Should You Play Neverwinter in 2023? Neverwinter Review
Neverwinter is an Action combat MMORPG game that is based around the Dungeons and Dragons franchise and it released on PC back in 2013. It’s also a multi platform game available on both Xbox and PlayStation.
According to Steam you’ll see an active hourly population of about 1-1.5k players on PC so it has a reasonable amount of daily activity and you’ll always see players running around in game making it feel populated.
The game is a fully voice acted story driven MMO game, there’s a lot of solo adventures and campaigns to complete, but you’ll also find challenging group PvE content such as dungeons, and raids.
Neverwinter has a classic MMO vibe and on first impressions made me feel like I was playing a more simplified version of World of Warcraft with a slight sprinkle of Final Fantasy.
Both the graphics and sounds in the game gave a classic MMO vibe which attracts me from a nostalgic perspective as a 20 year MMO veteran.
I’ve recently played about 60 hours of Neverwinter from a complete beginners perspective and in this review I’ll share my experiences and give my opinion on whether Neverwinter is an MMO game worth playing in 2023.
Neverwinter Beginner Experience
The level cap in this game is just level 20 – you can reach this level cap in just a few hours and the only way of levelling is by following the Levelling Adventure quests. This whole part of the game was compressed in the past few years by the Devs and they have actually created a fast, simple and fun levelling experience where you are taken across a few areas of the game, taught about some of the basic systems, get involved in the story and given items that help you straight away.
You’re thrown straight into the action with this game, fighting enemies across a bridge and getting straight into the story on your way to the first main hub city.
At level 2 you are given a mount and not long after you gain a combat companion. This is great for a beginner player as you can move across the areas quickly thanks to the mount rather than intentionally slowed down to prolong the beginner experience like some other MMOs but your mount also does in combat damage which is quite a unique feature I’ve not seen before. You can buff up your mount with insignias which add additional benefits to your character and when you get a companion you can gear them up and give them different abilities to help you out with healing and damage.
One of the big differences with this beginner experience is that it’s actually challenging. Most other games take you to really easy areas, with easy mobs to kill and kind of babysit you through every button press and game function but not Neverwinter. It’s quite refreshing to experience reasonably challenging combat this early in the game.
As you progress you’ll be given upgraded gear from your quests along with various other useful items so you have no reason to go off the track – just follow where the game tells you to go. This is also something I really like, the navigation is good, you’ll see a starry trail on the ground showing you where to go, so it’s hard to get lost or lose track of what you’re supposed to be doing.
I guess one of the strangest things about Neverwinter levelling is that you gain no experience points for anything, it’s a strange system where it sometimes feels like a bit of a waste of time killing enemies if you can skip or avoid them because they offer no character progression. Overall the levelling system works great because this has to be one of the fastest zero to level cap MMO games you’ll find.
Neverwinter Combat
The combat in this game is an active combat system where you’ll have to block, dodge, basic attack, rotate cooldown abilities and manage resource in this somewhat simplistic but fun combat system. Many of the mechanics you’ll experience include moving out of AoEs, hiding behind objects and dealing with waves of adds.
At the very start of the game once you choose your characters race and class you immediately have a 3 skills unlocked already. The good thing about this is you get the opportunity to try things out before you progress too far and you can decide at this point whether or not you like the combat style of a class or whether you want to reroll and make a new character with a different class.
I personally chose Paladin in preparation for eventually becoming a Tank and was surprised to see this was a game where a Tank was capable of doing good damage in solo situations even when progressing as a Tank which is often not viable.
The most difficult part of the combat system is the basic attacks, you can hold down left or right click on your mouse and your character swings their weapon doing basic attacks, when doing this you are locked in place and cannot move.
Initially it seems like this will be quite a slow combat system with just the 3 abilities but this is not the case, there are more layers to the combat system and it’s actually very fast paced and active.
Due to being locked in place for basic attacks you have to really think about how to use them effectively while managing mechanics. You’ll have 2 types of basic attacks I went for a single target and an AoE to manage different scenarios and then you also have 2 options for “daily abilities” which is a confusing name for basically an ultimate attack which can give you some big burst damage or defensive tools.
For the paladin I had a stance I could use, and you then have your mount which you can equip one that can be used as an ability during combat which is a pretty unique feature, it’s possible to stable 5 mounts in total to give you a range of passive perks too.
You finally have an artefact which can cause a range of effects as well as 3 slots to equip whatever you like and this can include items that do more damage so they’re essentially additional skills and you might also equip potions here. All of this is while managing both cooldowns, stamina and your spendable resource of divinity which is needed with some abilities.
Neverwinter Gameplay
The way Neverwinter works is this is a heavily combat story driven MMO. You’ll have cutscenes, full voice acting and plenty of lore and character development all tied into the Dungeons and Dragons theme, it is a pretty good story driven game with a lot of solos story instanced expeditions. Even if you don’t know a lot about D&D like me, you can still enjoy what the game has to offer from a combat story perspective.
As you progress in the game you have adventures which are stories that take you to a certain area where you complete a range of quests in both an overland map and some instanced expeditions. You then have campaigns which are a similar thing again but you have a range of daily and weekly quests along with currencies to collect which you spend to complete the campaign or buy area relevant items. These completed both solo or you can group up and do them with other players.
The sheer volume of currencies and limits those currencies have is a bit excessive and overwhelming for a new player but you’ll have to sift through them to find which ones are the most beneficial, how you spend them and what you spend them on.
For players who want to speed through to the end game it can feel like quite a grind because you need to upgrade your item level and a lot of this is locked behind the campaign currencies and can take quite a bit of time.
When it comes to other content the PvE content is most prominent – you have skirmishes which are fairly easy 5 person content where you group up and deal with waves of enemies, then you have 5 person dungeons which you unlock later in the game which are tired to item level and quest progression, these are very fun and fast paced with increased difficulty the newer dungeons you attempt, there also advanced dungeons and master versions which are the real top tier dungeon content. You also have 10 player Raid which again are locked into to item level and story progress and these are large group content with much more complicated mechanics.
There is PvP in Neverwinter but it feels like a side part of the game with very little focus. When I spoke to some veteran players of the game they told me that people don’t really do PvP, there are some faction and guild events and the possibility of queuing up for 5v5, 10v10 and 20v20 PvP but you would be waiting a while to get a group. It’s quite easy to just completely avoid any kind of PvP in Neverwinter.
For the most part, if your focus is group content you can easily get into the early stages of it within a few days doing dungeons, raids and advanced dungeons. if you want to reach the absolute end game where you are doing master raids and dungeons then you might find yourself needing to play for months if not even longer before you’ll be anywhere near.
One of the most disappointing parts about this game is the grind. From the first impressions it doesn’t seem that bad, you level up super quickly, you get your artefact, mounts, companion and enchants and you’ll need to upgrade them which will take a bit of time, which is expected in an MMO. The bad part is even though you can only equip one combat companion, equip one mount, stable 5 mounts and only use 1 Artifact, you still need to have 10 of each maxed out to bloat your item level just do you can do this end game content. This requires huge amounts of both luck and grinding or money.
Should You Play Neverwinter?
Overall I’ve really enjoyed my time in Neverwinter, while I’m in between MMO games, playing some I’ve not tried before and waiting for big releases in other games, this has been a really pleasant and fun experience, I’ve really enjoyed the combat, the story is not excessively long so it’s easy to get into and enjoy it and it’s very combat orientated, the dungeons are enjoyable and not too difficult even when using the random group finder, I’ve met some super helpful players in game and on my twitch streams who’ve grouped up and ran content with me and gave me some solid info and advice to help me progress on the right path.
In terms of the Tanking, it’s once again a role you’ll see highly requested in the in game chat and it’s not too difficult to get into but you will find yourself getting 1 banged by bosses even when you’re sitting on a million max health.
I would say that this is defiantly a game worth trying out especially if you’re into D&D or story MMOs and especially if you have s friend or 2 to play along with. It’s completely free to play and without paying a penny you have access to all content, you’ll be able to jump in an play most of the dungeons and raids within just a week or so of playing and progressing. And so this could be a nice short term stopgap MMO to play and enjoy the story while your I between games, and for the veteran MMO player you might enjoy the somewhat classic fantasy MMO feel you get from Playing Neverwinter, it’s defiantly worth a few hours of playing.
If you’re a hardcore MMO player who loves challenging end game content then this game will take up a lot of your time and is quite a grind or cost you a ton of money to fast track your progress, some people say the game is massively pay to win but you can play and obtain most things without spending anything but you’ll defiantly progress much faster by paying. VIP seems like a decent purchase if you’re intending on playing for a while as you’ll get daily keys and other perks.
Pros
- Multi platform MMO that’s completely free to play with new releases also free
- Game still feels populated
- Good performance on PC
- Fun, fast paced and simple combat system with some unique aspects
- Good combination of story content with a mix of combat
- Really good beginner experience and early fast progression
- Dungeons and Raids are fun, with some decent mechanics but the fast paced style keeps them entertaining
- Regular in game events that aid your progression
Cons
- Sometimes feels like a solo RPG than an MMO early on with the instanced quest areas although you can group up with friends and co-op for these
- Can take years to grind your character to high item level to do the top tier end content
- Virtually no PvP focus and hard to participate in PvP content
- Overwhelming amount of content once you hit level 20, hard to know what to focus on
- Unbelievable amount of currencies and limits which can be confusing
- Many complain about the game being pay to win but it’s more pay to progress faster and anyone who is hooked on this game probably coughs up money to get that progression to save themselves years of grinding
