NEVERWINTER
Welcome to the winter of our discontent
Who knew that when the two-textured slab of awesome that is PS4 arrived it was destined to become the home of MMORPGs in the living room? With the likes of Final Fantasy XIV and The Elder Scrolls Online having since paved the way for the once PC-only genre, it’s about time someone stood on their shoulders to deliver not just an MMO that works on pads, but one that’s blow-your-trousers-off brilliant. Is Neverwinter that game? In a word: no. In more than one word…
Being a console-based MMO means cramming a whole lot of complexity into the relatively small space of a pad, and when it comes to combat, Neverwinter gets much right. Your standard attacks are tied to i, and pulling off other fighting moves, be they a barrage of arrows or an arcing swipe of your greatsword, is never more than a button tap away (you can also set up two-button shortcuts for less common but still useful skills as you level up). Unlike FFXIV, which has an enemy lock-on system about as smooth as a sandpaper sarnie, Neverwinter rocks a very simple aim-to-target mechanic. Basically, if you’re looking at something you’ll interact with it, making for a welcoming and palatable pick-up-and-play style.
But while the fighty business might be a touch more accessible than your average MMO, the rest of the game fails to follow through. The menus look horrendous, filling up your screen with a childish scrawled font. Lag is a constant companion, and it gets significantly worse when you find a city area where players gather. The world you explore is also achingly dull. Glancing down at the
FOR AN MMO TO COME ALONG AND COMPETE AFRESH IT REALLY NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING… MORE.
glinting quest indicator pulling you to your next objective is more interesting than looking up at the finesse-free fantasy setting passing you by.
And then there’s the stuff you actually do. It’s just all so dull, boiling down to jogging from place to place and hitting things until a red bar depletes, occasionally with other people alongside you. With the depth of FFXIV and the scope of TESO already installed on our PS4s, Neverwinter comes out a poor and distant also-ran.
There’s only so much time in the day to devote to any game, let alone a full blown MMO, so for one to come along and compete afresh it really needs to do something… just something more. It needs to convince you, if you’re a fan of this genre, to step away from a game you might already have devoted an inordinate amount of time to. Sadly, Neverwinter isn’t ever that enticing.
VERDICT
There’s no room for mediocrity in MMOs, where time investment is huge. With a dull story, pongy visuals and only marginally interesting combat, this is a no. Matt Sakuraoka-Gilman