Neverwinter Online

[Verdigris]

I'll take a look. Could be very fun!

[RemyCC]

Here's the opening cinematic:

http://wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4news/20130501

[Kethron]

The opening cinematic was awesome.

I got the game downloaded and installed, but that took longer than expected. I went through character creation but didn't have time to sit in a 3,800 person queue. I'll give it another try tonight when I have more time. I will say that I thought character creation was pretty good. The option to choose some 'origin' traits is cool.

[Verdigris]

Downloaded and installed. What shard are you guys on? I see three. Beholder, Mindflayer and Dragon. With only two character slots, I'd rather not find I'm on the wrong shard to hang with my buddies.

[Kethron]

Downloaded and installed. What shard are you guys on? I see three. Beholder, Mindflayer and Dragon. With only two character slots, I'd rather not find I'm on the wrong shard to hang with my buddies.

I created my guys on Mindflayer, but only because I know that a few of the old Iron-Bound faithful will also be there. I'll definitely be playing later tonight after I get the "clone" in bed.

[Harka]

I created Harka The Mad on the Mindflayer server. He is a dwarven great weapon fighter.

[Verdigris]

I have Raphael, human trickster rogue on Mindflayer.

[RemyCC]

So, I said I was going to wait but I broke down and installed it last night and played for about an hour or so.

My initial impressions (which will likely change the more I play):

The Good: LOVE the real time combat. It definitely pulled me in and made approaching each enemy more exciting than say the standard WoW point and click. I had a nerdgasm the first time my trickster rogue was surrounded by zombies only to deftly roll back out of danger and then skewer them with rapid fire daggers (by having to actually aim no less).

Alternating between the look mode and mouse mode was a little awkward at first but it grew on me and by the time I logged I was pretty fond of it. The hot keys took some getting used to (confession: I [gasp] never used hot keys in WoW) but that grew on me too and it quickly became intuitive. By the time I hit Neverwinter I felt like a bad ass super ninja assassin.

The Bad (not really bad just not good): Honestly, I was underwhelmed by the graphics and found the them a bit 'meh'. I don't know if this will make any sense but I kept getting flashbacks of Lord of the Rings Online.

I initially adored the background selection, but quickly realized that it's just cosmetic and has no bearing on gameplay, just quick access to a title. Once again, just like LoTRO.

Not fond of the 'classes'. It's just another example of forced roles and I find it suffocating, especially in a 'D&D' enviroment.

Was also not fond of how I rolled my stats. I know that in an MMO your primary stats are important, but this is D&D and it felt too much like Min-Maxing: Rogues have to be agile so an 18 in Dex is totally worth a 10 in Intelligence and Wisdom. Bleh.

Oh, and the LAG. I know it was due to the high population but OMG, I haven't experienced that in years.

The Ugly: I have to say first that I went into this (as I knew I would) not just as an MMO player but as a an old school D&D nerd and verteran DM of many campaigns. More particularly, all the games I've ever ran have taken place in the Forgotten Realms setting so I'm admittedly bound to be a bit biased.

This is a D&D nerd pet peeve, but playing this game fully reminded me why I hated 4e (the rules version it's based on) so much. Not just the rules but also what they did to the Forgotten Realms setting in 4e: Transforming an interesting and compelling campaign setting into a post apocalyptic zombie survival game.

The whole thing (4e) just felt OP (Ex: My 2nd level rogue can frickin teleport) and was an overt attempt to make D&D appealing to WoW players. If I wanted to play WoW I would play WoW. When I play D&D I want to play D&D, not WoW.

Conclusion:

Is it D&D? Yes and no. It is definitely 4e, but there are a great many people (myself included) who don't consider 4e D&D, more of a D&D/MMO-hybrid/abomination.

Having said though it actually works for Neverwinter because it's an MMO.

Did I have fun? Yeah. Will I continue playing it? Probably, yes. Especially if the rest of you guys play...and it is free after all.

Caveat: I haven't explored the Foundry yet and that may completely sell me on this game. If it's as cool as they say it is I would definitely pay in order to create campaigns for my friends to run. Hell, I'd even embrace the 4e mechanics because, like I said, they work in an MMO enviroment like this.

[Kethron]

I agree with pretty much everything you said, Jeremy. The bottom line is that it's a very fun game to play. I think the graphics are quite good, but maybe that's because I wasn't expecting much after almost every review said they were "meh."

My characters right now are:

Kethron Vrailus - Human Great Sword Fighter
Vhen Spiritforged - Dwarven Devoted Cleric
Vyan Deadeye - Tiefling Control Wizard
Brandis Seaskipper - Halfling Trickster Rogue

[BurningNebula]

I admit I wasn't really paying attention to this game, till a friend kept mentioning it to me, then finally caved and downloaded the other night. Now I am enjoying myself, and even broke down and got the "Yuppie Hero of the North Pack." Though as Jeremy mentioned the Lag and the crashes are a nightmare and take me back to those days of EQ, and even the early days of WoW. Hehe, Anyways I am also on Mindflayer:


Makaria Incubore- Tielfing Control Wizard

Helja BattleHeart- Dwarf Guardian Fighter

Celdia Lhunaris- Drow Trickster Rogue.

Pruthana- Half Orc Devoted Cleric.

Also my screen name is @Celdia still learning the "friending system."