Neverwinter PS4 Review

Neverwinter is named after the fictional city that much of the adventure takes place in. Neverwinter has been around for three years already. First on PC and more recently on Xbox One. As a result, its launch on PS4 includes all of the same official free content as the other platforms. That's nice different major updates that span the city of Neverwinter and its outer reaches. Those who have dabbled in the world of the Forgotten Realms before will get to explore several memorable areas including Neverwinter's Blacklake District, Icewind Dale, and the further reaches of Helm's Hold. Each of these areas are unique, with different terrain, enemies, and experiences.

Character Creation

Neverwinter provides a well rounded set of races, though they are heavy on the elves. Since launch there have been four extra races added, although two - the Moon Elf and Menzoberranzan Renegade - are behind a paywall. Apart from these few exceptions to Neverwinter's completely free to play rule, PS4 players get access to ten races from the get-go.

Classes

Along with the extra races, the PS4 launch comes with all of the latest classes. There are eight in total, crossing a range of different play styles - none of which are locked behind paywalls. Expect your classic wizards, rogues, warriors and clerics as well as a few different classes such as Scourge Warlock and Oathbound Paladin. While in game you also have the choice to customise clothing with dyes. There are also class and race specific quests meaning that each character will experience something slightly different.

Leveling up

Skill trees are rather linear, giving you only a few options, each of which are themselves upgradeable. At that point customisation mainly becomes a case of which powers you want mapped to which buttons, rather than upgrading specific skill trees to match your play style.

Well-done Button Mapping 

While initially strange to play, Neverwinter has done a good job of fitting all of the possible abilities to the limited number of buttons on your controller. Holding down L1 gives you access to combat on the face buttons, and your main menu on the direction buttons, while R2 is your most basic spam attack. These are all fully customisable, with one exception to the X button which is reserved purely for jumping. This layout works with the same basic rules of every other MMORPG in existence. There is a cooldown period for abilities and an ultimate bar attack that fills up with action points as you kill enemies.

Graphics

This game is three years old. It's pretty much what you would expect from an MMORPG; good enough graphics that each area looks fresh and new, but not so good that you feel really immersed in the game. Expect a bit of lag in some of the more densely populated zones too.

Foundry

A collection of fan made maps that can be played for experience and rewards. The Foundry is not the only thing that the PC version has that the PS4 doesn't. There is one less character slot (two rather than three) and the Neverwinter Gateway - a browser based experience that allows you to complete jobs and earn rewards and experience - cannot be used on a PS4 account. It leaves this version of Neverwinter feeling a little bit like a watered down PC one. Hopefully the PS4 version will be able to retain more players (considering the lack of PS Plus needed to play), but only time will tell.