replay.

      Reply

  2. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    April 16, 2015 at 14:11

    Played it on PC, fell asleep from boredom, keyboard died due to drool… 10/10 would recommend for sleeping pill

    Reply

    • RinceThis

      April 16, 2015 at 14:14

    • ReaperOfSquirrels

      April 16, 2015 at 14:23

      That read like a typical Steam review. 10/10 would read again.

      Reply

    • Kromas is drunk with power!

      April 16, 2015 at 14:28

      Apart from WoW the only other “traditional” Fantasy MMORPG I enjoy is Final Fantasy and I have tried quite a few others in my time. 😛

      Reply

      • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

        April 16, 2015 at 14:33

        Actually the only other one I enjoyed was Rift. It is the closest to perfect WoW clone I have played.

        Reply

        • Kromas is drunk with power!

          April 16, 2015 at 14:49

          Got bored of rift relatively fast maybe because it was so damn close to WoW. In all honesty the only reason I occasionally log into WoW is because of the time spent in it previously and the lore. FF:ARR however has the best crafting system in an MMORPG at least from my perspective.

          Reply

          • HairyEwok

            April 17, 2015 at 10:11

            What is your thoughts on Skyforge that’s coming out later this year. I’m looking at all the data and thus far it looks like a proper MMO that’s free to play (Yes I used proper and free to play in a single sentence).

          • Kromas is drunk with power!

            April 17, 2015 at 12:21

            Looks interesting to say the least but I will reserve judgement for when I play the beta.

  3. Hammersteyn

    April 16, 2015 at 14:22

    7.0? I can see @LlewellynCrossley:disqus buy an XBOX just for this.

    Reply

  4. Brady miaau

    April 16, 2015 at 14:40

    It is just fun. Plain and simple. Fun enough that I play through the stupid lag issues, which, as Zoe said, are very annoying. Not sure I agree with her that the Xbox One cannot handle it though, it is the lag that cause the weirdness in fights. You hit them, you kick them and nothing happens, cause the server has not been updated yet. If I play in the wee hours, like 05:00, the whole game flies, never a lag, never a problem. Also, almost no other players on.

    Is it an MMO? Not sure it is, not that I am expert on them.

    Reply

  5. Captain JJ the flash noob

    April 16, 2015 at 16:00

    I downloaded this on pc to try it out. Was a bit disappointed that there’s no controller support and ran into a few bugs, but I’m definitely going to jump into it again. Was fun.

    Reply

  6. TNArulezWWE

    April 17, 2015 at 14:17

    It’s not particularly deep or intricate, but there’s enough content to keep you busy for a long while.

    Are you crazy, its much deeper than you think, i feel alot of you people are either trying to discourage this game, not giving it a worth while try or just blatent looking at it as though its nothing n not worth your time

    Theres a simple truth here, to xbox one gamers its not a re-release, in fact its our only mmo until onigiri n division. This game has a hell of alot to do more than what your eye sees in fact..im on my second char now, ive spent alot on the game but have also made the games currency from the games other currency, trading in astral diamonds fo zen. People were saying upon release its pay2win, its never been that for a start..

    The bigger pic here is, get on board the Neverwinter train, because if you all dont give it a fair shot all you role play gamers may not see another mmo fo a very long time, since devs get so reluctant to release them in fear you wont be into it, same as japanese games or games from asia as im a fan of them most out there turn there nose up at them. Turn your nose up at things and you spite your own self and risk looking at consoles as only ever recieving certain genres, hence why rts has died away on console n its a shame but all of you are guilty because your sucked into either racers,fps games way to much n limit yourselfn then the ones like me who want to see more of a veriety have to then deal with all your stupid decisions because you sat in a box n decided to cod it or forza it, halo it or kill zone it all day long, its that kinda of playing that ends up being one n only one type of genres on our beloved consoles..

    So please, give never winter a chance, get a char or 2 to lvl 60

    Reply

    • aaron

      April 17, 2015 at 20:54

      for an mmo, there is hardly any end game at the moment, I don’t know how many MMOs you have played? but making another character to rush to 60 is not content. I almost have 3 60s on xbox and trust me, compared to other mmos…not much to do.

      Reply

      • TNArulezWWE

        April 17, 2015 at 22:53

        Well considering the level cap has been raised on pc, were not going to have end game yet are we if its just been raised to 70..

        Ive played many pc mmo’s, guild wars n all its expansions was my first real one ever, i also played wow, rift, eve, dc universe, ffxi, psu n some others to for a considerable amount of time. Theres more to do than you think especially when you open more of the campain open once done abit of research, there are plenty of dungeons, pvp. But if you want end game (castle Neverwinter) is your end level, are you even listening to the characters talk, just because its not lots of movies direct in your eyes doesnt mean that it can not be end game. I said all that n all you could talk about is rushing to lvl 60 something ive not try to encourage at all or said to do. The game does open up more once your at lvl 60 and thats good. There are plnty of people playing this and even elder scrolls masses wont drop this for, elder scrolls online has at more than its fair share of complaints from pc gamers in the way that it is, one is a friend of mine who stopped playing it because so much is wrong with it and if you visit there forums you will see that.. im more than happy with Neverwinter anyway buy you guys dont half complain at things at times and expect everything to be perfect, and then you try and nit pick at people for in the way in which they defended it.

        Reply

    • aaron

      April 17, 2015 at 20:56

      elder scrolls online comes out in 2 months lol. Neverwinters player base will die then.

      Reply

  7. xcovick

    April 29, 2015 at 07:21

    Awesome! What’s with this mmo? it’s so gadmn addictive.

    Reply

  8. Hanz Kazoku

    October 1, 2015 at 15:05

    PC version.
    Recomendations:
    Highly recommended for kids, 9 y.o. and less, with profany filters turned on.
    Dead game for older players. Absolute Crap.
    Game Content:
    No game content after lvl70.
    Boring repeatable with wretched contents dailies.
    Dungeons was deleted.
    Dragons are dying from boredom – not enough players to kill them.
    Game PVP:
    Full of the old and new exploiters.
    Horrible team matchmaking.
    Only 2 pvp maps in 3 years.
    Developers insist what pvp exploits are legit.
    Game Strongholds:
    Not accessible for small and rather new guilds.
    Old guilds are based on old exploiters, which exploit new players like slaves.
    Players base:
    Mostly old exploiters.
    New players have no chance to progress. Or have to be immortal for endless farming.
    Players base not exceed 600 players ingame totally in US prime time. Other chars – just bots.
    Cost
    Permanently dupe their customers.
    Only morons can purchase $20 companions, which was announced account wide, but works for 1 char only. Etc.
    Developers:
    Undergraduate, not capable to fix 2 years old bugs.
    Every new patch brings new bugs.
    Moderators:
    Main job – delete all serious and critical posts.
    Licking management asses.

    Reply

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