Neverwinter announced 3 years ago, and then it immediately became clear that the famous duology from BioWare And Obsidian Entertainment creation Cryptic Studios will only have an indirect relationship. Authors City of Heroes And Star Trek Online They promised a rather strange hybrid of single-player and multiplayer RPG, in which players could go through the story in privacy, connect scenarios made by the users themselves, and only if they wanted to call friends for help, so that together they could look for adventures on their butt. No PvP was planned, and they wanted to allow gatherings and adventures together with other players only in locations specially provided for this… After some time, the publisher Neverwinter became a Chinese company Perfect World, widely known in the Asian MMORPG market. Here, of course, many twirled their fingers at their temples and gave up on the project. But in vain.

Many custom scripts are released in parts, and you can donate money to the authors for the continuation, and also subscribe to updates.

Race Classes

It is clear what we all feared: that Neverwinter will turn into an ordinary and yawningly banal MMO, only in a well-known setting and with a proud note “according to the rules of the fourth edition of D&D” in the press release. Naturally, few people expected that the publisher would be so stupid and make Neverwinter the same Perfect World or Lineage 2 — with an endless “grind”, “cute” heroes, flying under the clouds on wings and virtual weddings. But also the prospect of getting an improved version Dungeons & Dragons Online somehow I wasn’t particularly happy either. We’ve already seen all this. The most interesting thing is that fears about the usual MMORPG were both justified and not.

In general, this is truly a classic online role-playing game, which, as it seems at first, differs from the others only by the presence of a D&D-branded role-playing system that is well known to many. When generating a character, we are offered the usual races (among others, there are old familiar tieflings, half-orcs and half-elves) and no less well-known classes from the fourth edition – here are guardian fighter, and devoted clerik, and control wizard, and others.

All of them, of course, differ in skills and starting characteristics, and, as in a board game, you can reroll the die to get a different result. There are even unique class “feats” that give various passive bonuses and allow you to fine-tune your character.

Accordingly, each class preaches a unique fighting style. Thus, a cleric relies on massive spells that not only cripple enemies, but also heal him and his allies, a thief can quietly sneak up on enemies, and a guardian fighter loves to put marks on opponents in order to receive bonuses in battle with them.

We are on rails, we are on sleepers..

However, two parts Neverwinter Nights taught us that there are not only battles, “bosses” and dungeons, but also branching dialogues, moral choices, conversations with partners in a raised voice. So, all this is not in the official story campaign. You can choose the place of birth and features of the biography of your hero, but, unlike, for example, Dragon Age, This doesn’t affect anything here, but the developers, we must give them their due, honestly warn – all the heroes start the game in the same place and with the same quests. Do not affect the passage of the scenario and all class and racial features. There are partners, but you can’t chat with them: companions help in battle and give you various bonuses to your characteristics and skills.

It’s simple – the city of https://slotablecasino.co.uk/login/ Neverwinter is in danger and under siege, and even someone stole the royal crown. Naturally, we are called upon to help, find, save and kill everyone. At first, the campaign attracts with well-choreographed videos, voiced dialogues and even some non-trivial tasks when we are asked to conduct an investigation and get on the trail of the kidnappers.

But quickly enough everything is leveled down to the mechanical distribution of dozens of single-cell quests in the spirit of “go, find out what’s going on, kill 10 orcs and collect 5 of their scalps. And then kill 15 more powerful orcs. And be sure to find and neutralize their thick-skinned leader.". And so in a circle. Sometimes, of course, slightly more interesting situations happen when we, for example, act as a local exorcist and accompany a demon-possessed woman to the hospital, periodically giving her medicine. But the essence remains the same: fight, fight and fight again.

All this is all the more offensive since the authors Star Wars: The Old Republic have already proven that within the framework of MMORPG it is quite possible to create a non-linear plot with starting locations and tasks different for each class, moral choices, the influence of speaking skills and other character characteristics on the content and results of quests. That’s where the beautiful videos and the voice acting of each dialogue were justified. Why voice training messages or long monologues explaining why and why you need to go to the next problem area, report to the next captain and kill 20 more orcs??

PvP in the game is still in a rudimentary state, but a new content patch is expected in the spring and summer, entirely dedicated to battles between players.

Folk art

However, the beauty and uniqueness Neverwinter is that there is not only the official campaign and two plot additions to it. The authors have implemented a seamlessly built-in editor that allows players to create their own adventures. And they implemented it very competently.

Right in the game, you can go to a wall of advertisements offering work, or to a special character and see a list of available custom scenarios. And they, pardon the expression, are through the roof. And among this abundance there are many very interesting and much more exciting adventures than the official campaign. There are moral choices, complex, interesting dialogues, and puzzles. As well as scandals, intrigues and investigations. So, in one scenario we have to investigate strange murders in Neverwinter, simultaneously getting into a showdown between those in power. In another, you play as a ninja trying to prevent a nuclear war.

All modules are provided with detailed descriptions, reviews and ratings. And you can choose to engage in a dangerous, co-op-oriented adventure, or prefer a single-player scenario with lots of dialogue and the need to make choices that affect the story. Bored with the main plot? Please go through campaigns created by other players, “swing”, have fun, while remaining within the framework of a huge living world, where you can always chat with someone or ask someone for help. Thus, the authors, not in words, but in deeds, implemented a game that is equally interesting both in the “single” and in joint adventures.

Beautiful and comfortable

Yes, yes, even without user content Neverwinter addictive. Firstly, everything here is very beautiful and atmospheric. The developers competently maintain the general gloomy style of the original and at the same time draw truly epic, diverse, full of details and majestic architecture locations. The most striking example is, of course, the capital, the titular city of Neverwinter, in which it is easy to get lost. Quiet streets and noisy squares, taverns, gateways and palaces – everything is here.

Guilds in Neverwinter still perform the same functions as in World of Warcraft for the first 6-7 years of its existence: they give a common name and chat.

Secondly, it’s interesting to fight here. The game uses a fashionable non-target system that forces you to target the enemy, aim at him and avoid attacks in time. At the same time, in fights, indicators familiar to D&D are constantly calculated, for example, the chance of dodging and blocking. Thirdly, it’s also interesting to “level up”, discover new skills and “feats”, receive bonuses from equipment, artifacts and partners (the latter can even be sent on separate adventures within the Sword Coast Adventures web application). You don’t get tired of saving up various specialized currencies, issued for participating in some special scenarios or for performing certain actions (for example, for prayers and offerings to the gods) – you can purchase unique things with it.

Finally, many standard elements for any MMORPG – “crafting”, professions, auctions, events and “raids” – are implemented very well, under the motto “everything for the player, everything for his convenience”. So, here you are allowed to hire workers and send them to different tasks, so that they bring all sorts of useful ingredients for “crafting”, develop crafts for you, and so on. In addition, you are always kindly informed when the next PvE “raid”, battles with other players in the arena, or an event will begin, during which they give out special rewards for going into a dungeon or double experience for completing custom and daily quests.

To each his own

Speaking of PvP. It’s in Neverwinter also very convenient and unobtrusive. There are no mass hunts for newcomers, duels and already tired wars for territories. Do you want to compete with your peers?? Please reach the required level, wait for a special “event” and go to separate arenas where players fight each other in “Domination”, capturing and holding three points. There is also an interesting mode, where two teams first complete speed quests, fighting monsters, then face each other tooth and nail, and finally, in the final, complete two different “instances”: one for the winners, the other for the losers.

It is also important that you can play through the entire game without investing a penny of your own money. As in any modern shareware MMO, here you can buy a special currency with your hard-earned money to spend it on especially powerful horses, partners, unique weapons or keys that allow you to open chests with a variety of goods. But no one forces you to do this and no one reminds you every five minutes: “If you want to expand your inventory, pay us!»

The release of the Shadowmantle update will finally synchronize the content between the Russian and European versions of the game.

Dungeons & Dragons, user-generated content, Perfect World and MMORPG – until recently it seemed that all these were completely incompatible concepts. But Neverwinter proved the opposite. Of course, for many Forgotten Realms fans, all this remains heresy and blasphemy, but if you believe the forecasts that the future belongs to games that organically combine single-player and online, then the creation Cryptic Studios steps into it with leaps and bounds.

Pros: nice picture; deep role-playing system; embedded user content; everything is very convenient; unobtrusive “donation”.
Cons: linear and banal story campaign.