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MMORPG.com's Neverwinter Review
zophie
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
MMORPG.com posted their Neverwinter Review today, "An Astral Diamond in the Rough" they call it:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/634/view/reviews/load/271
I think they gave the game as it is now a pretty fair review, though I think they could give the devs a little more credit for addressing major exploits quickly and having good communication about it.
I also think they made very good points about the longevity of the game, saying this:
I particularly agree (and I'm sure many others do as well) that the Zen prices right now are a bit crazy. I do not mind a cash shop in a game, and as you can tell by my founder status, I'm not shy about spending a bit of cash on games I enjoy, even F2P ones, but the prices are just too high for everything. If PWE were to cut their prices in half on everything it would almost guarantee more sales and increased revenue for the game. I love recommending Neverwinter to my friends to try out, but I'm a little embarrassed that I have to caution them about the cash shop while I'm doing it, so they don't get sticker shocked when they first encounter it themselves.
Anyway those are just my thoughts, take a look at the review and discuss yours too! :cool:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/634/view/reviews/load/271
I think they gave the game as it is now a pretty fair review, though I think they could give the devs a little more credit for addressing major exploits quickly and having good communication about it.
I also think they made very good points about the longevity of the game, saying this:
Neverwinter will only succeed on a long term basis if several things happen:
- More endgame content in the form of dungeons, quests, etc.
- More character classes added at a rapid, not sluggish, pace.
- More PvP content. This is critical. More types, more maps, more variety, bigger teams, etc.
- More tools and abilities for Foundry builders.
- Better Zen Market prices. Again, this is critical.
I particularly agree (and I'm sure many others do as well) that the Zen prices right now are a bit crazy. I do not mind a cash shop in a game, and as you can tell by my founder status, I'm not shy about spending a bit of cash on games I enjoy, even F2P ones, but the prices are just too high for everything. If PWE were to cut their prices in half on everything it would almost guarantee more sales and increased revenue for the game. I love recommending Neverwinter to my friends to try out, but I'm a little embarrassed that I have to caution them about the cash shop while I'm doing it, so they don't get sticker shocked when they first encounter it themselves.
Anyway those are just my thoughts, take a look at the review and discuss yours too! :cool:
Post edited by zophie#5279 on
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No, seriously, mmorpg.com is so biased and troll infested that I ignore anything on that site that isn't a free beta key for something I'm interested in.
^ This exactly.
D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium
Neverwinter Official Wiki - http://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/
From their review:
'While publisher Perfect World called it an “open beta”, the company had no issues taking players’ money for Zen used to purchase virtual items in the shop. Whenever that happens, the game is, in our mind, released.'
*persian voice on* This is madness
Support Ticket | Tech Support | Bug Reports | News & Announcements | Patch Notes
Sorry... let me translate that for you.
Open Beta = "We are releasing this now, with tons of bugs because the higher up's want money NOW! We'll call it open beta so we don't look so bad."
That's ridiculous, shows how mickey mouse that site actually is, you don't review games that aren't released yet...
The truth in this quote, it is real.
....Are you seriously that naive?
Beta is just a tag they use to avoid legal complications with downtimes and errors (Such as the AH exploit) In regards to GBP/USD/EUR/Etc.. -> Zen
If they wouldn't have rolled back and the game wasn't tagged by them as 'Open-beta' then they could easily find themselves up against a stack of lawsuits. But because they have the security of the game being 'Open-beta' you can't do anything about it as it states somewhere in the eula that the game is not representative of a fully released product and therefore contains vulnerabilities and is liable for downtime, in some manner of speaking.
Lets not drag that (usually flaming) debate into this thread please?
The article is well-written and has good points all around.
I'd like to see another review once Module 1 is put out. Or after Cryptic decides to start calling it "Live" themselves to see what differences there are.
D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium
They acknowledged right at the beginning of the review that the game is still in "open beta", and they actually were very fair when considering that. I think it's okay for them to review the game as it currently is, and with any MMO I think it's fair to say that generally major improvements are made over the length of the game's life that may improve it. Many gaming sites acknowledge this fact and continue to cover and review these kinds of improvements, patches and expansions to the MMO as they are released.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not standing up for MMORPG by any means, but was happy that their Neverwinter review was on point and not their usual drivel.
Burninator of Wasabiburn, Maker of Dreamz, Breaker of Heartz
I'm not saying Neverwinter is the same as Minecraft, those are apples and oranges, but the point is that reviews have been done all throughout the life span of the game, regardless of alpha/beta status, and that's okay. The game developers released the game to the public, started charging money for it, and have given a clear expectation to buyers that "Hey, this game isn't quite finished, we're still adding a lot, but if you are okay with that and want to buy into it now (or don't, it's F2P), you can if you want!" And since they are doing that, it is absolutely fair for reviewers to put out a review of what exactly these potential customers are buying into.
Burninator of Wasabiburn, Maker of Dreamz, Breaker of Heartz
The difference there is Mincraft was praised despite some major issues, it was the game that could do no wrong no matter, if the same overlooking was applied to NW..what might the review score be then?
Neverwinter gets strikes for things that have been overlooked in other games, and it get strikes against it for being a Cryptic game (because after all you have to hate cryptic for whatever imagined offense they perpetrated during CoH. CO or STO :rolleyes:) and being a PWE title simply because of the Asian connection.
Honestly the game deserves an 8, not a nine or ten but a solid 8, there is a lot of room for improvement but they got a lot of things right in the gameplay area and fun factor...especially when you consider the utter HAMSTER that has been released to the market in the past five years, HAMSTER that mmorpg.com has gushed over.
Still it doesn't mean a hill of beans, no one takes MMORPG.com seriously and it will not effect one single sale.
I mean a nice companion is about 35$ and its honestly only moderately useful. Even the stat-stick pets people love only give tiny bonuses compared to your total stats that are probably in diminishing returns anyways.
Then you have things like 10$ for a backpack...
I know the minute I have to start shopping from the zen market is the same minute this game gets uninstalled. I am ok with the f2p model when the prices are realistic, but I am not going to spend hundreds of dollars on one character. There are better things in life to spend that kind of money on that I will use every day.
Actually they're are **** TONS of advertisement of Neverwinter on the site.
The review is fair, sorry if your precious MMO got held up to a proper light but read the comments. Almost across the board is agreement to the scoring for the most part, while there is a trend of a slightly lower scoring.
Also two other reviews are scored at an 8 and a 6 so MMORPG.com is pretty spot on in those regard.
And MMORPG.com staff are, or were now, VERY supportive and held Neverwinter in a pretty high light. It's nice to see em not let the rose-hued glasses distort a proper review of the game.
The moment Cyptic started taking money in the in-game store and denying refunds is the day the game was released.
So much for Jack's statement of the new direction for Cryptic by making "great games" that focuses on a few features on not the trend of producing mediocre lackluster MMOs which have a full array of features but all of which are of average/below average quality which is what NW is.
I've gotten banned on that site far to many times calling out posters for trolling or responding to idiodic flame posts. Worst site ever.
Character is what a man is in the dark
"While not as 'realistic' as, for instance, Elder Scrolls Online which uses a dark color palette, Neverwinter succeeds very well."
"Neverwinter’s music is quite nice too."
"The ambient sounds of a vibrant city are top notch and voice acting is pretty decent as well though it is a bit over the top at times."
"PvP, in general, is not bad but it is woefully lacking."
Such a mastery of the language. :rolleyes: I guess this is what passes for professional writing in today's world.
-Travail.
Let's take a look at what the game is- everything revolves around making AD in order to trade for zen/purchase items off the AH or the AD store (things that are vital- such as the cat/ioun stone, a tier 3 mount, enchantments/wards, t2 gear).
That has been compromised heavily by exploits galore- at the same time, the ways to make AD legitimately are largely broken- many of the dailies do not work correctly, with skirmishes going to 3/3 but still not being completable, and some dungeons not registering as completed.
Add to that- at endgame, there is no way for solo players to put in a few hours doing daily quests to earn currency- or anything else for that matter, as everything of value is bought- not dropped or gradually earned. There are no daily solo quests- at most you get a small amount of AD for doing a few foundry quests. After that, solo players- aka, most players, especially for this game, are forced to PuG.
Then we have the worst groupfinder ever made. Nevermind that it puts you into groups after waiting an hour that consist of nothing but strikers- where epic dungeons need a healer, especially for a pug. And nevermind that the heavy weight of making AD in this game and how all gear is BoE has made it so you will be ninjad, constantly, by everyone- so seeing that rare shield you've done the dungeon ten times for at last only means you'll have a 20% chance of getting it, even if you're the only GF. The ultimate brutal game design here is- if someone drops, you cannot get a replacement.
For a game where dungeons are the endgame; to have such a massive flaw is simply unacceptable. This isn't an amateur company- Cryptic has made multiple mmos- yet they're making bad mistakes that even first time mmo makers haven't been making lately.
Add to all that- almost no xp from dungeon delves and skirmishes, and pretty much zilch from foundry- leaves you with questing to level... you can finish every quest in the game on one character before you hit 60... no replay value in a game which should encourage you to play alts. No rewards from foundry- this could have been the centerpiece of the game- instead it's a niche for people uninterested in progression. That's all fine, but if Cryptic honestly thinks the average player has no interest in progression- they're out of their minds.
Also- give up on the beta fanboi defense. Really? They'll be saying this game is in beta until 2015, just because some clowns will buy whatever a big company tells them. I've never seen such a long 'open beta', and absolutely not one so long that they still don't have a launch date for- no, this is their excuse to release the game way before it was ready, solely so they can collect money.
Game is NOT in open beta- what the game IS, is a greedy early launch, and one so incredibly bad, it's already generating numerous memes- heck, even THE DEVS have put out memes making fun of it, you know you done goofed when you're making fun of how done goofed you done.
And frankly- the bug report button has been bugged for weeks- how does that not get attention?
Truth is, regardless of what you think of the site or its posters, that is completely irrelevant to what is in this specific review. If you diagree with something the reviewer said, feel free to explain what and why. But attacking the source does nothing to refute what the review says. Personally, I'm glad so many sites are calling out Cryptic on this whole "open beta" nonsense. They game is obviously launched and live, and they arent fooling anyone.