Review: DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: NEVERWINTER (Xbox One)
Game: Dungeons and Dragons: Neverwinter
Platform: PC/Xbox One/PS4
Genre: Free to Play MMO/Microtransactions
It's not often you see an MMO make its way to consoles, much less so early into a next gen console's lifespan. When I first saw Dungeons and Dragons: Neverwinter was free to play, I was immediately skeptical. Just how does an MMO make money without a subscription model? I downloaded it, ready to dump the files from my hard drive the moment I felt like "Free to play" wasn't really free to play.
It's lasted a week now, and I couldn't be happier with this game.
First off, this is a game you're going to love if you are familiar at all with the Dungeons and Dragons lore. It's been around 7-8 years since I last sat in on a game night, but even I remembered some of the spells, races, and monsters found in this game. The classes aren't limitless, but they hit some of the favorites found in the tabletop game. Currently I'm running a Drow Control Wizard, and my companion is a Human Man At Arms. The various races and classes can be found upon starting the game, so I won't waste your time with that. Let's just get down to brass tacks...
THIS GAME IS ACTUALLY FREE TO PLAY.
No tricks. No gimmicks. No level cap and then you pay. Straight free game, with the opportunity to purchase more races or additional campaigns. You want a fancy spider you can ride around town? You're going to have to pay for that, but all transactions seem to add on to an already completed game. That's some refreshing honesty that has made this my main game for the last weeks. It's also really fun as well.
As an MMO, there's really nothing that sets it apart from the market standard. You have your quests, your customizable gear, your leveled abilities, daily powers, professions, inventory, etc.... It's your run of the mill WOW clone. That's not taking away from the entertainment value because, once again, it's free and it's on a console. WOW can shove it with that fact right there.
Is it perfect? HELL NO. Frame rates tend to drop in highly populated areas causing some tremendous lag at times. The music can skip at random, and the game really doesn't explain a ton to you starting out. One of my biggest pet peeves is the lack of explanation on how to party up with friends who aren't in your server. It took a couple buddies and myself an hour and blind luck before we realized we have to exit our current location and re-enter the location after joining up to be in the same server.
All of these issues are once again forgiven because it's FREE. Playing through with friends (once you get in the same server) is a blast and the rolling system with item drops is really fair unless you have an asshole in your group who always wants every item regardless of whether or not they can use it (Shout out to Brad). Don't have any friends? It's remarkably easy to join up with others in your server simply by walking up to them.
Another appreciate feature (one that games like Destiny could take note of) is that dungeons that require a raid team to complete have active queues for those without enough players. You can queue up for the dungeons and keep playing other missions until your group is full, or just chill near the entrance and wait. Either way, you'll get in the dungeon with a full party with people at or near your level and have a blast.
As I've mentioned, I've been playing this game non stop on Xbox One and highly recommend it for anyone looking for an MMO experience on the consoles, or just a "good enough" free game. This is a game that I would've thrown a s*** fit over if I had paid money for it, but now, knowing its pitfalls, will likely drop $15-20 for additional content if I'm still playing in a month. Right now that's looking like a definite.