Neverwinter, Cryptic Studios' action-oriented Dungeons and Dragons MMORPG that initially launched in 2013, is still going strong and seeing another major update this summer. Cryptic recently gave Game Rant a hands-on preview for the upcoming Jewel of the North expansion. The new free content will be hitting Neverwinter on July 27, bringing a host of quality-of-life improvements, as well as the long-awaited bard class.
Bards are a D&D staple, and Cryptic is hoping to provide players with an expressive, heavily customizable take on the archetype that tabletop players will find familiar. With a kit designed for deft swordplay, high mobility, and a touch of magic to augment damage and party support, the bard class stands as one of Neverwinter's most versatile offerings. Players who prefer natural-born performers, rakish minstrels, and jacks of all trades will find themselves right at home.
Apart from the singing sword-slingers, the expansion is completely revamping the early leveling experience to bring new characters up to speed faster, eliminating the grind required to prepare for epic-level content. Additionally, the game is receiving graphical renovations, fresh loot, and lutes.
Sword and Sorcery and Song
Bards are the crown jewel in Jewel of the North. Those who enjoy classes that have complex action rotations, or elaborate input sequences like Final Fantasy 14's ninja class, will feel adequately engaged in battle. The bard class' signature ability is performance mode, where players must play songs mid-combat by typing notes in sequence (or using the dedicated quick ability slot to play a specific song automatically). That means getting the most of a bard will require quick reflexes, a little bit of memorization, and skillful positioning, as standing in Area of Effect damage while playing a song can easily be fatal.
As a result, bards do not feel like an obvious choice for beginners - especially for players who are migrating from tabletop to video games for the first time - but they aren't indecipherably complex either. Thanks to the reworked beginning and tutorials, players should be able to get a comfortable handle on various mechanics over the course of a couple days of play. But players who are looking for more melee survivability, or hoping to blast enemies from afar, would be better served by one of the other existing classes.
Cryptic's greatest achievement, given the goal of making bards feel "expressive," is how characterized the class feels, both in combat and out. The sword-fighting feels straight out of an Errol Flynn film or Alexander Dumas novel, but with more magic. In addition to using performance mode for spellcasting, bards can strum their instruments for kicks in a tavern, and even play songs to entertain friends.
A Love Letter to the Forgotten Realms
It must be said that Neverwinter is an older game, and while certain particle effects can be distracting and feel dated, the world, characters, and textures are crisp and detailed. Cryptic did what it refers to as "a performance audit" on the title for Jewel of the North, retouching all textures, skyboxes, and other visuals for all platforms. Combat also does not feel quite as dynamic and modern as titles like Genshin Impact, but it is more active than the ability rotation-based play of traditional MMOs. Players who find themselves disenchanted with World of Warcraft should consider Neverwinter for a breath of fresh air - especially if they are already Dungeons and Dragons fans.
Even though Neverwinter was originally built on a 4th Edition foundation, Cryptic has steadily modernized the game since launch to bring it more in-line with the current 5th Edition tabletop experience. Players will ultimately rise through twenty levels of power, starting with killing skeletons and risen dead in defense of the city of Neverwinter, and eventually proceeding to excursions in the Feywild and Avernus.
Cryptic excels at bringing the feel of the Forgotten Realms to life, with content that includes legendary characters like Drizzt Do'Urden and The Companions. The game features a great deal of voice acting, which is at times a little overdone, but well within the tonal range of a D&D campaign. Quest lines feature fantasy fixtures like sentient talking great swords, dracoliches, dungeons with lots of twisty little passages, and mountains of glittering lucre. The world strikes a balance between the whimsy of a magic item emporium, and deadly serious, fate-of-the-realm stakes that one would expect from a tabletop campaign.
Revamped Introduction
Narratively, the first few minutes of the game's introductory quest line does not change much depending on the player's chosen role, which feels like a missed opportunity. Regardless of race and class, characters are thrust into the same scenario without much acknowledgment of their unique identity. But players can feel like a hero from the start. There is no two-day warmup of slaying petty bandits, dire rats, and other common fodder for players who are just starting out. From the outset, players are opposing the ancient lich, Valindra, who poses an existential threat to Neverwinter.
Mechanically, the re-done introduction does a great job of introducing players to their chosen classes, and their character-defining abilities. Tool tips are straightforward, unobtrusive, and reasonably paced Barbarians bring the rage with up-close and personal melee brutality. Wizards, in contrast, work as backline artillery batteries that can clear scores of enemies easily, though, as one would expect, they are fragile and don't have the same range of build options as they would in a tabletop campaign.
It is important to note, Neverwinter isn't intended to serve as a direct translation of tabletop D&D, but an exploration of the same space with the dynamic combat of an action game, and the social aspects of an MMORPG. Gamers looking for a way to host campaigns online will want to look elsewhere, but those looking for a digital D&D fix still owe it to themselves to give Neverwinter a try when its next expansion drops.
Neverwinter is now available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. The Jewel of the North Expansion arrives on July 27 for PC, with console releases to follow.