I’ve been dipping my toes into Neverwinter for the past few weeks. It’s one of those games that I kind of forget about until I see it has an update. And it seems like it’s updated consistently. It’s also a game that I’ve never given a good chance. What initially got me interested was Telwyn’s posts about Neverwinter. Then I read some posts from Syp and more recently from Bhagpuss. What can I say? I’m easily swayed by the opinions of others.

For starters, when I logged in I was met with 2 characters who hadn’t been touched since 2014. I could have sworn I had made a bit of an effort to play Neverwinter on a 2 handed Weapon Fighter, turns out that wasn’t the case as he was sitting there at level 4. Well maybe level 4 harder to get to in 2014 but I doubt it. The other was a Dwarf Cleric who I played maybe once. Both of them were promptly deleted.

The first character I made was a Halfling Ranger. I played her until level 19. I wasn’t digging the weapon swap mechanics. If I’m going to play a class with a bow I want to play with the bow all the time. Plus there were 3 extra skills to keep track of and I just don’t have time for that right now ok?….

Thus, Kadjik Kard, the Half-Elf Paladin was born. I like the Paladin class for two reasons. The first being he only has 3 skills I need to worry about. The other being I wanted to play a healing class and also wear heavy armor and carry a shield. Plus, with my own healing spells, I don’t have to spend money on potions!

I’ve gotten to level 28 so far. I’m pushing for 30 so I can specialize and queue for dungeons as a healer instead of a tank. Speaking of dungeons, I’ve done two of them so far and have rather enjoyed them. I was actually surprised that the queue for a tank/healer and DPS were about the same length for the first dungeon I unlocked. It was a rather low key experience that I quite enjoyed.

Neverwinter has not been what I was expecting. For some reason, I thought it was a lobby based dungeon game. Nope! There are in fact open areas and instances that quests take place in. I remember hating the sparkly trail last time I played but I’ve learned to appreciate the simplicity it brings to questing. The biggest surprise is the lore pages are actually well written and I read them every time I find a new one.

I feel like Neverwinter is the B-Movie of MMOs. It doesn’t quite have the production value as other games and the animations and character models are questionable at times.  The voice acting is also…questionable. There are some NPCs who’s voices completely change from quest to quest. There are some NPCs who are over the top and some that sound like they’re reading straight from a piece of paper. But I love them all! I find myself laughing sometimes when I probably shouldn’t be but I am very much enjoying my experience every time I log into this game.