Some of you may not be aware, but I am a member of The Older Gamers [TOG] for their Battlefield Regiment and have been a member long before joining Gaiscioch in 2009. As such I still have privileged access to their reviews and inside information regarding upcoming titles. Below is a review on Neverwinter Online OBW1 posted by Ludy. You can read the full thread here http://www.theoldergamers.com/forum/mmorpg-games-realms/479411-neverwinter-beta-review-long.html
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Thank you TOG for providing the information
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First let me say thank you to all the TOG that ran different stuff with me this weekend it was great fun. I have not done any online gaming recently and it was a nice change from the single target stuff. Also a special thanks to Critt. He has been actively promoting this game within TOG and I would likely not have picked it up without his efforts.
Neverwinter Online beta weekend 1:
Technical stuff:
Crashes: 2 client side crashes
Downtime: 1 short downtime (less than 30min)
Lag: Very smooth, it did not effect my ability to play any class from Japan
Graphics:
I would describe them as an updated version of WoW. Now the animations are better than many MMO's but it is cartoony. Nothing wrong with that but some like the more realistic look.
The UI is super clean and you can move almost all the items in it. Now I didn't as it was pretty well done and it felt natural.
Audio:
I was getting some audio bugs were sound would cut out completely. I am sure that it was neither my computer or headset as TS was working fine when this happens. It was a beta so they likely haven't finished all the work on audio.
Gameplay:
It is a action MMO. Seems that the industry is moving more and more in this direction. Look at all the titles coming out with this type of gameplay.
It is also a "trinity" game. You will be looking for a tank, healer, and DPS for groups. Now I personally don't mind this as it leads to some becoming quite good at these roles. This really is not apparent until after about level 25. Before that the game is not really that hard. After 25 you can do the solo stuff just fine but you can see that as you level you would be better off in groups even in the story quest content and those groups will need DPS, Tank, and Healer.
In terms of how twitchy it is some classes play very twitchy others not so much. You can not move and use abilities. I didn't find this all that bad and had a lot of fun in this beta. I don't have a huge problem with twitchy games as long as lag doesn't effect me much. In the PvE portion of this game lag was not an issue for me.
PvP is in game but it wasn't active for this beta. The devs had said this a few times in videos so it shouldn't be new. Now I have no desire to PvP in this game. It would likely be fun but it's D&D. D&D to me is lore, teamwork, and PvE. Because of how it plays I understand others wanting to do it but for me I'll pass.
My only real complaint was the keybinds. They need to do more work on them. My gripe was I use "=" as my TS key. It's easy to hit on my mouse. Thing is this was tied to the companion screen with no way of changing or disabling. I spent all weekend hitting it on accident after remapping it in TS. They should list every single hotkey and let us remap them as needed.
The free to play model:
I am mixed on this one. The items listed in game were way to expensive for what we got in the $60 pre-order thingy. Like 90K diamonds for a pet. 1 pet for around what $45 in diamonds? Way to expensive. I am going to get the starter pack for the bag so I don't need to worry about space and be happy with playing this game for free.
The good thing is you can play this game for free. I at no time felt I needed to buy a damn thing with diamonds. Level speed was actually a bit fast. Potions and Identify scrolls were the only things I spent gold on. I was able to live completely off of drops.
Oh some of the diamond stuff is pay to win. The blue drop rate was pretty low but I could buy a full blue set with diamonds. You don't need blues to be effective at low levels but I do wonder about at max. So all my pre-order diamonds are gong to be saved for max level.
Guild tools:
Calendars, events, great permission breakdown, guild banks, guild mail, announcements, and a well done roster are all in game. In this beta you could assign 4 ranks and give permission to pretty much all the stuff. Now 4 ranks doesn't seem like a lot but that's enough for Leader, Officer, Member (woot for members), and the time out rank. Seems like enough if the permissions are done right.
We didn't find out max limit on guilds but each alt would need to be added. The invites were character specific. Not a big deal if they have a huge limit but something that might cause issue if a bunch play.
Guild bank seemed to have all the bells and whistles also. Deposite and withdraw permissions separate. Multiple tabs but I didn't look into unlocking more tabs. The audit logs were also functional.
Classes :
Classes:
Guardian Fighter - Standard tank class. The survival is quite high and damage is kind of low. It has plenty of single target agro snaps once you pick up your "mark" ability. An encounter and later an at will ability to increase AoE threat really help with trash pulls. Still room for a Controller Wizard (announced but not in beta) to help shut down 1 or 2 mobs and you grab agro for rest. First companion should be a cleric. You'll get to pick it and the added heals will mean you use less potions. This class can build action points at the second fastest rate this beta (decent amount of "daily" power usage). I got to 30 with one and did TOG dungeon groups and PUGs. I only died 2 times in 30 levels and those were when I was solo. With a competent cleric and the built in "OH SHIT" abilities it was pretty easy to live. Game play was I think the easiest of all 3 classes. No dodging just raise shield at tell and don't worry. Later it gets harder but for this class it less frantic and twitchy.
Trickster Rogue - Melee glass cannon. The highest damage in this beta by quite a bit. Now you have to be skilled and a bit more twitchy that with the other classes. In fact this class is faster game play than some single player games I like. Teamwork works well as flanking enemies give you a damage buff. First companion should be a tank. When they grab agro you get a warm fuzzy as you know the mob will melt to your DPS. Your action point build up is the fastest of the 3 in this beta. You will be using your daily often. I died I think 4 times up and got to level 20. You are always drinking potions and this will be an expense. You kill stuff at least 4x faster so grinding for a bit of loot to get back some cash would be simple. Once again higher skill cap, much higher damage, cant take more than 1 big hit without needing a potion.
Devoted Cleric - Decent ranged damage and decent survival. They are a middle ground between the 2 other classes. I think this will make a pretty good solo class and needed for instance. In terms of what I saw in this beta it's not my cup of tea. I like the extremes.. Be it a load of damage or tough as a rock. I did like that how healing is done. You have direct heals (targeted), AoE heals, and wards on enemies as others do damage they get healed. I got to 15 on this and did not die. Now I didn't die by then on the G.Fighter either and content starting at mid 20's gets kind of hard. Still the G.Fighter had less to worry about on alpha spikes but had no way to heal except potions. The cleric also killed a bit faster than the G.Fighter.
Value:
I have a system I use for all my entertainment budget. If I spend $1 or less per hour of entertainment I feel really happy. Look at going to the movies or how many times you need to watch a blue-ray to get it under the $1/hour mark.
This game will last me a few months. People that play games with me know I will have 3 characters at max level in like 3 months and games just don't hold my attention after that. Now in those 3 months I'll put in more hours than most and enjoy my power leveling, instance grinding, gear hunting time.
With that in consideration I would put around $100 into this game and that would be my max before release. It has stuff that is fun. I can group up with friends and have fun joking while we smash instances. I just don't know if it's worth $200 for me. It might be but I would rather just wait until I have over 100 hours played to make that choice.
Conclusion:
Much better game than I had thought it would be. It was a technically solid beta and I will be playing for months after release. I just don't know how it will do against some of the big MMOs coming out this year and next.
It is something to look into as even at just $60 it will be a value let alone if you just pick it up after release and play it for a few months.
» Edited on: 2013-02-15 19:32:06